A case for no MODs
Cobra Member
Joined: November 27, 2004
Posts: 1,303
Likes: 2
From: Albuquerque, New Mexico
If you carefully read the article, ALL of the problems he actually talked about where from riced cars. Slammed, rock hard springs, rims larger than the stock tires, etc. I do not doubt in the LEAST that will complely HOSE handling.
One thing that confused me was his comment on brakes. Ok, I admit that I do NOT pay much (if any) attention to the rice crowd. I have no idea what they are doing these days with brakes. If they follow the trend with the OTHER stuff they are doing, I have no doubt they are screwing things up pretty good. BUT!
Take a look at Baer. This company is putting out VERY good aftermaker brake upgrades. These are complete kits with everything you need to make a dramatic improvement in your car.
For example, one of the Saturday car shows (Horsepower TV or it's like. Can't remember) were working on a late model Firebird (its top of the line version that replaced the FireHawk). They had already upgrade the tires and rims (lighter rims, 18" and very sticky rubber if my memory is correct) and the stock brakes had recently been rebuilt with all stock componenets. They were in good shape.
The factory brakes stopped the car right were they expected: 167 feet from 70 mph. Then, they pulled the stock brakes off and replaced them with a Baer kit that had larger rotors front and back and new calipers. (expensive kit). They broke the brakes in and went back to the same test site. The Baer brakes stopped the car from 70 mph in 103 feet! That is a full 1/3 reduction in stopping distance! I just saw an accident yesterday were about 3 feet better stopping distance would have made the difference...
Next example of positive aftermarket parts: lower control arms on our babies! There have been LOTS of folks that had problems with wheel hop. They upgraded the lower control arms and it is all good! Plus, most have reported that the ride is not adversely affected.
So, while I agree with him on the over the top crap, I DO think there are lots of little things that can be fine tuned to fit each individual car owner. And these tweaks WILL increase performance, but generally at a cost (small or large) of ride quality due to NVH.
One thing that confused me was his comment on brakes. Ok, I admit that I do NOT pay much (if any) attention to the rice crowd. I have no idea what they are doing these days with brakes. If they follow the trend with the OTHER stuff they are doing, I have no doubt they are screwing things up pretty good. BUT!
Take a look at Baer. This company is putting out VERY good aftermaker brake upgrades. These are complete kits with everything you need to make a dramatic improvement in your car.
For example, one of the Saturday car shows (Horsepower TV or it's like. Can't remember) were working on a late model Firebird (its top of the line version that replaced the FireHawk). They had already upgrade the tires and rims (lighter rims, 18" and very sticky rubber if my memory is correct) and the stock brakes had recently been rebuilt with all stock componenets. They were in good shape.
The factory brakes stopped the car right were they expected: 167 feet from 70 mph. Then, they pulled the stock brakes off and replaced them with a Baer kit that had larger rotors front and back and new calipers. (expensive kit). They broke the brakes in and went back to the same test site. The Baer brakes stopped the car from 70 mph in 103 feet! That is a full 1/3 reduction in stopping distance! I just saw an accident yesterday were about 3 feet better stopping distance would have made the difference...
Next example of positive aftermarket parts: lower control arms on our babies! There have been LOTS of folks that had problems with wheel hop. They upgraded the lower control arms and it is all good! Plus, most have reported that the ride is not adversely affected.
So, while I agree with him on the over the top crap, I DO think there are lots of little things that can be fine tuned to fit each individual car owner. And these tweaks WILL increase performance, but generally at a cost (small or large) of ride quality due to NVH.
FR500 Member
Joined: May 18, 2004
Posts: 3,202
Likes: 0
I defnitely agree. There are good mods and bad mods. The dope who wrote the article was trying to knock modding in general and saying that all of it is bad. Reading that article was a complete waste of time, and I honestly don't believe more than about 5% of it. The guy is obviously over exaggerating everything to emphasise his point. Edmunds should find writers who state facts rather than their inflated opinions.
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