TUNING IN

In the 1990s, the Compact Car Tuning Scene Went From Niche to Nuclear

- BOB HERNANDEZ

Debate continues about when and where the tuner scene began, but like the hot-rodding and low-riding movements that came before, it’s now a deeply ingrained part of the automotive landscape. The culture, largely centered on compact cars, is today catered to by a massive apparatus consisting of automakers, aftermarket parts houses, events companies, and media industries to keep passions burning—and cash flowing. But it wasn’t always that way, and it was during the 1990s that tuner culture went from largely underground to far more mainstream.

By the ’90s, American consumers had been buying a variety of “imports” (a term now largely passé) and small cars in large numbers for 20 years. That provided an ample stock of affordable used—and easily customized—machines for an enthusiast population increasingly influenced by motorsports, grassroots car shows, and niche magazines that promoted what was then a new lifestyle.

Roots in Racing 

As with muscle cars in decades past, drag racing might have been the match that lit the fire. Hot spots of racing sprung up in the Midwest, along the Eastern seaboard, and most prominently in Southern California, but before 1990 few if any events were officially sanctioned. The streets were the first flexing arenas, with races held late at night and in far-flung places unlikely to be snarled by traffic—or prowled by the police.