Who here always has the compulsion to modify his/her car?

NooDle said:
reading more and more into this whole ECU upgrading thing, got me thinking.

If I take my car to some garage, and some internet geek messes with the car's brain, and it goes faster because of this, is this considered "modifying"? Because A) nobody touched the actual engine and B) you didn't do it yourself.

On another note, i've googled what this would cost me and how much power it could give me extra. I'm very interested now.

400ish ? gives me +30hp and +50Nm of torque, giving a total of 160 hp and 350Nm

*ponders*
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Of course its modifying. Also it doesn't matter that you didn't do it yourself, not everyone are able to work on their own cars because they don't know what they are doing.
 
in that case I have the "compulsion" to modify my car.
I just lack the monies...
 
DAMN MONIES!!!! DAMN YOU!!!!
 
Most exhaust mods on anything less than a 4 litre engine should be banned dammit, I'm tired of being woken up at 3 in the morning by a stupid rice rocket with a folger's coffee can on the back. That is not how to make your little engine sound nice. You need to work on the intake and keep the sound coming out of the back as quiet as possible.
 
+1
 
Vector said:
Most exhaust mods on anything less than a 4 litre engine should be banned dammit, I'm tired of being woken up at 3 in the morning by a stupid rice rocket with a folger's coffee can on the back. That is not how to make your little engine sound nice. You need to work on the intake and keep the sound coming out of the back as quiet as possible.
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agreed, the exception to that tho are smaller displacement forced induction engines that have HUGE gains from aftermarket exhaust flow. But as far as N/A engines go, esp low powered ones, yes its annoying and pretty pointless.
 
A small displacement engine can sound brilliant but it's all in the exhaust. Exhaust noise is determined more by the stroke ratio, engine layout, and just the type of exhaust and what it's composed of.
 
Worked over K20A engines sound really nice and racy actually.
 
I bought my Trans Am convertible new in 2000. Too impatient to wait to build my own with an M6 so I bought an auto that was already en-route from the factory, the biggest regret I have. If I ever blow the transmission I'm swapping in a manual. Power was never a problem with this car, so after seeing how soft it was after my first autocross, I set out to fix the handling. I set out with Eibach progressive rate springs that lowered the car, and Bilstein shocks. As well as subframe connectors to stiffen up the topless chassis. Then came a thicker front and rear swaybar (the rear was too thick and I would back it off later), adjustable panhard bar, and polyurethane bushings. I added a high-stall torque converter to deal with the car's conservative gearing. I got the SLP "loudmouth" exhaust and quad tips, which ended up being too loud so I put in a bullet muffler. Then when I started to go beyond autocross into full blown track days, I added a 4 point roll bar (required for drag racing and open track) and 5 point harness, and then did a C5 Z06 brake swap (rotors and calipers). And I had to get bigger rims to accomodate the 13" Z06 rotors, so I went as wide as I could (275 up front, and on my r-compound racing set I have 315s in the back). That's about where it has stayed for the past several years. I did do a "fast toys ram air" cold air and a new efficient air lid, forgot about that. The engine is stock, and since the car did 311 hp and 331 tq at the wheels, I don't really need to touch it. Maybe some day I'll do headers and a cam for more power. 9 out of 10 4th gen Trans Ams have the Ram Air hood with the big obnoxious nostrils, and virtually everybody who bought a car without them has added that hood. I have resisted the urge to put on a Raptor hood about every 3 months since I've owned the car. The "plain" hood is lower and sleeker and in the end that's the look I want or I would have done it already.

I've had my Porsche 944 for 5 years now. My upgrades are largely done while fixing broken bits. My factory headers had been broken and welded so many times causing boost leaks, so I went with B&B triflo headers. When my factory exhaust fell apart, I went with 3" stainless Fabspeed catback and swappable high-flow catalytic/test pipe. When my shocks were blown, I went with Konis. Porsche's turbo valve actually stays partially open while building boost, so a Lindsey boost enhancer took care of that. The only unnecessary upgrade was engine chip tuning so now it makes about 270hp at the wheels boosted to about 2 bar. The factory brakes were 4 piston Brembos at all four corners so no need to touch them. Oh and I went with stiffer front swaybar and added a rear swaybar from the M030 968 (951 didn't have a rear swaybar from the factory!). I had to replace the speakers because they were all 20 year old and torn. And I had to lose the blaupunkt cassette stereo, sorry, I need CDs and iPod. Aside from some niggling squeaks and rattles, and the broken AC, I'm very happy with the car now. I still rock the original phone dial rims. And I replaced the steering wheel with a 3 spoke 930-style wheel because the leather in the original wheel became mush in my hands on humid mornings. And for the record, I absolutely hate it when people try to "update" the look of their 944 by putting on 968 bits (such as the mirrors and rear spoilers). HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.

