Tuner (car)

= Definition =

A tuner car, normally an import, is a sporty, economic and practical car that is built for the purpose of daily usage, decent gas mileage and comfort, but has the potential of becoming a high performance vehicle with modifications primarily to the engine but also the suspension and exhaust systems. Some Tuner manufacturers offer variants of their cars with performance modifications already installed on them, such as the Subaru Impreza STi (based on the WRX model) and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (a much higher performance version of the Lancer). The popular import cars are usually equipped with either turbo-charged or super-charged engines.

Tuners differ from sports cars in many different areas such as price, engine displacement, horsepower and many other factors. They also differ from typical sedans or SUV import cars; they are lighter, faster and have better handling. These cars are usually Japanese made and are sometimes referred to as "import" vehicles. The driver can customize and personalize their car to their liking. The more popular modifications would be to not only tint the windows and put rims on, but to also modify the engine. Almost everything on the engine could be upgraded to a better performing part such as the air intake or the exhaust. Depending on what the car is "tuned" or set up for, depends on whether a suspension or different modification should be next.

These are some of the more popularly known tuner cars:
* Nissan Skyline
* Nissan 350Z
* Nissan 300ZX
* Nissan 240SX
* 180/200sx s13
* Nissan 300zx z32
* Nissan Silvia
* Infiniti G35/350gt
* Integra DC2 DC5 Type R
* Mazda RX-7
* Mazda RX-8
* Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
* Mitsubishi Eclipse
* Honda S2000
* Toyota MR-2
* Toyota Supra
* Subaru Impreza WRX STi

A Tuner also can refer to the driver of a tuner car.

=Origin=

In the 1970s and 80s Japanese motor companies produced many popular performance cars and performance versions of existing cars. However, many of these were never exported beyond Asia. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, "grey imports" of Japanese performance cars became abundant in Western Europe and North America, such as the Toyota Supra. Many factors, such as parts being interchangeable, the low cost of obtaining a used imported car, and networking and e-commerce via the Internet all allowed the expansion of the practice of modifying a low-cost compact car. In the United States, this was in direct contrast to the domestic car production around the same time, where there was little widespread performance aftermarket for domestic compact and economy cars. In the United States, the focus was instead on sports cars such as the Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Corvette, or on classic muscle cars.

Because of their light weight and the increasing availability of low-cost tuning equipment, economy cars and compact cars exhibit high performance, at a relatively low cost in comparison to dedicated sports cars. As professional sporting and racing with such vehicles increased, so did more recreational use of these vehicles. Drivers with little or no automotive, mechanical, or racing experience would modify their vehicles to emulate the more impressive versions of racing vehicles with mixed results.

The major reason of the rise of this class of automobiles into racing scenes was the Rallying competitions, where highly modified tuners race against each others times in twisty roads. This can be seen in today's tuner culture very easily. Roof scoops, gigantic spoilers and drifting all seem to be derived from Rallying.

During the late 90's demand for tuning began to spike with the introduction of a video game franchines by the name of Gran Turismo for the Sony Playstation. It showed that normal everyday cars could be transformed into high performance vehicles for racing.

=Culture=

Muscle car opposition

Tuner cars are known to be at the opposite point from the Muscle cars. There are many reasons.

The first thing that creates this tension is the similar purpose of both of these groups. Tuners, just like Muscle cars, are meant to be fast, cheap and practical, all at the same time.

One reason could be the (somewhat antiquated) perception that imports, specifically Japanese cars, are not built to the same standards as American cars (a notion that has lost significant authority in recent decades). Muscle car enthusiasts, partly because of nativism, and partly because their belief in domestic industrial superiority, oppose this relatively new culture of automotive racing. Again, with time this perception has tended to lose credibility due to the rise of a more global economy and deals like NAFTA (As few American cars are built of 100% American parts, and are often built in neighboring countries such as Mexico to reduce costs; Furthermore, to avoid tariffs, many Japanese cars are often built within the United States).

These two car classes are even technically the opposite. Muscle cars typically sport large, high gas consuming, V8 engines; While Tuners generally have smaller engines with considerably higher gas mileages. Muscle cars are heavy, non-sophisticated, and simple. Imports, on the other hand, are different. They are much more sophisticated and exact, and are naturally lighter, because the manufacturers had aimed at low gas consumption. They also have more modern chassis and suspension systems. As a result, they have better handling than most Muscle cars. But because of their small engines, their torque curves can be relatively sharp when their engines are modified; which results in worse torque distribution throughout the different RPMs.Fact|date=March 2008

Essentially this makes tuners better in most areas except straight-line acceleration, often seen in drag racing.Although there are many tuned versions which see great speed from the off and are seen around the World more usual makes are the Toyota Supra and the Nissan Skyline which produce some scary0-60 drag speeds. Another negativity tuners have in terms of, "Off the line" speed is turbo-lag - the time it takes between hitting the gas pedal, and the turbo to build up enough momentum to, "Kick In." Some tuners based on weight loss and naturally-aspirated engines exist and don't suffer from the lag. But the near universal use of turbochargers over superchargers contributes greatly to the issue. However most professional tuners use light weight ceramic blades in their turbos to reduce lag.

Classical muscle cars were simple, they were heavy and with generally poor handling. although modern muscle such as the Chevrolet Camaro Concept, Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, and Dodge Charger retain the large v8 engines although, have modern suspension, are a good deal lighter, and with computers are more complex, this also improves fuel economy greatly.

Modification

The essence of modification of a Tuner Car is an attempt to extract the greatest possible performance from the base motor vehicle through the addition, alteration or outright replacement of parts. Although this largely involves modifying the engine and management systems of the vehicle to increase the power output, additional changes are often required to allow the vehicle to handle this power including stiffened suspension, widened tires, better brakes, improved steering and transmission modifications. Although largely invisible from outside the vehicle certain modifications, such as low profile tyres, altered suspension and the addition of spoilers can change the overall appearance of the car.

Tuning Vs. "Ricing"

"For more information, please visit the Rice Burner and Car Tuning pages.

Although Tuners have proven to be very successful as high performance vehicles when tuned properly, they are often confused with "Ricers" and referred to as "posers". "Ricing" is the term that has become popular to describe their form of posing.

Ricing as a verb, a term usually refused by the "Ricer" him/herself to be used, means modifying (normally Tuner) cars to look high performance, or rather unique; while they lack the performance they pretend to have. It can be seen in many forms such as using "fart can" loud exhausts, Neons, fake Carbon Fiber, and non-functional Aerodynamic body kits.

Ricing, derived from the term "Rice Burner" has a long history with tuners. "Rice Burner" was what East Asian Tuners were use to be referred to as. But in today's racing culture, Ricing does not necessarily refer to tuners. There are Tuners that have been modified to only perform better, rather than visual modification.

ee also

* Street racing
* Car customizing
* Cruising (driving)
* Import Scene
* Sleeper (car)
* Drifting

References

External links

* [http://www.importtuner.com/index.html|"Import Tuner Magazine" Official Website : Tuner cars, Import Models & Import Tuner cars]
* [http://www.310610.com/ autoshowevents Southern California news and photos of the latest import tuner, lowrider, and sports compact events]
* [http://www.riceboytv.com/ RiceBoyTV : Tuner cars, Import Cars, Drifting, Event Coverage, and More]