Keep in mind, this blog is written from the point of view of a 35-year-old that began tuning his cars when most of today's tuners were entering preschool...
I tricked out my first car back in 1994: a 1985 Mazda 626 coupe. All I'd done was drop a 15” subwoofer in the trunk and slapped a twin-tailpipe on the car's stock, piddly muffler.
I graduated to bigger and better things in time and did a few engine swaps, but never more complicated than replacing a VW 1.8L 8v with a 2.0L 8v. I'd done cams, exhaust, intake and brakes as well as some audio. Suspension mods were the most common changes I'd bring to a car by replacing the coil springs or sporting coil-overs.
The gains, overall, were modest. But then again, my budget was the same. Also, remember that these were the turbo-deprived late '90s and early 2000s. Unless you had big $$ or a VW 1.8T, you were practically walking, which I was. But, I was proud because my baby was built, not bought.
It would seem as though times have changed. I recently visited a local hangout (the Orange Julep in MTL) where my buddies and I used to take up the far rear corner of the lot every Tuesday night. As a now official OG modder, I was shocked to see more “bought” mods over “built” ones.
Air suspensions (very cool) are all the rage, but you've got to be very well-equipped at home to pull off this install. Turbos are now a dime a dozen and most of them are done to the Ts. And you gotta run 19” with massive stretch or you don't deserve a second glance. From what I can tell, shops are doing the work. It's like it's all gone to the posers. We had some 10-12 years ago, but they were the minority. (It could also very well be that I'm jealous as all hell.)
There are still some modders out there who toil over their cars, and I applaud them. These peeps typically run older cars that require more mechanical, grease-and-grimy manual labour. I like to think that I was once one of them.
Thing is though that I've gone soft now and couldn't really imagine myself getting back into doing hard time under a car like I used to. I think I would go “bought” today...
What about you? Do you build or buy?
I tricked out my first car back in 1994: a 1985 Mazda 626 coupe. All I'd done was drop a 15” subwoofer in the trunk and slapped a twin-tailpipe on the car's stock, piddly muffler.
I graduated to bigger and better things in time and did a few engine swaps, but never more complicated than replacing a VW 1.8L 8v with a 2.0L 8v. I'd done cams, exhaust, intake and brakes as well as some audio. Suspension mods were the most common changes I'd bring to a car by replacing the coil springs or sporting coil-overs.
The gains, overall, were modest. But then again, my budget was the same. Also, remember that these were the turbo-deprived late '90s and early 2000s. Unless you had big $$ or a VW 1.8T, you were practically walking, which I was. But, I was proud because my baby was built, not bought.
It would seem as though times have changed. I recently visited a local hangout (the Orange Julep in MTL) where my buddies and I used to take up the far rear corner of the lot every Tuesday night. As a now official OG modder, I was shocked to see more “bought” mods over “built” ones.
Air suspensions (very cool) are all the rage, but you've got to be very well-equipped at home to pull off this install. Turbos are now a dime a dozen and most of them are done to the Ts. And you gotta run 19” with massive stretch or you don't deserve a second glance. From what I can tell, shops are doing the work. It's like it's all gone to the posers. We had some 10-12 years ago, but they were the minority. (It could also very well be that I'm jealous as all hell.)
There are still some modders out there who toil over their cars, and I applaud them. These peeps typically run older cars that require more mechanical, grease-and-grimy manual labour. I like to think that I was once one of them.
Thing is though that I've gone soft now and couldn't really imagine myself getting back into doing hard time under a car like I used to. I think I would go “bought” today...
What about you? Do you build or buy?