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My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

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361–370 of 456 posts

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

#361

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,…

There is a saying "The smallest dog barks the loudest". Those that make the most noise to be seen are the most insecure in their position in the world.

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

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cute, but you haven't really lived until you've ripped an apocalyptic burnout in front of the dude that's been tailgating you for the last N miles. Trading ~1k worth of tire wear for coating the front of their car with rock chips and molten asphalt is a damn good deal.

$1K? And I thought my tires were expensive, damn...

Lok 1k miles worth of equivalent tire wear, but you got me curious and it looks like a set of z-rated motorcycle tires is about $700 these days so not off by much.

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

#363

Hi everyone, I am the author of this Corolla essay. My friend who works in the tech industry told me it was posted here. Thank you for reading it! I never expected a silly essay about a Toyota Corolla would gain this much traction, but it is what it is. It also made the LA Times, but in an abridged version. Here's the link: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-06-22/fast-furiou... I'm not sure if this is going…

> I was using hyperbole for fun

I think people are just missing this. It was pretty obvious to me, but hey.

Cool article and glad you like the car!

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

#364
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sure I see that any different than the typical American behemoth truck/SUV blocking all lines of sight to everything other than a 12 wheeler. And to top it off, they can't take a corner and so they all seem to slam their brakes and cause a traffic jam at any interesting corner. All to transport one person by themselves from home to office and back.

Here in Europe, fat American-style SUVs are still somewhat rare, especially outside cities (!). People still can't corner worth shit in their "regular" sedans. And I say this as a pretty chill motorbike rider. I've lost count of the number of Golf GTIs and similar behind which I have to wait around when riding on roads that aren't perfectly straight. And these cars should have better cornering ability than my fat bik…

Sometimes I wonder whether going excessively slow around corners is a symptom of people pushing their steering wheel from the side opposite the direction of the curve instead of pulling it from the same side into the curve. Just a hunch, but doing the latter usually feels like I have more control.

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

#365

My midlife crisis car would probably be a land cruiser. No need to go fast. Space and chill is best. A 3 cylinder Corolla, regardless of how fast, is just people transportation at best and in the worst inefficient way possible. A normal base 23k usd Corolla , not saying anything against the car mechanically it is a great machine for what it is. Just, overkill. Can’t go fast, need to have higher insurance, it’s more a…

[deleted]

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

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we could ignore them, this thread would not exist. and I support extra legal measures against these people. They do it for the attention and they deserve the attention they will have coming to them. In Seattle they had a guy in Belltown being a nuisance with a loud charger at all hours of the night in an urban setting. They knew who he was and he lived with his mom (lol). I never understood why the community didn’…

>I never understood why the community didn’t deal with it when the police would not. Because if you are the one who actually has to do the violence rather than outsourcing it to the state it becomes clear this isn't a subject worth that violence. Put yourself in the shoes of the guy who has to do the pistol whipping. Unless you've got a badge and a state paycheck and can just blindly live with your actions as "it's m…

When you say enforcement isn't worth it, you end up letting the most inconsiderate people with some of the worst decision making set the tone for society.

It's also pretty likely that the state violence will be a threat rather than a literal pistol whipping. Harder for the vigilante to make that work.

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

#367

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,…

I read "midlife crisis" as "old guy trying to impress much younger girls" and then a cheap-ish car modded to be fast, furious, and obnoxiously loud seems like it might just work. Plus it's probably an amazing toy that can also be enjoyed solo. And as long as there's enough attractive women who are impressed by loud cars, there will be guys with loud cars. I also dislike loud cars. But I'm at a loss as to how one woul…

Is this the kind of pull request you were looking for? https://youtube.com/shorts/QiOGH6JtL5E

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

#368

Hi everyone, I am the author of this Corolla essay. My friend who works in the tech industry told me it was posted here. Thank you for reading it! I never expected a silly essay about a Toyota Corolla would gain this much traction, but it is what it is. It also made the LA Times, but in an abridged version. Here's the link: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-06-22/fast-furiou... I'm not sure if this is going…

I enjoyed reading it. Expression and culture through hardware modification and engineering.

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

#369
post #256

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,…

I remember some friends talking about motorcycles, and one was wondering how much horsepower you could get out of a Harley Davidson motorcycle. And another friend quipped, "You don't tune a Harley for power, you tune it for noise!" Back to tuner cars, I've always thought the perfect invention would be a tuner-car-audio-experience-device. Basically, a device that you plug into the cigarette lighter and it uses some me…

Many modern cars do this due to how quiet ICE are now. Oftentimes the fake interior noise is awful. I pull the modules that inject the fake noise, it makes the interior much quieter. YMMV.

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

#370
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 see this all the time where I live. People doing their grocery shopping in their super stanced out civic, having to find a route around the speed bumps because they literally can't go over them without high centering. Yeah, it looks sick. But it's completely impractical for daily driving, and quite frankly you are putting both yourself and others at risk the moment you blow a tire going 80 on the freeway and lose c…

Why would you blow a tire? What are you on about? It's dangerous to blow a tire in any car.
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