My Jeep I went offroading with once and after scraping the undercarriage I lifted it 2.5", got longer/better rear shocks, fitted bigger tires, and added skid plates and rock rails. If I did anything else it would be lockers, but I think I'm done with this vehicle.

For my next car, I think I'm over my need to mod, and I'll be looking for something that is the way I want it from the factory. Some of my intended targets are Z06 or Cayman for expensive sports cars, 335i or G37 for my commuter/luxury car. Cheap thrills would be the Hyundai Genesis coupe or the Mini Cooper S. I want a manual, decent horsepower, and good brakes.
 
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Shawn said:
Beyond that, I see no point in modding your car if it's something decent. If I had a Civic then I would probably resort to aftermarket wheels and other mods to spice things up. But even with moderately nice cars I feel you don't need to do anything, because the factory already did all that was necessary and you're already paying a hefty enough part of your income for the car itself.
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It depends... Most cars sold in the US are sprung too softly for the enthusiast's tastes (see what I had to do to my TA to fit my preferences). And often the cars are optimized for quietness and fuel efficiency, on the F-body cars for example the factory had very restrictive air boxes with an overly complex air baffle that restricts airflow and as a result, performance.

But I wouldn't call yellow fog lights a "mod". I like the "go", not so much the "show".
 
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thedguy said:
The problem with Euro cars is the simple fact that the buy in price is more expensive in the first place. You always pay a premium just because it's for a BMW/benz/Porsche. You can save a few bucks if you can find a VW equivalent.
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VW= Wrong Wheel Drive = TEH FAIL. That's also why I dislike Audi (that and their incredible nose-heavy designs). There are no front drive BMWs, ever wonder why?
 
MXM is constantly modifying his car.

Replacing fallen-off parts that is :D
 
I do my mods slowly mainly because funds don't allow for any other pace...

But I do mod my car...

Next up, bigger swaybars...
 
thedguy said:
But they make front heavy 4wd cars...
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No, on several fronts.

First, Audi's entire lineup is not AWD like Subaru. Only the cars labeled "Quattro" actually have AWD. The other cars without Quattro are FWD. Tarted-up Volkswagens.

Second, have you ever looked under the hood of an Audi? The engine is pushed up to the front of the engine compartment, forward of the front axle and mounted transversely (belying the cars' FWD origins even on an AWD car). This makes them extremely nose-heavy and prone to understeer/plow. Just another example of Germans sticking to a bone-headed design decision and putting the engine in the wrong place. I don't know why they mounted the engine so far towards the front of the car, other than to make room for the additional gear bolted on for AWD applications.

Third, I'm fairly sure the Quattro AWD system is heavily biased towards the front wheels and only sends power to the rear under slippage, although any Audi fans may correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess there are two schools of AWD -- taking an in-line engine driving the rear wheels and adding support for the center diff and front drive. Or taking a transversely-mounted FWD design and adding support for the rears to kick in.

Well, make that three -- the Nissan GT-R has a crazy setup with 3 driveshafts IIRC.
 
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janstett said:
No, on several fronts.

First, Audi's entire lineup is not AWD like Subaru. Only the cars labeled "Quattro" actually have AWD. The other cars without Quattro are FWD. Tarted-up Volkswagens.
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Sorry that comment was speaking of BMW and their nose heavy 6 cylinder awd e30's of the late 80's early 90's.

I'm actually a bit of a fan of Audi's, and am fully aware of their problems. I have pointed out before the Germans need to work around a massive engineering issue that shouldn't be there (porsche and it's rear engines, Audi 'and it's front engined designs).

The Difference with audi's designs is the engine mounting allows the engine vibrations to be far less noticeable in to the driver and the car is first and for most meant to be a family sedan that gets around easily, and then a sports sedan.

Quattro AWD has always been 50:50, until recently where they can now get 40:60 (RWD bias) out of the torsen diffs in the center. The exception being the cars that are closer to rebadged VW's using the transverse setup and the Audi R8 which uses a viscous center diff to achieve 15:85 (RWD) bias.
 
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