The HISTORY OF ZILVIA/ Geopolitical Analysis of Silvia culture

[kashira kureijii]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Sorry, just got back from Japan.

Ate lots of great food, saw lots of cool stuff.

Bought plenty of JDM parts. All around amazing time.



Any stories from the old days you want to hear in particular?

Haha glad u had fun, did you get some onigiri and pocari sweat from family mart? Family mart is best mart


What wheels were best wheels 2000-2005?
Were folks in like 2001 aware of the situation and nippon and how much better their silvias were (sr"s etc)

Also at what time did everyone realize the 300zx was a lost cause and sorta fade away? The forum still has z stuff in the name, but you know, the only thing we see from z"s around here is their brakes haha

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by kashira kureijii

Haha glad u had fun, did you get some onigiri and pocari sweat from family mart? Family mart is best mart

There was a Family mart next to the Air BnB we had when we were in Tokyo.
Usually got flavored Suntori beer as well as a pack that contained three types of sandwiches.

For Pocari sweat, got that and Boss Rainbow coffee from all the street vending machines pretty often.

Originally Posted by kashira kureijii

What wheels were best wheels 2000-2005?
Were folks in like 2001 aware of the situation and nippon and how much better their silvias were (sr"s etc)

Earlier on TE37's in white or bronze were the hot setup. However, fitment didn't start being a thing until maybe around 2003 or so. OEM R34 wheels were pretty unicorn spec, and a lot of people had Konig Verdicts because they kind of looked like them. In the West coast, there was access to imported used JDM wheels. Which often times fit really well. I remember Grenades being really popular, as they were affordable, from Japan, and reasonably priced.

The thing most people don't realize now is, that it was nearly impossible to get 4-lug low offset wheels in the US for our cars. In 2003 I was running Kazera KZ1 in 16x7.5 +40, and then moved on to Kei Office Modias in 16x7 +30, 16x8 +32 stagger. After that I moved on to my first flush set, Enkei G-square Trentinos.

As for the JDM scene, Many people knew it was pretty special, but didn't have a really good grasp on it unless they had access to option video or magazines. These were really hard to get unless you were in California, where Tower Records and tuning shops carried them. It was probably around 2001 when US car magazines really started covering the scene that most people got a good look.
You have to realize though, everyone knew how hot the cars in Japan were, back in 1997/98 when the first Gran Turismo dropped. Everyone I know was trying to figure out what all the weird Japanese cars were, and then getting blown away when we found out how much power you could make a "Nissan Skyline GT-R" put out, despite the fact we had never heard of one before.

In the early 2000's the S-chassis scene was just coming off the fringe of the main tuner scene, which was dominated by Hondas and Mitsubishis. In most parts of the country too, you had zero respect from most car guys who were still all about the Camaro and Mustang. The SR20DET swap was the hot ticket for your schassis, and they were extremely rare. Pop the hood on a stock SR at a car meet, and it would draw a crowd. Coilovers were also rare early on, due to how hard it was to get them. No one was making them in the US, and you had to special order them from Japan. I remember for me it was a huge occasion when I ordered a set of brand new Tein Type-HE Winding Masters (the jdm touge-spec coilover) and waited for them to come from Japan through Super Autobacs.

Originally Posted by kashira kureijii

Also at what time did everyone realize the 300zx was a lost cause and sorta fade away? The forum still has z stuff in the name, but you know, the only thing we see from z"s around here is their brakes haha

I came on Zilvia in 2003. No one was doing anything with Z's on here then. In fact I think more people have Z's on Zilvia now than ever before. Back then you wouldn't even see a Z thread at all.
S30's weren't popular on here back then because the people who owned them tended to be old people who were the original owners. S130's and Z31's were just a car people drove while they were dreaming of buying an S13, or if you were well-off, an S14, and Z32's were a nightmare to work on and expensive to fix up, not to mention buy in the first place. At that time, Z32's were very pricey, and if you had that kind of money, it made sense to get a Supra or some other high-performance import that was easier to upgrade (at least until the first fast and furious came out and drove up MkIV Supra prices.) People considered the looks of the Z32 to be dated for the price too, which sent them towards other cars in that market, like FD's and 3000GT's.