K-Tuned Robbed!?

Over the past couple of months I have been attempting to create a prototype for a car part for a business that I want to start.

Ever since I was a little kid I have been into cars and anything mechanical.  I have always been playing with RC cars and model cars and Hot Wheels.  I always took them apart, inspected them, modified them, put them back together, broke them, painted them, showed them off, they were my life for a while.

And when I was 16 I wanted a car more than anything, but it was something I could not afford.  With my family struggling to keep our house and with me and my brother supporting them, it was difficult.  I became a lot stronger, but I never had time to buy a car, let alone the money.  It was a lot of work, but I finally got my first car, an old Lexus that I started fixing up myself.

It was that car that helped inspire this blog.  No, it was nothing special, and neither is my blog-- it's just a Blogger, but it's still my own blog and Lexi was my first car ever.

This brings me to a story that I'd like to share with you.

Recently while on Facebook I saw that K-Tuned had been robbed after their appearance at Honda Day.  Now, I'll be the first to say that the people I met last year at Honda Day representing K-Tuned were some of the nicest, most informative people I have ever met selling parts.  I talked with one of the guys about their shifter setup for a good fifteen minutes, just going over their display k20 engine and shooting the shit in general.

The point of this story is that if someone has a dream or if someone is living their life to the fullest as I imagine these great guys are, don't just take a giant crap on their affairs.  Thieves, take a moment and think before you take something.  It's wrong to take something from someone period, but just because it's a company doesn't make it any better.

To those who want to know more about the story, you can read about it at K-Tuned's Facebook page here.  Give them a "like" and show your support.  Thanks for reading y'all.  Keep the dream alive-- whatever it may be.

The Tuner Community; Now and Forever

Hey all.  As of recently I've been noticing some pretty awesome trends going on in the community.

A shot from Canibeat's Website by Photographer, Sean Bradford.  Canibeat showcases many cars from shows all over the country.  A big part of this boom in the scene is due to their fanaticism about the industry. Source

Roof racks and Hellaflush were the beginnings of a so-called dilution of the industry by some die-hards.  What was once a sport of trying to make your import car faster by modifying its intake, ECU, exhaust, turbo, internals, and more has now become the sport of not only "show," but some would argue it has become more about "go."  And honestly, maybe this is true!

Shot I took at WEKFEST East

But with this recent boom in the scene, we're seeing more attention from the major auto makers.  Perhaps this is what drove Honda to bring back the NSX or perhaps this is what prompted Toyota and Subaru to bring into production a lovely front-engine, rear-wheel sports car by name of the Scion FR-S or Subaru BRZ.

From Lexi.Laron's coverage of the Philly International Auto Show of 2012

I mean let's face it, people are Tweeting more, they're Facebooking more, they're Instagramming more, they're making verbs out of just about every bit of social media out there and it's enabling people who are in touch with the car community to make that transitive link that we have been searching for.  Now the car companies don't have to go, "How do I reeech these keeeeds?"  They can just go do it now (heck, they can do it here)!

Source

But I think one of the best parts is that we are seeing stolen cars and car parts being recovered thanks to sick cars that are shown by Facebook Pages that have a lot of likes.  A page will post a "STOLEN" article and everyone will share it and spread the word!  What better way is there to find something than to have everyone looking for it, right?  Just take for example this recent story about a man in Hawaii who had a rare set of custom wheels stolen and returned to him thanks to the wonders of social media!

Only scumbags destroy people's passion ;)

I mean, this is great.  We're getting more attention from car makers and we're making it harder for people to jack our crap!  Sure, we may be getting more negative attention from the cops while on the roads, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.  I hope that in the future the tuner community moves forward to continue diversifying, whether it be building full race cars with monkeys strapped to them or replacing their motors with horses, watching out for its members and their goods, and making contact with the major car makers.

All in all, I'm Lexi.Laron and I'm signing out.