An American sport compact tuning market pioneer, Dynamic Autosports has been around almost as long as VTEC. The shop began as a small, one-bay facility located in Irvine, California, that specialized in import performance parts and basic installations. It was one of the few shops in the early '90s that actually had the parts Honda fans wanted in stock-parts we now take for granted, like adjustable cam gears and short shifters. At a time when things like these typically had to be special-ordered, Dynamic had them. Yep, Dynamic changed all of this. It was arguably the first shop early SoCal Honda enthusiasts could buy things like Neuspeed Race springs and GReddy BL exhaust systems from on the spot. The shop has since grown into one of the largest distributing and tuning facilities in the country, and you better believe it's got more lowering springs in stock than ever. The list of former Dynamic employees, cohorts, accomplices, and all-around lackeys reads like a virtual who's who of today's industry leaders. Peep the list: Cosworth's Eric Hsu; A'PEXi USA founder, Toshi Hayama; DSport magazine's Michael Ferrara and Robert Choo; Import Tuner magazine's founder, Ed Eng; Prelude guru, Aries Dionisio; Omni Power's Steve "Omni" Rothenbuehler; Design Craft Fab's Gary Castillo; Sakata Motorsports' Naoto Negishi; and, of course, at least one guy from Honda Tuning mag-the list goes on.
Although owner Eddie Kim has never quite gotten around to finishing up any of his personal projects (the guy's just too busy) he's had plenty of influence over a number of prolific builds throughout the years. Dynamic's first Dynojet 240-one of the first of its kind as far as import tuning shops were concerned-led to some of the most infamous Honda builds to date: David Shih's Silver Bullet CRX that was the first to break the 10-second barrier, Lanny Higa's Alphanumeric-sponsored Civic hatchback, Kenny Tran's record-breaking Civic hatchback, and just about every track car that came out of Kurt Gordon's nearby shop, KG Engineering, including his own Civic that claimed the title of the world's fastest nitrous-fed Honda for years. Throughout the late '90s and into the next decade, Dynamic has been busy tuning some of the top racing teams' vehicles, conducting testing for magazine geeks, and even hosting a big-wig industry executive every now and then for the day. And after 17 years, there's no sign of any of that stopping. You might say that Dynamic is the tuning world's crystal ball. Want a glimpse as to what record might be broken next or who tomorrow's movers and shakers might be? Just look inside the shop.