Archive for June, 2007

Here you are faced with the issue of defining what it is that you say you want as opposed to what it is that you are actually willing to put up with to have it. How many of us have fantasized about owning a Ferrari? And yet the image you may conjure up of ripping down a twisty section of road on Monaco has about as much to do with Ferrari ownership as does driving the Rubicon trail for most of the SUVs you see at the local strip mall. When you factor in about $5,000 in routine maintenance appointments, $400 for tires, and crawling in bumper-to-bumper traffic with no safe place to park when you finally arrive, the reality of what it must be like for regular folk to own and drive a Ferrari every day sinks in — and the next time you find yourself drooling over one on the freeway, you might even feel a tinge of superiority — especially when you see an elite Italian exotic disabled at the side of the road or on the back of a flatbed while you drive past in a dependable little Japanese econo-car.
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Related but separate from the issue of deciding whether a car is appropriate for its intended purpose(s) is deciding how far you are willing to go to meet your goals, and which areas you want the car to excel in versus those areas in which it need only be passable.

Set realistic expectations for the scope of the project, and then set a realistic time frame and budget for accomplishing those goals. Of course, in your heart of hearts, you would like the wonder car that does everything well and always looks perfect, but for most people, it is a matter of picking the categories in which it is most important for the car to excel, and then setting a timeline and a budget for meeting those objectives. Trying to do it all is the most certain way to either disillusionment or disappointment.
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Pick the right tool for the job. On a micro level, this adage applies to all of the tools you need to meet your performance goals. On a macro level, it also means that your car should be the right tool for how you intend to apply it. If you want to create an autocross dominator, a Lincoln Continental may not be the best starting point. If your goal is drag racing, unless you are trying to make a statement, leave that Hummer at home. Of course, there are even less drastic examples, and more subtle shades of gray when identifying both an appropriate starting point and your intended outcome. This chapter helps address the evaluation process that precedes any successful car modi- fication plan.
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If there has been a point to the Monster Garage television series on Discovery Channel, it is that, given enough time, money, and talent, anything can become pretty much, well, anything — from an RX-7 sand rail to a Formula 1 road stripe painter. However, just because something can be done doesn’t always mean it should.
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You can’t please everyone, but the main question at hand is what makes a car “cool,” and when is it appropriate to mod a car in an effort to turn it into something arguably better than its humble origins would have indicated it ever could become.
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You’ve probably heard this argument before: Why would you even consider fixing up your car when it will always be slower than fill-in-the-blank faster car? Sometimes this argument makes sense, but often it doesn’t.
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