Car show with 'tude; JELLO WRESTLING IS ONLY PART OF THE NOPI NATIONALS EXPERIENCE.

Byline: Steven Cole Smith

RESPECT? Not enough, considering I was the one who started this whole import tuner deal back in 1971. That's when I ordered a one-piece chrome exhaust for my Volkswagen Beetle from the J.C. Whitney catalog. It cost $21.95. In my parents' driveway, I removed the two little cigar-sized tailpipes and bolted on the new exhaust, with no help from my crew or my peeps or my posse, and there was no camera crew to tape it for Spike TV, which today, I know, is hard to imagine.

The exhaust conversion was a success in that the Beetle sounded like a flatulent yak. My only mistake was to point it toward the driver's side, so when I'd try to order at the Jack in the Box drive-in-which we called "Jack in Your Hat'' because we were rebels, see?-the girl on the speaker would say, "What? What? Can you turn your engine off?''

So I tell this story to some kid with a Toyota Celica here at the NOPI Nationals in the infield of the Atlanta Motor Speedway, a Celica that has the stock 1.8-liter four-cylinder but a whale-tail spoiler in the back, to help-what? Keep the rear end planted?

Anyway, the kid's eyes glaze over as I talk old school about the early years of this whole import scene. Punk! All attitude.

NOPI stands for Number One Parts Inc., a company founded in 1966 in Atlanta, and it has evolved from selling just Volkswagen parts into what J.C. Whitney wishes it still was. NOPI is relevant to people with lots of disposable income, who-if they can't visit one of six NOPI stores in Georgia-seem content to order their lime-green spark plug wires from the company's website, nopi.com.

The NOPI Nationals started in 1986, again evolving from a Volkswagen event to the largest sport compact show in the country. It costs $40 for a weekend pass, $25 if you can only handle Saturday or Sunday.