Where Would We Be??????

[vividracing]

I guess I was on Kadena the same time you were on the Island. I was still an High School Kid but we would always go out to Aja to watch the drifting.

Originally Posted by industrial

I designed shirts for Mugen in 93 while still in high school daydreaming about adding an intake to a civic or maybe a mx-6. I read SCC when it was still mostly black and white. "Drifted" silvias in 98 while stationed in Okinawa. Was "racing" in the hills of socal right around the same time the first FATF came out. Joined Nasioc when it was still Imprezer's Lair.

I guess I'd probably be in the same place. I don't really think that movie made any impact on people like me that just appreciated the technical aspects of this hobby along with a little legal racing/spirited driving. Those movies were more for the whole HIN/Hard Parking/Hell-Frush scene which I never understood. I thought that scene was pretty much dead until this car came along...

I was watching Initial D before those movies came out and that did it for me. Those movies just fueled my rape.

[ronboogieon]

Still driving the BRZ...

[djdnz]

I was always into cars, but it wasn't until F&F that I realized there was a modification scene. I was only 14 when I saw the movie, and I had been dreaming about cars since I was a kid. I remember freeze framing on the black civics they had to see what the bumpers looked like, which got me into modified cars, which eventually got me here. I learned more about wrenching cars that I would have ever imagined on my first car, including building my own turbo kit from scratch - and I wouldn't have done that without seeing the movies. I owe a lot of my interest in car mods to F&F and I'm not too proud to deny it. I had never even heard of a supra or rx7 before the movies came out.

As silly as the movies are, how ricey the cars were, the terrible lines... I still love them all, particularly the first. I was crushed to hear Paul Walker died... he and the F&F movies definitely made an impact on my life, and though I'm almost scared to watch it, I'm really excited for #7.

[airjonny]

My love for cars started with that movie and took off with the release of Need for Speed underground.

[krayzie]

Fast & The Furious? ROFL!! I'm sure the OP meant Shuto Kousoku Trial movies on VHS from the Asian movie rental stores (there were also the Best Motoring and Hot Version VHS tapes).

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGtWmKUKMos"]Shuto Kousoku Max (6) 1996 [FULL MOVIE ENG SUB] - YouTube[/ame]

[P86RAVES]

TLDR: We'd have a smaller industry and less cool cars available.

I'd be driving a Mustang.

I was really into them before seeing TFATF. There was something about the whole scene that surrounded the import car culture that peaked my interest.

It exposed me to electronic music, a multicultural hobby that didn't have a race "assigned" to it, tuning, and a some other stuff I can't think if because people keep talking to me while I'm typing this because I'm supposed to be working.

We wouldn't have the market we have now and I don't think some of the cars we have available now would be here without the niche that TFATF expanded.

[kavanagh]

I had to lookup when the first one came out (2001) because I recall being excited that someone was finally making a movie about the car scene my friends and I were in.
We had been street racing all over LA since 1994 when my buddy got his 95 Accord and I got my 95 Probe. Then our friends started buying Civics and Sentras and Preludes and stuff. Back then there was no such thing as an import tuner anywhere in Arizona, so we drove to City of Industry every other weekend or so in order to go to Robocar and get work done. At the time we had to custom fabricate our upgrades and then Dyno test them. It took me 18 months to dial in the suspension because I had to rebuild and revalve the shocks every time I wanted a change.
When a Touring Car driver came to the Honda dealer where my buddy worked and looked under the hood of my friend's car, the driver asked where he got the long tube from to get cold air because he didn't even have one on his race car. We had it fabricated. What I did 20 years ago for 5 grand and two or three years of time can now be done for 800 bucks, mail ordered from any of 10 different manufacturers and bolted on in an hour or two.

That is why I love the F&F movies.

It opened up my scene to a shit load of new people. It took what my friends and I were doing, and made it mainstream. It made manufacturers aware of demand, and now they supply us. We were ricy, and cheesy and often in trouble, but it was awesome and I'm glad more younger generations got hooked.


Sent from a secret volcano base using trained sharks

[Turbowned]

Originally Posted by Raven 6

Nice ride. I dated a girl once that had a 83 Berlinetta (probably spelled that one wrong). Love the Camero.

Ironically you spelt "Berlinetta" correctly and "Camaro" incorrectly, lol

[inertia]

I wouldn't give all the credit to this series for the industry boom because large pioneer vendors such as Nopi, Options Auto Salon, Rod Millen Motorsports/Stillen and even some of the magazines such as Turbo and Sports Compact catered to this market way before it exploded. Anywho, I would still be in the import scene regardless.

[Raven 6]

Originally Posted by inertia

I wouldn't give all the credit to this series for the industry boom because large pioneer vendors such as Nopi, Options Auto Salon, Rod Millen Motorsports/Stillen and even some of the magazines such as Turbo and Sports Compact catered to this market way before it exploded. Anywho, I would still be in the import scene regardless.

True enough. But I would say they gave the Import scene a good shot in the arm and bought a lot of younger people into a scene that they could have just as easily went American domestic.

[oldlostcory]

The fast and furious got me into modding but it wasn't till I saw The Last Race - [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiwgnbpsr28"]The Last Race (Finished Version) - YouTube[/ame]
that I wanted an import. I bought my integra a year after seeing that movie.

[P86RAVES]

Originally Posted by inertia

I wouldn't give all the credit to this series for the industry boom because large pioneer vendors such as Nopi, Options Auto Salon, Rod Millen Motorsports/Stillen and even some of the magazines such as Turbo and Sports Compact catered to this market way before it exploded. Anywho, I would still be in the import scene regardless.

Break dancing existed way before Beat Street and Breakin' came out, but when something exposed a niche like that to the masses, it's going to explode. I'm certain more people remember TFATF registering the thought of a Supra being a mythical dragon than did SCC or Turbo.

Both magazines provided content to those already in, the movie gave a glimpse to those who may have otherwise never known or noticed sport compacts.

[qoncept]

I've never seen any of them. If they had any influence on me I'd probably be driving 968 now.

[inertia]

To those who were possibly "influenced" cannot all be classified "true enthusiast". A majority of them were guys running cookie-cutter rims, bodykits, big wings, fat 5-inch Tanabe exhaust tips, and that nice Racing Akimoto intake! Yah... This can develop to a huge debate but let it be known.. serious racers were born from those magazine articles and actual race events not just on a franchised flick.