Just out of curiosity, what are all of your long term goals? I'm not talking about how much money you've spent or plan to, or what parts you plan on putting on your car.

The reason I ask, is I just felt the need to vent (not in a bad way). I've been "modding" my cars for about 10 years now. I've tried to stop several times but I just can't I consider it my only vice. Unfortunately, it is probably one of the most expensive legitimate hobbies out there.

Currently, my goals are a few subtle, tasteful, conservative mods. And as much track time as I can afford/ find time for. I came to the conclusion that in the vast majority of cases, the car is vastly superior to driver skill. I consider myself an above average track driver (who doesn't ), but if I ever get to the point where I have used up all the potential of the car, then I can reevaluate.

My story, in a nutshell: Bought turbo AWD Eclipse. Modded the hell out of it. Big debt. Couldn't get it tuned to where I wanted it. Sold it. Bought a more practical but fun car, vow to stop mods. Bought a bike. Came to my senses, sold bike. Bought Z32 TT. Modded the hell out of it. Big debt. Spent way too much time tuning. Did everything I wanted to do with it. Won awards. Went to the track. Sold it. Bought practical car and vow to stop. Get the bug again. Buy a bike. Have fun, then come to my senses, sell the bike. Buy an M3 (aha, this one's already modded!) Have a ton of fun. Get realistic, sell the M3, keep the practical DD. Vow to stop. Can't stop. Order a 350Z. Here I go again.

In one sense, it's as bad as ever. I already have Stoptechs and exhaust here, and wheels on the way, and I don't even have the car yet. I am insane. But, I'm not going to go too much farther. I now subscribe to the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid. I have learned my lesson (hopefully). While I love to see outrageous modded cars, I've come to be more impressed by people who can really DRIVE their cars. Hope to see you out there.

 

I find myself forced to spend my money on something(its a habit:P)

it can be the car; or something else... but I just like to get new toys... I actually try to find new "cheaper" hobbies such as RC planes and the like. things I can use more often(things Id do more often than me being at the track) without spending so much.

doesnt mean I DONT want stuff for the car; just try to distribute the money around...

 

I am in the process of taking the best parts of each intake and creating a super intake. That is my first project.

Then I am planning to finish polishing my throttle body. And the rest of metal in my engine bay shortly after that.

I just bought some vinyl from blue batmobile to black out every light on my car.

And in development is a push button starter on the shifter. I really like that idea, I just need to find the proper covered switch.

I am waiting for my Crawford plenum to be made. It will be a version 5.

And after that, I think I'll buy some wheels, and coil over, followed by a full exhaust.

That's my prospectus for 2004, but if I have a good year at work, I'll probably scrap it all and go FI.

 

modding cars = waste of money
going into debt to mod cars = stupid

sorry.

just had to say it.

invest in RE!

 

I agree wholeheartedly. But, you have to enjoy life, and for some, this makes life enjoyable. Not the best decision financially, but as my "advisor" says, money is for spending!

I will never go into debt over mods again. That was youth and stupidity.

 

its addictive. I've done a lot more than I ever intended to, and everytime I try to stop, something else comes along. I'm on a 'super-mod' kick right now, my car has been on jackstands for a week, installing:
crawford plenum/strut bar (thanks raceboy!) - waiting for it
new led smoked sidemarkers - done
jdm sport horns/stock horn hybrid setup - done
jdm underseat lighting - pending
eibachs - done
infiniti basslink in stock location - done
redoing my black headlights due to some smudging inside - curing

 

my mods did Not put me in debt(I make a good living) But I am almost done(I think). but after I get done with the 350Z I want to get a 240Z or 300ZX and start all over.


Hello, My name is Chazz and I am a Modaholic

 

I believe in the "Mod to Make it Mines" mentality.
This is where you change little things here and there to suit your needs and style and to make it unique from the pack. However, too many people carry it overboard and mod just to impress and make it different. Sometimes "differen't" doesn't neccessarily mean better.

All in all, it's a hobby enjoy it. Screw people who think it's just a car when you're passionate about it. If it wasn't in our nature to be expressive we'd all subscribe to wearing grey business suits and have the same haircut. ya know what I mean...

 

im quite a mod junkie myself? i mean its only money, you cant take it with you when you die?? i look at it like this "id rather have no money in my pocket and be happy, than have a bunch of money in the bank and be sad!" money is just paper! i like to turn it into things i can play with! playing with money itself isnt much fun?? now car parts, i can actualy enjoy!! but i couldnt spend my self into debt?? id rather just save for my TT, than take out a loan! just my $.02. ps. my wife is the exact opposite! she enjoys money in the bank more than toys! the sence of security to her, is her enjoyment! i guess it just depends on the type of person you are?? but the REAL CHALENGE is to have one of each kind of person in a faimly, and keep them both happy!?

 

You might consider paying for a good driving school to teach you how to drive your Z better. Let that dictate future mods, if any, and have more fun with the car. I've had my Z for 16 months and know I don't have the skills to probe its limits. I have no modding plans other than fixing the ride/bounce with Konis in March. I may take my own advice and try a driver's school sometime in the future.

 

For me, it is the process of thinking it all through before modding. I love the research process. Of course it is also fun to add the mods.

I could be wasting money of drinks or drugs. To me, this is a positive hobby.

A house is just a bunch of wood, a car is just metal as well. In 100 years, none of it will matter. Even if you make a million and give it to your kids, they will not apprecite it because they did not earn it.

Life is a journey to be experienced. Whatever makes you happy, do it. You only go around once.

 

Exactly- Enjoy life while you have it.

