hawk and All,
How we, individually, perceive such modifications is our own individual taste, but the roots of the different modification styles -- in slang, this includes such terms as "G'ed up," "Riced," "Slammed," etc., all to describe different categories of modification -- are as much cultural in execution as they are in terms of our appreciatiion of their "beauty."
What you may view as a horrible thing done to a good car is easily seen by those within their sub-culture to a wonderful thing done to a barely adequate starting platform, be it a Honda or Nissan, or a Mercedes or even Ferrari.
It's akin to some of the African tribes lip expansion with disks or our "Western" culture of "tall and Blonde" as the epitome of "beauty."
We each have our different standards, and what's ideal and revered in one may be less so, or even found repugnant, in others.
Please do not let your own personal biases un-do your appreciation for these machines as both rolling art or as performance pieces (in more than one way -- some are meant to tackle straight-line quarter-mile times, others in terms of sound system output, and yet others in how high they can hop or how many body panels can individually spin and "dance").
And hawk, honestly, there is not a predominance of Asians involved in this type of modification or upgrade to their automobiles. The situation you report might be true in your neck of the woods, but nationally and internationally, just as many Hispanics, African-Americans, and even "White-Bread" good'ol-boys have crossed over, some coming from either competitive sport-racing or even traditional hot-rodding. For example, locally here in Cleveland, Ohio, the majority of "Club DSM" (Diamond Star Motors, dedicated to Chrysler-Mitsubishi sporting autos such as the Eclipse/Talon/Laser), back when I was active in the late 90's, showed an *_easy_* predominance of Caucasians.
In Europe, for example, "Hot Hatch" fever has caught on enough that even Mercedes Benz and BMW have started to manufacture smaller cars, dimensionally, than what we see in the US as their smallest models -- and these have often been the basis for modification to make them Autobahn stormers that even the fastest factory Porsches and Audi's quake to see in their rearview mirrors.
It's a worldwide trend currently in automobile upgrades and modifications, and specialty industry shows such as SEMA and even the hobbyist magazines, over the last half-decade or so, have gone from literally grassroots levels to a multi-million dollar business. It's much, much beyond a "fad," and this is even reflected in the dedication of specialty television coverage worldwide, including here in American, of racing events that are linked to these types of automobiles in both sport-touring as well as drag-racing, which have spawned a new breed of professional drivers and technicians.
As for the clear tail lights, they are indeed a combination Japanese/European influence -- popularized more recently (remember, nothing is new under the sun!) by certain Japanese makes in particular, they've become a favorite due to their ability to allow for intricate internal cosmetic and functional details to show through within the lighting unit.
Influences extended by this popular modification and the discovery of its beauty has carried through to almost every car make, including Porsche, BMW, Infinity, Lexus, etc., and is not only seen with tail-light units, but can also be seen in highly decorative yet also highly functional headlight and ancillary (i.e. "driving" and "fog"-light) clusters.
The legalities of these lighting units, especially in terms of the tail-lights, is governed typically here in America by laws which state that the brake light unit as well as rear reflectors must be "red." Certain cosmetic covers which renders the light cluster either completely "white" or "trasparent" in color, using only the actual BULB to emit a red coloration, can thus be in violation of such motor traffic safety laws and be cited. However, units which allow you to see through to visible red and have visible red reflectors, most notably exemplified by say, units found on small sports sedan by Lexus and the RX300 SUV-crossover, are completely legal.
Allen
aka DumboRAT
