A DIY JDM-tuned Subaru WRX; goin' all out in queens.

Byline: RICHARD S. CHANG

Rare is good, but expensive is better

Tommy Shek is late. As the owner of a highly tuned 300-hp Subaru WRX- one that should be good for high-12s in the quarter-mile-Shek shouldn't be late for anything. After all, we made it here on time from New York's Upper West Side. That is several miles on the subway, across Manhattan and into Queens. And then all the way to the last stop on the purple-colored 7 line: Main Street, Flushing.

Queens, along with the Bronx and parts of Long Island, is where much of the sport compact tuning around New York City takes place. Less than five minutes away, under the shadow of Shea Stadium, is the Iron Triangle, a 13-block district of car parts and repair shops. A few blocks in the opposite direction is Francis Lewis Boulevard, infamous for its street races.

Shek's yellow WRX eventually rumbles to an open spot across the street. "Cops stopped me,'' he says when I settle myself into shotgun. "My exhaust is too loud. It was a detective. I saw him in my rearview. He was following me for a couple of blocks.''

This kind of shakedown happens a lot in Flushing, and it is nothing new for Shek, a business major at Stonybrook College on Long Island. Although he keeps his fixed-up WRX low-key-no loud graphics or wing-it still has an IHI VF34 turbo upgrade (installed by Metric Subaru Performance Tuning-mspt.net) and enough power parts to make the seat rumble beneath my bottom.

JDM tuning is generally known as the expensive practice of using only Japanese-brand parts. The letters stand for "Japanese domestic manufacturer,'' and the Cliffs Notes version goes like this: A rare part is good, but an expensive one is better.