Quote:
Originally Posted by D.O.G.
Modifying a vehicle to be something it wasn't intended for, isn't so terrible.
It's what I and many others on this site are doing all the time - we just go in the other direction.
None of the cars I've owned while posting on this site have been economical by design. If I didn't enjoy the challenge, I'd by a used VEi civic - it's highway rating is better than I've ever gotten from the Astina.  |
I agree. The two roads to modifying are Performance the big one, and now Economy, that's still in its infancy.
Quote:
I think it's not as much the modifying of the vehicles that is irritating as the mindset of the (typical) person performing the mods that is the issue.
You can likely thank Fast and the Furious for the "ricer mod" craze, just like the muscle car trend decades ago with movies like Vanishing Point, Bullitt and Smokey and the Bandit etc.
|
The Cool Factor.
When I got my drivers license 1977, the first car I owned was a 1969 Dodge Charger with a 318 two barrel. All my friends had muscle cars also that we raced. We even marked off 1320' on a road that's in no where land that we raced for bragging rights and sometimes money.
I learned that my 318 CI two barrel wasn't going to cut it. So I dropped in a 340 CI. Then realized my rear gear was to tall so installed a 3.91 posi trac third member. Then Headers, Aluminum Intake, Holley 650 double pumper.
I then realize a 440CI big block would be a better choice. So I started my first engine build. Then a stall converter and a shift kit.
But something great happen to me and all my friends that were into building and racing our cars? We became Mechanics
Our interest in modifying was so strong that we work as much as possible to make as much money as we could to dump every dime into our rides. Luckily this mindset kept us out of the party scene. My Dad Loved what I was doing because of my Mechanical ability I started doing all the maintenance on the family's cars and even rebuilt a couple engines for Mom and Pop.
Now fast forward to 2003. I started to see something I wasn't familiar with?
EFI chip burning, EFI Tuning and Turbo Charging.
The other thing that really bother me was the people that were working this Sorcery were much younger then me? Just a bunch of Damn Kids.lol So I pushed myself and went to my first EFI class, "EFI 101" by Ben Strader, of EFI University. Then bought my first Honda Civic and installed a Turbo and a Haltech standalone EFI system. I started racing it at our local track, and meet some young kids that wanted to learn EFI Turbo tuning. I passed on everything I learned, and was very proud of them for their ability to build and tune their own cars. I could give them a virtual EFI tuning problem and they could solve it.
Example:
I have a 8 cylinder 502 CI running 7 psi at seal level at 5500 RPM with a VE of 80%. The injector's are 86 lb/hr. The IAT is 100*F. The A/F ratio is 12.0.
Whats the Pulse Width of the injector's and the Duty Cycle?
Same engine but at 2000' elevation?
Same engine at 80*F IAT?
Same engine but with 60 lb/hr injectors?
Same engine with running at 13.0 A/F?
Same engine but a 12 cylinder?
Anyway my point is some of these Honda kids are smarter then you think? You can't broad brush all of them. The reason they might pick a VX Civic is because its a lighter version? Or they got it cheap? This probably doesn't sit well with a few Ecomodders on here that hes destroying a perfect VX but it's not any different then what I did with my friends of my era, cutting up a 69 Charger and a 68 Camaro and 70 Cuda. This hurts a little thinking back about the butchery, but not much. To me cars are just a chunk of metal and plastic.
Just a Vehicle to get from point A to point B, not a Golden Calf. How you enjoy the voyage is up to you.