- It's 2001, on a Saturday
and you're scooting around on your Razor scooter,
just taking the occasional break
to grab your little Juicy Fruit and just sit down,
play some Pokemon Yellow with your Game Boy.
You're just passing the time
because your parents are getting you ready
to go see the new, the infamous, Fast and Furious movie
which features some no name guy
that was in a beach movie
and then some other dude with no hair
that you haven't really seen
since the Chronicles of Riddick days maybe.
I'm entirely sure if that's chronologically accurate
but anyway, you go to the theater,
sit down with your Milkduds, your popcorn,
and you stare at the screen,
amazed at the iconic lime green eclipse that appears
and spins out for no apparent reason
but you don't really know that at the time
so it was really just like the coolest thing
in the world to you.
Throughout the movie, there are S2000's,
Civics, RX7's, Supra's, Integra's, hydro,
pretty much anything that you could possibly imagine
that was put onto a car in the early 2000's
was in that movie and you couldn't be happier about it.
And although your dad is more of a muscle-car guy,
and you've got a Mustang sitting in the garage,
you have found a newfound love for the car community
that it just happens to be related to JDM.
You obviously can't drive yet
but that doesn't stop you from the fact
that you're planning on owning one of those cars
as your dream car when you eventually turn 16 years old.
And in the meantime, you end up picking up
the Need For Speed trilogy and all The Most Wanted
and The Underground and everything in between
so that you can go deck your thing out
with underglow, with the body kid,
with the wings, with the HKS stickers,
with everything you could possibly imagine on your car
because that was the coolest (profanity beep) ever.
And that was like 18 years ago.
So why is JDM so popular?
The reality is that the JDM scene was around a few decades
before you fell in love with it.
Back in the 80's, the US domestic market
was flooded with boats.
You had these big ol' cars with the big ol' V8's in 'em.
They weren't really that practical,
they weren't efficient and they weren't
the most reliable things in the world either.
There was also the issue of emissions,
which restricted a lot of our domestic cars.
They tried slapping like 50 catalytic converters on 'em
to resolve the issues but that just didn't cut it
'cause the EPA are cutthroat monsters
that don't like to let anybody have any fun ever.
Sorry, California.
Enter Japanese cars.
With their smaller size,
they have more efficient engines, new styling,
people couldn't scoop them up fast enough.
You had cars like the Dodson, the Starion,
the Super, the Silica,
and people wanted a car they could just get in
and not have to think about
if it will get them to the destination without dying.
Everyone was used to big cars
that could go fast in a straight line
and not really cars that you could feel the road.
Gone was the bench seating and big bulky bodies
with their loud engines.
And in, their nimble, quick and improved replacement,
a car for the Japanese market.
At the time, the domestic market
had never seen anything like this before
and they couldn't really keep up either.
Fast forward to the 90's where we started to see
some of the most iconic cars in existence come to appear.
We started seeing cars like the R34, the Supra, the RX7.
All of which are probably some of your dream cars
still to this day.
Once JDM cars got their jumpstart with the general public,
enthusiasts started to take notice.
With their iconic styling and engines,
other than, well a V8,
the world in the future became iconic with other motors
like the 2JZ, the 4G63, the RB26,
everything else you could possibly imagine
with numbers and letters and things.
Not only were their engines different,
but they had a ton of technology
that was pretty much way far ahead
of the domestic cars for example.
And I don't mean to bag on our domestic guys,
but like the 3000 GT was one of the first cars
ever to offer four-wheel steering.
They also had Active Arrow.
They also had active dynamic suspension things.
Let's not talk about the fact that pretty much
every single one of those options broke in 3000 GT
but when it came off the line,
it worked and it was really cool.
These engines could also efficiently use turbo chargers
without causing engine failure
and the engines could hold pretty much
a good chunk of power from the factory
so you wouldn't necessarily need
to have the upgraded the internals
if you wanted to make big power.
Oh yeah, and they made really cool noises.
(car engine roars)
(car engine hums)
They were light years ahead of the USDM market
so they naturally became the next big thing.
Not to mention, there were so many
frickin' choices for imports.
When it came to domestic cars, you had like three.
