I remember attending a few American university seminars towards the backend of my time in high school.
One of the more telling things I learnt, prior to an appropriate understanding of American intricacies by being a tourist or building relationships with any Yanks, was that being proud of your achievements and the capacity to forthcoming with success is an instrumental tool that needed to be leveraged to be noticed in the States.
“You Aussies are just too humble”, the university agent proclaimed, but if she had developed a deeper understanding of the Australian way, she would realise that the humility she sees down under is really born out of cultural distaste for aspiration.
With globalisation and the overextending influence of American pop culture for today’s youth, it isn’t as prevalent as it once was, but Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) is still a very real phenomenon, an inhibitor embedded in the way of the Aussie.
It manifests itself in the most obvious ways in automotive but for me a behaviour that is the most poignant and illogical is the hard division between Tuner culture and premium European builds.
It’s supply and demand, it’s luxury car tax, but realistically it’s really marketing. Cross-shopping performance vehicles over the past fifteen years provided, prior to the proliferation of direct-injection turbo engines was a difficult ask.
Buying new often meant that Japanese came in cheap and accessible. The irony being accessibility meaning that competing with OEM prestige performance was often just a couple tweaks away.
We all know how the European marques push their product. It’s aspirational, the car you name drop on the latest hip hop track, the chariot that you want to pull up to exude your confidence and success. Rinse and repeat, the same tactics adapted by markets across the globe.
My Chinese family loves a nice European motor, as do my friends of Arabic descent. Japanese, Korean and domestic product but a stepping stone, why buy top of the range Kia when it gets you into base model Mercedes?
So if it’s all the same around the world, where’s the TPS? To me it gets a little disconcerting when we begin to discuss cars at the bottom of the depreciation curve, ripe for modification, in the same vein as our decision making process for new cars.
Take Renel. Long time Honda boy, JDM enthusiast and a lover of tinkering and build culture. He’s built multiple vehicles for various purposes, mainly track use and parking real hard at your local shopping complex.
Last year he decided to take the plunge and enter BMW M ownership with this mint E90 M3. Naturally aspirated, ITBs and a V8 screamer in a package comparable at the time to a used Evo X purchase.
Cue the same soundbites that so many Australian tuner enthusiasts endure upon revealing his new, European ride to his mates and community.
“Wow, so rich bro. Such a baller.”
“Why would you get that when an Evo gives you more performance and bang for your buck?”
“You’ve changed man.” (Just kidding… but definitely believable having heard similar myself!)
If that was a poor start for Renel, he and I both agreed on the type of feedback we received when we began to tinker.
“Why would you put Japanese wheels on a BMW? Cheapens it.”
“Don’t modify, European performance is best OEM.”
“Avoid doing silly things with it, don’t want to impact resale value!”
Both he and I looked at our American counterparts as part of our inspiration to make our foray into the world of BMW M. So many entry-level enthusiasts, particularly the SoCal demographic start their modification journeys with Hondas, and move onto the likes of BMW and Porsche.
Crazy to believe I know, but did you know that tuner enthusiasts modify all their cars the same way? All cars are a platform that can be worked on.
It’s a healthy environment where industry names like Matt Rojana and Duane Bada are comfortable pushing both to their audiences. It’s not mutually exclusive, as least not as much so as it seems in Australia.
Check the socials, a JDM-themed event sees a variety of machinery pay visit. A Civic parked next to a 997 GT3 on TE37s, JDM-style M cars held in the same regard as Godzilla, Evos and their Japanese contemporaries.
Going brand-specific, Porsche shows aren’t just a parade of the latest creations in stock form, but rather an abundance of the air-cooled variety, all restored, customised with unique taste that derives from street and skate culture.
Prices play a role for sure, but in America you can pick up S2000s for similar prices to that of an E46 M3, a situation that was not too dissimilar in Australia this time last year. Ignore the lower numbers delivered to Australia and the luxury car tax, there are comparable examples aplenty, particularly in 2000s-era performance.
Comparing our scene domestically, we silo ourselves much more exclusively. Break it down whichever way you want.
The “wealthy” play with “premium” machinery, while the budget-conscious crowd stick with Japanese. You’re likely to see the youth dominate JDM, but attending to a European gathering requires a particular vintage of human. One side is obsessed with customisation, the other respects only the originality and engineering of its creators.
Ultimately Australia’s relationship with TPS is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is difficult to change unless we see more creatives with wealth domestically.
This predicament is born out of culture but also a lack of. Our position as the underdogs of the globe, a happy-go-lucky lifestyle and the importance of not trying too hard, not moving too quickly. But also our isolation physically, unable to be first-hand contributors to major things as they develop.
Globalisation and a connected community has helped, but in many ways it has also fostered so much misinterpretation, because knowing is not the same as understanding (read: our obsession with basketball shoes, I just don’t get it).
What we see in the automotive field, first hand for Renel and I, is a reflection of this. Let’s move together, build the same things and discuss similar topics. Don’t stray into territory that you don’t belong, it’ll be there when you’re further along in your life, just curb your ambition.
Even if it’s accessible and ready to do right now.
How can we push through this glass ceiling that so many tuner enthusiasts see, a position that is a mirror image of so many bubbles that Australians find themselves in?
Like most things that provide fulfilment, it’s ultimately about doing things that give personal gratification, rather than for the beliefs and opinions of others. I remember a saying I read as a teenager, “nobody actually gives a shit about you”.
Harsh, but true. A philosophy and way of thinking that removes much of the judgement and decision making that plagues the true intentions of why we do things!
It’s a shame then, that the connected, look-at-me world that we live in is encouraging behaviour that is driven by the approval of others.