EDIT: This was originally meant to be posted on Thursday 5/10/2012 but it took so long for me to put it together that I didn’t manage to get it posted until Friday. Sorry, but please read through it!
Today we are going to take a special look back for Throwback Thursday. The last couple weeks, I’ve been taking you back a couple years to show you some photos I re-edited from 2009 but today, we are going to go WAY back….13 years to be exact, to take a look at some photos I took when I was just a kid at various car shows I attended. 1999 was a very different time… I had no cell phone, I had a spikey head of hair, and in ’99, I was still a junior in high school. I was already very interested in the import scene and the cars that were a part of it, and so I went to as many car shows as I could. Things were very different back then. You had to be a baller to have a digital camera TV shows like Dawson’s Creek and 90210 were still on the air. Everybody was worried about the whole Y2K scare and President Bill Clinton was busy getting in trouble for getting a blow job from Monica Lewinski. I was already driving by then but I didn’t have a Honda or anything to really modify. My buddy Jose and I would go to car shows and just take photos of whatever we saw and grabbed whatever free shit was being handed out. I guess I wasn’t too different back then, just a lot more naive. I carried a backpack like I do still today but instead of it being packed with camera gear, it was the same backpack I used for school and I used it to carry all the free stuff I would get at shows. Man, if I knew then what I know now, I would have tried to take better photos and more detailed shots of stuff. Back then there was no such thing as blogging and web car forums were limited to a handful or less…
Back in 1999, the bodykit era was just huge in the import community and headlight/taillights conversions were all the rage. People shelled out all kinds of money to do these conversions and though they may be totally ugly and gaudy by today’s standards, that was the trend that was pushing the industry. “JDM” was not a household name yet and there were very few people that had full-on Japanese-spec builds. If they did only a small group of people would recognize the parts that these people had. The show scene was all about being flashy and doing what you could to stand out. The more wilder the conversion, the better. There was no flood of knock-off parts either. Nobody had fake garbage wheels and faux-JDM parts because there was no such thing as a mainstream “JDM” scene. People did whatever they could to acquire quality products and though you will see all kinds of crazy body kits in the photos to come, make note of what wheels these cars were on. Even with the crazy body modifications, basically everybody had real wheels and parts. The closest thing we had to anything that was a replica, knock-off wheel came from Axis and Konig. Thinking back now, I would still take the ridiculously over-the-top body kit era over any of the garbage you see today. Sticker-bombing cars, fake parts, and unused bike racks are a bane to the import community. At least back then people used creativity to stand out and didn’t take short-cuts to make themselves “cool” and subsequently call everyone “haters” if they didn’t agree or called people out for the short-cuts they took to be the next bandwagon trend hopper. The scene was very different back then but that is what people had to work with. They made the most of it and created whatever else didn’t exist then. Now you have an endless variety of options and the enthusiasts of the past have paved a road for the future generations. A lot of people spend more time trying to justify why they rock fake shit these days instead of spending their time building their cars. “I don’t have the money to afford baller stuff” wasn’t an excuse either. There were a majority of people that couldn’t afford shit back then either but they grinded and hustled and did whatever they could to build their idea of a dream car.
