I got this email today from Turbonetics. If you have a sec… read it and honestly let me know what you think: do you think stuff like this is cool and in touch with the scene, or do you think it should be punished?
Dear Jonathan Wooley,
Congratulations to Slade McClure from Utah who has won this months inaugural Turbonetics Facebook Fan prize drawing. It is fitting that a guy with a new R35 Skyline as his profile pic should win the first drawing of the year. We swear it was random. Slade says it is his dream car, us too man, us too. We went really big to kick off the first award of the year and Slade has won an awesome Spearco 5-374 Intercooler. Good for 500 HP it measures 3.50″x7.90″x20.00″. Slade can put it on a car, use it as a coffee filter, set it on the family mantle to show off or do whatever he wants with it.
So here is my call to all of you, we haven’t told you how we are going to pick next months winners have we? Post pictures of your rides, drop us some good turbo videos, or write some notes on the Turbonetics Wall. All we want is some great community interaction and you too could win some great prizes like Turbonetics T-Shirts, Jackets, or ahhemm, wastegates, by-pass valves or even maybe a turbo for a special occasion later this year. You never know what you could win now that I am a Facebook junkie!
If you are not a fan yet click on the link below to become eligible to win great prizes. To find out about the Turbonetics Facebook Fan Page and the prize drawing you can read more at our Turbo Blog.
i don’t see a problem with it. they’re being smart. they know a mass quantity of young males are on facebook now and it’s a perfect marketing opportunity for them to help reach new consumers. i won’t be suprised if more companies start doing the same with facebook and/or myspace. wooley you’re just old and can’t use a computer properly. just give up already and buy a beige Mercury Grand Marquis.
Buying things is so passe. Waiting for magazines, tv shows or anything else that doesn’t give us instant gratifcation is going out the door very quickly. Advertisers want to people to see their ads, so publishers have to be able to reach an audience that is changing right before our eyes. Also, remember back to when you first were into cars, I bet it was 16-17. At that age, the kids are all into Facebook and its evil twin Myspace, so it only makes sense to reach out to them when they are first forming opinions about car tuning and parts. The only regret I have is that I do not have a turbo of my own.
Personally I think it is driving force towards a gloomy future. While it is cost effective to advertise via gay…I mean cool new online communities I don’t think that a company such as turbonetics is hitting the customer that will actually buy their product. While young Slade McClure probably dropped a nugget in his huggies when he won it was short lived when he realized that even if he had his dream car the prize isnt compatible( p.s. If he is not boosted what is he gonna do with a FMIC). Now lets look at a guy in his mid 20’s that possibly can afford a turbo kit for his ride, He isn’t on facebook or myspace hes in the garage working on his car. The problem is the kids on myspace want rims and cool shit so they look like 50 cent and thats not what this culture is about. Its about people who live breathe bleed their cars and their crew who they are associated with. So I say f*uck(that ones for you Wooley) facebook and myspace advertising thats taking money away from the industry and publications that support the industry. I mean hey lets be honest no one at the office is getting rich from the mag but I can vouch for every motherfu*ker( that ones for you too) in there is coming to work with a smile on their face because we love what we are doing. So for turbonetics to try to sneak a way to promote their free advertising through the pages of S3 I take that shit personally. End Rant If I offended you good.
Well – I know I probably have a skewed view on everything since I work for a mag….. I’ll say that upfront. But from my point of view:
A lot of tuner companies are turning to this online/spam email shit because it’s a form of free advertising. Magazine advertising, for example, is not free, because mags have huge printing bills to deal with. So some of you guys might say “survival of the fittest internet is the future”, but it’s not about fit…. it’s about love for your industry. See – when a tuner company advertises in a tuner mag, they are not only building their brand image with readers and getting impressions and sales……. but they are also Supporting The Scene. (Not to mention real ads in real mags have credibitily… Facebook doesn’t) That’s because people READ the magazines. They TRUST mags. They gaze at the pics. They get inspired to buy a car, or build a car, or paint their car, or boost their car, etc, etc. They show their friends. It creates love for the scene. If you see an ad or a pic with some cool looking tatted up dude next to a f**king dumped nasty Civic or Nissan… you don’t necessarily think “I want those seats”. You think, “I want THAT!!” You want the whole big picture, you want to be part of the lifestyle, you want to be the one that people sweat over when you’re on the street. For lack of a better words – you “buy into it”. Ok – maybe YOU don’t… but there are a lot of newcomers that do… or WOULD…. if it was still happening like that. Instead they are buying iPhones and fixed gear bikes. And we all bought into it with open arms back in the late 90s and early 2000s… and that’s when the scene was thriving.
