Previously the exclusive domain of gearheads in grease-stained overalls, or jocks wanting to impress the popular girl at school; car tuning has taken on a life of its own! It is like the question of, How much do you bench? has been replaced by, How fast can you get from 0-to-60? And with mainstream media gladly latching onto every aspect of this high-octane subculture, C5 Corvette parts show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
A decade ago, though, things were not looking quite so optimistic. Speed-junkies the world over caught wind of the fact that one of Japans leading names in the automotive enhancement industry, Trust, was going out of business for good. It seems Japanese sports cars had become a luxury. And too impractical with all the turmoil brewing in the global economy. Plus, with environmental affairs making headlines, many prominent public figures got behind the push to go green. Hybrid cars some even solar-powered were finally being allowed onto public highways, to the utter dismay, and even disgust, of petrolheads everywhere.
Fortunately, Trust going on to cross the finish line of that great drag-race in the sky produced no real domino effect, since even GReddy is going stronger than ever. But there is been evidence that the tuner revolution, which started doing doughnuts barely a couple decades ago, might still be slowing down due to the complexity of what is found under the hood of modern production cars.
In simpler times, one could invest in a simple turbo kit and chip, and that would be enough to leave most road users eating ones proverbial dust. But with the vehicles coming off the production lines these days, it is sometimes necessary to reengineer, (practically) the whole vehicle just to get some semblance of the performance achievable in days gone by.
The technology in this example would be the vehicles ECU, or electronic control unit a fancy way of saying onboard computer. Should it malfunction, not only might it result in an automobile stalling to a halt in the middle of traffic on a busy freeway, but one might not even be able to roll down a window since most windows also function electronically these days.
One might start by getting their control unit performance-tuned. Which implies reprogramming it to incorporate any mechanical enhancements that have been made. While not necessarily a necessity for ensuring the smooth running of your engine, not applying due diligence to the ECU could invite a whole host of seemingly random (not to mention, annoying) little malfunctions. Which, if not promptly tended to, could open one up to even bigger problems down the road.
Being capable of greater rates of acceleration than a vehicles been designed for, is bound to place more strain on the smooth functioning of the suspension and braking mechanisms. Which is yet another factor to be taken into consideration when hopping onto the tuner car bandwagon. Of course, the simpler and potentially safer approach to vehicle modification would be to simply start with the exterior.
So, unless a person is actually planning on racing for pink slips (another racers cars paperwork), one would be wise to start slow; start simple. A generic tune-up could do wonders to improve ones gas mileage and overall vehicle performance. Replace the air filter. Change the spark plugs. Sometimes it is the littlest things that make the biggest difference. But if after all that, one still wants to get a little more oomph out of their vehicle then, and only then, might it finally be time to graduate to the big leagues can you say, SUPERCHARGER, beee-yaaach??
A decade ago, though, things were not looking quite so optimistic. Speed-junkies the world over caught wind of the fact that one of Japans leading names in the automotive enhancement industry, Trust, was going out of business for good. It seems Japanese sports cars had become a luxury. And too impractical with all the turmoil brewing in the global economy. Plus, with environmental affairs making headlines, many prominent public figures got behind the push to go green. Hybrid cars some even solar-powered were finally being allowed onto public highways, to the utter dismay, and even disgust, of petrolheads everywhere.
Fortunately, Trust going on to cross the finish line of that great drag-race in the sky produced no real domino effect, since even GReddy is going stronger than ever. But there is been evidence that the tuner revolution, which started doing doughnuts barely a couple decades ago, might still be slowing down due to the complexity of what is found under the hood of modern production cars.
In simpler times, one could invest in a simple turbo kit and chip, and that would be enough to leave most road users eating ones proverbial dust. But with the vehicles coming off the production lines these days, it is sometimes necessary to reengineer, (practically) the whole vehicle just to get some semblance of the performance achievable in days gone by.
The technology in this example would be the vehicles ECU, or electronic control unit a fancy way of saying onboard computer. Should it malfunction, not only might it result in an automobile stalling to a halt in the middle of traffic on a busy freeway, but one might not even be able to roll down a window since most windows also function electronically these days.
One might start by getting their control unit performance-tuned. Which implies reprogramming it to incorporate any mechanical enhancements that have been made. While not necessarily a necessity for ensuring the smooth running of your engine, not applying due diligence to the ECU could invite a whole host of seemingly random (not to mention, annoying) little malfunctions. Which, if not promptly tended to, could open one up to even bigger problems down the road.
Being capable of greater rates of acceleration than a vehicles been designed for, is bound to place more strain on the smooth functioning of the suspension and braking mechanisms. Which is yet another factor to be taken into consideration when hopping onto the tuner car bandwagon. Of course, the simpler and potentially safer approach to vehicle modification would be to simply start with the exterior.
So, unless a person is actually planning on racing for pink slips (another racers cars paperwork), one would be wise to start slow; start simple. A generic tune-up could do wonders to improve ones gas mileage and overall vehicle performance. Replace the air filter. Change the spark plugs. Sometimes it is the littlest things that make the biggest difference. But if after all that, one still wants to get a little more oomph out of their vehicle then, and only then, might it finally be time to graduate to the big leagues can you say, SUPERCHARGER, beee-yaaach??
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