I personally am happy that I was able to see all the stuff from back in the day and see how much we as a community have progressed throughout the years. Things are WAY different now and are moving at such a fast pace that major innovations are coming almost every year. Even so, it is cool to take a trip down memory lane to see how things were back then. If you are still new to all of this and are relatively young, check these photos out of some of the cars that paved the way to what you know now as “the import scene”…. Thinking about how things were a decade ago, it is really remarkable to see how quickly the community shifted when the whole “JDM” craze took over. There are a couple cars in these photos that would still be relevant by today’s standards but mostly these cars were specific to that time period. If you think these cars were ridiculous back then, just imagine five years or so from now when you look back and think about how stupid all these overly stanced-out cars look. Yes, if you haven’t noticed, wheel fitment and stance this and that are the new “bodykit era”. People doing whatever it takes to stand out in the crowd, going way overboard with their builds, all the while not realizing that they are just hopping into an overly-crowded bandwagon. Sound familiar? In the group of photos you will look at 5-10 years from now, on a Throwback Thursday in the future, you will see a collection of cars that were way over done and a select few that are just timeless. Again, does that sound familiar to you? I am not “hating” by any means. Like the body kit, head/tail light conversion era, I embraced it, just as I have embraced the current style of modification. I don’t agree with all of it now but I didn’t agree with everything back then either, you just have to have a good understanding of what people were thinking and what they set out to do. There was no “rice” back then but you would consider what you see today possibly as “rice” or uncool by current standards. Hella-stanced-out cars, fitment this and that, are not considered “rice” or uncool by today’s standards. How you will look at the current state of things when you think back in the future….well…Let’s just say that history has a way of repeating itself…As long as you can look back and laugh at yourself like these car guys from the past do now, you can do no wrong…
I just love cars. With over a decade and a half of being apart of this wonderful community, I can honestly say that I have seen and learned quite a bit. Do whatever makes you happy to your car. This is your world, I’m just here to document whatever I can and be a witness to your lives…
The photos are mixed-up but are mostly from old car shows that I attended back in San Diego, CA. These shows include Import Showoff 1999, 2000-’01, as well as Hot Import Nights 2000, and two Extreme Autofest events back when they were still import shows. I have a lot more photos but they are dark and they just don’t come out correctly when scanned. These were all shot on my mom’s old camera and shot completely on 35mm film. I had to take these to a local VONS supermarket by my highschool and have them developed. It wasn’t fast either. I had to drop them off in the morning and then pick them up after school. It took quite a bit of time to scan these too and I did whatever I could to bring out more detail in the photos. With that said, let’s get started…enjoy and look at these photos knowing that things were different back then and not representative of the Honda/import community now in 2012. This was 13 years ago, some of you reading this site probably hadn’t even hit puberty yet, haha….
This car was important to me back then and now because it was the first R34 Skyline that I had ever seen in person. The only thing even remotely close to a Skyline back then were the lights that people were molding into their cars. This is the original Blitz R348 Skyline that was sent over to the states to compete in the Nevada Silver State Challenge. The goal was to hit a record top speed but it failed to do it that year because it ran out of gas… Pretty amazing car for its time and still one of my favorite builds ever… Additionally, Blitz Technospeed Z1 wheels will always be a favorite of mine, even though they weighed like 18-20 pounds each…
I didn’t really know much back then so I didn’t even know what I was looking at other than the fact that it was an R34 Skyline GTR… Make note of the time stamps in these photos because they are all correct. I shot these photos with a crappy camera back in October of 1999….
I used to always see this Civic coupe at shows in my area… He was from a crew known then as “Powerban” and would always park next to that pink Integra in the background… This baby blue coupe was on Racing Hart C5 Evos…
The pink Integra that was with him was owned and built by his girlfriend. I don’t know them personally so I don’t know if they ended up together but back then, they were always parked side by side. I don’t know what kits these were back then because they weren’t used as often as other fiberglass kits. Knowing them they modified them in some way to make them different. Note the Supra headlight conversion and the Volk Racing TE37s….
Signal Auto’s chop-top EK Civic drag car…. This thing was nuts for its time and something that no one had seen before. Signal Auto was still a fairly new name in the U.S. as well. I don’t think they made their way over to America yet where they later opened up a U.S. division. All Signal had back then was this Civic and a very, very fast Skyline drag car. Drifting wouldn’t hit the U.S. for a couple more years so they were known mostly for their drag racing stuff. If I remember correctly, this Civic later had a NSX engine swap as well…
DPK David’s coupe back in 1999…haha, just kidding. If it was it would probably look something like this I am sure… “Goldcrest Autobody” as seen on his windshield was a huge shop at that time that was known for doing wild conversions. They later painted both my cars…. Peep the Volk III wheels on the white coupe in the back..
Does anyone remember Alley Baggett? She was Miss Import Showoff back in ’99 and I remember looking at her old Playboy photos online at night on my crappy dial-up internet connection on my 486DX2 IBM computer… It would take like 5 minutes just to load up a full size nude shot of her and if anyone decided to pick up the telephone, the photo and your internet connection would cut-off… I was all about Alley Bagget back then and she was one of the hottest females I had ever seen… sadly, she didn’t do much after that and is still doing internet modeling today….
