Consider this article. He brings up some good points. This should be in Car Talk, but since our forum is new and people will be asking about modifying this and that on the 3rd gen, this will hopefully open your eyes. Kthxbye

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=105024

 

some food for thought.

it is still probably safe and advantages to get OEM upgrades like A-Spec, etc.

 

Good article, good advice. The author is dead on with the suspension comments. The only thing I will add is that, in my experience, the worst modification you can make is one where you 'convince' yourself that you like it. If you find yourself saying "I'll get used to it" or "I can live with it", you are probably convincing yourself to like something that you really don't. If that happens, it's far better to yank the offending part than to live with it. In most cases you can sell the used parts and lose a lot less and end up a lot happier.

 

HAHA!! Great article! The last line is priceless!!

 

Supercharger = more torque = worth $5000 to me ...

now .. getting sprayed by gasoline or NO2 .. that's not worth it to me.

 

Subaru

Tell this guy to buy his ass a Supra and see if he has any problems getting 800+rwhp.

 

why not just buy the MUGEN 4.0-liter 500-plus HP V8 Honda with carbon cowl induction

 

I agree.

The article is a good one, that points out that aftermarket will not "always" improve OEM. If it does, there are often trade-offs that people have to live with.

 

WTF? We don't have that shit here...

 

I wish that I would have read this article before I decided to modify my Honda Civic hatchback some years back. I thought by throwing in a B16 VTEC I would make my car that much faster. While I was able to do that successfully I also made it harder for just any mechanic to work on my car. I now HAVE to take it to specialty shops just to get a tune up. Now that I've had my TL for a month, I've now realized that I should've just saved up the extra dough and bought that damn integra that I originally had my eyes on. I ended up spending that extra money trying to turn the civic INTO the integra. What in the world was I thinking?? Don't get me wrong, it's fun to drive and it's fast, but common sense was not working for me during this time.... so I've already decided that the only thing that I'm doing to my TL is installing a drop in K&N air filter. No way in hell am I screwing up a 31,000 dollar car!!

 

Jack Lanier made few good points.

I agree with the tires.You can always buy better.He also said that today is

difficult to make cars better.Wrong.What do you think BMW does with 3 and

5 series?They make them better by turning them into M3 and M5.

Same for Mercedes.As in AMG that was a private tuning shop,then Merc.


bought them out.How about Porsche Turbo?It used to be a 911 before.

Car companies only go so far with manufacturing and leave room to improve

cars.Lowering the center of gravity will improve handling.Wider tires will have

more contact patch with road.Performance=more money.

 

Another example of a car made worst by tuners is the '05 Mustang. Both Steeda and Saleen have not been able to make it a better car, even after pouring thousands of $'s into it.

 

Excellent article indeed. I find that the author seemed to fixate on the extreme ends of modding. I added the Comptech RSB and loved it for just a little over $100 and a hour of my time. I do agree with him on aftermarket rims only to some extent. I noticed a pretty dramatic reduction in acceleration on my Camry when I went from 15 inch to 17 inch rims but the handling was amazing with the Yokohama ES100s. It was a trade off I was willing to make for the summer months. I was not into racing anyone. I just wanted to take corners better. To each his own...

dsc888

 

What Mr. Lanier is saying is that its hard for the casual end-driver (end-user) to make substantial improvements. Of course BMW knows how to improve its own car. Of course Porsche knows how to as well. Even with AMG, they are professionals.. The average person who owns a BMW/Porsche or what not isn't going to know how to do this completely correctly.

 

some parts of his article are dumb. having a low profile tire keeps it from rolling off the rim when hitting curves at 3g forces !!

his larger rim comparison is also a tad off base. those seeking larger rims with performance in mind will seek out a magnesium alloy rim.

 

man i hope lowering my car won't hurt it, gonna be the first time for me.

 

Even if people get magnesium alloy rims, forged rims, etc. if they are bigger than stock, there is more rotational inertia. With that said, the lighter rim does reduce unsprung weight, it does provide a better contact patch and the low profile tires do help with handling.

But, I can't seem to think that 19's can ever be considered "performance". 18's are the highest. For people looking for only performance, they would probably go with a 17x8 forged rim that is MUCH lighter than stock and does not increase the diameter.

All that said, I still like 18's.

 

ummm, not true my friend. Rotational inertia is a function of mass. Just because the diameter is bigger does not mean the rotational inertia will be more!