Excellent advice for all to heed . I for one have seen quite a bit of Very High HP cars grenade them selfs after a few runs . I have seen the BEST OF THE BEST cars vaporize in mere seconds at many venues . Your insight is refreshing to this forum . My personal backround goes back to Stone Woods and Cooks Hemi 41 Willys at Fremont Drag Strip when I was pitting for them . So I guess that you can surmise that I am ancient to most on this forum . No matter because experience is priceless no matter what the project is. Any way , if you are in the Tracy area PM me if you need a shop to fix what ever you break at Sacto . My Vr-4 is getting prepped for next years NASA events so a portion of the shop is tied up . The 10K Bend Pak lift is always available . See Ya , Steve .
1320 vr4 . Thats so true ! This might be a little off topic but my 56 chevy has a ZL-1 with a T-56 ,Currie 9" etc . that runs low 11s and is absolutely evil above 140 mph . Honestly, I really like the VR-4 platform for what it is and potentially for what it can be . Steve
Yeap, you are right buddy.
Everyone in my town is crazy about modding their cars, but the only goal is to be faster than the other guy. So, they tune (if one can call it so) their buckets (you can't say otherwise, after their "mod" it with the only reason to have something modded), and revving' em all around, forgetting that this is the only car they drive every day from home to work or classes... In case one's got big noizzy muffler - he is the one to f@ckaround and dig ppls brains..., while there is nothing under the hood and his hat
Thanks for writing, I'm with you in your opinions and views..
...
Last edited by ParabelluM : 06-23-2008 at 07:26 AM.
It isn't always the go-big-or-go-home approach from the beginning though. My 93 VR4 went in small steps, but I eventually arrived at a place I ultimately decided was too far, too unreliable, and no longer as enjoyable as it was in earlier form...
First (in steps) was the Borla catback and the K&N FIPK. I 'thought' it was faster. Then was the Supra pump, MBC, Autometer Boost gauge, and 13+ psi. I KNEW it was faster and I really liked it. Then came the 550cc injectors and the S-AFC and the pocketlogger with a little more boost. Faster still as the gas mileage began to suffer. But then I wanted 15-17 psi that would hold to redline, so...
Then came the 17g's, Stillen downpipe, then later the MAFT, and the Autometer (blinky) a/f gauge, then the PPE FMIC and the bigger radiator getting me to 21 psi.
Then came the DR800s, the Stage III heads, the 720s, the DSBC, ARC2, the RPS twin carbon clutch, and 25 psi or so. Then came the spun bearing, the forged rebuild, the DR900s, FMOC, SX fuel filter and AFPR, SS braided lines, cam gears, FN01C wheels, CFDS, lightweight battery, eManage Ultimate, speed density, vented hood, and more. 29 psi all the way to redline at sea level on 9:1 compression with the cam gears overlapping even more than stock.
With each change, I wanted something a little faster, but I was sliding down the slippery slope. In the end, it was very fast, but not reliable. The passenger and rear seats were in the garage. It didn't idle quite right. It required constant fuel map adustments. The battery died every ten days. You could see cables peeking out from under the dash and the center console if you looked closely. What used to be 25 mpg was closer to 15.
I admit my latest cars aren't conservative by any means, but neither are they on the bleeding edge of their technological or mechanical capability, and am no longer as interested in running them extremely hard. And they're both turn-key cars from reputable shops.
The hard way, I figured out how much I like a car with ample-but-balanced power, reliability, and drivability. Thanks for writing the original post.
Wow, I just read for almost an hour and a half, on a car forum, and didn't feel offended or get mad about anything said.
This truly is an amazing post Russian.
First off, turning 21 in like 2 weeks.
No car, No license, no house.
I neglected an insurance ticket, led to an arrest, led to my parents kicking me out because I messed up and they repossessed the car in the process because they cosigned and I F***ed up. I'm still fighting debt and tickets that resulted from me putting my car above everything else in life, including school, and sadly enough I will be spending Christmas alone because I made the decision that I wasn't going back with them to the Grandparents house until I got my car back.
Over the last 10 months of being without a license, I have ridden with a lot of my friends in their 'new car.' On two different occasions (with 2 different FC Rx7s) I've ended up in the ditch with a friend staring at be blankly asking how they could have possibly driven in to the ditch. On both occasions the driver overdrove !!!!HIS!!! limitations, not the cars. I've ridden in several cars that are extremely forgiving in stock orientation (FD rx7, S2K). Had they not been so forgiving when a driver overdrove a corner, I would be dead now. I even got to take a ride in a 600+ AWHP evo, and yes, a number like that is ridiculously fast when 0-70 (you know, highest posted speed limit in the states) happens in under 3 seconds.
I used to dream of running 9's in my vr4. I said Matt M did it with (what was it I don't even remember now) dr800s and the street cams with no bottle. I can totally just do the race cams, the 1000's and spray it and I will be the biggest baddest on the block.
I realized that the more time you spent working on your car is the less time you have to enjoy it. In reality the more time you spend working on it, the less time you have to enjoy life. A car is nothing more than a car. 99.9 percent of the cars we drive will end up in a crusher at the end of their lifetime. Therefore, to me at least, the goal should be to make something that is as hassle an maintenance free as possible, and drive it. Not saying take the turbo's off a vr4 and make it NA. But stay within respectable power levels, do it right, and enjoy the car.
Hope this post wasn't too far out of line. It's 6 in the morning here now.
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Re: The Philosophy side of modifying cars.
