S3 Magazine // Issue 34

EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL/DESIGN
Editor
Art Director
Assistant Editors
Web Editor
Graphic Design
Contributors
ADVERTISING /SALES
Director of Advertising
Jonathan Wooley
jwooley@s3mag.com
Guy Haynie
ghaynie@s3mag.com
Yousef Alvi
yalvi@s3mag.com
Ross Huber
ross@s3mag.com
Joe Coville
jcoville@s3mag.com
Alexander Grant
Brady Lankford
Brandon Bachtel
Chris Sullivan
Courtney Cutchen
Gene Tjin
Greg Szoda
James Mitchell
Jeremy Gomez
Joe Gustafson
Jory Calle
jtranphotos
Kevve.be
Luke Munell
Paul McPherson
Ravi Angard
Tania Santos
Thomas Ho
Mike Sanders
msanders@s3mag.com
S3 MAGAZINE
P.O. Box 1536 • Loganville, GA 30052
s3mag.com
SUBSCRIPTIONS & BACK ISSUES
www.s3magstore.com
SUBSCRIPTIONS ADDRESS CHANGE
store@s3mag.com
S3 Magazine (ISSN 1543-1428 is a quarterly published, independent
magazine. Our contact address is PO Box 1536, Loganville GA
30052. US subscriptions are $20 for 12 issues. Single copies
are available on our website (s3mag.com) for $4.95. Unsolicited
photos and manuscripts become the property of S3 Magazine
LLC. Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction in
whole or in part without prior written permission is prohibited.
Mark Meyers passed away recently. He was one of
the brothers who ran the show over at NOPI. And I’m
sitting here with kind of an empty regretful remorse
that’s tough to swallow… because I feel like I didn’t
appreciate him enough while he was here. He was
overweight, he was sweaty, he was sloppy, and he
always seemed a little spaz’d. Actually - a lot like Chris
Farley lol. And now that I think back on it… it’s with
a big smile. I mean c’mon - he was a fun guy with
presence. A true character. The kind of guy to throw
empty shot-bottles at the back of your head on the
flight to Vegas for Sema at 10am… and when you
turned around he’d shove 5 full ones in your hands.
I’ll always remember him with a walkie-talkie, a NOPI
crew shirt, and a golf cart full of bombshell women.
And looking back, he kind of embodied what NOPI was
all about from the start - having fun & getting wild with
cars.
And I feel this sorrow & emptiness, because I feel
like he never quite fit in with what the sport compact
industry ultimately became. Like it got to a point where
NOPI became shunned by the very industry they had
a serious hand in creating. Confusing. Because how
many established tuner companies out there today,
owe a big part of their original US come-up to NOPI
and NOPI Nationals? Most of them. I know S3 does. In
addition, a lot of dudes who got 100% obsessed with
imports in the early years because of an epic NOPI
Nats weekend, ended up turning their backs on NOPI
via forums a few years later. The crazy thing is: they
turned their backs on it for the exact same reasons that
they were originally attracted to it - the insanity, the
girls, the crowds, the larger-than-life styles & attitudes.
It’s kind of like the puppy we got & loved more than
anything when we were a kid… that turned into the
old dog we left when we went off to college.
But the thing is: NOPI literally built the sport compact
culture in the US. It started from running parts for aircooled
VWs… before modern-day imports were ever
even a ‘thing’. I know it’s hard for you younger guys to
realize it, but there was nothing in the sport compact
market, before there was NOPI. It didn’t exist. NOPI took
the sport-compact market from a small underground
movement with little/unaccessible aftermarket support
(besides Prime 3-spoke wheels, tint, and neon)… and
turned it into a MainStage staple of the automotive
aftermarket. We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to
NOPI. Because like a family tree, there’s a seriously
good chance that YOUR involvement in this culture
today, is somehow tied to someone or something that
came out of NOPI.
I remember being at NOPI Nationals in 97, 98, 99,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and thinking… “Is there any
limit to how far this can go?!” It was an exciting time
for the culture.
NOPI’s business mentality was all about ‘going big or
going home’. They did it bigger than big. There was no
ceiling to their vision. They literally had a warehouse
stocked full of parts. You could walk up to the counter,
and walk out with a truck full of boxes like Fast &
Furious.
They sold parts at RETAIL, not bargain basement
pricing. Meaning - they didn’t undercut the
competition… which is the first sign of a weak store,
or a weak salesman. Rather, they upheld the VALUE of
their products. And that, in turn, upheld the VALUE of
the aftermarket industry. On top of that, they further
upheld the value of the industry by running a complete
motorsports division/series with car shows, drag
racing, and later drifting… all of which promoted &
PROVED the legitimacy of these import-aftermarket
parts companies. You can’t argue with history, and
you can’t argue with the fact that the industry was
booming in this time period.
NOPI charged a good amount to get into their events;
and people whined about that once they had forums to
whine on. But you know what - the flipside is that NOPI
had HUGE events set up, with payouts for competitors,
and live shows from guys like Ludacris & TI. You get
what you pay for. Imports overran the town around the
track. People, cars, and lawnchairs lined the streets.
Police helicopters tried to restore order. Super Street
tours came in from all corners of the country. The
show had industry vendors representing from across
the coasts - literally hundreds of them.
In 2003, my dad did marketing for a company that
sponsored NOPI Nationals, and you know how
much they paid to be a sponsor? $30,000. And that
doesn’t count the $10,000 given away in product &
promotional materials.
“OMG what a waste of money; how stupid right?
Especially when you can’t even ‘quantify’ the results
by counting web hits.”