Thank you Subaru

It is a great time to be involved in the import tuning scene. If you want a FWD, RWD or AWD car to tune there are many great options. On the AWD side you have the EVO, WRX and GTR. The RWD front has the 370Z, S2000, IS-F and if rumors are true the Toyota FT-86. On the FWD side you have the Civic SI, Scion TC and XB, and the Nissan Sentra SER and Cube. There are plenty of options on the new car market. But this has not always been the way.

I take you back to 1999. It was a bit of a dark time for the import car market. The Toyota Supra had just been pulled from the US market. It was the last of the Japanese supercars in America. The 300ZX and RX7 had previously been given the axe. The only positive side was from the Honda camp. The Civic SI and Integra Type R were the best performance cars you could buy. The only drawback was the were both FWD. If you were looking for an AWD or RWD drive platform you were out of luck. In Japan this wasn't the case. You had a pick of make and platform to chose from. Anything from the GTR, EVO, WRX, RX7 and Silvia to chose from. For some reason Japan felt that we Americans did not need or would not buy their performance cars. For us in America the future didn't look so bright. About that time a rumor began to surface. 8t was believed the Subaru may bring the WRX to America. The WRX would be soon getting a redesign and the new style would come. Could it actually be true? Did Subaru think we deserved a performance car? Then finally it happened. The 2002 WRX came about. It was an exciting change in times. As sales of the WRX showed promise rumors began to surface of more performance cars. Slowly but surely new car began to come to our shores. Nissan revived the Z car and gave us the 350 Z. Mitsubishi finally brought the EVO to our shores. Honda gave us the S2000 roadster. And Mazda brought back the Rotary with the RX8. Eventually Nissan decided to bring out the big gun. We got the GTR on our shores. Truly the import tuning scene finally got what we wanted. The cars we belived to be unattainible were here.

The question of wether all these cars would have come to the US without the WRX may never be answered. But without a doubt, because of the WRX, the tuning community got what we wanted. An actual performance car from the land of the rising sun again. The tuning commuinty owes a bit of gratitude to Subaru. For this I say thank you Subaru. Because you believed that we Americans deserved a true performance car.