JDM Society
From Mod Mania
JDM WHAT?
All italic words will be defined on the bottom.
The Grey import scene, Import culture, Tuners, Jap Tuners etc has been alive and thriving in Australia for more than 10 years and in America since the late 1980’s. The array of knowledge that we have picked up ourselves and from overseas (America, Japan and Europe) have been vast as is the slang that comes along with it. Although it’s not at all un-common to pick up slang (it’s common in other street and non street cultures such as Graffiti and Hip – Hop etc), the amount of slang, smack talk and informative words that are thrown around in the street scene today is amazing. For example the acronym JDM. Honestly for those people who aren’t in the tuning scene you won’t release it but as a enthusiast and profound car nut it’s amazing how much crap people say that really has nothing to do with their car or the Import Scene that there in. “The Import scene or Import racing scene refers to the subculture that revolves around modifying imported brand cars (commonly referred to as imports), especially those of Japanese brands (Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Mazda), for street racing or tuning in foreign countries.” Info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import_scene. Our influence predominantly came from America thru the Hot rod era then the sports compact era (which started out on the drag strip) starting in the late 1980’s early 1990’s and mostly consisted with Datsun’s and FF (FF stands for Front wheel drive) Honda’s. This all arose from the street culture, which young Asian American street racers played an important role in the development of the early street racing scene. Through this they started to modify their cars, following similar trends that originated in Japan, and through mainstream society, the web and magazines the trend started down here in Australia.
Since the influx of cheap grey imports and influence from the ‘land of the rising sun’ (Japan) such as Initial D, Option magazine, Best Motoring DVD’s, Drifting (the art of sliding a car) and influence plus footage of touge racing and Wangan Midnight passes, the predominantly Japanese car based tuning scene in Australia has boomed, as well as it’s slang. Words such as JDM, J- style, Ricer, JDM bling, old school etc have all arose; and with people having little or no knowledge of what they really mean, it is been thrown around the paddock like a booze filled goon bag. This really hit me the other night when I was cruising to my favorite twisties (strip of winding road usually with a cliff or cliff edge on either or one side) and got my ass complete kicked in a drag race. Although as a car nut I have to say I have a shit car (an OEM Honda Civic) with no mods to it what so ever, so when I raced this Ford Falcon XR6 on the Eastern freeway I got absolutely killed. Now this didn’t disturb me and wasn’t that bad considering my car was pulling fewer ponies than a horse and carriage. What really dumfounded me was when I drove by the Falcon after, the driver shouted out “my JDM roller killed yours”. Now that was a little confusing as JDM stands for ‘Japanese Domestic Market’ and he had an Aussie built Ford. What really hit me was how loosely the word and others alike were being used in the wrong context by tuners and how many retards there are out there.
JDM is the new ‘it’ thing in the tuner world. Apart from J- style (a collaboration of both street, show and track mods in one car) or ‘dori dori’ /drift influenced cars, so called JDM influenced rides have appeared in tuner shows (such as HIN – Hot Import nights and Autosalon) here and in America. The ideals of JDM and JDM influenced rides have spread like wild fire, across the world with help through forums and wit movies such as Fast and the Furious – Tokyo Drift and magazines (such as Option, Super Street, Honda Tuning, J Tuning etc) it has jumped into mainstream society and given a spin on the world.
So what does JDM really mean and where did it start? And why do I think that people are bantering it around in the wrong context? To understand this you have to trace the roots of this acronym. The three letters of JDM stands for ‘Japanese Domestic Market’ and basically relates to everything built in Japan. For use it’s the cars such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota’s. Many people have claimed to have coined (made it theirs) the term, but the acronym originated in the US by a small Honda group called the ‘FF squad’. They ran the popular www.jdmhondaparts.com website now known today as www.jhpusa.com, and initially used the term JDM (back in 1999) to differentiate the OEM Honda Japanese parts to the OEM Honda American parts. You see unlike most products, cars that were built from Japanese companies (i.e. Honda) and sold in Japan i.e. the Civic, had many have different parts from the ones sold around the world, even though it was the same car. Parts that were different were such as- OEM side mirrors, shift boots, B16B motors and clear indicators. JDM was a term used to label the OEM (stock) counterparts. From here it was used to label hard to get aftermarket parts from Japan, such as rare rims, old school or limited edition parts. JDM ‘style’ didn’t really boom until Jonathon Wong, the editor of the popular American magazine, Super Street used the term in a publication. From here the JDM flourished.