How about a shot of Francine Dee back in 1999? She hasn’t really changed much over time and her tittys will never have the ability to sag so we are good…haha…She is still doing her thing as well and having stared at her meat flaps over time, I can tell you that her vag has gone from Flame Broiler, to Yoshinoya, and now to a #1 super bowl at your favorite Vietnamese Pho spot…..No matter what though, Francine Dee will always be a staple in the fabric of our import community and I will always be a huge fan of her and her wizard sleeves. I still remember the days when she had no implants and was rocking the blond hair… I may or may not have fapped to her so many times in my youth that my penis is on some grandfather plan, haha…
Does anyone remember Speed Options and International Allstars? Haha, back in those days, if you had a Speedoptions banner on your car and it was photographed, you would get paid for it… If you remember Speed Options, then you probably remember Rowena Galam and Jynki Cruz… I don’t remember the name of the girl in the middle…. Random but I think Rowena Galam is a dentist or orthodontist these days…
This was shot earlier that year at an Extreme Autofest event, but as I said before, headlight conversions were all the rage…this was an Integra from 935 Wiked Draggers with an Eclipse headlight conversion…Turbo B-series too, as were many of the show cars back then…
This coupe was from Team Techna and had shaved moldings, molded-in sideskirts and an Accord headlight conversion…that wing on this coupe was a “DTM-style” rear wing that was also very popular…
Tucked bays are a standard nowadays but what about back in ’99?….
FD RX-7 from Team Bosozoku with a VeilSide Combat kit…
Random unfinished cars would occasionally show at Import Showoff then, because these shows only came around once a year… This DA Integra had a R33 Skyline taillight conversion that hadn’t been completed yet…
I remember seeing a lot more Accords at shows back then as well…This one had a R33 Skyline front end conversion that honestly didn’t look half bad…Check out the “WWF Attitude” graphics on the car in the back, haha…
Stephan Papadakis’ legendary AEM H22-powered Civic drag car in the Import Showoff booth…
Right hand drive Prelude INX on Racing Hart C5s, chameleon paint, and a retro-fitted DC2 Integra Type R front bumper….
RJ de Vera’s mom was a huge hit in the import community back then because she drove this turbocharged Honda Odyssey…
All kinds of stuff was done to this Civic coupe that I spotted at Hot Import Nights in 2000… Notable stuff is the Saleen style wing, Acura CL headlight conversion, MR-2 taillight conversion, MR-2 sidevents, shaved moldings, door handles, and Racing Hart C2 Evos…Also had orange and grey two-toned vinyl interior… I think this thing ended up on the cover of an issue of Import Tuner later that year as well…
This BB6 Prelude was the flagship vehicle of Team Techna back in 2000… You probably know the owner of this car now because I believe he is one of the head guys over at Auto Explosion, a body shop here in LA that is still in business today… I couldn’t even name all the things that this car had on it. The amount of bodywork was just insane… He later painted this car yellow and then showed it for a couple more years before selling it…
Elaborate show displays were a standard back then and often rivaled the stuff you would see at Lowrider shows…
Widebody CR-X on Axis Touring Cup wheels and an Integra front end… When was the last time you saw a pair of Momo Corse reclinable seats?…
You won’t see too many first generation Acura CLs these days because enthusiasts in 99-2000 were too busy robbing them of their headlights for conversions. CL headlight swaps were crazy popular then and were referred to as the “Cali Type R” conversions on Integras. Here you see a pretty clean CR-X on OG Racing Hart C2s and a CL headlight conversion…
A couple of young ladies (who are probably moms now in their early 30s) posing in front of a Civic from 935 Wiked Draggers. This one had Feel’s style fenders and a front bumper from a company known as Street Weapon. Strange now to think back because these bumpers were called Street Weapon “Drift” bumpers and drifting hadn’t even hit the U.S. yet… Happy early Mother’s Day to the two ladies up top, haha… Shit, maybe they were already mothers back then…
If there is one thing that is completely different about car shows back then and now is that shows then still had a very “underground” feel to them. There weren’t very many corporate sponsors, if at all, and you had a lot more freedom to do things without worrying about rules and regulations. These days, police presence is heavy at car shows and show promoters are very weary of what they can do at shows because they have to follow strict rules. Nudity is something you will never see in a bikini contest or whatever today, unless it happened by accident. We call them “wardrobe malfunctions” now but back in those days, we just called it “getting naked”…haha. Below are some NWS images of some females from a bikini contest at Extreme Autofest 2000. If you can’t view them, I would suggest scrolling 4-5 images down to get back to the car coverage. These photos are so old now that you probably wouldn’t get in trouble for looking at them, they are just moments in history now….