But that’s not happening, because these tuner companies are just f**king spamming people… trying to get a quick easy big sale with no investment. They’re taking from the scene, and they’re not supporting the scene. Science would call that a parasite. Where are these guys at events as vendors (in general, not turbonetics specifically)? Where are they in mags as advertisers? Nowhere. But they’re everywhere online and in your email box trying to spam the shit out of you cause its free. It’s a chicken-shit, shallow way to do things, and their Grandfathers would not approve.
Now I have no problem with emails or myspace bulletins if they’re telling me something of value…. that’s all gravy and it’s welcomed. But the “inaugural Turbonetics Faceboook Fan Prize Drawing”??? GTF outta here with that.
God Damn I love what I have gotten myself into. STILL HOOD BITCHES!!!
This day and age, everyone is accessible through the internet. While the majority of their contacts on fagspace, facesplooge, etc are not the people building the scene up locally, the people working on their cars, the people buying products… SOME of those people are, although a very small percentage. I think its good for a company to try and reach out to their customers, etc…
Then again, you’ve got to do it in a way that doesn’t turn off the people that actually matter. Some glitzy, retarded marketing scheme to give prizes away to any damned kid on facesplooge with an R35 as his profile image wouldn’t appeal to me. I think they should specifically target the guys who are out there building these cars and buying products – wouldn’t it be nice if they gave that intercooler to someone who could use it??
One has to look at it from Turbonectis point of you. Not a single company (except for McDonalds) is doing well right now. They’re trying to achieve maximum impact for a little amount of money. This is the way they can. They can reach their core audience via FaceSpace and do it cheaply. Turbonectis is doing what they feel is best for them to do in this current economic environment.
Yea, I compeltely agree with Yousef. Plus he is drop dead sessi in every manner possible.
^see? i got a girl to agree with me! Ha!
I agree, but sometimes catering to the masses is an easy way to alienate the target market. There is nothing wrong with getting exposure, nothing wrong with using an online community to keep yourself visible to the public. There is a good way and a bad way to approach it though.
Hopes and dreams of some punk kid with an R35 avatar don’t keep companies afloat, even if you give him a free intercooler he can take to show and tell. The kids sitting at the computer, photoshopping wheels and a drop onto their mom’s Maxima and claiming it as theirs, the ones whoring up the forums, and spamming Myspace bulletins about how they just bought a Supra in a Myspace game, etc…. those are the ones who are going to be jumping on contests like this… Not the car guy who has money in hand ready to make a purchase on a quality part. Not the guys that go out and make the scene happen.
where i agree on some points of your argument, the problem we are running into the companies are not looking at it from that angle. they are trying to go for maximum exposure and hopefully one or two of these kids will jump on their products. it’s all about numbers. they’re looking at it from a sheer demographics point of view. like ”hey we can hit 400,000 males from the ages of 15-35 with very little overhead”. they’re not looking at it this way ”hey we can hit 400,000 males from the ages of 15-35, but most of them don’t care about our products and just want some 22s on their kia rio”.
Ok… here is my take on this.
I understand where they are going with this. They are doing things the most cost effective way possible. I mean, Facebook is free. What’s better than that? How about a little word called “reputation.” Though I’ve never heard of S3 until just of late, I know that the best audiences for car schwag and parts is the magazine and print industry. I’d have to say that, while Turbonetics is (or WAS) a reputable company, this makes me never want to even browse their selection again.
We as human beings (both single and in corporate world) need to start making decisions, stop lying and sneaking behind folks backs, and take some pride in ourselves and man up. If you’ve got a problem with a company, don’t try to hide and sneak around. Say it to their faces.
However, I can definitely see how Turbonetics is really aiming to catch that 15 year old crowd with this Facebook crap. Because let’s face it, sites like Facebook, Myspace, etc. are filled to the rims with teens pretending their 21. Is that really the crowd you’re after? Good luck with that buddy, let me know how it works out for ya.
Suffice it to say, I support the print industry (as I have a few car mag subscriptions in my household) and now that I know what S3 is, be on the lookout to see it added to my collection at home. Keep up the good work guys. Perhaps if I can get my 87 Colt Vista in primo condish, I can grace the pages of S3. Time will only tell.
The scene will never be what it once was. I was lucky enough to be right in the middle of it. 12 years ago I was 18, lived in Florida and had an ok job that allowed me to get my first taste of the scene. I grew up all around it, and did great things such as the Super Street Tour, HIN, Nopi and all the others at their peak. The sad thing is most of us grew up, bought family cars (or at least somthing with sound insulation and a quiter exhaust). All these kids today were raised on F&F, everyone calling everyone rice and now the econmy that is taking a large dump. What hope do they have? Oh well, at least I have my memories.
