Automotive Modification

[rallynavvie]

Or AWD tuning which is is the most efficient method of getting all that power to the pavement (or gravel, dirt, and snow in my case) in a hurry. Granted AWD suffers from drivetrain loss so it's not the greatest on long stretches or higher speeds where it will still lose to a good RWD car. I just can never equate FWD to performance. It defeats itself when you start adding power to it.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Or AWD tuning which is is the most efficient method of getting all that power to the pavement (or gravel, dirt, and snow in my case) in a hurry. Granted AWD suffers from drivetrain loss so it's not the greatest on long stretches or higher speeds where it will still lose to a good RWD car. I just can never equate FWD to performance. It defeats itself when you start adding power to it.

Right. My bad. Forgot about AWD. Those drifters are pretty sweet. Thats GOT to be difficult to do.

And I agree totally. I'll just never understand the point of putting 400HP in a civic or whatnot. But I think a lot of that is that the kids nowadays are products of their environment. As I said, not many 17 year olds have ever sat in a classic muscle car and cant appreciate what they can do/can offer. All they know is whats in front of them.

Cant blame them for being under priviledged :P

[SquirrelDip]

This is an age old battle and since we're not comparing apples to apples there is no winner - it comes to preference.

32... I've got 10 years on you... I've been in some impressive American muscle cars, I've got family that race top fuel. Still my preference has always been for the smaller cars (and motorcycles).

For me a sports car is not about the power - it's how precise and agile the vehicle is. Sure you need a decent amout of power but it isn't the main priority (that Lotus only has 190 hp).

[Xylob the Destroyer]

I have modified my car extensively, exterior as well as interior and under the hood.
The vast majority of the exterior mods are subtle -- no ******* wings, (cars can take advantage of spoilers, wings are pointless), no ill fitting poorly made body kit that was installed improperly and was never painted, no fart-can muffler, no goddam stickers.
In fact, if you aren't a VW enthusiast, you'd probably never notice the exterior modifications.
Subtle is the way to go -- as fast as I drive, I don't need any extra attention.
It may be "only" a four-banger, but I'm willing to bet that it's the fastest normally aspirated 4banger in the area.
For the most part, it just looks like grandma has taken really good care of her little 15 year old grocery getter, and that's fine by me.


The engine modifications include a customized head from a completely different engine swapped in as well as performance cams, chip, etc.
no ******* NOS, no turbo or supercharger
and again, no fat-ass fart can muffler.


It's got NOTHING "off the line", which is fine because the show starts when I grab 2nd gear. It's more fun this way, as I like to give the other guy a false sense of security before I kick his ass
It handles like a dream and FLIES around the corners
I rarely race on public streets as it's just plain dangerous and can get your license yanked ASAP. but sometimes I just can't resist the urge to make some stupid little high-school kid shit his pants and cry all the way home after I blow his ******* doors off (not to mention the crooked wing mounted to his trunk!)

when it all comes down to it, there's no replacement for displacement -- it'll cost me $4500.00 to swap a VR6 in, and I think about it almost everyday, it's just so damned tempting.

if you want real top speed performance, get one of those NOS stickers (just the sticker will do, no need for the actual system).
also, light-up windshield washers add 30 HP, glowing valve-stem caps add 9 HP each, underbody lighting adds an unbelievable 100 HP and the louder your sub-woofer, the lighter you car gets.
if your sub-woofer makes your piece of shit body kit rattle right off your car, you can easily hit light speed.

[rallynavvie]

We still have the muscle car people in the younger generations, it's just that they're really stereotypical, or at least in my area they are. Those that tune domestics (US cars here) tend to be labelled "rednecks", and in many cases the shoe fits. Sure there are exceptions to this, and it may not be like this everywhere, but surprisingly it is so in MN. Then there are the Asian-import tuner crowd that is stereotypical of the type that "The Fast and the Furious" bred of late with cheap cosmetic mods. My favorite is when they can't afford 4 expensive wheels all at once and buy them one at a time but still mount those few to their car. That's classy. Then there are the European-import tuners who tend to fall into the yuppie stereotype. Of course this isn't always the case, but the stereotypes aren't very far off for the majority.

I have to agree about the car forums, as I've already mentioned. The one I used to frequent has become so large that you have to filter through all the garbage or look for posters whom you know to know that what's being posted isn't just garbage. I had to learn a lot about cars in a hurry when I decided to put the Haltech EM in my last car, and even so I wouldn't at all consider myself an expert, though I would count myself as experienced.

My dream car is still the sleeper. One of my favorites is the Audi RS6 Avant wagon. With some pretty simple engine modifications that can become one fast wagon, we're talking exceeding 600 lb-ft of torque from an AWD wagon. With some 9" rubber on all four corners that thing would walk on almost anything off the line. To complete the effect you'd have to have some groceries riding shotgun or part of your kid's soccer team riding along

[Xylob the Destroyer]

My dream car is still the sleeper.

My point exactly!

One of my favorites is the Audi RS6 Avant wagon. With some pretty simple engine modifications that can become one fast wagon, we're talking exceeding 600 lb-ft of torque from an AWD wagon. With some 9" rubber on all four corners that thing would walk on almost anything off the line. To complete the effect you'd have to have some groceries riding shotgun or part of your kid's soccer team riding along

hell yeah, those cars are so sweet...

[b1tchm4gn3t]

like everything else, it just comes down to preferance. I own a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a ton of mods and I beat the dog shit out of everything that runs against me. But I must say, nothing beats a classic, and a Mitsubishi is NOT one of those!

[MackemX]

I was a boy racer when I first got my car sticking bigger engines in normal looking cars and suprising a few other drivers

these days though I prefer to look good and go slow 8)

[Xylob the Destroyer]

there's nothing wrong with "all show and no go", as long as you realize and can accept that it's what you have.
it's the guys with that who try to 'race' or pull stupid shit in traffic that are really dangerous on the streets though.
too many of these 'fast n furious' idiots really do seem to think that a wing, fog lights, and a body kit will make their car drive and handle better.