I will start this first off by introducing myself and giving you a short version of my history/background or why I have a 'right' to give my take on this subject.
Im a 24yr old regular car nut that dove headfirst into the car scene roughly 8 years ago and since then has done/seen/experienced quite a bit of different stuff.
Brief recount of my personal projects:
1. 91 base stealth that I got for 200 bucks off a charity auction, electrical issues/engine issues. Ended up selling it off to a junkyard after trying all I knew at that time to fix it.
2. 94 base stealth, had some front end damage that I fixed myself. Turned out to be my favorite car so far, reliable, fun and awesome looking. Sold it after about 3 yrs of owning it, regret it to this day.
3. 91 white VR-4. where to start, this is THE car I've learned 99% of what I know about cars this day. When Id just gotten it, I barely knew how to change oil/brakes, everything I did on it, I learned myself by trial and error and VERY expensive mistakes. Several motors/trannies/turbos/clutches later I parted out the car.
4. 94 toyota supra turbo. AMAZING car, got it bone stock, shortly after going bpu my turbos gave out and I put a single kit on it with a fuel system. Car ran absolutely flawless for about half a year when injector failed and melted piston #2. This is where the MONSTER project began. Built motor, ported head, BIG fuel system, BIG turbo, nitrous, built automatic transmission, you name it the car had it. Overall the build took nearly 3 years to complete. Car is currently sold due to it scaring the living shit out of me. More details on this later.
Besides my personal projects, many people here on 3si will tell you about how I traveled all over the USA helping other people with their cars, doing complete monster builds to regular maintenance/repairs.
So there you have it, a VERY brief recollection of my history/background that will hopefully give you an idea of what I've been through and what it taught me. Why am I writing this? After having done nearly everything there is to do in the 'aftermarket performance modification' world I've come to observe a really alarming trend in the internet communities, mostly with the younger owners - which is: GO BIG OR GO HOME! Meaning everything they do or dream of doing is get the biggest baddest everything for your car so that everyone may know that Im the baddest guy on the block.
Why is that bad you may ask? Whats wrong with trying to be the best around? The simple answer is: it isnt necessarily bad, but GREATLY depends on your REALISTIC goals and needs. Do you have tens of thousands of dollars you could take a piss on and throw in the trash? If you do, this is NOT for you to read! I'm writing this with hopes to help the regular guy that likes messing around with cars and upgrading them to be a little more unique, have a bit more performance and mostly just have fun and enjoy your ride can do it the SMART way without having unneeded headaches and expenses. I'm writing this to help you pick the right way to modify your car so that you will ENJOY it instead of worry about when its going to be on the road instead of your jackstands.
One of the biggest mistakes a person will make when modifying their car is the number game. Person xyz is making 500WHP HAH! to hell with that, I'm going to make 600WHP! You can plug in any number you want, 1000hp, 2000hp and so on and so on. The most important thing to do when getting ready to modify your car is to be HONEST WITH YOURSELF! Sit down and look at your budget, being honest is really important because you NEED to know what you want to do with the car. Are you going to take it to the track every weekend and be competitive? Are you going to road course it? Destroy Hayabusas on the highway? Or do you want a car that you can drive every day, car that will be reliable AND fun to drive on the street? These are the most CRUCIAL questions you will ever have to decide on in this market.
Coming back to the horsepower factor. How much power is too much? Some may say: THERE IS NEVER TOO MUCH POWER! While I can agree with that in SOME circumstances (professional drag racing) on a street car that is an absolutely BULLSHIT statement. Having owned and driven cars ranging from 100 hp to over 1200 crank hp cars I can tell you this: there DEFINATELY is a limit to USEABLE and enjoyable HP levels in a STREET car. Let me clarify my definition of a street car: this is a car you can hop in every day, put 50+ miles on it daily, drive it to the store, pick up your kids/S.O. from wherever COMFORTABLY, RELIABLY and in some circumstances LEGALLY.
What I have personally come to agree with, as far as relatively 'safe' hp goals for a street car is: ~500WHEEL hp. This level is not hard to achieve without breaking your wallet, it is CONTROLLABLE with correct suspension/brake settings AND when built correctly will be also RELIABLE.
