the sentinel newspaper write up on the tjin edition roadshow and the carlisle p&s show

Performance and style abound at car show

Neil Tjin, 31, tours the country with his custom cars to teach others about designing their own.

By Erica Dolson, Sentinel Reporter, May 8, 2010

Neil Tjin stands with his 2010 Camaro at the Carlisle Fairgrounds during this weekend’s Carlisle Performance and Style show. Erica Dolson/The Sentinel

With its iForged wheels, Baer brakes and airlift suspension, Neil Tjin’s 2010 Camaro is one-of-a-kind.

Plus, with its black suede interior, sunken logo and custom desert sage metallic paint job, it just looks cool.

Tjin, a designer and president of Tjin Edition Roadshow, was showing his 2010 Camaro at the Carlisle Performance and Style show this weekend. The show is one of 25 stops the Camaro will make until its tour ends in January.

Since 1995, Tjin, who currently lives in California, has worked to redesign and remodel cars for companies like Honda, GM and, most recently, Ford.

“All the parts that our partners make are now accessible. So you could take a Camaro and order DuPont custom paint or order air-lift suspension,” Tjin, 31, said.

It is Tjin’s hope that his travels will excite young people about cars, a hobby that Tjin fell in love with at the age of 15.

“I was in the 11th grade, and I saw a set of wheels. I was the first guy in my high school to have 17-inch wheels,” Tjin recalled. “Why did I do it? In the beginning, I just wanted a cool car.”

Tjin was not raised in a family of car enthusiasts, but, over time, his entire family got involved. He is already introducing his 19-month-old son Collin to the car show circuit.

“(He’s) a typical boy,” Tjin said. “He watches sports and goes to car shows.”

Anecdotally, Tjin has seen the car hobby recently regain some popularity among the younger generations after a few years of waning, he said.

Part of the reason for the decline in interest could be economics, Tjin said. Car-designing is not a cheap hobby. Add up all the necessary parts — wheels and paint close to $2000 each, for example — and an entire project could set a hobbyist back $25,000, Tjin estimated.

Good car parts are now available online for reasonable prices, Tjin said.

The average age of those attending this Carlisle Performance and Style show was about 30, an upward trend from earlier years when the ages of those in attendance was between 16 and 24, said Chris Hann, director of creative services for Carlisle Events.

The staff at Carlisle Events has made efforts to add modern muscle cars to the venue and make the event reflective of the interests of young people to ensure the continuation of the car hobby and the car show business, Hann said.

And visitors like Tjin, who remember what it was like to have a mentor to get him enthused about cars, help.

“We have to teach the (young) people, like (others) taught us,” Tjin said.