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My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

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Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#271

Post by missinglugnut »

jerlam wrote: post #71
brokenodo wrote: post #11

I love cars and driving them. But the modded Corolla/Civic/Accord/Camry (why) people have always driven me crazy because their mods often seem directed to inflicting their cars on everyone else, with loud exhaust, subwoofers, and (subjectively) garish cosmetics, rather than things that make it actually good to drive . I recognize this is judgmental and it's unhealthy to always be annoyed at these people on the road,…

Many of the mods make the car worse in everyday environments, outside of a pristine track. After I got into my friend's modded-out car, we had to slow to walking speeds to exit the parking lot because it would bottom out on the curb cut. The same happens with speed bumps. Large rims get damaged on potholes that a normal tire and rim combo would just shrug off. Add a few years to your life and you don't want to crawl…

I mean mods are always about tradeoffs. You're generally not smarter than the team of engineers that designed it, but you probably do have different goals, that's where the opportunity to improve an aspect of the car comes in.

I think it should be done with a clear understanding of what you're giving up, but some people don't want to put practicality first and that's okay.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#272

Post by bluedino »

FatherOfCurses wrote: post #48
brokenodo wrote: post #11

I love cars and driving them. But the modded Corolla/Civic/Accord/Camry (why) people have always driven me crazy because their mods often seem directed to inflicting their cars on everyone else, with loud exhaust, subwoofers, and (subjectively) garish cosmetics, rather than things that make it actually good to drive . I recognize this is judgmental and it's unhealthy to always be annoyed at these people on the road,…

So much of American car/motorcycle culture seems to be about that nowadays. And it's not limited to the Japanese mod scene, either. Loud exhausts everywhere - pickups, domestic V6/V8's, motorcycles. Super-bright headlights/aux lights improperly mounted or operated, blinding you at night. Stereos you can almost feel before you hear them. All these guys (and let's face it, it's 90% guys doing the irritating stuff) are…

> Loud exhausts everywhere - pickups, domestic V6/V8's, motorcycles.

> Super-bright headlights/aux lights improperly mounted or operated, blinding you at night.

> Stereos you can almost feel before you hear them.

So no different than 30 years ago.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#273

Post by numpad0 »

GenerWork wrote: post #33

You'd think that on a website that has the word "hacker" in its title, more people would be supportive of someone "hacking" their car, but I guess there's not a lot of car people here.

But a lot of car "hacking" is like installing RGB fans back to back so they whine louder. Which is totally a made up strawman argument that nobody is making, but also not hacking.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#274

Post by bluedino »

com2kid wrote: post #85
vitally3643 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even automobiles. The entire concept of American masculinity is about inflicting yourself on as many other people as you can. The more insufferable you are, the more "manly" you are. Or maybe it's an attention thing. Like a dog chewing your new shoes for attention, these people feel insecure when they aren't the center of attention, and making everyone around you mad and annoyed is still better than no atten…

Counter point - driving down the beach in a convertible with good tunes blasting and the sea breeze in your hair is fun . Like yeah it sucks for everyone listening, but if every other car is blasting tunes it isn't out of place. Some beach drives are known for this, right place at the right time. When I visited Floria Keys I sure as shit rented a convertible and played bass thumping EDM as I drove over the ocean. Hel…

> Counter point - driving down the beach in a convertible with good tunes blasting and the sea breeze in your hair is fun.

The annoying thing now is the guys with the full dresser bikes or Polaris Slingshots that have 2500W stereos installed.

You can be all the way down by the water and hear their music clear as day, as they are idling through traffic on the A1A

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#275

Post by lapetitejort »

compass_copium wrote: post #164
lapetitejort wrote: post #8

My ongoing midlife crisis vehicle swerves in a different direction: I bought a 1988 Nishiki 1207 at a yard sale for $40. Mostly stock save for a new seat. With the wheels out of true, the stickers plastered over with garbage, the brakes loose, the front tire visibly cracking, the rear cassette visibly rusted, and the rack mounts stripped, the bike needs some work. I am motivated to finally really learn bike maintenan…

It's a rewarding project! I fixed up a freebie old Schwinn roadbike a few years ago and it's so much fun to ride. I have a freebie Nishiki too waiting for a decision on what to do with it--touring bike or fixie conversion. Enjoy the time turning wrenches and then on the road!

I added a MIK rear rack with pannier rails. I bought a seat post collar with screw holes in order to attach it, only to realize the bike doesn't have a seat post collar! And the collar was 1/4 inch too wide for the seat post. I wedged some green tire protection strips in there and it works great. I biked home two full panniers and a watermelon in a basket from a farmer's market. Bad idea in retrospect as the whole bike wobbled from being back-heavy. And the kickstand cannot handle even the slightest amount of weight. I might invest in front pannier rails. So I guess I'm going in the touring bike direction!

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#277

Post by PunchyHamster »

caconym_ wrote: post #104
not_kurt_godel wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is also, believe it or not, possible to own a moderately loud car (even with a modded exhaust) Not legally in many places. California limits exhaust levels to 95 dbA or less, and I'm betting that OP's mods violate that given that "ATAK exhaust systems produce the highest dB (decibel) levels in the Borla line" [0]. Washington state prohibits modifying exhaust "in a manner which will amplify or increase the noise…

If people want to roast this guy for installing annoying aftermarket noisemakers then I will not try to stop them. I mean to address the (plenty of) more generic comments like this one: --- A GR Corolla goes 0-60 in 4.9 - 5.4sec. My unexotic stock electric does 0-60 in around 4.8sec, +/-. So the same performance that requires a stupid amount of wasted energy as heat and noise can be had from stock electric, with a co…

> So the same performance that requires a stupid amount of wasted energy as heat and noise can be had from stock electric, with a couple hundred ms leftover. Do you care about performance, or do you just want to just fart out a bunch of noise?

The flaws are the point. Keeping within power band while rowing the gears while the engine is yelling is entire point of manual ICE sports car. Or a motorcycle for that matter

Also GR Corolla is for zooming around the race track, not hitting 0-60 times, and it has roots in GR Yaris which is homologation special WRC car.

>I get traditional car culture,

I don't think you do

> but electrics embody the "money talks, wealth whispers" truism.

And I don't think it does. Raw performance (at least the straight line one) in EV is after all cheaper.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#279

Post by bradlys »

> Forget Vin Diesel. Asian Americans Are the Heroes of Import Car Culture

Jfc. We're posting this wokescold crap on HN.

I say this as someone who is buying an Ariel Atom this weekend. I'm an enthusiast as much as anyone. Acting as if Asian (viet) Americans in SoCal were the only fucking people into Japanese cars is insanely retarded.

Nearly no one in tech or on HN is viet compared to the massive Chinese population in SV - so why is this even getting traction here?

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#280

Post by b40d-48b2-979e »

hnav wrote: post #230
b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad the handling is shit. It's too heavy. This is why I kept my motorcycle for when I want to have fun on the road.

also the ride, and the interior is not great though post-covid all the other manufacturers except the japanese are speed running to that same interior setup

Yeah, I'm waiting to sell it for an EV minivan to come out. The Mercedes VLE looks interesting. I was hopeful for the VW Bus, but it's just underwhelming.
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