People that dont know how to build or dont like it always have that response. They just cant fathom spending money to make a given car faster since all they know how to do is buy it and drive it back and forth to the store. Nothing wrong with not being into working on them, but they need to stand back and see others perspective.

I like modifying a car and tweaking it in different ways. If I owned a vette, I would want to start doing something (Even if just optimizing it on the track) to it eventually. Right now, I can sure as hell afford to do a lot more to my tC than I could a vette, at least if I keep my priorities straight (saving for my 14 year olds future college, working on the house, etc). But what matters is that we have a car and we like making it faster, different, etc. Ever heard the phrase "its not the destination, but rather the journey" ? Ever just do stuff because you LIKE doing it?

I'm not much into straight line racing (its fun and all.. just not really my thing), but if a guy smokes a car that cost twice or more of what his does... are you really going to say "well.. its fwd though, so it sucks"? Or are you going to say "wow... he made a fwd econobox outrun a much more expensive car" ? I would hope the latter. If not, you are just all about looks, brand names, etc.

I would rather have a rwd on a track or autox course personally, but I still love driving my FWD on it.. including putting down faster times on an autox course than well over half the other cars at the event, including some AWD, rwd, much "faster" cars, etc in my naturally aspirated, FWD tC that I have about $1500 worth of suspension work on (only about $2500 if you include the different setups I tried before going to the current one).

I always hear these people say "I would never mod a tC, honda, etc. I will just wait till I can buy a REAL car to do that with". Great... while 90% of those people are waiting 5 or more years to afford that "real", as they call it, car I will have 5 years of fun playing with the one I have and that is paid off. So maybe they can feel all good later saying "well, at least I didnt waste 5 years playing around with that fwd", but personally I would rather have fun now with what I have and then get something else later.

 

^^Amen to that.

 

What if I want to go 7 or 6 seconds in the 1/4? Can your TC still do that?

I like to mod my cars, but I wouldn't spend that kind of $$ on any car. I don't like single purpose cars. I want something that is fast in a strait line, and keeps going fast when it hits a curve. If I was going to spend over $20k on any car, modded or not, that is what I would spend it on. I modded TC will not be good at both, and even if you do pull it off, there are much better cars for the money. I am not loyal to any particular car, so I go for the car I like most at the time, and the best deal I can find.

 

Still missing the point.

So you are saying.. if you didnt have the extra dough to drop on your special purpose car, you would just do nothing instead? I prefer to enjoy motorsports. If that means I mod a $500 pos to run chump car cause thats all I can, or am willing, to spend at the time then I am still enjoying it, not just talking about that purpose built car I will buy one day so I can go race it. In the eyes of "only certain cars can go fast.. and that is only if they are fast out of the box" people, then only rich people or those lucky enough to buy a certain car need apply. That is BS. Some of the fastest cars around an autox course (even nationally) are old econo boxes that can out corner cars $50,000 more expensive (even including mods). But if they all thought like you are describing, then autox would fall to the crap that most autosports do: if you dont have a boat load of cash and a certain car, you dont belong.

I dont want my tC to go 7 or 6 seconds in a 1/4 .. .so there is that answer. I want it to go faster around an autox course and handle well on the street... and it does a pretty good job at that. And with the couple thousand I have put into suspension on it, I can go spend $30 on a weekend and compete with it.. then drive it to work on the weekdays. So while I am waiting to buy that purpose built track car, when that can rise up the priority list in life, I am out having a blast in what I already have. Again, THAT is the point when it comes to autosport.

And you dont want to spend a lot of money mod one car... good for you... dont. you are still missing the point. Some people enjoy taking something and making it do something it wasnt originally optimized for. The design/build is as enjoyable as driving it to most of us. Just because you have your opinion on what you want does not make that everyone elses opinion.

I see so many people that waited till they could afford a porsche or vette to go out and compete ... and drive like grandma in it because they wasted all those years they could have been driving what they had, to whatever level they could take it, or wanted to take it. What must really suck is to own an $80,000 - $100,000 porsche at 50 and run 10 seconds slower on a 1 minute course than a guy in a $20,000 scion tc because you never learned how to drive in all those years you "didnt own the right car to compete in".

I plan to get into a purpose built vehicle in the next few years (most likely a lotus elise or an fmod) but I sure as hell wont waste all the fun I am having currently due to having a false sense that my car cant be fun, building a car is a waste of money, etc.

 

indeed

 

Do you have the funds to support a Pro Drag car? Is so, the answer is yes, but someone has already beaten you to that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djNAtqcwmzI





You won't spend that kind of $$ on any car? You are now shooting yourself in the foot. You just said in your last post that you would buy a Vette for the weekend right?

