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Tuner Craze becoming popular?
I came across an interesting thread as I was forum surfing this afternoon that really resonated with me and I felt like I would take this opportunity to point out some interesting changes going on within the vast automotive community. Some of what I want to talk about is seen around here on autolog but never the less, it’s still an annoying issue.
The topic was how the “tuner craze” was becoming more mainstream as time goes on. Those of us here in America love our cars and we always will. Still, there seems to be a movement within the teenage generation (16-20) that is geared towards cars, tuning, racing, and modifying cars. Still, there’s a very visible gap between those who pretend to know cars (who I love to call posers) and those who do know cars.
So before I go ripping into people who often fall into the “ricer” category, where do I stand in my experience? I would still consider myself a moderate when it comes to experience with cars, racing, and modifying vehicles. There’s much that I’m now capable of doing but there’s still a lot I haven’t done. Anyone who knows me knows I never claim to know everything, but I know a little bit about a little bit.
What seems to be happening is a rampant case of these people openly lying about modifications, about their car’s capabilities, and telling false stories about cars they have “wasted” or “raped” on the streets. These people usually can be easily spotted because half the time they can’t tell you anything about their mods or any details about the races they claim to have run. The whole problem feeds off of itself with people recycling stories their friends told them while of course making up stuff to fit them.
It seems like two major lies are always told. You ask these victims of the Fast and the Furious what they have done to their car and they always reply with intake, exhaust and headers. Naturally of course they claim these parts give them 100 wheel horsepower in gains and they are out wasting Evos, G35s, and 350z’s.
In various discussions I’ve had with other tuners here in Arizona, it seems like mile per hour is something they always have to talk about. Most of the time I hear about them racing on the highway and how they did 160mph outrunning some cop or something. I was shuttling a couple teens (17 and 18) around a local driving hotspot and the two major questions I was asked was “what does this car top out at?” and “dude, do you ever drift this thing?” of which I just shake my head and laugh. Interestingly enough, these young souls soon learned I didn’t have to do 160mph to make them scream like little girls.
One of the people who posted in this tuner crazed thread had this to say:
“Just today I had some kids going on and on about how the only true AWD Evo is the AMS Evo and that none of the others are AWD. They all know AMS for some reason and tried to tell me all kinds of nonsense about the AMS cars. I actually got my car tuned there and know a lot about their cars and have seen them in person a few times. Then I had some kid telling me how he put an Evo engine in his Talon (not possible) and has a whole bunch of Evo mods. That's the other one, engine swaps... I've had people ask me if I have a swap. What the hell am I going to swap into an Evo...”
Probably one of the greatest laughable excuses I’ve heard from someone was that they were not “rice” because they have done 145 MPH before. Sorry but top speed of anything doesn’t matter, if your car is poorly put together with pretty crappy modifications then it is what it is. The minute you start talking anything specific from fuel pumps, injector sizes, tuning applications or suspension theory they start to crumble under the weight of their own ignorance.
The lying doesn’t stop at modifying cars but also spreads over into racing. Some of these people simply cannot stop talking about all these supposed cars they race. A GTO driver talked about a story with a Honda S2000:
“Some young nut swinger with his friend in a yellow Honda s2000, obviously modded, lowered, with flat black OZ rims, monster fart can, racing seats, etc rolls by me. He looks over at the GTO, looks at his friend, and does the "jerking off" hand thing, laughing at me.
God does his thing and we get stopped at a loooong light. I'll save you all the details of the conversation, but it started off with me asking "Is it fast?" This absolutely infuriated the little 'roid boy. I asked him about what mods he had, saying "I don't hear a supercharger or turbocharger, so you must be N/A". Some way or another, he couldn't get it through his thick skull that if he choses to play to my advantage and go against me straight line, he is going to get his ass handed to him if he isn't boosted (I do know there are some evil fast FI S2K's out there). He's pissed and almost screams at me "IT'S GOT A FULLY BUILT SPOON RACING ENGINE DUDE!"
I'll end my little story with two words. ‘Bus lengths’”
The other half simply just doesn’t show up to races or avoid the subject all together. There’s a million variations from these supposed tuners who say they can “Waste” you yet have no working vehicle, or they talk about how their friend can waste you. Yet, when these people get called out they have a million excuses why they can’t race.
A win for your friend is NOT a win for you. Get your own car.
The only way this can be fought is by exposing the ignorance and encouraging these people to learn what they are talking about. The key is to read, research, and seek help with your car. There are tons of clubs and organizations with very experienced people who are willing to help you learn to work on your car provided you show genuine interest and a willingness to help yourself.
As for the rest of these people, no doubt they will continue to haunt real car people on the highways looking for that 10 second race that always seems to take 20 seconds or so.
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