Which really isn't much more than today,
you had Ford, GM and Dodge
as you main flagship domestic competitors.
Maybe Chevy was in the mix there
for a little bit of time, but whatever.
It was a combination of all of these things
that caused such a boom in the late 90's
and far into the 2000's.
There were magazines on it, video games, Hot Wheels,
other toys, movies, you name it,
JDM scene was plastered all over
and being shoved down your throat.
PG, Youtube, monetization, not doing a simile there.
You guys remember?
You'd go in, Need For Speed Underground,
you'd get hit with the Lil Jon beat
happening in the background.
("Get Low" by Lil Jon)
♪ Get low, get low. ♪
(man beatboxing)
Need for Speed Underground 2 came out
and then it was an open map.
Do you remember that?
- Wow, the land of make-believe.
- You could go anywhere.
And then the nitrous.
You'd jump off things.
You had ...
I don't really think you could drift.
And then you had Need For Speed Most Wanted
and Most Wanted was like (grunts).
It was so good.
It was like the best video game
to ever hit for automotive enthusiasts.
I still remember getting into that game
and then just going to the part
where you could do Hot Pursuit or whatever it was
where the cops already were on you
and I would just race for hours
to see how long I could stay in pursuit
without getting caught.
My record was like 58 minutes, by the way,
in case you guys wanna try and beat that.
At the time, magazines like Super Street
played a huge part in the growth of the Tuner culture.
The internet was really much of anything yet.
When people wanted information,
they had to turn to magazines
because that's just how the world worked
in the early 2000's.
I mean, you kinda had a couple forums
but nobody really cared that much.
That's how people learned,
they read about it in a magazine.
It wasn't like an article on Facebook or Google Search,
but you get the point.
Not only that but if you wanted to know
what other cool people were doing with their cars,
you had to look at a magazine.
If you wanted to know what parts they had,
you went and looked at a magazine.
If you wanted to buy said parts,
you bought them from the magazine.
Magazines.
They were the future.
And now they're not.
RIP.
And that's what a lot of us loved about the JDM car scene.
We were pretty much, very young at the time.
I had no facial hair and now look at me.
Things have changed.
It's pretty much nostalgic to us
because of the fact that how the cars handle power,
their massive after market platform and the aesthetic.
I mean, it's pretty much the perfect storm.
It was because of this huge culture shift
and the love for imports
that caused their after market community to explode
and now you saw all these cars
with the body kits, underglow, big wings, hood scoops
and the rolling around five zeegans, zigans,
and OZ rally wheels.
By the way, if you're looking for
some wheels tire suspensions,
check out fitmentindustries.com.
You can check it all out.
Everything you possibly want.
Lowering springs, air suspension, you know.
Even when you look at a lot of the older JDM cars
without necessarily going straight into the body kits,
they've aged pretty okay when you look at 'em.
It's not really something you can say
about a lot of older cars
because if you look at older cars they look pretty rough.
To this day, enthusiasts are still taking cues
from the Japanese styling and trends
and although it may be different
from what we saw in the early 2000's, it's still around,
it's just transformed into a whole new animal.
The days of chrome are gone
and now we see obnoxious body kits and insane camber
along with big wings and underglow
because it's all about having an aggressive car
that looks fast but doesn't actually go that quick.
I'm sorry.
Overall, imports are still popular
for so many reasons, and in our opinion,
they will continue to be a very popular option
just because of the fact of,
they hit popularity when we were young.
Duh.
And a lot of times, that's okay.
It's okay to like popular things.
Just because a lot of people like popular things
doesn't mean you don't have to like said popular thing.
That's what makes you a hipster, which is okay.
It's okay to like things other people like.
Just letting you know.
JDM scene is one of those scenes
that has actually turned from a JDM true scene
to probably like a JDM-USDM scene
if you actually want to get into the specifics of it
but that is something for an entirely different video.
So we hope you guys enjoyed.
Don't forget to subscribe.
If you're looking for wheel and tire suspension,
fitmentindustries.com.
Please drop a comment
on what you'd like to see us talk on next.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
I have breathed twice in this entire video
and we will see you later.
Peace.
(smooth hip hop music)