If you drove around Alki on Saturday Feb. 25 you might have thought you were seeing tryouts for the next edition of the Fast and Furious movies as dozens of customized cars, many of them Japanese came to Don Armeni Park. With hoods raised, wheels turned just so and people crowded around it also could have been a car show, which it sort of was. It was a 'Car Meet' organized by a new West Seattle business called JDM Autos.

The business, owned by Joel and Thuy Straight is pretty new (it started in November) and is located on Alki at 2622 Alki Ave. SW.

"We sell performance auto parts, mainly for Japanese cars but pretty much any car you would ever want, we have performance parts for. We can go all the way back to 1932."

The parts the company can provide are not just for performance since the look of a car is at least as important so you get parts for customization through JDM too.

We have a small showroom, where we keep some of the parts," Straight said, "but most of the parts are order in. They usually take two to three business days to get in. You can pick it up or we can have it go to your house."

Why would someone buy from a parts supplier like JDM instead of just searching themselves? "We make an effort to beat the internet pricing. That's a good incentive to order from us, and we think supporting local business is important." Buyers can also take advantage of their expertise regarding parts for their car.

"I have a strong background in automotive and what I don't know, I can call on our other sources. We have a good relationship with other local shops."

About 40 cars showed up for the car meet which was as much a social event as anything with people able to not just admire other vehicles but talk to the owners and exchange ideas, and learn from each other. It was organized via Facebook and, "it's a pretty decent turnout for our first event," said Straight.

"Our main goal with the business is to build a racing community in the Seattle area and to take people away from street racing, and get them on the track. We don't promote street racing of any kind. We're trying get people more involved in customizing cars and giving Seattle a better scene. Right now California has the largest scene out there and Seattle is kind of disorganized, so my goal is to organize all that and get people out to Kent, the PGP raceway out there, Evergreen Speedway, over in Bremerton they have a motorsports park and try to raise awareness about that. We also want to get behind events where people can socialize and show off what they've done with their car."

You can learn more about JDM Autos by contacting them at 206-359-5267
or via email at questions@jdmautos.com