is jdm dead

[stocko]

Hi guys been a while since I've annoyed you lot but was having a think.
I'm from perth and I've noticed lately the severe lack of jdm cars. I mean you still see the odd wrx and skyline about but not the volume that there used to be. I've been to a few cruises over the last few months and noticed a lot less cars seem to be there. Go back a couple of years to when jdm wa were going hard and you'd see thousands of beautiful jdm cars. Do you guys reckon it's just a shift of taste euro seem to be very popular atm or do you think it's to do with the name jdm becoming synonymous with hooning. Just keen to hear your thoughts

[Adrian2627]

Here in Japan the scene has changed quite a bit. It's not all GTRs, Sxx, Evos, etc anymore. They're still there and you see some really nice ones at Daikoku on a Sat night but they are well out numbered by fat man sedans, box cars, and hybrids. Speed and performance have been pushed aside for posing and more of a hip hop style. It's not uncommon to see a Prius lowered to within an inch of its life with bolt on flairs and 205s on 10" rims and honestly it looks shit. The other big one is big sedans like and wannabe Chimpira dudes rolling around thinking they're part of NWA. Style and innovation has gone from the mainstream car culture and has been replaced with $2 DAD dress-ups. Shame really

[dr20t]

I blame it on Social Media making people chase short lived, high stimulation media / experiences and diminishing respect for nostalgia, sentimental value etc etc

People are after a quick hit that does something for their image (lets not kid ourselves this was around before but is alot more pronounced these days with people having their lives on display full time all the time, making them move from trend to trend and fad to fad, losing real passions.

But I'm just an old cunt so who knows

Mick

[stocko]

I tend to agree about social media it ruins everything and I'm only 25. I can definitely see it in the car scene in perth where it was once an amazing thing for a whole bunch of jdm cars to catch up and cruise now it's all about the image of how rich you look driving your car. My other gripe with it is that it ruined the car cruise. When I was 17 and driving around in my hectic wrx wagon.(huge sound system worth more than the car included) it was about ringing your mates having a cruise and getting a feed checking out how your mates builds were going. Now you post a cruise online you got no idea who's gonna show up and ruin everything ....hint hint lion badge

[stocko]

Here in Japan the scene has changed quite a bit. It's not all GTRs, Sxx, Evos, etc anymore. They're still there and you see some really nice ones at Daikoku on a Sat night but they are well out numbered by fat man sedans, box cars, and hybrids. Speed and performance have been pushed aside for posing and more of a hip hop style. It's not uncommon to see a Prius lowered to within an inch of its life with bolt on flairs and 205s on 10" rims and honestly it looks shit. The other big one is big sedans like and wannabe Chimpira dudes rolling around thinking they're part of NWA. Style and innovation has gone from the mainstream car culture and has been replaced with $2 DAD dress-ups. Shame really

That makes me sad I'm starting to see it here to shitty bmws and lowered 4x4s simply because you look rich

[jslayz]

Looking rich but going slow.... weird shxxt
Stocko, I'll pm ya

[Euronymous]

I think what has fucked it for the most part,( apart for hella flush muppets trying to look baller.) Is hoon law. Look back ten years or so and you could go on a cruise have a few runs, partake in a few skids, and aslong as you kept it to industrial areas for the most part you would go under the radar .
Nowadays, you can't even go on a social cruise without cops being all over it.
Maybe we took the piss, brought the attention to our selves.
Maybe we are the easiest social scape goats.
Fuck knows.
Also the changing of vehicle import laws has played a big part in this too.

/end rant

[GT-B Spec R Pilot]

I blame it on Social Media making people chase short lived, high stimulation media / experiences and diminishing respect for nostalgia, sentimental value etc etc

People are after a quick hit that does something for their image (lets not kid ourselves this was around before but is alot more pronounced these days with people having their lives on display full time all the time, making them move from trend to trend and fad to fad, losing real passions.

But I'm just an old cunt so who knows

Mick

Maybe i am just another old cunt but i reckon Mick and Euronymous have pretty much nailed it. On top of that cops are all over social cruises now too. Social media monitoring apps make it really easy for cops (and the dickheads who just want to make assholes of themselves) in this regard. On top of this (as any thinking person well knows) policing now days is all about statistics and revenue raising on the premise of improving safety. I remember years ago (as a teenager on P plates) turning up at what use to be the Surfers Paradise raceway (now a housing estate) to operation drag. Cops in a heavily modified Commodore that you could run down the drag strip against. Every car was inspected for road worthiness on entry and driver breathalyzed. Tick those two boxes, pay a few $ and that was it. A great example of community engaged policing. Stopped people doing burnouts along the surfers paradise esplanade or racing from autochick to what is now the Westpac helicopter rescue base and back and probably gave the police a lot of intel to feed back to the CIB and other units in the process. By any objective measurement it was successful (in part because the police there were genuine decent people too) but a change of state government and the funding for it got scrapped. No surprise then that burn outs along esplanade in the early hours of the morning and street racing returned in no time. Add to that the apathetic attitude of most Australians. We are all quick to winge but to lazy to get of our backsides and to put together/support a well reasoned argument for sensible rule changes. The "130 for the Hume" campaign is a perfect example.

[Euronymous]

Very true gtb spec r pilot, the apathy with in the Australian car scene has allowed us to be rail roaded and type cast as the villian. (Having said that, some fuckers need to be taken off the road permanently). Instead of joining forces and letting Australia know we weren't going to let hoon law happen. We sat back and did fuck all, and I'm not exempt from that. As I did nothing bar whinge about it (kinda like now).
I think as a community we have to set about in acting some change. Like reinstating the aforementioned budget off street drags.
But for now I'll get off my soap box.