TWINS TURBO; Marc and Eric Kozeluh got their street creds on the mean streets of New York, then headed west.(News)(Interview)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

There is a popular notion that all this import tuner, front-wheel-drive drag racing, Fast and/or Furious stuff began in Southern California. The Kozeluh twins would beg to differ. Okay, they wouldn't beg. They're from New York, from Flushing, Queens, to be exact, and people from Flushing, Queens, tend not to beat around the bush about what's on their minds. They sure as hell don't beg. Maybe they make you beg, but they don't beg themselves.

It was this not-beating-around-the-bush that had us concerned as we went out to interview them. We'd heard they were direct to the point of just about smacking you upside the head. If they don't like you, it was said, they'll let you know. You won't need an encounter session with a California new-age healer to find out what was on their minds. "People out in California don't take insults too well,'' is how one article about them started.

So what was the first thing a Kozeluh said when we walked into their shop just off the Long Beach freeway in Signal Hill, California?

"Hello, sir.''

Hello, sir? That was Marc Kozeluh. We'd actually studied photos of them before we got there to avoid any embarrassing misidentifications, misidentifications that could end up with a smack or two. Marc is the one with the tattoos on his right arm, Eric is tattooless. Mark spends more time cranking the wrenches, Eric does more of the business side. Mark has a small mole at the left corner of his mouth, Eric is moleless. You will need to know these differences when you meet Marc and Eric Kozeluh, because they are identical twins.

Four minutes separate the two 30-year-olds in life, but little else stands between them. They are racers, or rather, race engineers, street race engineers.