My first sports car was a 95 Eclipse. I modded the CRAP out of the thing, until I couldnt stand too look at my painted interior anymore(I was 17 LOL) SO I bought a 2001 Prelude. Told myself I would just lightly mod it. SO I did some basic stuff, watned more speed, bought a turbo kit, installed it, blew the engine in one night, spend 9 months hand picking every part of a new fully built motor. In the process of breaking the new motor in, worth about 15k (planned to put down about 450fwhp) the timing belt tensionor broke and crunched up the internals. Sold the turbo kit, put a stock motor in it and sold it. Bought a BMW Z3 and told myself that I wouldnt touch it. Had it for about 6 months and couldnt stand not modding it, there were so little performance parts for the Z3 I went and bought a 350z, and here I am- tons of parts on order already :-)

Z3's still sitting in the driveway too-

Chris.

 

Well, the Z is my first sports car (but I've always wanted one, either a Z or an RX-7).

I plan on keeping the Z for another 5 or so years (it will have 130,000 miles on it by that time) at which point I hope to get a C6 Z06 Vette.

I keep wanting to mod the Z, and try out the Stillen Headers, Crawford Plenum (or lsdunique), Stoptech 13" Brake Kit, Koni shocks, 350 EVO Sways, high flow cats, and Borla Cat-back exhaust. However, there is no way I can do that and still afford the Vette.

Therefore I have decided to stay stock, or perhaps mod as far as the SCCA AutoX rules will allow (exhaust, shocks, and front sways). I've already spent $2000 on race wheels and tires.

So I therefore live vicariously through all those who are actually modding their cars which is why I check this site out practically every day.

Keep up the good work you poor bastards!!

-D'oh!

 

I've been to quite a few driver's schools. I'm hoping to graduate to open track this year. That should have happened years ago, but I do HPDE's so sporadically due to my schedule, it makes it difficult.

 

Sounds like me, and all my cars were bought brand new. Blew up one car's motor using NOS. Had to replace that engine. Bought an 01 Mustang GT, modded it, then some idiot hit me and totaled it. (my insurance co. gave me more than half my money back for all the mods I had done. Save your receipts) Bought an 02 WS6 Trans Am, put about 5g's into the motor. (too fast, only could go in a straight line, couldnt drive it in rain even with 315's out back). Drove the Z got hooked sold the TA bought 350Z.

 

I haven't modded the Z yet and it probably won't get modded, at least for some time, but I get the urge to mod anything that I own. It started with my Skylark, even after changing pretty much every part of the car other than the frame I am still tempted to change things again (hoping to build a twin turbo 455 with 1200 or so streetable HP). Every car I have owned up until now has had at least a performance exhaust system installed within the first year of ownership.
After modding a decent amount of cars I am trying to hold back, a lot of the time the mods make the car fun at first, but after a while you end up with a car that is barely driveable, although very fast. I am trying to keep the mods to a minimum so I don't end up with a car like that again. It really helps having a daily driver that nobody sells performance parts for ('85 Honda Accord), although a weber carb is very tempting...

 

Then you are in serious trouble, excessive modding could be a symtom of mental illness, especially since you can't control it. There must a diagnostic code to satisfy your health insurance that you need serious therapy. Maybe you could get your counseling and some of your mods paid for, you know, like quitting substance abuse.

 

Well said, all I have done to my cars is add Clear Side markers, and tint.

 

This is a rather fascinating post thread.

I am really in the same camp as zland on this one. It is the thought process and research that is the challenge, and enjoyable in its own special way. That is followed by the experience of driving the car with the new addition, and then trying to learn how to use and implement the mod, developing additional personal skills as a driver to truly appreciate and use the increased capability of the car.

And there are at least two ways to appreciate it, one is in the context of a street legal and safe transporter, and the other (for me) as a track experience where its higher limits, and your own, may be developed and applied. There are very challenging balances of high performance with street civility and enjoyment (wrassling an 8lb Tilton flywheel equipped car in LA freeway traffic would be over the line on that criterion for me, for example)

Aesthetic mods are always fun to look at, and I truly enjoy checking out what other people are doing with wings and lambo doors and stereos and lighting.........but I really will not spend a penny on that. Appreciate the fun they are having and really do respect it. But could not bring myself to do those types of things, but then again, to drop a wad of cash on a limited slip differential is no problem at all.

This is my first mod car ever. Had some fun cars, but never touched them with mods. Just a time in life to do it, it seems. Always thought about it. Remember, they say on your death bed it is not the things you did that you regret the most, it is the things you did not do.

But I have a very specific plan and objective, and I am almost complete with the pre-scripted plan of modifications. They are specific, they are extensive, but they are very very focused. That is to have a "stealth" car that is essentially not visibly performance enhanced, interior or exterior, but which will hold its own on the road with almost anything you could buy anywhere else, for a lot less money, and yet still maintain a measure of comfort, luxury and utility on the streets. It is of course a very personal set of standards, and compromises.

To get there, each mod has been done in series, rather than in clumps. That way I could separate the experience changes discretely from each other. And, hopefully, learn more in the process. Takes more time to get it done, however.

Basically the target completion is the first week of February, and then up to the track it goes. Hopefully I will not bend it too badly in the process.

When you see the car from outside, basically should not be worth a second glance as being different. When you see the inside, or even sit in it, again, nothing different. The reaction should be, what is the big deal? Then flip open the cubby lids and oooops, what is all this boost and a/f and egt warning meters stuff? Fire it up and now you should have an idea, but not so much that in a parking lot you set off all the car alarms within a radius of fifty feet. Get it rolling and the reaction should be "yikes". But of course, the only one driving it is me.....so this is not for anyone else or for any reason other than pure driving experience.

Not likely that this will happen with another car. A one time excursion into the world of serious mods. But then again, you never know.