Thread: Always a crossroad, when do you draw the line?

Every year the group of guys I hang out with start modifying their cars. At first it is something simple. Turbo, cams, or bolt-ons. But every year it goes farther and farther until they have a gutted, loud, dedicated race car. When do you guys draw the line?

There is always someone with more power. Always someone faster. I have been getting feedback from a few guys telling me that I should be going for 800-900whp. The Castrol challenge put a DET making 820hp or so and my friends want to see me dominate that number with a VE. I COULD but I don't think people realize what they sacrifice when they do that. Is it worth having a 10 sec car way the hell up here in Utah if you can't drive it every day?

A lot of my friends are wanting me to go with E85. It's a "pump" gas and is really cheap. But it is only available in 1 gas station locally and it is sorta out of my way. Plus 740cc injectors are only good to 400whp on E85.

I could make more power, but I would have to sacrifice driveability, emissions, gas mileage etc. A stronger motor needs stronger axles, stronger clutch, big slicks... My setup now is good for just over 500whp and I am going to hit that goal soon.

I would like to think that my car is about as good as it gets, except I have no AC. The car drives amazing, handles well, stops well, and gets good MPG. Even when pushing tons of boost and making 400whp+. What can I do to make my car great?

What makes a car great? Being fast? Driving it every day? handling? And when do you draw the line between going fast, and having a race car?

It all depends on the person. Myself, I see cars driving around all day long that can beat mine, but I'm happy with what I got (or will have ).

I feel this is really a personal goal within that, once you get pushed and pulled by friends or magazines, you lose sight of your personal goal. Keepin up with the Jones' is not really something people should aim for.

For me, what's next? I would want to get a AWD Sentra imported from Mexico (forget the model name down there) and go all out with a AWD conversion to my car, but what's the use?

I'm not going to be John Force or some huge street racer. I will be happy that my car runs, which keeps a smile on my face when it does. LOL

I really don't like the idea of a fast sh!tbox. A car has to be complete, I personally like that every button that came with the car works. It is not that difficult to make a fast car, but it is difficult to make a properly good and fast street car. A car that you can actually use everyday, go and pass emissions and still every time you floor it, smashes your neck against the headrest.

Thats what im trying to do with my car, even though its being a pain in the ass with the tubular manifold I'm still keeping the A/C, P/S, and all that nice stuff. A car has to be complete, I like complete projects, good engine, mint interior and paint, great brakes, and good suspension, thats how a car should be done if you really want to call it a street car. A VVL helps a lot on that, because of the small lobes on low end, you have a car with a proper idle, that doesnt stall or has crappy low end torque, that doesnt waste lots of fuel and has descent emissions.

^^^ right on. I feel like I am left in the dust by all my friends and their faster cars, but I have put more miles on my car in the last week than they have in the past month, or two months even!

to me what makes a car great is being able to drive it and it be comfortable, i think a car with 550whp un gutted would be nice, you build a 800hp car you are gonna be spendin so much dam money on safety equipment,i say build it for 550whp on high boost 400whp on lower boost, my car isnt gutted, has everything in it except front and rear bumper supports, ac and ps

What are you friends driving?

Is this a daily driver?

I don't like the idea of having a high hp car that you have to tow around because you can't legally drive it either.

I personally think that having 400+ whp is pretty pointless if you can't put it down to the ground. Aka loosing a lot of power in 2nd gear because you have no traction. Maybe working on improving traction would make your car faster without having to worry about increasing HP? If you really want a project, what about an AWD setup?

Lastly, you shouldn't mod your car because your friends have faster cars, but you should do it so that you can enjoy driving the car. My DET is not going to be as fast as other forum member's cars, but as long as I get a smile on my face when I press the gas, I will enjoy it

Bagato is exactly correct, the car shouldn't sacrifice it's comfortable things in order to make it faster, this is why I still have AC, the more original features that the car has then better it is.

I'm actually considering doing major sound deeding too reduce noise and add weight to the car (If I'm alone 1st and 2nd gears are useless, if I have a passenger 2nd gear is really nice!! )

I wish I still had AC, but a new compressor is rediculously expensive. Since mine decided to seize up I decided to make it weight reduction.

My friends have all sorts of cars. STI, EVO, All-trac celica, Talon, and a bajillion civics.

I want to still be competitive, but how can I compete on the track with a completely gutted car? Even one with only 250 hp? I'm not trying to be the fastest, but rather I want to ride the line as finely as possible. I want to be faster than a ZR1 vette, but have four doors.

Traction is a simple thing to fix. I have been running on all-seasons for the last year. No doubt some big sticky tires will fix any traction problems I have. Brake-boosting in 3rd results in tire smoke.

It would be nice to make 500whp on this motor with these cams and still be able to put it to the ground.

yeah true, having a nice fast street car that is comfortable is optimum but not all of us have the money to do so. So instead of spending money on parts first, while i save up i can freely gut out my car and gain just as much if not more in the 1/4 mile. But then again my car is my daily and its fully gutted, VE running an SSAC 2.5" header open dp right under where i sit. Yes its hella loud, but it performs, hell i just took a 200 mile each way trip and at 80mph the drone is sooooo loud that next time i go im taking a set of earplugs (seriously) it was really hurting, haha. 65mph is fine and fairly quiet but anything above 3500rpm the tone of the exhaust changes drasticly.

Again this is my daily until i do get a daily. But i will be boosting this motor here soon so the exhaust will be much quieter sounding (still running open dp) and make 300whp. But again when my car was turbod it wasnt near as loud as it is now both running open being the turbo quiets it down quite a bit. But hey i like my car to be fast, its still. comfortable to drive with the suspension i have and mods it has but its even faster, And the car still looks decent. The dash and door panels are still in, just the carpet and sound deadning material is gone. And back seats. I guess its really up to the person with the car. To each his own

the trick is always reliability. You can make tons of power but if it will not hold up you are wasting money and time. From my own experience fwd cars that make 500whp are useless on the street. Traction is always a issue and you if you end up getting traction then you break trannys and other parts. If this is your daily driver don't mess with it. If you want 4 doors and fast buy a Q45 or J30. The q45 can make stupid amounts of power its also rwd but its heavy. The J30 is also a good choice because its cheap its rwd and has a vg30de in it already. Take either car and send the tranny to level 10 and make stupid power with 4 doors.

So far I am working on 11000 miles on this setup and I have had zero issues with the exception of burning through my rubber coolant lines. I have lots of heat wrap now

If anything this setup has proven to be extremely reliable. Enough to make 400 mile trips with zero issues. And averaging 30mpg on the freeway too.