Monk
Well-Known Member
I just finished referring to a post and after responding, thought, this may be an interesting discussion to start a full thread about. So the jest of it is, do ppl that buy/own one type of powered car think that the ones that aren't like theirs are less of a car to want to spend time and money on modifying.
The question(statement) was why bother putting a full money/time tuned exhaust and waste it on a R18(which I own, by the way, just a R18 not the one they were referring too).
This was my answer(copy/paste) brought over to this tread..........
"I can't possibly see why it's too much for an R18, it's making any engine/car preform better than the way it was manufactured, is how we've gone from having a 2 ton engine block under the hood of a car to what we now have with smaller engine blocks, short strokes, etc. How will we ever get more power with less wt. if we don't try to make the smaller engines preform better??????? "
The reason I thought to make this a thread was, I've noticed this trend since I 1st started getting into 4 bangers back when I was about 23 in the year of 1968, I had just arrived to be stationed in England and had a "bunch' of money to buy a car with(coming from a war zone my monthly pay was not being spent, since there was nothing to spend it on), anything from a brand new Morgan, TVR, Lotus Europa, Triumph TR6(or 250), and I could go on, but my choice was a Triumph Spitfire(motivated from when I was a kid and a man that lived up the street took me to VIR(racetrack) in his TR3 which looked a lot like the Spitfire I bought as opposed to the boxy TR6 which could eat me for lunch on the straights and possibly on a not too tight curvy road, but few could come close to winning on a very tight road or circuit. Anyway England for the next 3+ years of my life I'm driving on roads at the speeds that are not legal in the US(except divided straightened out Highways), And I'm on the roads with ppl that not only know how to drive they do it with a good attitude(like playing cat and mouse with someone on these back roads where you'd be lucky to take some of these turns at 30 mph, but the speed limit at that time was 70 unless going though a small Village which was posted 30, so as we play we finally come to a fork in the road to go our separate way, but instead of shooting each other the finger, we'd wave with a smile as to say thanks for the chase.
So back to the point, I've gotten to where I want the smaller, lighter, less powered cars because there are differences between them that having the smaller types is a more personal bond with me than a over powered car that I don't have to plan further ahead to get what I want out of it, with mine I have to use a lot of momentum and pre-thought to get to the point a power engine can get to by just stomping on the gas. Like drag racing vs a road course. I just happen to like the tighter turn type racing which the cars I've chosen to buy were good at being faster in than the bigger block cars can handle. Now days it's gotten to where they make lighter engines/cars that can compete and win against the less powered slightly lighter cars. Even so the thrill of having the less powered engine is still something I actually enjoy. Needless to say I've been listening to this for 45 years and it hasn't fazed me to want to get the bigger engine.
Now there are ppl that get smaller engines for their cars that just want something cheap and will get good gas mileage, but there are also ppl that are into them for different reasons, and it's something that is openly discussed among ppl of the same need. I got into a sports car club while in the UK, and they had TT, autocross, gymconers(spell check isn't fixing this word), get on tracks like Silverstone, Brands Hatch where they release two cars at a time to do 3 laps on a real race track, or we do the cone courses, and road rallies, etc. and when not in our cars we talk about what we like about our cars and how we can out do some other car that has a big block. BUT.... It never crossed my mind that I have best or worst, but the one I wanted.
I think some time ppl tend to not see the other side of the coin with someone that likes a car that's not the same as theirs........ Like ppl that wear their baseball caps with the bill on the front or back.
So if you have anything you'd like to add to this, on how you feel about your choices of selection of your cars, feel free to speak up.
The question(statement) was why bother putting a full money/time tuned exhaust and waste it on a R18(which I own, by the way, just a R18 not the one they were referring too).
This was my answer(copy/paste) brought over to this tread..........
"I can't possibly see why it's too much for an R18, it's making any engine/car preform better than the way it was manufactured, is how we've gone from having a 2 ton engine block under the hood of a car to what we now have with smaller engine blocks, short strokes, etc. How will we ever get more power with less wt. if we don't try to make the smaller engines preform better??????? "
The reason I thought to make this a thread was, I've noticed this trend since I 1st started getting into 4 bangers back when I was about 23 in the year of 1968, I had just arrived to be stationed in England and had a "bunch' of money to buy a car with(coming from a war zone my monthly pay was not being spent, since there was nothing to spend it on), anything from a brand new Morgan, TVR, Lotus Europa, Triumph TR6(or 250), and I could go on, but my choice was a Triumph Spitfire(motivated from when I was a kid and a man that lived up the street took me to VIR(racetrack) in his TR3 which looked a lot like the Spitfire I bought as opposed to the boxy TR6 which could eat me for lunch on the straights and possibly on a not too tight curvy road, but few could come close to winning on a very tight road or circuit. Anyway England for the next 3+ years of my life I'm driving on roads at the speeds that are not legal in the US(except divided straightened out Highways), And I'm on the roads with ppl that not only know how to drive they do it with a good attitude(like playing cat and mouse with someone on these back roads where you'd be lucky to take some of these turns at 30 mph, but the speed limit at that time was 70 unless going though a small Village which was posted 30, so as we play we finally come to a fork in the road to go our separate way, but instead of shooting each other the finger, we'd wave with a smile as to say thanks for the chase.
So back to the point, I've gotten to where I want the smaller, lighter, less powered cars because there are differences between them that having the smaller types is a more personal bond with me than a over powered car that I don't have to plan further ahead to get what I want out of it, with mine I have to use a lot of momentum and pre-thought to get to the point a power engine can get to by just stomping on the gas. Like drag racing vs a road course. I just happen to like the tighter turn type racing which the cars I've chosen to buy were good at being faster in than the bigger block cars can handle. Now days it's gotten to where they make lighter engines/cars that can compete and win against the less powered slightly lighter cars. Even so the thrill of having the less powered engine is still something I actually enjoy. Needless to say I've been listening to this for 45 years and it hasn't fazed me to want to get the bigger engine.
Now there are ppl that get smaller engines for their cars that just want something cheap and will get good gas mileage, but there are also ppl that are into them for different reasons, and it's something that is openly discussed among ppl of the same need. I got into a sports car club while in the UK, and they had TT, autocross, gymconers(spell check isn't fixing this word), get on tracks like Silverstone, Brands Hatch where they release two cars at a time to do 3 laps on a real race track, or we do the cone courses, and road rallies, etc. and when not in our cars we talk about what we like about our cars and how we can out do some other car that has a big block. BUT.... It never crossed my mind that I have best or worst, but the one I wanted.
I think some time ppl tend to not see the other side of the coin with someone that likes a car that's not the same as theirs........ Like ppl that wear their baseball caps with the bill on the front or back.
So if you have anything you'd like to add to this, on how you feel about your choices of selection of your cars, feel free to speak up.