It may not be the same, but it will never die, it just changes. I’m sure people thought the same thing after the sixties and early seventies, when gas prices went up and cars got boring again. I’ve got hope that things will continue to be fun and interesting in the scene. I just know that it isn’t going to be handed to us with the economy doing the way it is – what we all look forward to in the next few years will primarily consist of enthusiast driven events, I’m guessing. Maybe it will take us back to our roots.
wooley didn’t grow up. he became old and bitter.
and ghey.
It will never be the same. It will never die. It IS on life support and the only way to save it is to shut out people who are trying to make money and thats all. We need to find the people doing it for passion and support them. Then the other money makers will move one to other things. I understand it is cost effective to advertise on free sites but it will be to the demise of books that refuse to sell out and give you a straight story with no purchased ideas or reviews. I mean if you really wanna read a book where Mr. A gives Mr. B a dollar and Mr. B writes how great it is even if it sucks then continue to support a company that completely steals from the industry that provides you with a identity. Just because it makes dollars doesn’t mean it makes sense.
Some of us weren’t so fortunate to be born into the prime years of “The Good Ole Days.” I was once the type who saw custom work (and even if it was done correctly and cleanly) I would call it rice. I have since changed my ways and now enjoy hearing stories of how cars came to be.
I don’t believe the scene is dead. It will never be as good as it was (unfortunately for the folks like me who weren’t in the thick of it) but I don’t think all is lost. Like I said before, some of us will continue to fight the good fight and support those who have some say.
I agree. If people would support companies who are striving to bring innovation and something fresh to the scene, we’d be great. Unfortunately, people would rather throw their dollars at knockoff parts and support companies who have absolutely zero innovation whatsoever. What you’re doing when you buy cheap knockoffs is keeping the scene stagnant. A company that deals with only replicating whats in style will never bring anything new to the scene.
When you’re putting a set of Rotas on your Honda, not only does your car look like everyone elses, but you’re supporting a company that is doing its best to keep pumping the same parts into the system and will never, ever come out with something fresh and new. When you’re buying knockoff exhaust systems on Ebay, your money isn’t going to the company that did the R&D to produce that system, and eventually that company may go out of business… when a new car comes out, and you can’t find parts for it, thats exactly why. Because the money goes to the knockoff companies who aren’t going to ever produce a new product… just knockoff whats already there.
Unfortunately, I think people are afraid of trying to do their own thing sometimes. They don’t want to get mocked for not fitting into a cookie cutter scene that encourages every car to fit a certain criteria of parts – otherwise, its rice.
A-MEN!
While I have been guilty of criticizing wheels snobs in the past, J. Evins brings a very good point. Good show sir very good indeed.
Just to clarify, I’m not one of those wheel whores who says everything has to be some super ultra rare JDM wheel to look good on a car. I just don’t agree with supporting a company that knocks off those wheels. Regardless of if you dig a set of 15″ Work Equips or an 18″ set of American Racings… you’re supporting a company that is out there trying to make a name for themselves and coming out with new styles every year.
Its not about decking your car out with “JDM Tyte” parts either… but if you want that look… why not support the companies that pioneered it? Or shit, kit yourself up with the newest bodykit on the market, as long as you are supporting people that work to bring something new to the table.
For the record I was giving you a internet high five!
Yeah I know man! I just was clarifying.
Damn we got kinda off topic though in a way… because this shit has nothing to do with Facebook LOL!
I loathe JDM. I only put american made products on my euro car. Then again, I doubt Steve Dinan will go out of business anytime soon. Those $500 intakes will keep him going for some time.
Its not really the JDM parts that bother me, its how far we take it as a style, how far it has evolved into something more than just “cool parts from Japan”. These days, you might see a car posted on the internet, with the thread title “JDM CIVIC”. The car has a B16 from a USDM Civic SI, Rotas, some knockoff brand carbon fiber hood and lip, ebay coilovers, and some tow hooks made here in the USA.
I do like alot of the style that came out of Japan, though. Old school Japanese wheels are the best! If I like a Japanese part, I’ll put it on my car, but not because its Japanese, but because I like it. I’m not going to go out of my way to nuthug a product though because of where its made.
This also begs the question that do Japanese folks bother with worrying if they have all the USDM parts they can handle? Or do they sit there, stare at us laughing their heads off because we try to carbon copy everything they do? (Sorry that this has gotten off-topic but hell, it’s the internet… it’s serious business) The problem (to kind of round everything back together here) is that people are too worried about actually being original, so much so that they go out and be original… just like everyone else.
