[s-cars] NAC Nice article from NY Times

[Cecil Morris]

Too Fast. Too Furious. Too Old?
By FARA WARNER

Published: October 31, 2003

LES WONG'S car looks like something straight out of
the "Fast and Furious" movies. The bright red 1993
Mazda RX-7 has a giant blue panther leaping along the
passenger side, a tweaked 348-horsepower engine under
the hood and an elegant winglike spoiler off the back.
In fact, Dr. Wong, who has spent close to $60,000
customizing his car, could be a classic "import tuner"
— a young, car-obsessed street racer with a souped-up
compact. Except for one thing: He's a 35-year-old
dentist with a wife, two children and a house in
Sacramento.

Meet the new tuners: men and women over 30 who trade
notes on intercoolers and superchargers while trying
to figure out just who or what Ludicris and Outkast
are besides misspelled words. Some "mature" tuners,
like Dr. Wong, who says his car is akin to a woman's
designer shoe collection, look to show off their own
personal style. Others say they are reliving or
extending part of their youth, when they raced big V-8
American cars. Though their younger counterparts flock
to car shows like Hot Import Nights to ogle models,
dance to hip-hop and show off their customized Hondas,
Mitsubishis and Subarus, older tuners tend to settle
for a little friendly competition on the streets.

All I have to do is stop at a red light and have a
youngster pull up next to me," said Barbra Craig, a
54-year-old Detroit office manager whose $16,000 Ford
Focus has $10,000 worth of add-ons, including a
turbocharger, custom 17-inch wheels, and Recaro racing
seats. "I wouldn't want to stand around and look at my
car," she said. "I just want to drive."

The tuning craze began more than a decade ago, among
young men in the Asian-immigrant communities outside
Los Angeles. The car of choice then was a hand-me-down
Honda Civic, with the four-cylinder engine modified,
or tuned, to boost the horsepower and turn a cheap
Japanese import into a street racer capable of hitting
60 miles an hour in less than five seconds.

Unlike pre-electronic age hot-rodders, tuners didn't
get their hands dirty messing around with the
distributor or carburetor to raise power and speed.
Instead, they hacked into their cars' computer chip
brains, modifying the algorithms controlling the fuel
injectors, and added items like turbochargers and new
exhaust systems to increase the amount of air and fuel
going into a car's engine.

They didn't stop there: Tuners lowered the cars to
make them more aerodynamic, added rear spoilers and
side skirts to make them, well, look cool, painted
them wild colors and changed the standard head and
tail lights for xenon or L.E.D. lights. Before long,
carmakers like Honda and Mitsubishi started catering
to the subculture, by giving so-called aftermarket
companies early looks at the cars so they could create
new parts to appeal to tuners. More recently, the cars
got a boost into the mainstream from movies like "Fast
and Furious" and the Grand Theft Auto video games,
which feature tuner cars racing down late-night
streets.

But for older tuners, it's not always a comfortable
fit. Brian Callahan, 60, isn't particularly interested
in hanging out in a 7-Eleven parking lot at midnight
with Detroit-area tuners or motoring down the city's
famous car cruising street, Woodward Avenue. "I listen
to jazz and classical music," Mr. Callahan, a computer
consultant, said.

Still, he recently bought a $25,000 2003 Subaru WRX,
then spent another $7,000 to get more than 300
horsepower out of the four-cylinder engine. And on a
recent afternoon, he couldn't help the big grin that
spread across his face as he stepped on the gas just
as a red light turned green, quickly shifting from
first gear to second. The car growled and shot down a
suburban Detroit thoroughfare. "That was zero to 60 in
second gear in under five seconds," Mr. Callahan said
as he stopped at the next red light.

Mixing a tuner obsession with family life can make for
some odd juxtapositions. Dr. Wong's personal Web site,
for instance, is filled with smiling shots of his
children at Disney World, at Christmas and playing in
the snow. Then there are the beauty shots of his car,
hood up, engine gleaming, miniskirted model smiling in
front at tuner events like Hot Import Nights or on the
set of a Ludicris video. "I pretty much stay home and
take care of my kids," Dr. Wong said, except, of
course, for when he's exhibiting his Mazda at shows
like Import Revolution and Nisei Week.

The car companies — from General Motors' Saturn
division to Mercedes-Benz — are hoping to cash in on
the older tuners, many of whom are willing to spend
more than the $15,000 or so that a classic tuner
subcompact costs. The new Mercedes AMG performance
versions of its usually sedate sedans come with
twin-spoke wheels and 450-horsepower engines — and
cost five times what a typical tuner car goes for. And
while Ford's Focus is still fairly cheap — the base
price is about $13,000 — the carmaker is betting it
will add some performance gloss to its family-sedan
reputation.

AMONG the events at recent Fun Ford weekends: legal
versions of the late-night street racing and fancy
burnouts that the younger tuners have been known for.
At a Focus Frenzy race in July in Norwalk, Ohio, Mrs.
Craig put her souped-up car up against the competition
on the drag strip — doing the quarter-mile in less
than 15 seconds, good enough to place third. "Not bad
for a grandmother," she said.

Indeed, many older tuners are looking for legal ways
to enjoy their cars. When Thomas H. Limpo, 35, moved
to Detroit from Southern California eight years ago,
he figured he'd leave some of the more outrageous
tuner behavior behind. His new club, Redline
Motorsports, strictly prohibits things like loud
engine revving and using nitrous oxide to boost speed
(a practice that's illegal in some states). "We're
just a bunch of old respectable guys," Mr. Limpo said.

Even his car is different: He drives a silver 2002
Honda roadster, not a subcompact. Still, he admits
that Redline has its fair share of tuner tantrums.
"Before you know it, somebody has thrown down the
gauntlet on the message boards and there's a race to
see whose car is better or faster," he said.





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