Modified cars

[Aspergers_Aspie]

Maybe there needs to be a law regarding youngsters with their modified cars, their extremely loud exhausts can really frighten people, aspies can have sensitive sensory issues

 

[Raggamuffin]

There is a decibel limit - but it still allows cars to be obnoxiously loud and fall within the legal limit.

Ed

 

[clg114]

I have read that loud exhaust is a US thing and that it frowned upon in Europe. Can any of our European members comment on this?

 

[Raggamuffin]

In the UK - most car culture is for aesthetic looks: oversized alloy wheels, large exhaust back boxes, spoilers, stickers, slammed suspension etc. Most of it actually detracts from the cars performance. A common site is white men in their late teens/early 20's driving these cars. The one's with rich parents are often driving in newer or even brand new hot hatchbacks. But still - they add tacky aftermarket parts and excessively loud exhausts.

Often boy racers congregate in car parks late at night, to meet or make a nuisance of themselves. As far as I can tell - loud exhausts on cars are very common in the modified car community. Whilst it's more common with younger drivers - it's still quite a common site with older people.

I have had car projects myself, but they were always sleeper cars which looked completely standard from the outside. I never had loud exhausts, because having a large bore backbox adds little to no performance.

Changing over the exhaust manifold from the engine and a high flow cat adds the biggest gains and doesn't change the sound of the car much at all.

Personally I find most car modifying groups to be immature and obnoxious. They drive too fast, do pointless traffic light racing, drifting around roundabouts in the rain and blasting incomprehensible music through massive subwoofers that make the whole house shake when they drive past. Absolute tools.

What's interesting is that you rarely see these sorts of people on track days. If you want to modify your car - ditch the aesthetics, focus on performance and take it to the track - not racing around the streets putting other people's lives in danger.

Ed

 

[Gerontius]

When I hear the racket from a car that's had its exhaust cancelled, and the engine's barely making enough compression to pull the car forward from a dead stop, I always have to laugh at the driver, but not for long...because I'm usually out-running him, in a completely stock and rather worn out Toyota from the 90s.

Really, if you want a hot-rod, at least make it go fast.

 

[Thinx]

We've got a young man lives near who soups up cars, he's sometimes heard zooming out of the car park near his flat with a loud engine. Not often enough to be really annoying, but it does worry me how fast he drives as there are families with young children on this road, and older people crossing, plus the cats of course. Wow there he goes now!

Bikes are another noise issue, young ones ride them in the river park area, and it erodes the paths as well as being dangerous and noisy. But it's fair to say, where can they go with them? They tend not wear helmets either, unwisely.

 

[Ezra]

When I hear the racket from a car that's had its exhaust cancelled, and the engine's barely making enough compression to pull the car forward from a dead stop, I always have to laugh at the driver, but not for long...because I'm usually out-running him, in a completely stock and rather worn out Toyota from the 90s.

Really, if you want a hot-rod, at least make it go fast.

I'll have you know my glasspack Civic does 0 to 25 in 90 seconds, thank you very much.

 

[FreeDiver]

When I hear the racket from a car that's had its exhaust cancelled, and the engine's barely making enough compression to pull the car forward from a dead stop, I always have to laugh at the driver, but not for long...because I'm usually out-running him, in a completely stock and rather worn out Toyota from the 90s.

Really, if you want a hot-rod, at least make it go fast.

Hot-Rods of the future may soon become silent. If you ever drove an electric car, especially a Tesla. Those cars have some serious 0-60 performance, and the cool part is, there almost totally silent.

 

[Thinx]

Hot-Rods of the future may soon become silent. If you ever drove an electric car, especially a Tesla. Those cars have some serious 0-60 performance, and the cool part is, there almost totally silent.

Good when I'm in my house, bad if I'm on the road and don't hear it coming...

 

[Ezra]

Hot-Rods of the future may soon become silent. If you ever drove an electric car, especially a Tesla. Those cars have some serious 0-60 performance, and the cool part is, there almost totally silent.

I've heard they added some sort of simulated sound to them as a safety feature so pedestrians can hear them approaching.

 

[Gerontius]

Hot-Rods of the future may soon become silent. If you ever drove an electric car, especially a Tesla. Those cars have some serious 0-60 performance, and the cool part is, there almost totally silent.

I've seen a few of the Tesla automobiles out on the road and they are absolutely silent, tend to run perfectly, and look like forty thousand bucks...which I haven't got, so I like to sit & watch them go by. They're wonderful cars.