The American’s started to convert their US model Honda’s and Nissan’s to Japanese spec models; changing everything that wasn’t Japanese OEM parts to the Japanese OEM counter parts. “They swapped everything from engine to indicators, side molding that were thinner, indicators even fitting Japanese car park stickers” editor of Autosalon magazine Charles Kha. Because of this the term JDM started to be used to define this particular style or refitting. Then the hugely popular O.G style (“O.G stands Original Gangsta, which probably came from Ice T’s album by the same name. Used in modifying circles to denote the old school style” Autosalon Magazine) evolved through this phrase. The style incorporated old school appeal and super rare rims (like the Mugen MR5, Watanabe’s and Sprint Harts to name a few brands, which were both placed on old and late model cars). Although this style of modifying was rare in Japan it was vibrant in the US. From here people started to get confused with the term and things started to go out of wack. “People mistook JDM tuning as building a clean and subtle ride” editor of Autosalon magazine Charles Kha. They began removing wings and spoilers saying that there ride was Jap- style and painting their wheels black polishing them, saying that they were now JDM. With the help of the ‘World wide web’ this absurd philosophy quickly spread across America and around the world.
Today the acronym ‘JDM’ is used to describe mods from High end producers (Top Secret, Cusco, Sprint Hart, Mugen Backyard factory etc), rare parts (Mugen, Advan, Sprint Hart, Nismo etc) and themes from Japan. It is also adopting the modification ideals that are so popular within Japan. Unlike us here and unlike in America (before the influx of Japanese brands), Japan has a abundance of local manufacturer support, numerous tuning houses and growing up within the scene with anime such as Initial D (“The anime and manga Initial D stars Takumi Fujiwara as he is introduced to touge racing after it is found that he has a natural ability to race his father's nearly bone stock Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno. With his amazing skill he is able to defeat Mazda RX-7s, Nissan Skyline GT-Rs and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions. With this has spawned several arcade games, which utilizes cars from both the manga, plus other cars associated with touge racing. The cars are setup more to take the tight mountain passes and emphasis is placed more on driver ability rather than speed and power. The series at first gained popularity via fansubs and bootlegs, until TOKYOPOP translated both the anime and manga. However, some have criticized TOKYOPOP's translation of the property, with major changes to both the story and the content” info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import_scene) and Wangan Midnight (“Wangan Midnight focuses on the vast and wide Shuto Expressway/ freeway of Tokyo. Akio Asakura is an ambitious racer whom after being defeated by Tatsuya Shima's Blackbird (a Porsche 911), acquires a monstrously powerful Datsun 240Z known as the ‘The Devil Z’. All but one of its previous owners got killed trying to tame its power, and quickly makes a name for himself on the Wangan. The cars are designed for speed and power, and are based on the exploits of street racers whom used the Wangan as their own personal racetrack. The cars often were modified to attain high horsepower (this is reflected in the arcade game: it allows cars to attain horsepower to the 815 HP mark, at the cost of virtually no grip) with body kits and other modifications to make the cars go fast. While not as well known as Initial D, the series gained a cult following after the arcade game Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune was ported to the US by Namco” info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import_scene), the Japanese tuners understand the ideals of functionality. They understand the importance of balancing a cars modification, from the power out-put to the safety, longevity of the ride, suspension and braking aspects. They understand that by modifying one particular part can have effects (sometimes detrimental effects i.e. cut springs) on the other parts and by balancing the mods done so you don’t over power each of them. In short form the basic principle when modifying the ride is to improve on the car and not fuck it up. This is the basic ethos of JDM tuning and its meaning.
You see JDM tuning is not about rare racing wheels, “attend any Japanese car show and you will inundated with chrome polished wheels” editor of Autosalon magazine Charles Kha, it is not about keeping your ride clean with stock paint (air brushing, vinyl’s and wild sound system installations have boomed in Japan) and its definitely not about much carbon fiber parts or flashy bling your ride has, “Jap ballers paint their dry carbon panels in the body colour for stealth” editor of Autosalon magazine Charles Kha. When it comes down to it, JDM tuning and the JDM style is using the best that is on offer from Japan’s tuning houses and modifying your ride for functionality and practicality, not some over powered, unbalanced ride.
I guess in the car modifying culture many people are going to get influenced by the wrong things. Not all are going to agree on the ethos of JDM tuning and would probably think there way, whatever it is, is better disagreeing with what I have written. But now since you know what those three letters really mean and how it doesn’t relate to half the crap people say about their or other people’s rides, go out and build whatever the hell you want but, stop bantering that acronym in the wrong context.
All Definitions are from http://www.urbandictionary.coms
JDM: 1. Short for "Japanese Domestic Market." This term often means paying your left testicle for a part that you could otherwise order from kragen. 2. Used to describe how JDM something is, meaning that it is generally RIGHT biased/handed. This comes from Japanese Domestic Market cars mainly having right hand drive, as opposed to their USDM counterparts which are left hand drive.
Ricer:
1. Any oriental import car that has been modified for no real performance gain.
Ricer: An oriental car with no engine mods, a body kit, and possibly stickers. Made to look fast.