Today’s car show bikini/”hot body” contests are a lot like this… Girls with clothes on with a little bit of cheek showing… Tame but safe, cops wouldn’t be all over your ass about getting naked because you weren’t doing anything crazy…
Bikini contests back then, were more like this…
…and also like this…
Girls did whatever it took to win back then… fuck a bikini contest, they just wanted some good old fashion attention… Look at the dude’s face holding the video camera, haha…
You didn’t have to worry about offending families and old people or kids because they weren’t present. The demographic wasn’t as wide spread and commercialized as it is now… If you popped a titty out these days, you would get a hefty fine. Back then, showing a titty or two was just fine….haha…
Imagine if somebody knew this chick now and saw her in these photos…haha… if you are in this photo and you are also now a mother, happy early mother’s day. You are a vital part of car show history… You can now officially look back with regret..
Those two girls thought they were going to win by showing their titties…
…and then the white lady comes in and starts doing this type of stuff… Eating her own titty milk and shit… Grand prize was like $500 or something so girls went to work to try and win…
At age 18, these were like, the best titties I had ever seen then..haha… I should also remind you that these were shot on film so a VONS supermarket employee had to develop these. Imagine going through photos and seeing something like this…haha…oh man… I don’t remember who won this but there was also a girl that was doing the splits in a g-string and shit and all kinds of stuff was showing…
Anyways, back to the cars…
This turbocharged Mugen-everything Integra was WAY ahead of its time… Art-n-Motion was the crew to beat back then and they had a bunch of really amazing builds like this. I didn’t know too much about Mugen stuff back in 2000 so I took builds like this for granted. I look at it now wishing I had known better and I would have studied this car inside and out…
Another look at the Supra-headlighted Integra from Powerban… this was taken a year or so later I believe. Fucking car was on clouds and shit with a diamond structure around it…
I remember around 2000-2001 being a time when the Buddy Club front bumper just took over car shows. Every car had it and it didn’t even have to be a Honda. People would just take the bumpers and make them fit onto their cars. This was a pretty clean example with some 5Zigen 5ZR Copse wheels…. I remember I almost bought a set of these a couple years later because I worked with a guy who was friends with someone who worked at the company that was distributing 5Zigen stuff. The company was called ATK or something. The dude would just back door the wheels and make all kinds of money off of it. That’s probably one of the reasons why that distribution company went out of business… I ended up not buying them because I didn’t want that shit to come back to haunt me and I’m glad still that I didn’t…
White vinyl on anything color interior was popular in those days… here you can also see that this guy was super ballin’ because he had a Playstation and a Nintendo 64….
Prelude from SIK with some ghost flames and SSR GP-O wheels… this particular front bumper was very popular among the Prelude crowd. You’ll see another one later that also has this bumper. Like today, there are still random idiots that will bring a completely stock Saturn into a car show (as seen in the background)… This Prelude owner had all white interior, meaning he couldn’t even walk outside without having to wrap himself in trash bags before getting into his car…
This RX-7 from Rotary Xecret 7 has to be one of the best builds EVER… FEED Type II aero on some legit Volk Racing TE37 Mag wheels. I don’t mean “mag blue” color either, I mean these were real magnesium TE37s. Back then, these wheels were the type of stuff you only heard about or saw in the Volk catalog… This build was just incredible and way ahead of its time…
Another sick RX-7 build, this one with a full Mazdaspeed kit on some rare (because nobody wanted them) Volk Racing Daytona Speed wheels…ANother car that I just totally took for granted back then because I didn’t know what I was looking at…
The first strawberry face S15 conversion I ever saw in person from PJ Bonifacio…
Speaking of cars that were ahead of their time, check out this BMW M3 from Techna on Blitz Technospeed Z1s. If this car was still around today with this exact same set-up, it would still be a hit… This M3 also had Sparco Milano seats, which were like, the top of the line seat to have because it had Alcantara leather. Now we hear Alcantara leather and run as fast as we can because it is so often associated with fake Bride seats….
