High Performance Products for Muscle Cars

The Steadily Growing Tuner Market Fuels Demand

for High Performance Products

When most people think of muscle cars, they generally think of American makes like Chevrolet, Ford and Pontiac. Classic cars such as the Pontiac GTO, the Ford Mustang and the Chevy Chevelle come to mind. However, the hot rods of the new generation are not GTO’s, Mustangs or Chevelles. They are modified, midsized imports like Honda Civics, Toyota Celicas and Nissan Maximas.

Actually, these modern-day hot rods are usually combinations of different makes and models. The body could be manufactured by Nissan, but a more powerful Toyota engine could be under the hood. They’re called “tuners,” and the scene has been steadily growing since its underground beginnings in southern California more than a decade ago.

The blockbuster 2001 movie The Fast and the Furious,centering on highly modified import cars and street racing, helped launch the tuner lifestyle into mainstream public consciousness.

Typically a youth-dominated market, it features moderately priced mid-size import vehicles juiced up with expensive performance modifications, flashy body work, custom paint jobs and expensive sound systems. “Tuner car enthusiasts express themselves using their vehicles,” says Dick Messer, museum director of Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. “The car is the focus of their lifestyle, and it’s a lifestyle that transcends ethnic, gender and socio-economic barriers. Tuner cars bring together a group of enthusiasts that is not defined by specific make or model, a geographic boundary or niche market.”

The interiors of tuner vehicles are often modified as extensively as the exteriors.

According to Motor Trend magazine, “‘Tuner’ cars are traditionally sport compact models equipped with high revving, small-bore engines, race-inspired suspensions and bodywork. They represent a modern-day approach to performance-based motoring and they have many parallels to the early days of hot rodding.” The tuner scene has no set rules, and creativity is encouraged. Some tuner enthusiasts focus almost exclusively on exterior appearance, others are more concerned with performance and others strive for a balance between the two.

An April 2003 article by Don Fernandez in theAtlanta Journal-Constitution profiled some of Atlanta’s local tuners. James Park of Lilburn, Ga., owns a 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer that boasts two-tone seats, custom exhaust and “suicide spoiler,” and he’s looking at adding a turbocharger. “Any import lovers . . . once you start, you can’t stop,” he says.

When Edgar Moreno of Alpharetta, Ga., bought his new 2003 Infinity, he wasted no time with the modifications. He removed the wood grain interior, installed a PlayStation 2 in the glove compartment and a DVD player and monitor in the air conditioner space and added fifteen-inch rims and a lowered profile for aesthetics.

Performance is extremely important in the ever growing tuner market, and tuner enthusiasts invest a lot of money in their vehicles. AMSOIL lubricants are the perfect fit for today’s hot rod generation.

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