Not a ricer: An oriental car with a fully built engine, drive train, and suspension regardless of appearance
2. Any person who spends more money to make their car look like it goes fast than they spend on actually making it go fast. Usually people who try to get into the import tuning scene after watching the fast and the furious a few too many times. Not necessarily anyone who goes and buys a body kit, because a few of those actually do decrease drag, increase cooling, etc., like Veilside and stuff, just crappy rip-offs that don’t do a damn thing except maybe increase down force, but if you have a FWD car, a spoiler is just going to make you go slower. Also, if you have any idea how cars work, you'd realize that there really is no point in making a car look fast if it can’t go fast, and if you don’t understand how cars work, or don’t care, you have no business even pretending to be a part of the tuner scene.
OEM:
1. Acronym for ‘Original Equipment Manufacturer’
It's just another way of saying "stock." The parts that come standard on anything: Cars, Computers, boats, planes, electric tools, etc. Just to name a few.
Just get the OEM brake pads; they may be stock, but they work fine.
Old School
1. Anything that is from an earlier era and looked upon with high regard or respect. Can be used to refer to music, clothing, language, car or anything really.
Client: We have three PC's running MS-Dos 6.
Consultant: Shi'...that's old school
Import:
1. I foreign car rather "fixed up", that hold races on the streets, the track or for show at a car show.
Dub:
1. Abbreviation for the letter W (can be used in correlation with VW- V Dub)
2. Twenty dollars
4. Twenty-inch rims
5. The art of making a remix, especially a reggae song, in which the lyrics are all or partially removed and the focus is placed on the drum track and the bass
Drifting:
1. To cause a vehicle to exceed its tire's limits of adhesion, exhibiting a lateral slip, resulting in an over- steer condition.
Dori:
1. Japanese short for drift. Also known as "dori dori".
Aftermarket:
1. Parts made by an outside firm to replace OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) parts. Commonly used in automotive purposes, but the aftermarket exists in virtually every industry.
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JDM Society
An Insight into the JDM Society
Interview with a friend:
Owns a Nissan Silvia S13 (onevia)
When you brought your car, what interest you about it, and why did u choose it?
One day when delivering some old couches to my aunties house i noticed my uncles new car. it was black and shiny and my uncle was talking about the new car with my other uncle. i didnt know wtf they were talking about it. i was prob 13? or 12. i thought it was a cool car. and kept asking questions about it. use to look it up on the net and would drive it on ps2. i liked it cause it was a 2 door sports car and it was turbo and rwd. it appealed to me. but if u look at it in todays perspective as i know more about cars. its easy to modify as theres a big market of aftermarket parts. and very easy to make power from from simple bolt on modifications.
Since you’ve had your car, would you consider yourself like all the other drivers out there who are “hoons”?
Modding my car is a kind of personal accomplishment. i have to much respect for my car and its enhanced performance can only see its full potential on the track. but having police look at u like your a typical hoon gives me the shits. they pull me over in peak hour traffic just so they can look at my tyres and see whats under my bonnet. they have already labeled me a hoon just by seeing that my car is an import and it has p plates. this has been a big issue for car enthusiasts and the biggest disadvantage of modifying ure car. Pretty much any mod that you do to your car the police man will see as illegal and issue a defect or epa notice.
What modifications you have done to your car, what kind of use is it to you, as in performance wise and picking up chicks?
All the mods have been for performance besides from a little exterior modifications. 1990 Nissan Silvia CA18DET
Engine: 440cc GTR injectors Z32 air flow meter T28BB turbo GTR radiator Dual thermo fans 3” Turbo back exhaust Remapped ECU Excedy heavy duty clutch
Suspension and Brakes: HSD HR coilovers Whiteline front and rear sway bars Strut braces front and rear Engine dampener Alloy steering spacer RDA Slotted rotors S14 4 pot callipers
Interior: Blitz DSBC electronic boost controller Blitz Turbo timer Blitz gear knob Apexi boost gauge Dixel thermo fan controller Dished steering wheel S14 seats
Sound Pioneer DEH-6850 head unit JL Audio splits Clarion Amp 12” Sub
Exterior: 180sx front end conversion Do-Luck front bar Vertex side skirts 16x8” dt05r rims with BF Goodrich GF sport tyres Matt black paint
most of the modifications have been performance oriented. It is everything in the car that I have touch or modified. If i wanted to pick up chicks i wouldve bought a Honda. well ive pretty much done everything actually. like put them in or out.
Can you explain why your car is a matt black finish instead of a polished look?
i did not have money at that time u paint my car. after being in an accident my car had differnt colour panels, a bit of blue, navy blue and white. trying to support a gf is hard. so i went the cheap option and sprayed it with cans. everyone has been impressed at how it has turned out. random people keep patting it. like its a dog. i hope to have a gloss finish one day. when money allows it.
end of interview
With this interview, it has given me an insight as to why people modify their cars, not for hooking in with the chicks but for performance wise. It requires a lot of dedicated time and money, especially on old cars such as this one. It is considered a hobby which people enjoy and this is seen around the world.
Christine
