These days if your Young and into cars you are just labelled as a ‘HOON’. It’s not right.
I mean we all share one thing in common, the passion for cars and passion to exceed OEM expectation of the cars performance.
Im only 20 so i can’t talk about my years of experience.. but ever since the ‘Fast and Furious’ movie was released it seem car enthusiast have been labelled as street racers.
Hollywood takes away the passion that we have for cars and just shows guns, cops, burnouts, fights, drugs ETC..
The real world is far from this.

The media blows everything outta proportion. Look at both ACA and Today Tonight going on about the ‘crazy Carlo’ guy drifting on public roads.
The labels us with the bloody title ‘hoon’

Im so sick of meeting clients for work or parking in the staff car park and people looking at my car and you know what they are thinking ‘Bloody Hoon’….
Just because of the look of my car. I bet it happens allot. not just to me but most people on car club forums.

Although, lets change things slightly….. If i was 40years old and owned the same car. i wouldn’t be labelled as a hoon.
Possible Sponsors are not just going to look at how well you can drive, but also your age. I guess they dont want to be established with the word ‘hoon’

Every time i read or see on the news about another young driver killing themselves or their mates in a car crash i just know the following week the media will blow the whole situation up again..
Everyone remembers the R34GTR skyline that spilt in half and killed the driver and passengers….It started the ball rolling for anti turbo and V8 cars for young drivers…
Stop looking at what cars people are driving and focus on Driver education and road safety education for young drivers. It will work a hell of allot more effective than limiting what power engine they can drive..
You can’t expect a newly P plater who just got off their L’s to know everything bout the roads and traffic behaviour. Put them into a car with no supervision and watch them push it to the limits.

Getting back on topic, I guess it’s bloody hard to find companies will to support this ‘sport’. But imagine if we all got the support of businesses and the public… Track days would become more regular, people would be out enjoying themselves on the track instead of being a dickhead on the roads.

Just my 2cents worth.

Do you get to choose the brands represented? I don’t think anyone here wants to see ads for pharmaceuticals and the like, but I personally wouldn’t have any issues with more mainstream acceptable advertising if again, it helps support the site.

Just for money, would we consider having non-JDM related companies throw money at us to advertise all over JDMST?

It’s something I’ve been approached with and have refused (so far) as I don’t want our members to have to see, for example, ANZ bank, McDonalds, Weight Watchers etc. advertisements all over the forum.

The process is no different to selling something. It’s all about features and benefits. Getting them to understand that is tricky, once they do understand it they’ll be commuted to the cause.

Yes, ultimately there are sponsors who care and sponsors who just want their image out there. Both have their upsides, both have their downsides and you can’t have purely outside sponsors, you need industry sponsors to help everything get moving.

Wasn’t trying to say (nor use your car for the effect) that keeping it entirely within the automotive industry is a bad thing. But rather to try and understand why there aren’t more out there.

Cal makes a good point as well, the general perception of the ‘motorhead bogan’ certainly doesn’t help the movement in to the mainstream. But time, continueing good behaviour of race fans and ‘street racers’ off the streets will help change that. One hopes.

There’s sponsors, and then there’s supporters. The latter whilst not providing the same level of financial benefit for the team/driver/owner have much more value because I know they’ll tell so many people about the work they’ve done. That in turn increases the worth of the car when looking for those bank rollers.

As everyone knows, I spent quite a lot of time focussing on the majority of the points in this blog. JDMST has made a massive difference in getting my car out there. Starting from scratch now after completing a build would be a monumental task.

At the end of the day I’m extremely fortunate to have such open kneed sponsors like JDM Concept and Js Racing. I came to them with nothing of material value and they believed in my process and goals. The image you posted is proof that some do believe in what we do. The approach just has to be mapped out clearly. I do have other tricks for getting sponsors on board, perhaps we’ll save that for another night.