The First Steps of Car Tuning: How Automotive Customization Began

Discover how early enthusiasts transformed basic cars into racing machines on California’s dry lakes, shaping the first era of car tuning and performance culture.

When the very first automobiles rolled onto the roads—heavy, unremarkable, powered by modest engines—no one called them “tuned.” Yet the story of the first after-factory modifications begins precisely then, at the dawn when enthusiasts grabbed wrenches and screwdrivers to transform their vehicles into machines of speed and identity.

Back in the 1920s, on dried-up salt lakes in Southern California such as El Mirage Dry Lake and Muroc Dry Lake, racers stripped off hoods, removed fenders, lightened bodies—and pushed their machines to new limits. It was on those dry lake beds that the early elements of hot rodding were born—where a car became more than mere transport. It became a statement, an experiment, a personal expression.

Over time, this movement found structure: returning war veterans took their skills, tools and ideas into civilian life and turned garage tinkering into a full-blown subculture. The So-Cal Speed Shop, founded March 3 1946, became one of the first dedicated venues where you could buy speed parts, build a set up and tune a motor. With that, tuning a car shifted from hobby to industry.

It’s worth noting that Europe too embraced the idea of upgrading production cars. Abarth, founded in 1949, offered fastening kits to boost the power of Fiat models; AMG, in 1967, started as a workshop tuning race-engines. These examples show that tuning isn’t just a U.S. dry-lake phenomenon—it also reflects the European approach to performance enhancement.

Interestingly, the word “tuning” originally referred more to adjustment and servicing of individual systems—carburetors, ignition and suspension. Over time, the meaning expanded to include visual modifications, aftermarket culture, and imported cars in the 1980s-90s became a playground for tuners.

If one asks: when exactly did the “very first tuning” happen—the answer cannot be pinned down neatly. It’s a transitional moment: when a car stopped being just a vehicle and became a platform for modification. Likely sometime in the early 20th century, and especially apparent in the 1920s-30s when enthusiasts began removing weight and exploiting dry lakes. Then, in the 1940s-50s, when the market for parts and dedicated shops emerged, we witness the birth of the modern concept of tuning.

Today, in a world where manufacturers offer factory “performance” editions and aftermarket brands vie for the enthusiast’s heart, the roots of it all lie in those first steps—those bold modifications where an ordinary car became a machine with character.

And perhaps, looking ahead, we can predict: tuning will increasingly integrate with factory solutions—not simply modifications after purchase, but options at the time of selection. Yet to speak with confidence, we must watch as technology, regulations and demand continue to evolve.