why do car scene guys lower their cars to just a few mms off the ground?

minislim

im an ex "boy racer". well when i say "racer" its use the term loosely!

back in the day my car was so low to the ground that like many others who've mentioned on here there was actually little chance of going faster than 30mph as you car rattled so much due to the stiff suspension.

skinny tyres on masive alloys made that ride even worse. but skinny tyres cost more than the thicker ones!

that and coupled with the poor standard of british roads. hitting a pothole would probably write off the car too.

also had a noisy exhaust as well. sounded good at the time. but looking back i realised my fuel economy dropped.

daft thing is these car companies spend millions on research and development on their cars to give them the optimum performance.

what did i do? waste more money on pointless modifications and ruin a perfectly good car!

i've learnt my lesson though now. sensible cars from now on!

Weird_Nev

They don't have to be THAT sensible. There's always room for a bit of excitement/joy in life. But ruining a good car with poorly thought out modifications isn't fun, it's expensive and a waste of time.

Gloomendoom

Weird_Nev wrote: »

They don't have to be THAT sensible. There's always room for a bit of excitement/joy in life. But ruining a good car with poorly thought out modifications isn't fun, it's expensive and a waste of time.

But they still have fun doing it.

Weird_Nev

Fun for me is when a car is moving.
And not dangerous.

Standing around in a field? you may as well have bought a caravan.

Limey

Weird_Nev wrote: »

Standing around in a field? you may as well have bought a caravan.

Just spent my weekend in a big field in Kettering with lots of modded Japanese cars. Was a good giggle although I didn't look at many cars, it's more about catching up with friends and having a good laugh for me. :cool:

londonTiger

Gloomendoom wrote: »

But they still have fun doing it.

What's fun about modding the car? If you want to have fun just get all the money together that you want to spend on mods and sell your current car and get something faster.

My guess is that it's just to show off and fit in by appearing different. If you were the only 20 year old and weren't part of the "car community" you would not attempt these mods. They're purely for looking good amongst peers.

There's nothing fun about spending all your wages on crap after market suspensions and alloys that are too big and heavy for the car that destroys any bit of power it had.

I guess it's no different to people elsewhere in society, like these idiots before the 2008 bubble burst that used to get into £20K+ worth of credit card debt on buying clothes so they can appear fashionable amongst friends.

Limey

It's fun when the feedback is that bit better, the turn in a bit sharper or the throttle response that bit quicker.

I enjoy swinging from spanners working on cars almost as much as I enjoy driving the finished product.

I'd rather have lighter alloys, better suspension (for my driving style) and less weight in the car as a whole.

It would be a boring old world if we were all the same Tiggs.

Weird_Nev

Limey wrote: »

Just spent my weekend in a big field in Kettering with lots of modded Japanese cars. Was a good giggle although I didn't look at many cars, it's more about catching up with friends and having a good laugh for me. :cool:

JAE is more of a social event though. I'm on more about the "show car" scene. Dubbers in particular have got it bad at the moment, though it's seeping into Hondas too.

Limey

Weird_Nev wrote: »

JAE is more of a social event though. I'm on more about the "show car" scene. Dubbers in particular have got it bad at the moment, though it's seeping into Hondas too.

Good point, did you go this year?

There were more than a few slammed Honduhs with stretched tyres there. :rotfl:

londonTiger

Limey wrote: »

I'd rather have lighter alloys, better suspension (for my driving style) and less weight in the car as a whole.

The lightest wheels you can put on the wheels is the factory steel wheels. It's a huge misconception the alloys make the wheels lighters. The lightest affordable alloys in the market today (the oz superleggera and team dynamics pro race 1.2) are a tad bit heavier than steel wheels.

Just putting your wheels on the scales will tell you which is lighter, but for some idiotic reason modders think alloys are ligher, common sense will tell yoy that a 3mm sheet steel will not be heavier than 14mm thick alloy spokes.

This is why trackday cars generally use steelies (budget car races) and specialist racing wheels that are a couple more mm thicker than steel wheels.

Some trackday cars will use this thin spoke alloys like team dynamics pro race but I've seen plenty of these go on ebay due to cracked spokes - they don't work on powerful cars and break.

Just something I have to respond to, because I recently took off the heavy alloys and put steel wheels back on and noticied a huge improvement in fuel economy and response.

Just handling the wheels as you take them off and replace them should immediately tell you which is heavier and which is lighter.