Six ways to ruin your ride with terrible add-ons
10-21-12, 11:35 AM
#61
Six ways to ruin your ride with terrible add-ons
1) Excessively wide wheels/tires.
On a factory vehicle with factory suspension, couldn't agree more. Nothing wrong with mildly wider, no problem, but, excessively wide, especially on a car not designed for it, is just going to increase unsprung weight. Even with moderate suspension upgrades, changing these things improperly, such as running too aggressive offsets and such, will negatively affect handling and overall performance.
2) Poorly designed aftermarket intakes.
I actually tested this on my IS300 and proved it 100%. Mainly applies to "short ram" style intakes - they do nothing except for pull in hot engine air, increase intake temps and they do nothing for power. The thread can be found in the maintenance sub forum.
3) Knock-off safety components. This week's federal warning about counterfeit air bags in thousands of cars highlights how the advent of eBay and flourishing, cheap overseas manufacturing have contributed to cheap replica parts.
To be honest, I didn't even realize this was an issue... buyer beware
4) Bigger brakes don't improve braking. Even stainless steel brake lines can be a problematic upgrade.
This has been argued already in this thread. If you can go drive your car to, lets say, 60 mph, hammer the brakes and you get ABS actuation, your tires are the braking limiter - brake upgrades at this point will do nothing to shorten stopping distances. Better tires, however, will. Once you hit the speed that the ABS doesn't activate, then you have found the speed that a brake upgrade may help. It is very important that special attention is paid towards brake pad compounds, as they may make initial braking much worse than a stock or street pad. It is very important that the brakes are tailored to the application and in general, race brakes are better for actual racing situation and street brakes are generally better for street situations, imagine that. Many stainless lines are not nearly as good as new OE lines, some, however are. Pick carefully. For anyone who doubts this, I highly recommend reading this article: http://www.zeckhausen.com/Testing_Brakes.htm#4%20Wheel
5) Pointlessly huge exhaust.
Pointlessly huge... 3 or 4" exhaust on a naturally aspirated import. Pointless, to me, indicates that the size of the exhaust is excessive in comparison to the power the engine makes. In these cases, exhaust size can become a problem and actually cause a loss in power during certain engine RPM ranges
6) Rock-hard suspension.
If the suspension is so stiff that the tire loses contact with the ground over small bumps, cornering will actually be lessened. It may still feel faster, but it isn't... Many think that very stiff suspension keeps the tire on the ground and that is partially true, but once it becomes bouncy at all, then you are losing performance
The problem with these listed is that many people ~perceive~ each of these mods to make their car faster, handle better, stop better. The perception is generally due to the car now being louder, rougher, perhaps with better turn in or initial braking bite...
1) Excessively wide wheels/tires.
On a factory vehicle with factory suspension, couldn't agree more. Nothing wrong with mildly wider, no problem, but, excessively wide, especially on a car not designed for it, is just going to increase unsprung weight. Even with moderate suspension upgrades, changing these things improperly, such as running too aggressive offsets and such, will negatively affect handling and overall performance.
2) Poorly designed aftermarket intakes.
I actually tested this on my IS300 and proved it 100%. Mainly applies to "short ram" style intakes - they do nothing except for pull in hot engine air, increase intake temps and they do nothing for power. The thread can be found in the maintenance sub forum.
3) Knock-off safety components. This week's federal warning about counterfeit air bags in thousands of cars highlights how the advent of eBay and flourishing, cheap overseas manufacturing have contributed to cheap replica parts.
To be honest, I didn't even realize this was an issue... buyer beware
4) Bigger brakes don't improve braking. Even stainless steel brake lines can be a problematic upgrade.
This has been argued already in this thread. If you can go drive your car to, lets say, 60 mph, hammer the brakes and you get ABS actuation, your tires are the braking limiter - brake upgrades at this point will do nothing to shorten stopping distances. Better tires, however, will. Once you hit the speed that the ABS doesn't activate, then you have found the speed that a brake upgrade may help. It is very important that special attention is paid towards brake pad compounds, as they may make initial braking much worse than a stock or street pad. It is very important that the brakes are tailored to the application and in general, race brakes are better for actual racing situation and street brakes are generally better for street situations, imagine that. Many stainless lines are not nearly as good as new OE lines, some, however are. Pick carefully. For anyone who doubts this, I highly recommend reading this article: http://www.zeckhausen.com/Testing_Brakes.htm#4%20Wheel
5) Pointlessly huge exhaust.
Pointlessly huge... 3 or 4" exhaust on a naturally aspirated import. Pointless, to me, indicates that the size of the exhaust is excessive in comparison to the power the engine makes. In these cases, exhaust size can become a problem and actually cause a loss in power during certain engine RPM ranges
6) Rock-hard suspension.
If the suspension is so stiff that the tire loses contact with the ground over small bumps, cornering will actually be lessened. It may still feel faster, but it isn't... Many think that very stiff suspension keeps the tire on the ground and that is partially true, but once it becomes bouncy at all, then you are losing performance
The problem with these listed is that many people ~perceive~ each of these mods to make their car faster, handle better, stop better. The perception is generally due to the car now being louder, rougher, perhaps with better turn in or initial braking bite...
On your posted article notice this statement
As before, we did twenty stops, the first ten from 60mph, followed by six stops from 80mph and then four stops from 100mph.* The difference was noticeable even at 60mph.* The stops were several feet shorter than the stock brakes and the rotor temperature was 155 degrees cooler after just 10 stops.* From 100mph, the car stopped 4.3 feet sooner.
this is when big brakes advantage kick in. Because they reduce brake temp and therefore brake fade
10-21-12, 12:22 PM
#62
On your posted article notice this statement
As before, we did twenty stops, the first ten from 60mph, followed by six stops from 80mph and then four stops from 100mph.* The difference was noticeable even at 60mph.* The stops were several feet shorter than the stock brakes and the rotor temperature was 155 degrees cooler after just 10 stops.* From 100mph, the car stopped 4.3 feet sooner.
this is when big brakes advantage kick in. Because they reduce brake temp and therefore brake fade
As before, we did twenty stops, the first ten from 60mph, followed by six stops from 80mph and then four stops from 100mph.* The difference was noticeable even at 60mph.* The stops were several feet shorter than the stock brakes and the rotor temperature was 155 degrees cooler after just 10 stops.* From 100mph, the car stopped 4.3 feet sooner.
this is when big brakes advantage kick in. Because they reduce brake temp and therefore brake fade
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