Another car that would just shit on people today… Authentic Blitz Supra aero with gold faced Blitz Technospeed Z1… Just lovely. I look at cars like this and really kick myself now for not paying more attention to them…
I used to run into this del Sol all the time wherever I went. I thought it was ugly as fuck back then too but I always appreciated the work. It was just way too much for me but the quality bodywork was there. Racing Hart C2 wheels, custom gold paint, BB6 Prelude headlights, and Feel’s front bumper…. Also notice the first gen. Eclipse behind it with R33 Skyline taillights… This was around the time when 935 Draggers were a really well-known car crew and they recruited a lot of new members….
While on the topic of Eclipses, this was one of my favorite builds back in 2000 and it was the sole reason for me knowing what “Bride” seats were. I loved the Bride gradation livery on this Eclipse. I remember reading the magazine feature on this car and it wasn’t a GS-T model Eclipse. The owner actually turbocharged it after he bought the car. You should have noticed by now that Racing Hart wheels were the most popular wheels to have during that period of time. This Eclipse is on Racing Hart C5 Evos….
Here is a better shot of the turbocharged Mugen DC2 Integra from earlier… No time stamping on the photo indicates that I took this photo around 2001. I don’t remember how I did it but I managed to turn that feature off….If this car were still around today, it would still be totally relevant…
This car needs no introduction. L.J. Garcia’s FEEL’s Civic was and still is legendary. It was the first to have a complete FEEL’s aero kit and at this stage, Garcia had already repainted it yellow and added all the Ichibahn stuff to it. I think the engine bay had like TVs and shit too. Also one of the rare Civic builds to be on air suspension. I loved it before the makeover when it was still blue and had less stuff on it. One of the greatest things about this build back then was that L.J. actually took wheel fitment into consideration and ordered custom Racing Hart C5 wheels to fit correctly with the widened FEEL’s fenders… This car helped to make L.J. a household name in the car show scene… The Import Tuner issue that it was featured in alongside Francine Dee is probably the most remembered issue in the publication’s history. That issue not only made L.J. and his Civic known to the world, it also made Francine Dee a star in the import auto industry…
Complete legit C-West aero on this Integra… Don’t quote me but I think I remember this Integra being a legit R…I like the front splitter and the Advan AVS Model 7 wheels…Another build that would be pretty relevant now, especially now that body kits (legit Japanese aero) are becoming acceptable again…
Widebody Integra with a R33 Skyline-styled front bumper (Sinsei kit I believe) with kouki S14 240SX headlight conversion…
BB6 Prelude taillight conversion… Wheels were made by Gewalt… By the way, does anyone remember Sprewell Racing? It was a shop that was owned by former NBA basketball player Latrell Sprewell, who was a huge car head. The shop was around until like ’06 or ’07 and I never heard one positive thing about them…
This Lexus IS300 was one of the first heavily-modified ones that I could remember. It was built and owned by a female member of Techna and another build that would be current today. Full C-West aero, Advan AVS Model 5 wheels, Recaro seats…just very well done and great execution… I’m pretty sure May still remembers this car because she was a member of Techna a couple years later with DPK J.P….
Erica Lam’s Accord was the car to put back then… it had an insane amount of work done to it and I always remember her winning top honors at Showoff, HIN, etc… I think this photo was taken before it had air suspension. I actually wrote a small piece on it in 2008 when The Chronicles was just a couple months old… click here if you are interested…
As you may have noticed, baby blue paint was very popular during that time period. The baby blue would then be combined with any sort of flake or pearl tone and people would be all over it….
Widebody Accord with a Lexus IS300/Toyota Altezza headlight conversion…widebody as well with custom magenta paint with red pearl… Again, Racing Hart C5 3-piece wheels…
It wouldn’t be a throwback without a Cali Type R conversion… This was the typical front bumper that usually came with the CL conversion. I never understood the purpose of having that upper grille on this bumper. The CL headlights weren’t supported very well either and they just kind of sat in the bumper. If you hit a bump hard enough the headlight would probably fall off, haha….
