Why Japanese cars from the 1990s are the last of the loved cars

Saying goodbye to the last car enthusiasts

In a world of reckless young men with the lastest sporty economy car purchased by their parents we see the last true car enthusiasts fade away.

Today's car scene is filled with responsible consumer car choices that don't raise eyebrows in the rule plagued h.o.a. communities that have spread through south Florida like a cancer. The kids that have been handed these cars save their rebellious urges for the irresponsible acts they will perform by night in these ever so slightly modded vehicles. Instead of irresponsible modifications to the car

I've seen cars no different than the ones driven by the npc consumers on their way to the office except some added spray paint or a few removed badges become center of these car meets through shear lack of fear for consequences.

A typical car meet today is comprised of mostly 16-20 year old boys and consists of reckless driving in a manor that doesn't display exceptional skill, competitive driving, or any passion for the vehicles themselves. There are cars screeching around warehouse parking lots with copious amounts of under steer and crowds of people with phones in hand close enough to the action to be ran over. Major streets are blocked off for Instagram videos of donuts and vehicular manslaughter due to unskilled drivers and crowds with poor judgment. The cars themselves are never the focus and the drivers skills are not under scrutiny. It's a adrenaline filled mob mentality completely void of passion and enthusiasm but has sadly become the norm anyway.

Let me take you back to the first decade of the 21st century. The car meets are full of questionably reliable cars that are clearly still a work in progress from the 1990s. The modifications are creative instead of today's neatly packaged “stage whatever” list of generic main stream bolt-ons. A car beyond stock in this time was a true expression of it's owner's ingenuity and open hoods often had captivating creative solutions worth looking at. The car was the rebellious act and your hard work was what got you the attention. In a system that rewarded ingenuity and creative modifications many cars had different engines swapped into them. It quickly became common knowledge that whatever Japanese car you had was fitted with a slower engine here in the United States than the version available in Japan. Turbo charged Japanese engines started showing up in engine bays and businesses starting popping up importing these engines for car enthusiasts to use. The rise in popularity for the superior Japanese options on these vehicles pushed a fad of making the cars as close to the version sold in Japan as possible. People used the seats, badges, lights and body accessories to distinguish their cars from the ones offered here in America. The only difference was the fact that our driver side was on the left and the cars we were mimicking had the driver on the right. Cars built for foreign countries have to be at least 25 years old to import so getting your hands on the actual Japanese version was extremely difficult and illegal to drive on public roads. The import companies bringing in engines and accessories ended up buying what are referred to as “front clips” to get as much of the highly sought after Japanese parts as possible without technically bringing over a car. In Japan they would literally cut a car in half and send over the front half complete with engine, wiring, bumper, hood, fenders, and sure enough a dashboard with all of the driver controls on the right hand side. The motivation to pursue the Japanese parts and stand out at the car meet as the guy with the most ingenuity started a trend of cutting our cars in half and welding our rear half to the Japanese front half to have the true Japanese experience complete with cosmetics, engine, and a steering wheel on the right side of the car. If you could manage to pull this off you had the car that was obsessed over at every car meet. It was the ultimate show of acquiring all that is superior about the Japanese models.

Fast forward 15 years so that all of those 1990s cars we mimicked we're legal to import and drive and I find myself in a position to finally aquire the car I dreamed of at all those car meets(pictured up top). The car that came up in every discussion I had about impressive manufacturer engineering with the car enthusiast crowd. The car that littered the search history of my YouTube. The first generation Subaru WRX (gc8). This car was only offered in America as an Impreza with inferior brakes, suspension, engine, transmission, and less stylish hood, bumper and lights. One of the first things I did in my new car was source a local car meet and go. I was a little confused at the types of cars there as nothing seemed to have much effort invested in it but nonetheless I found a spot and parked. I was immediately asked by a young guy “what is that car?” and upon closer inspection he asked “why is the steering wheel on the wrong side?” I was disappointed to say the least but hung around long enough to see what the meet was about. Reckless parking lot driving was the theme and I went home with the sad realization that the world I was once a part of no longer existed. I am a dinosaur and the few others like me are on their way out as well. The wrx will probably be sold soon for something more appropriate for work and kids but I will always have the fond memories of the time and place where alike minds could be found.