You = Spend the $$ at the dealership for a high performance car stock

Tuners = Spend the $$ in the aftermarket to make a higher performing car through mods.

In the end = Both Spend $$ to get where they want to be. None is wrong.

And My tC is fast in a straight line with the addition of boost, and it's suspension is upgraded thus fast around turns (no not talking out my butt, I track race on a monthly basis when season hits).

If I'm waxing Evo's STI's...etc in a straight line, and then waxing on Vettes, Porsche at the race track...all the while having invested less money into my car that those cars cost in stock form....how are they much better for the money? When you build them to the MAX sure they are. But not everyone can build a car to the Max, otherwise you would never see a FWD passing a RWD or a RWD passing an AWD.

 

Don't you just love those people. Those are the kind I like meeting at the track all the time. They see a tC passing them and they think I have some monster under the hood, because lets face it..."it's a Scion" as so they would say in their mind, so it couldn't possibly be fast under it's own power.

They make me pop the hood, only to realize I'm running stock HP (stock head, stock air box, full exhaust) and then their mouths drop open. Imagine when I'm back on boost.....

Exert from TROY: "IS THERE NO ONE ELSE!"

 

And in the end most all forget about the driver. I would LOVE to see how many people out there could really drive a 6 second car and make a 6 second run, or even get an Enzo around a track fast without ending up backwards People act like it is easy and all the car and forget that 95% of drivers would still be slow even in those cars. I ran faster times (15+ seconds faster on a 1 minute course) than a Ferarri 399 last summer. Not putting the driver down, he was new to it, but buying a fast car does NOT make YOU fast, ever. It takes experience, seat time, seat time, seat time. And besides, the driver is what it is all about right? Unless you can show me the millions you make today racing your car professionally.

And next I ask you... can YOU build a 6 second car speck.. even out of a Z06? How much do you think that upwards of 2000 hp or more costs these days?

 

^you honestly have on average the longest posts on SL.

 

Driver Mod FTMFW!!!!

Noobs...it's funny because they have heard the saying..."A fast driver in a slow car will beat a slow driver in a fast car". And for the most part they all agree with it. BUT....when they actually see it happen...they call Shananigans! LOL...

A lot of factors in a street race, so noobs will say everything they can think of. Show them a vid passing higher hp cars on a race track though....they simply just go into denial and never recognize the cardinal rule: "A fast driver in a slow car will beat a slow driver in a fast car".

 

I prefer to post full thoughts rather than a bunch of broken up jibberish like a lot do. If the extra reading bothers someone or strains their brain, they can choose not to read it

 

another post that i cant even add 2 but i will X2!

 

yep b13 se-r,ITR,mini cooper s,tC,si,gti,speed 3,and top setup eg6 all super slow cars with suspension around a track and limited b/c of FWD blah blah be like that guy on here and just go buy you a 335i so you feel better and save us the trolling and complaining

 

Or perhaps your just incapable of making your points short and simple

 

Sounds like you want me to dumb it down for you domo?

We like modifying cars, period.

That simple enough for you?

Those of us that make our livings being good communicators like to have detailed discussions at times. If you like thinking in 3 word sentences and reading cracker jack boxes... great for you. I dont follow you around bashing all of your half informed "informational" posts, so maybe you should just leave it at that

 

I am one of those long winded posters as well...raising hand. I got a lot to say usually.

 

First thing, I meant you're*
Second thing, maybe my comment was a blessing in disguise. Whats the opposite of short and simple, long and complex. Long and complex statements require an intellectual to fabricate them. I could possibly be calling you a intellectual. Have you considered that?

Any who, you guys have already made your points clear several times. So much that it has nothing to do with this thread and to point that it has become more of a rant. I understand that you guys are passionate but its unnecessary to justify you're beliefs to a person (Speck) who probably will never conform.

 

Well then maybe I was wrong. I really would like to see a highly modded TC on a real race course (with both tight turns and high speed straits) competing against cars like Porsches, Vettes, GTR's, etc. I don't mind being proven wrong. If of course your car is good at only autox, or only 1/4 mile, well, then you haven't really made your point. If you have some vids showing a TC competing (and when I say TC, I don't mean something with an engine swap or converted to RWD, or AWD which would pretty much make it nothing more than a TC shell) I would like to see them.

 

Search up Chris Rado or Ptuning or Dan Gardner.

 

I notice a lack of some true poser cars... anything that's brand name starts with an H