Photos from an old Finnish tuning book meant to shine light on the hobby (Circa ~2010)

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Cyckmeister@reddit

im not even joking that Volvo S40 is sitting next to my parking spot, i can send a pic for proof

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Cyckmeister@reddit

you can see it in this pic on the right, only thing that seems to have changed is the interior got swapped to a stock black leather interior.

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nodnodwinkwink@reddit

The book might be from 2010 but the style of those body kits and interior looks like late 90s/ early 2000s

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FlyingVentana@reddit

yeah, i was going to say this does NOT look like 2010 era tuning, i mean widebody slammed style (tra kyoto/liberty walk) was starting to get popular around these years

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lasskinn@reddit

Slammed widebody could only sort of be feasible only for helsinki boys and street inspecting one gets bothersome if its all in.

The base cars themselves for most people have had to lose a lot of value before messing them, so like 2000 era tuning was a lot of late 80s cars. Lot of kadett-e's had bodykits put on them and engine transplanted from some gti version bought cheap in germany(not that anything was wrong with the parts donor car, purely am import tax dodging thing)

Also by the time you have money in finland to do the build(plus the car) you want 10 years passed! Or 20!

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djscoots10@reddit

Neat

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AnthrallicA@reddit

Damn! The Fins went hard on the sex spec cars, giving the Aussies a proper run for their money lol.

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TKzocker2@reddit

Need that bodykit for my E11

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HalRykerds@reddit

Worse things to want to turn your car into... I guess...

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Dsigamerman@reddit

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Red_Dawn_2012@reddit

Blobfish

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ckbd19@reddit

this is definitely what I saw too

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JCDU@reddit

If anyone wants more I believe the UK version - Max Power magazine - has been archived on the internet archive.

It was something of a youth culture icon in the 90's / 2000's and was caught up in the "lad" culture of the time too, for better or worse - I'll wager some of it has aged badly I'll say that.

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shibby1000@reddit

2010 = old Me = 💀💀💀

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jamescb819@reddit

Some of those cars look like they have unresolved anger issues. I like it.

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thatvintagething@reddit

This post should come with a trigger / distress warning. Those are nasty

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Darksuit117@reddit

I kinda feel like this is one of those books to be burned in farenheit 451.

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Busy_Cry1631@reddit

I wanna say blobfish, but also kind of tapir.

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adotang@reddit

So what do you think happened to these cars now? Owners decided they were ugly over time and scrapped them? Or do you think these are still in some garages in Finland? Maybe even still on the road?

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aitigie@reddit

Repeatedly sold to other car nerds until crashed or rusted to nothingness

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Din_Plug@reddit

Probably similar stories to that Pimp My Ride Minivan that was on YT a while back but with less happy endings most of the time. I know there's a tuner Mitsubishi Eclipse running around where I am. So maybe some are still running about.

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Wooden-Combination53@reddit

I remeber this time. It was wild and odd, never understood how these guys had the money to do it and why they didn’t use it to buy better cars!

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aitigie@reddit

That's the point! Taking something ordinary and elevating it according to your own taste.

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tjdux@reddit

the money to do it and why they didn’t use it to buy better cars!

Different passions. Buying a nice car doesn't scratch the "build your own custom stuff" itch.

Also, no stock car ever will match most of these stero systems lol. Yeah you can get thise sound levels with less flash setups, but see my point above.

Also, these systems were more for SPL or just being stupid loud vs high sound quality.

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Wooden-Combination53@reddit

I see that audio side of things as separate thing, sure often connected. But good audio was also build to normal looking cars

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Dakermis@reddit (OP)

I remember thinking the same. Most of the guys/gals in this book either own some kind of a car shop or work as an painter, so that obviously brings some of the costs down, but it's still an absurd investment of resources into what are basically normal commuter cars.
But even the higher-end cars were not safe, here's a V12 BMW 850 CiA for example:

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E28forever@reddit

It is still recognisable as an E31.

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Dakermis@reddit (OP)

And of course, this thing also had a full sound system in the trunk, made entirely out of fibreglass:

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bobspuds@reddit

My first banger

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bobspuds@reddit

I really really enjoyed going to work back then! - I was the apprentice of a local bodyshop that specialised in costom bodywork and paint jobs. We were a registered supplier of 15 different bodykit manufacturers, and we made a fortune for our time!

I'd say here, the majority of the cars kitted and fitted only cost maybe 10k. We could supply and fit kits and do a full repaint for 3k. Go wild with flip paint and flushed bodywork you'd maybe be up to 6k in bodywork. But most didn't go wild.

