People are only thinking about drag racing. I was racing (autocross) my Rabbit GTi in 1989 and then road racing my 77 Scirocco and 90 Corrado in mid 90's. Imports have been in the racing scene for many, many years - just not drag racing. My 77 Scirocco had a 16v engine and transmission swap - Mini me swaps were real popular in the early Honda days.
Not my Scirocco, but one that was raced in Europe in the late 70's
I remember team green, glenn's red crx and slim's crx beeing quick from a drag racing stand point and this was in the late part of the 90's... maybe 97 or 98.
240's weren't real popular until later, when SR swaps became plentiful.