Another issue with car customization these days is that like myself, I like certain looks. I’ve never really been one to follow trends all that well because, I’m a broke ass motherf***er most times. However, I like Rota Grids. I’ll admit that. They looked damn good on my buddies Mazdaspeed Protege (though it burned to the ground in a shop fire two months ago). His car, was a true work of art too. He had holes drilled out of the front bumper. Not for looks or because everyone was doing it, he wanted better airflow to his front mount. He bought a beautiful 3″ turboback exhaust, and proceded to chop it up to his liking. (Getting back to the original thought for this paragraph) Thought Rota’s are popular, there are people out there who genuinely like the look of a specific wheel not because it’s “cool” but because they like the look.
I don’t know what’s to happen to the custom car world but what I do know is this, I’ll always be a huge fan of driving a vehicle that I love no matter what it looks like. If I (and I stress that “I”) like it, and I do stuff to it that you think makes it rice, tell it to my face and then I’ll tell you to take your Cookie Cutter home with that hate, because it ain’t welcome here.
311 said it best, “Come original.”
Thats true, and to touch back to the Rota deal… I don’t mind the styling, just that everything they sell is a knockoff of something else. Its just a moral dilemma to me to put money into the hands of the companies that aren’t going to be putting new stuff out there, that spend their time replicating someone else’s product.
Not that I don’t like them, and not that I think the real thing is better because its JDM.
Oh, and believe it or not, I saw some photos recently from Japan, and some of the guys over there actually convert their cars to US standards! LOL! Its a big circle of retardness.
Sorry, I have a personal vedetta against Rotas. =) I laugh at all the people that call my gf’s car rice. 2000 Eclipse, body kit, wheels, stereo etc… So what if it is? At least she has been supporting the scene and having fun. Plus, she is a girl that is into cars, how rare is that?
I think Michael said it best “so what if its rice”. So what if its ANYTHING!!! I’m a VW guy personally, that being said I respect style regardless where it comes from. Take a look at Nash’s GTI from last issue if you havent seen it yet. A pink roof is not something that just looks good. But with all the little details( i.e. Gas door, rear view mirror). Some love it some hate it either way its not like yours…..its not like anyones. We have to get back to making shit your own. I mean a dude rollin on 20s in a Lexus 4 years ago was not so cool now its V.I.P. Its getting to where these cars in magazines are un attainable I mean lets be honest are you ever gonna have a 1200hp Supra? Probably not! But does that make you any less part of the scene? Hell no you are the heart and soul. Its not all about race cars its more about streetcars. You can spend 3500 on a set of rims and loose your car in the parking lot. Or you could spend 3500 and a little time thinking and make a rolling work of art. And its YOUR work of art. I know the creative force behind S3 is not about money or advertising dollars its about supporting a scene. S3 is a direct representation of what the scene is doing not a guide from manufacturers on how you should do it.
SOURCE INTERLINK 4 LYFE!
“SOURCE INTERLINK 4 LYFE!”
ROFL!
I agree with the Scrotom Robot. I dig the VW in that issue. Granted, I don’t think I would ever do that to MY car, but I definitely dig the originality of it, as well as attention to the little details. He’s definitely made that VDub his own.
I was unaware that Rotas were actually a knockoff brand. I guess that lies in part of where the problem is. Some of us who are late getting into the scene, this is all we know. Because it’s out there now, we think it’s just what is. I am completely in support of the OG thinkers of the car movement. I mean, if it wasn’t for people who think out of the box (the company I work for is a perfect example: professional audio) then all we’d see is the same car with a different badge.
Also, take for example a guy I know who welded gears all over his Civic. It looks like crap to most people, but f*** it, it’s his car, he likes it. You definitely know it’s him when you see it.
Doesn’t Source Interlink make Gay Pride Monthly?
^^^^no, but they do make Soap Opera Digest. That’s almost as ghey, and it’s not a joke either
Ahahahahahahahaha
I heart soap opera digest!!!!!
i heart KITT!
gawd i miss the original series….the new one is not horrible…but they to reboot the franchise with a motion picture. they need to make it dark and morbid like ”The Dark Knight”…
that would be epic
The new Knight Rider = Ultimate Fail!
I mean a Mustang? Seriously?
However, that is completely off topic. David Hasselhoff, get the hell off S3’s blog right this minute.
But ILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL BEEEE THEEEEEEEEEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! You love to think of me in nuthugger red shorts and that orange floaty thing
Go eat yourself a cheeseburger and cuss out your daughter some more. That was entertaining. While you’re at it, do a coke line… it’ll make you cooler.
NO! don’t listen to them! go to NBC and beat up Gary Scott Thomas for ruining Knight Rider.