If you wanted to sink 50k into a car you could - but often that would be on a demonstrator car, which is about advertising yourself so - you could see benefits from the investment. But more often the value was largely overhyped - equipment like speakers and amps were got at cost price not consumer prices. Same with wheels and suspension - " it'll be in X magazine, I'll put you're sticker on it to advertise for you" like a sponsor deal

My own first car was a bit cheeky but - it was a 1.1litre on the log-book and my first year's insurance cost me €3,453.83 - on an apprentice wage!. Most people couldn't afford a "decent" car until they got a few years no-claims bonus, we were kinda stuck with the kinda/actually shit cars - so we made them something we could take pride in

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Ooh_bees@reddit

Been there at the time. Expensive cars were often kind of frowned upon in the early days, if you had something nice, it apparently was all about money. And most didn't have the money, just for the car and fiberglass and loads of time.

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hellochase@reddit

love the all-glass hatch on the Mini

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Bamres@reddit

Actually could be cool with the right build, reminds me of the bolvo p1800 shooting brake

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divbyzero_@reddit

Volvo 1800 / C30 vibes

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testing123-testing12@reddit

The reactor style audio system in the runk is something else

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=206720802861265

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Craigglesofdoom@reddit

The black metal mini Cooper goes hard

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ifunnywasaninsidejob@reddit

When I was a kid I used to think people got the money for these cosmetic mods by winning races for cash. Like the cosmetics were a trophy for winning races. I also played alot of racing video games

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Zero_Waist@reddit

15 slaps!

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toddsmash@reddit

Sex spec!

What a time to be alive!

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tysk-one@reddit

The Saab 90 it awesome!

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Ooh_bees@reddit

Those are funky, and that is really quite cool.

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Fake-Podcast-Ad@reddit

Tastefully restrained back from blobfish mode. I'd mess with that any day, maybe in the original Saab-Military Surplus 'Moss' Green.

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Tommix11@reddit

It's a Saab 96. The 90 was a derivative of the 900 (source I once drove one).

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Curt28781@reddit

Scissor lift on a hatch sounds nice in certain situations.

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Killmekillyou0@reddit

Apart from the wrap, i actually like the mini, and that sound system looks insane

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Elvis1404@reddit

I think the Punto is the 55hp base-spec💀, you can see the clock in the place of the rev counter

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Threewisemonkey@reddit

It’s like George Barris watched fast and the furious then opened up a shop in Scandinavia. The front end on that first one looks like the mouth on a lead sled.

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squishee666@reddit

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E28forever@reddit

Overdone, gaudy, mismatched colours, mismatched shapes.

This era was horrible.

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heilhortler420@reddit

What in the max power am I looking at

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EternoJudio@reddit

Max Power Magazine Vibes.

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Muted_Reflection_449@reddit

The evil that wodka can do..... 😬

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Heat_Induces_Royalty@reddit

Was H.C. Giger related to H.R.? Like a little brother who took credit for his work?

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Arschgeige42@reddit

Finns are different

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obiwanmoloney@reddit

Love this.

HUGE 90’s nostalgia

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bananiella@reddit

Old? 2010 was like three years ago.

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obiwanmoloney@reddit

2000 - 2025:

Same shit, different day.

50’s 60’s 70’s 80’s 90’s

All wildly different.

2010 feels like yesterday because we’ve had 25 years of ground hog day.

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SP4x@reddit

That hit me hard too. It did remind me to take my medication though.

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SP4x@reddit

The modified car scene does not get enough credit for being an artistic outlet for a group of people who are given little, if any, credit for their creativity and craftsmanship.

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pancrudo@reddit

I'm going to have to remember the full Plexi hatch for my wagon

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midri@reddit

No one posted a picture of the fish? Really?... Disappointed...

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lasskinn@reddit

Dude couldn't we just agree that mobilisti or v8 mags are old and anything after that finnish gti mag is still not old

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cumetoaster@reddit

Only that Saab 96 is done tastefully lol

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aliennick4812@reddit

I hope at least one of these is still putting around Finland to this day.

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signmeupnot@reddit

All these cars have been mercilessly violated.

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BJoe1976@reddit

That Corolla Hatch has sone “interesting” choices on the hood and bumper designs. TBH, don’t mind the rest of the body and the gas filler behind the taillight is pretty clever, though!

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Humble-Extreme597@reddit

Blob fish lookin car

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RockOlaRaider@reddit

OLD???

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ZZZ-Top@reddit

Back when you really had to work on your build instead of building followers.

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gavdore@reddit

Tried watching videos from SEMA the other day and didn’t see a car that got me an interested as any of these

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lumia920yellow@reddit

all of these are awesome

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No-Airport1892@reddit

I'd like to see more of that blob fish corolla's rear hatch. Also I love the rear glass on the Mini.

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Dakermis@reddit (OP)

Here's a pick of the rear. If you're wondering why the left rearlight is floating like that, it's because the owner wanted to make both sides of the car symmetrical, which meant eliminating the fuel door. But because you still need a way to fuel the car, he had to get creative, which he certainly did: He moved the fuel port behind the rear light, and then motorized the rear light so you could have access to said port.

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