Of all the people we've interviewed in our ten-year, somewhat sordid, past, and of all the people that we may in the future, none are or will be as influential to the tuning industry as these two people before you. None.
These two men took a hobby, and without knowing it, changed the way America saw Japanese cars, resculpting the automotive aftermarket landscape forever. At a time when domestic gearheads largely scoffed at imports with respect to performance, Frank Choi sought to prove them wrong and took his fight to the now defunct Los Angeles County Raceway and started the import exclusive drag racing series, aptly named Battle of the Imports, that forever legitimized select Japanese makes as the modern day muscle car.
On the other side of the tuning fence is Ken Miyoshi. A club promoter with a similar interest in cars, Ken took the lifestyle elements of the burgeoning scene-cars, girls, music, dancing-and put all of it under one roof; thus, Import Showoff, and the car show recipe that seems so formulaic now, was born. Two men. Two visions. One Passion. One Legacy.
2NR: Frank, how did you get into imports?
Frank: When I was about 14 or 15, just starting off in high school, a lot of the older kids were into imports. I remember one in particular; an '85 Celica, slammed on 15s. Luckily for me, that guy had a younger brother, who I became friends with. The older brother would let us tag along to the street races, and for the most part, was pretty chill. "Shut up, don't say nothing, don't look at anybody, and just sit in the back seat," he used to tell us. I was like, "No problem." The more time I spent at the street races, the more I started to appreciate racing. It made me want to work hard and bust my ass all summer just to be able to afford a car I could build-up and race with the rest of the guys.
Fast forward a few years, my dad helped me buy an Integra, and from there I modified it with the basic bolt-ons, to the point where it was fast for the time. And I remember one day, driving to school, some guy pulled up to me at a light in this P.O.S., revved, and looked over at me like I was stupid. So I thought, "Alright, I can take this thing..." But when the green light dropped, he smoked me so bad, it wasn't even funny! Later, I learned it was an RX-3, and decided to get one of my own, and it just escalated from there. I ended up going past the point of no return with the car, supercharging it, and street racing it so much that it came to a point where no one would race me, so I ended up going to the race track, up in Palmdale.
2NR: When was that?
Frank: Around '87 or '88.
2NR: So, when all our readers were born [laughs]?
Frank: [laughs] Right, so the first time we all went to the track, we couldn't race because the events were "domestic only". We ended up going back a few more times, but were never allowed to run. We were so pissed at the track managers for being so anti-import, that we complained to one of them, and - because I think he felt bad for us - he offered to let us rent the track for a fee. "As long as you pay, you can have a picnic, play 'race' with all your little friends or do whatever it is you do," he told us. So, to spite him, in July of '90 I arranged to rent the track and have an import-only event.
2NR: How did it go?
Frank: The first event was only promoted at the street races. I printed a ream of flyers, handed them out at the big spots, and the first event had probably a couple hundred people, and maybe 60-70 cars. All the street racers got to see their legit times, race without worrying about cops, and just have a good time. But mainly, we had our personal satisfaction of turning away the V8s that night.
2NR: When did the vendors get on board?
Frank: A lot of the big guys who are still in the industry today were there almost from the beginning. AEM was there, thanks to John Concialdi, Scott Kanemura from TRD, Oscar Jackson, and the HKS guys.
By Carter Jung
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