Every now and then you would run into a modded Toyota pick-up at a car show… this one had Axis Touring Cup wheels and the Street Weapon “Drift” front bumper that I mentioned earlier…
Autocannon was a huge motorsports clothing line in 2000. The only people you will still see wearing their stuff today is Loi Song from Sportcar Motion. I think this guy bought all of their merchandise before they went out of business. When I used to go to Sportcar to go have dinner with Loi, he would go into the stock room and pull one of these shirts out brand new in the bag and put one on. Probably still has them today… This Civic was one of their sponsored vehicles and had a chameleon paint job, Buddy Club body kit, and Racing Hart Tracer wheels…. Oddly enough, the Autocannon site still works, you just can’t actually go into their online store… http://www.autocannon.com
Turbocharged Prelude with NOS…NOS bottles were important show pieces to have on your showcar. You didn’t even have to actually have a NOS system installed. As long as you had the bottle laying somewhere on the car that was all that mattered. In the year 2012, NOS is more of an energy drink and at car shows, empty NOS drink cans are just fucking EVERYWHERE….
I remember really liking this 4-door Civic when I spotted it at Extreme Autofest 2000. Probably because it was a rear sight to see a Civic with Civic headlights on it, haha…It was one of the first Civic builds that I saw with a Bomex EK front bumper….
It didn’t have a Bomex rear bumper or side skirts because they didn’t make one for the 4-door sedans… I don’t remember the brand of the mufflers (either Bomz or Hayame or something) but I do remember them being loud as shit…. Racing Hart C2 Evos wheels on this 4-door…
Max Boost!-themed Civic with CD Accord headlights and MR-2 sidevents. Max Boost!, for those unfamiliar, was a monthly short comic that was included in the pages of Import Tuner magazine in its early days…
Crappy photo (aren’t they all?) but this 300ZX is significant because it was the first Z that I ever saw with a legit VeilSide body kit on it (Minus the ugly ass hood, which isn’t from VeilSide). I used to see this car all the time after school. I believe the owner of this car’s name was Lawrence Gayoso. He was one of the founding members of 935 Wiked Draggers and was also one of the first guys to shoot “import models”. He’s the brainchild behind sites like Finestmodels.com, Finestallstars.com, etc. These sites were the first to feature risque, sometimes nude shots of popular import models then. The site actually still works but you can’t access anything. You’d be surprised who is on there and who is still around today…. The guy made a shit ton of money running these sites because no one else was really doing this type of stuff then… Unrelated to naked models but his wheels are from a company called Manaray Sports, which is a Japanese wheel company that is now extinct. Anyways, these dude made all kinds of money charging people to look at “implied nudes” of import models. You could see like the occasional nip slip but everything else was usually strategically covered by hands or bubble bath soap…
If you haven’t caught on yet, the popular trend was Buddy Club kits and Racing Hart wheels. The Racing Hart C5 was probably the first and most popular copied wheel. These were so popular that they were later knocked-off but all kinds of different wheel companies. One of them was a company called Katana and they made a copy and called it the Concept 5…You can probably still buy those motherfuckers too…
Ever seen a EF headlight turned into a fish tank with real gold fish in them? (R.I.P gold fish because they probably died a couple hours later) ….Blatant placement of the neon light too…
CR-X on Racing Hart C2s, ITR headlights, and suicide doors… two of the three companies represented on this car, oddly enough, are still around today… Carcraft is long gone but JT Autobody is still in business as well as Raceline USA. I’m sure Elton from Raceline will be happy to see that his business survived post vinyl interior, suicide doors, and headlight conversions…
In 1999, we didn’t even have Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions yet and the closest thing to having one was purchasing the complete conversion kit from VIS Racing…
I wish I had a better photo of this car but this was fucking bananas in 2000. Turbo monster of an EG on Volk TE37s…
Well, that’s pretty much a wrap. I hope you guys enjoyed this look back because it took me a lot of time to put this together. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for awhile now but I haven’t been able to connect my scanner to my PC until recently. It seems like so long ago and it’ll be interesting to see how things change in another decade or so. I’ll be an old man by then but I hope I’ll be able to look back on this hobby and be proud to tell my kids about it. Thanks for looking, now let’s return to the year 2012….