Import Scene - History

History

Car modifying has been popular among youth in the US, especially in Southern California, since the days of hot rods in the 1950s and 1960s. There is significant evidence indicating that import drag racing first started in Southern California in the mid-1960s, with Volkswagen Beetles, sit-up-and-beg Ford Populars and Austin A40 Devons: Documentation of quarter-mile passes were published in Hot Rod Magazine as early as August 1965.

Puerto Rico also has a history of pioneering import drag racing in the mid-'70s and -'80s, and it is still a huge hobby on the island.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, front wheel-drive vehicles, mostly Hondas, gained popularity in Southern California. Young Asian American street racers played a particularly important role in the development of the early street racing scene. Many enthusiasts in southern California also began to modify their compact Japanese cars, following similar trends that originated in Japan. Import racing venues eventually arose from this and huge drag racing events at Palmdale, California often packed in over 10,000 spectators per day. Racers like Stephan Papadakis, Ed Bergenholtz, Myles Bautista and Eric Sebastian on the East Coast, dominated the first import drag racing circuit IDRC (Battle of the Imports) in the mid 1990s. Show car clubs became a huge factor within the import scene: Southern California had Team Macross 7, Team Kosoku, Northern California had Z.Team Yossi, Team Flipspeed in the East Coast (New Jersey, Toronto). Hawaii had Midnight Racing and Alpha Project, while the East Coast had the still-active Jade Crew.

The Japanese racing scene can be seen in the anime series Initial D, which focuses mainly on mountain pass-racing and Wangan Midnight which deals with high-speed expressway racing.