N1 Concepts Part 1: Interview with Norman Tong

Back in November on the last leg of my West Coast SEMA tour, I stopped by N1 Concepts to check out the shop and meet some of the employees. Being located in Southern San Francisco, N1 Concepts is one of the top retailing JDM importers in the country. So naturally, Tunerzine had to bring you a few questions and answers with Norman Tong and Toma Woo on how N1 Concepts works.

Ben Howard for Tunerzine: Let me get some history on both of you to start. Who are you, what is your background and how did you get involved with the sport compact industry and N1 Concepts?

Norman: Been in the Import scene since 1995 with my first car a 1995 Acura Integra GSR. In January 1997, I bought a stripped 1992 Captiva Blue Pearl Civic Si from HAP Recycling along with a low mileage 1996 B18C1 GSR swap. We did the swap out of my garage with the help of a guide in one of the import magazines. We had the car running mid 13s all motor at the season opener CMI race in Sacramento in April 1997. Shortly after, I joined Dimensional 1 racing (www.dimensional1.com est. 1995). D1 believes in “quality over quantity” and are very selective for new members even till this day. The team only has eight cars and each and everyone is respectable and unique in its own right. They asked me to join because they saw how dedicated and passionate I was towards the sport. With the help of D1 and Dave Shih (Silver Bullet CRX, 1st Honda to run 10s back in 1996), my car was turbocharged with a custom T04E/T3 setup by middle of summer. The car ran a best of 12.5 @ 110mph on 12psi (stock GSR motor still) at the next CMI race in August 1997. I wanted to take the team further by going for 11s. At this time, running 10s and 11s was still pretty rare. Only the big names like Viet Lam, Stephan Papadakis, Tony Fuchs, etc. were among the fast guys . In late September, I located another stripped EG hatchback. Within 2 weeks time, we had the car gutted out, doors cut, lexan windows, and everything performance wise in my Blue EG Si transferred over into the new race car. The car just made it to the last CMI race of the year. I wasn’t expecting 11s and had the jitters. The car ran 12s for the first 2-3 passes. After I got used to the new car, it ran a 11.58 @ 117mph which blew my mind. In short, I was 18 years old and went from 13s to 11s all within one season through the help of my teammates and friends.

N1 Concepts Part 1: Interview with Norman Tong

From 1998-1999, I focused my time on getting the car looking nice and taking it through the car show scene including Showoff EXC in Anaheim in 1998. From 2000-2002, I focused on my studies at UC Berkeley and put racing on the backburner. I spent 2003 & 2004 focusing my efforts on building my business. After hitting 11s in 1997, I tried going with a variety of built motors that gave disappointing results. Motor after motor would blow and I was getting tired of it. In 2005, my teammates and I decided to put in a simple stock setup into my car again and turn up the boost to 18psi since I’ve always had luck with the stock GSR motor. The new motor surprisingly did really well and pulled off a 10.9. With a little more tuning and a lot of BLOX Racing parts, the car went faster to 10.7. In 2007, the car went from 10.7 to 10.5 to 10.2 to 10.0. We hope the car will run 9s to be the first stock GSR block to go 9s.

Started the business straight out of college. I learned how to buy theft recovery salvage Hondas, put them together, and sell them with my experience of building my race cars from scratch. We spent the first two years doing these theft recovery Hondas because a lot of people wanted cheap commuter cars and didn’t care about the theft recovery history. We did a lot of EGs, Type-Rs, S2000s, and even an NSX. In 2006, we stopped doing this business and started doing JDM importing. We brought in the Fit and wanted to be the first to do a K20 swap in there because I saw how popular the car was in Asia from my travels over there. I knew the car was coming to the US and that the car reminded me of the Civic Hatchback for the Honda market. It’s only a matter of time before you’ll start seeing more and more Fits with crazy engine swaps and setups.

Ben Howard for Tunerzine: Work: how do you like working at N1 Concepts, what do you do there, and what are the perks of the job? I’m sure that it’s a bad ass daily grind, no?

Norman: Work is pretty great. Some of the perks are being around the young import scene, the car shows with the import models, getting to build and drive exciting new cars. I really enjoy the fact that I get to travel around the US and Asia. Being able to do what you love for work is a bonus.

Ben Howard for Tunerzine: Norman, You daily a Euro, you have a girlfriend who is looking to get into modeling, and you have one of the most booming businesses dealing with JDM imports in the country. Could life get any better for you right now? Are you thinking of any new business projects?

Norman: Life’s ok. We’re looking for a new location because we’ve outgrown our current location. I’m trying to do some business with Asia for my next business but I gotta focus on N1 right now.