Nelson

For as long as we can remember, Japanese tuners have always been looked up to as the leaders of an ever-expanding industry.For as long as I can remember, Japanese tuners have always been looked up to as the leaders of an ever-expanding industry. Even in my earlier days, before the term JDM was being thrown around with reckless abandon, we took tuning cues from the land of the rising sun, whether it was performance or aesthetic. I'll never forget flipping through thick, glossy, often overpriced foreign magazines that granted little more than photos for me to drool over and conjure up images of how cool their parts would look on my car. Some of that luster faded away as the Internet continued to blossom and importers became much more common, not unlike the droves of people who wear Air Jordans (that's how uncool I am, I use the entire name instead of "Js") these days. A brand in and of itself, it now sees public releases on a regular schedule, often purchased by people far too young to have ever seen him play live or on air during his reign of excellence. Realistically, there aren't too many JDM parts that can't be sourced, within reason, if you're willing to pay for the goods and get slapped with the shipping fees. Even with the easier access granted by sources that help to bridge the gap digitally, owning not-so-common JDM goods is still quite special to some, and in most instances, the rarer the goods, the better. What I've found myself questioning, especially lately, is whether there's an unspoken double standard that comes at the heels of parts produced in Japan.
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Photo Gallery: June 2014 Spotlight - Double Standard



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