Now you'll say: But Eugene, guys are making 1000rwhp on bone stock 2jz, 6g72, LS1 etc etc blocks! No offense but I'd laugh in those people's faces if they were to say that to me. YES you can make that # on a dyno, once maybe twice or even 10 times. But try to do that on the street and every day? LOL! That thing will start spewing its guts before you can blink, thats if you haven't yet crashed or put other people in danger by using that much power on the street.
Ask any person that has owned a rwd car with >550rwhp or awd car with >600 awhp how easy it is to drive a car like that on regular radial tires. Well I can tell you from personal experience: its a BITCH. The truth is there is no radial street tire that can hold that amount of power on regular roads without breaking loose. And once you break loose on public roads it becomes unsafe, you start putting yourself and other people at risk.
The other part of huge power is the fun factor. This is a personal preference, but its no fun for me to drive a car thats gutless for 5k rpms and then explodes with the fury of a hurricane. And this is a problem mostly with small displacement import vehicles that rely on forced induction to produce the big amounts of power. The more power you want to make, the more driveability you lose, response goes down the shitter and all you get back is a short period of time where your car is an uncontrollable beast thats ready to throw you off the cliff and into the abyss.
What I'm getting to is: a lot of people have no idea what 500hp feels like, so they dream of shooting for the stars, setting hp records, 1/4 records etc etc. That leads to wrongful expectations, broken dreams, empty wallets, sometimes debt and so on.
My suggestion is this - if you know someone with a car that makes ~500 hp ask them for a ride, ask them to show you what its like to have a car with that much power. I can almost guarantee nearly anyone will do it, its one of the reasons we build these cars, for our own enjoyment and to show off to other people! I will tell you this: you will be in for a world of surprises, 500hp is REALLY FAST! In this internet world it may sound like you're behind the curve and need at least double that, but its WRONG! You will be doing yourself a favor if you follow my suggestions, you will save yourself a lot of headache and you will be able to enjoy your 'modest' 500hp car instead of a 'bad mothafucka' sitting in your garage for years on jackstands, trust me, this comes after tens of thousands of dollars wasted just because I wanted to be 'bad motha'.
Then If after this you still decide to go for broke and build the baddest monster on the block keep this in mind: TAKE NO SHORTCUTS! don't cheap out on ANYTHING, it will come around, bite you in the ass and turn out costing MUCH MORE than a good quality piece would have originally cost you. Like I said, the biggest thing to keep in mind is to be smart, follow other people that have already 'been there done that' rather than try to be different and take the unpaved road. It costs a LOT to pave it with your wallet!
A little bit more about the supra, the car that really opened my eyes. Anything over 600 hp doesn't really belong on the street, it is literally dangerous to use that much power on un-prepped surfaces. Even at my lowest boost setting the car made 600rwhp and it would still break traction with SLICKS heated up, on a road with years of rubber and VHT laid down on it. Let me tell you something, when you're doing 100MPH, got WOT and the car starts getting sideways it REALLY SHRINKS YOUR BALLS. Ask Tonygold about his experience when I gave him a ride in it
This thing made 800rwhp on a dyno-dynamics while spinning the tires, with some careful estimates we figured it would put down ~900rwhp on boost traction allowing on a dynojet. It also had a 100shot available at any time... You go figure. 1000 horsepower will scare the living hell out of about 99% of the people you would give a ride to in such a vehicle. If you ever go for a ride in something like this, I suggest the thing has some amazing safety equipment, harnesses, cages etc. Some depends may be necessary also
That being said, I now drive a car thats putting down maybe 350awhp on pump, and I'm loving it. I don't have to worry about my engine blowing up, overheating, detonating, tune being off, machining not being right etc etc. I can jump in, start it up, go for a road trip in a comfortable car that can still spank just about 98% of the other cars on the road.
Feel free to bash me for being a 'pussy' and not being able to control my car etc or if you have any questions post them also. I'm always willing to help, after all I did post this to try and save you guys some headaches and $$.
Cheers.
P.S. I realize most people will just dismiss this as a rant and carry on, but my hope is that this might help someone that approaches this subject from a rational standpoint
