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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

#391

Post by tristor »

joshu wrote: post #375
tristor wrote: post #125

My midlife crisis is also cars. I'm in the process of searching for an honest to god mechanic's shop to buy under an LLC just so I have a better place to work on cars than my garage. I have a list of 8 cars I want to own and restomod, all of which probably nobody else cares about, and that's completely fine. There are some vehicles that just speak to my soul, and I want to experience the best possible iteration of th…

what’s the list?

In no specific order, per se, but kind of this order, here's my 8:

1. 1986 Toyota MR2 AW11

2. 1996 Mazda Miata/MX-5 NA

3. 1990 Porsche 944 Turbo S

4. 1988 Pontiac Fiero GT

5. 1995 Mazda RX-7 FD

6. 2007 Lotus Exige S

7. 1994 Autozam AZ-1

8. 2013 Acura TSX Sport Wagon

I'm a big Toyota/Mazda fan, currently drive a Mazda as my primary vehicle, previously drove mostly Toyotas, and I have a love affair with 80s and 90s sports coupes, the lighter the better. I also happen to think the Acura TSX Sport Wagon is criminally underrated as one of the best wagons to build on, thanks to coming with the K24 and in a gorgeous Vortex Blue Pearl.

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

#392

Post by hnav »

ashdksnndck wrote: post #379
hnav wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's meant for spirited driving. If it wasn't so expensive it'd be an amazing car for tooling around on gravel roads with some skidplates. Electric won't take you out to the boonies, you can't bring more juice with you and ultimately an electric package that will consistently produce 300hp while weighing 3200lbs does not exist. As far as Land Cruisers's I feel that the externalities of those and other neo-vintage box…

Have you driven a Land Cruiser? They’re substantial better than the average pickup truck on most of the issues you listed. For example, the current F-150 crew cab which is the most popular vehicle in the US is 3 ft longer and has a taller hood. So it’s a little weird to single out a niche SUV as the worst thing on the road. Modern Land Cruisers handle pretty well, while the old ones with live front axle are harder to…

I'm mostly just lamenting people gravitating towards living rooms on wheels. Makes roads worse for everyone, esp peds and cyclists.

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

#393

Post by ErroneousBosh »

swasheck wrote: post #331
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exhaust on my old Range Rover split between the catastrophic converters and the first silencer, leaving it completely open. The novelty of it sounding like the start of Jerry Was A Racecar Driver hadn't entirely worn off before I welded it up, I guess, but I'm not about to go around attracting attention to myself. Not when I could see it making plate glass shop windows vibrate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkE…

catastrophic converter is such a hilarious autocorrect.

It's not an autocorrect. These things are terrible.

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

#394

Post by joshu »

tristor wrote: post #391
joshu wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what’s the list?

In no specific order, per se, but kind of this order, here's my 8: 1. 1986 Toyota MR2 AW11 2. 1996 Mazda Miata/MX-5 NA 3. 1990 Porsche 944 Turbo S 4. 1988 Pontiac Fiero GT 5. 1995 Mazda RX-7 FD 6. 2007 Lotus Exige S 7. 1994 Autozam AZ-1 8. 2013 Acura TSX Sport Wagon I'm a big Toyota/Mazda fan, currently drive a Mazda as my primary vehicle, previously drove mostly Toyotas, and I have a love affair with 80s and 90s spo…

that’s a good list. i also collect japanese beaters (currently several miatas, an ae86 and an s13) and british lightweights (two vintage lotus racers and a modern aston factory race car) so lots of overlap.

i have been looking for a 944 as well. there’s a great porsche shop across from my workshop so at least it will be convenient.

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

#395

Post by [deleted] »

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,…

[deleted]

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

#396

Post by tiew9Vii »

floatrock wrote: post #13
voidUpdate wrote: post #3

> "Now from the rear it looks like four black bazookas are hidden below the bumper and on start-up it sounds like a fire-breathing dragon" Ah yes, the "everybody in a 3 mile radius must know how much I spent on my exhaust"-mobile

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 couple hundred ms leftover. Do you care about performance, or do you just want to just fart out a bunch of noise? I get traditional car culture, but electrics embody the "money talks, wealth w…

Your unexotic stock electric car drives and feels like a white goods appliance though.

Sure electric in raw numbers wins on top trumps.

This is fine for a lot of people who want to go to A to B and car is just a tool to do that

Cars like the GR Corolla are about the engaging driving experience, the road feel / handling, the gear shifts, usable power, not outright top speed. It's a machine and some people like mastering controlling the machine and that mastery makes them smile, some even find fun.

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

#397

Post by lnsru »

mfkp wrote: post #265
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.

I absolutely can't stand the suspension on Teslas, some of the worst ride quality of any modern vehicle.

I think, Tesla experimented a lot with suspension. Early models had some bad design and bad quality things. I bought my car when model Y facelift news were leaking everywhere. Suspension and stock wheel alignment were well done. Interior quality is not that good though.

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

#398

Post by prmoustache »

criddell wrote: post #175
jerlam wrote: 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…

But it's fun to mod the car and you get to drive around in an art project. My dad did basically the same thing during the 1950's and 60's hot rod culture. This is more or less what his car looked like: https://www.hotrod.com/features/1932-ford-roadster-the-golde... He never had a lot of money to spend on it but he did have access to car parts and was a gifted mechanic. One of my favorite memories was going out for a…

"art project" <-- eyes rolling collectively

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

#399

Post by voidUpdate »

tiew9Vii wrote: post #396
floatrock wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 couple hundred ms leftover. Do you care about performance, or do you just want to just fart out a bunch of noise? I get traditional car culture, but electrics embody the "money talks, wealth w…

Your unexotic stock electric car drives and feels like a white goods appliance though. Sure electric in raw numbers wins on top trumps. This is fine for a lot of people who want to go to A to B and car is just a tool to do that Cars like the GR Corolla are about the engaging driving experience, the road feel / handling, the gear shifts, usable power, not outright top speed. It's a machine and some people like masteri…

What kind of white goods appliance? My washing machine is very different to my fridge, in basically every way, other than it being white goods

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

#400

Post by voidUpdate »

caconym_ wrote: post #29
floatrock wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 couple hundred ms leftover. Do you care about performance, or do you just want to just fart out a bunch of noise? I get traditional car culture, but electrics embody the "money talks, wealth w…

Your "unexotic stock electric" is boring as shit to drive and corners like a boat. Stomping on the throttle and going very fast in a straight line is a big marketing point for modern EVs with an excess of power (and usually weight), but there's a reason the concept of a "driver's car" exists, and if you think it's just about making noise then you really, really, really don't understand why people buy them.

I'd love to understand why people buy cars to make noise with them then. Because making a car sound broken seems to be the goal of a lot of "car people"
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