2000
In late 1999, a few local Atlanta guys with then-new Civic Si's decided it would be cool to hang out. They named their so-called club Si Atlanta, and started meeting with the late East Coast Honda at the Gwinnett Fuddruckers. By the end of 1999, a modest website was implemented. As 2000 rolled around, so did more people interested in the club, almost entirely by word of mouth. Meeting locations rotated between Hooters and Fuddruckers. The club started attending the local monthly NOPI shows with some of the East Coast Honda guys, and the club's reputation for having clean and understated cars began. The website was moved to a respectable hosting company, and membership was in the teens. Si Atlanta registered in NOPI Nationals for the first time, and ended up taking the Best Club trophy, in addition to being (briefly) featured on Speedvision. At the same time, the first Blue Ridge Parkway trip was held, beginning an ongoing autumn tradition of avoiding Federal Park Rangers. It was also around this time that Tray Sliding was invented, creating an entertainingly moronic diversion.
2001
During 2001, some of the members started buying Integra Type R's, prompting the name to be temporarily changed to Si / Type R Atlanta. Weekly website visits were around 5,000, as the website began to grow with the addition of a fledgling message forum. Membership was in the twenties. Meetings were moved to Andretti Speed Lab and the North Point Fuddruckers in Alpharetta in an attempt to find a more central location. Tray sliding went on frequently, somehow without the cops showing up (mostly). The club became less interested in local shows, but still went to NOPI Nationals. They were able to park on the pavement rather than the grass, and they brought along the somewhat infamous (and tongue-in-cheek) VTEC Chicks. They were popular, but guys were looking more at the goods than at the URL on their shirts, which lessened the intended marketing impact. The name was officially changed to VTEC Atlanta at NOPI.
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2002
During 2002, more of the guys traded in, but now for cars other than Hondas. It was decided that the name would ultimately have to be changed again to accomodate the goup's growth. The website was now seeing 25,000 visitors per week as the message forum and videos became very popular. Bandwidth and web fees started becoming an issue, so banner ads were sold for the first time. The local show scene had by then been abandoned in favor of autocross, track days, and road trips, but it was still important to attend NOPI Nats. The Rice Patrol was prepared in secret and was a huge hit (especially with the Clayton County Police). It got visibility in a few magazines, but the best part was seeing people's reactions at the show. The club name was changed to Import Lounge at NOPI.
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2003
During 2003 the website became the main focus with weekly visits around 50,000 and overall visits in the millions. The group's popularity increased in part due to a coup of sorts: convincing Andretti Speed Lab to let them use their skidpad for Slide Club events. Andretti shut down the party after the second event, but not before a few hundred people showed up. The club itself was still around, and had more members of more automotive diversity than ever before. The website became at the very least a regional phenomenon, but the locals still got together often, went on annual roadtrips, and attended autocross and track events. The club again attended NOPI Nationals, and featured the Rice Patrol for an encore year, this time with hastily-prepared but matching white and black Type R's.
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2005
Import Lounge became one of the top websites in the Southeast during 2005, with several million visits per month. Many of the original members were starting to get married, have kids, and trade in their cars for SUV's. It's all about having priorities after all, but it was a sign of things to come. The website and forum remained popular, and as part of an effort to spread the gospel beyond the southeast, club members were replaced by forum moderators. The anti-bling concept had become so popular by 2006 that Volswagen capitalized on it with some of the funniest commercials ever made. IL takes full credit for this of course.
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2007
The website was given a freshening in 2007, including updated forum software as the result of some unfortunate Trojan Horse action (sorry), and Import Lounge swag was moved to Cafe Press. The original club had become a memory, and web traffic slowed from 2005 levels. The tuning trend was also fading fast in spite of several god-awful Fast and Furious sequels, but the original idea behind Si Atlanta lived on as many ricers refused to get the help they needed.
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2009
Things began to pick up in 2009, with web traffic up noticeably. Part of the forum was converted to a blog type environment, which also included sections for things that guys like other than cars. The forum had essentially become a social network for local car guys, and some meets were held during the summer. The ongoing popularity of social networking led to an IL presence on Facebook, which continues to gain fans. IL also gave in to the Twitter craze at the end of the year, with an implementation pending. 2010 promises to be a make or break year for the site, as the owners and OG's face the time consuming tribulations of adulthood. It is hard to believe that the whole thing started out a decade ago with a couple of guys inviting themselves to an ECH meeting. Many life-long friendships have been forged, and with any luck the site will see a complete revamp during its anniverary year in preparation for another 10 years.