One day I'm retiring the old gasoline car. Can't exactly buy a Tesla because they're too complicated, defy the right to repair, I simply haven't got that kind of money, and well, I don't like Musk's personality and politics. But I love electric cars, know a thing or two about spare parts...time to build something that will do what I want for a car. Probably going to take a bunch of early Ford parts and a forklift motor, do my own bodywork, and come up with something close to a Detroit or Milburn electric.

I don't expect more than about forty or fifty miles an hour but that's OK. If I live somewhere people are going that fast, it's too fast for me.

One of these days I'm hoping to drive a modern electric though!

 

[FreeDiver]

I've seen a few of the Tesla automobiles out on the road and they are absolutely silent, tend to run perfectly, and look like forty thousand bucks...which I haven't got, so I like to sit & watch them go by. They're wonderful cars.

One day I'm retiring the old gasoline car. Can't exactly buy a Tesla because they're too complicated, defy the right to repair, I simply haven't got that kind of money, and well, I don't like Musk's personality and politics. But I love electric cars, know a thing or two about spare parts...time to build something that will do what I want for a car. Probably going to take a bunch of early Ford parts and a forklift motor, do my own bodywork, and come up with something close to a Detroit or Milburn electric.

I don't expect more than about forty or fifty miles an hour but that's OK. If I live somewhere people are going that fast, it's too fast for me.

One of these days I'm hoping to drive a modern electric though!

I agree. Tesla is kind of like the "Apple" of electric cars. I don't like the philosophy behind it, but you can't deny the fact that they are innovating and leading the way with electric cars. And just like Apple invented the first personal computer and smart phone. They too lead the way in innovation. Give it some time and the industry will settle down on standards and every car maker will start churning out EV's. I'd say within 10 years, half the cars on the road will be electric.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

I have read that loud exhaust is a US thing and that it frowned upon in Europe. Can any of our European members comment on this?

I've never noticed any loud cars but painfully loud motorbikes are a thing here (UK).

 

[Sherlock77]

Electric cars are faster off the line because the power is direct, any other engine has lag... That's why some of the exotic cars are moving towards hybrid or even full electric in some cases...

I know that in Europe there is a move to electric conversions of classic cars, because of possible rules that might be fairly aggressive around rules for cars...

Here in North America I'm seeing some of that, but a little slower, there is one person here in Calgary who recently converted a 1974 VW Super Beetle to electric

I know you guys probably hate this, but I think (I know) that the people with classic muscle cars enjoy the sound and feel of their gas engines, because people are wired for sound... Same goes for the tuner crowd in my estimation...

 

[Sherlock77]

... Give it some time and the industry will settle down on standards and every car maker will start churning out EV's. I'd say within 10 years, half the cars on the road will be electric.

I'm not convinced of how practical electric cars will be in a place like western Canada, where communities are spread far apart, you would need massive range from the batteries... In particular when I go out onto the prairies I tend to drive back roads more than the main roads (that's where the best photos are) and electric would be useless for that

I think that places that have higher population density make more sense for electric vehicles, I have a small subcompact with a small engine and stick shift, it gets great fuel economy, even buying an electric car doesn't make sense for me...

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

There's a motorcyclist in my block who has woke me up sometimes, it's worse at night, a few nights ago at 11.15pm with his particularly loud motor cycle outside my window, being on the ground floor it's so loud!
It has woken me up I have sleep problems as it is

 

[Gerontius]

I agree. Tesla is kind of like the "Apple" of electric cars. I don't like the philosophy behind it, but you can't deny the fact that they are innovating and leading the way with electric cars. And just like Apple invented the first personal computer and smart phone. They too lead the way in innovation. Give it some time and the industry will settle down on standards and every car maker will start churning out EV's. I'd say within 10 years, half the cars on the road will be electric.

And I agree--but philosophical differences mean I can't buy new Apple products either LOL. I use a Mac from like ten years ago.

The new Tesla is pretty sweet but "status symbol" isn't what I want for a runabout. I want "reliable, efficient, straightforward," not a glitzy Yuppie Special that screams, "I bought this car with money saved from my avocado toasts I didn't eat; it's programmed to flatten pedestrians instead of hit walls, now move, peasants!"

But yes, Tesla is pioneering the science & showing just what's possible in the electric passenger car. Bollinger is fixing to make some pretty cool trucks soon in the electric line, if someone wants a genuinely incredible 4x4.

 

[Jumpback]

Thumping car bass has been a thing with primarily minority members in US cities for 25-30 years.

One time I was seriously impressed as all the glass in the apartment windows vibrated and one could feel it like in ones bones and everything seemed to shake a little.

 

[WildCat]

Yeah, the whole bass blasting is nothing new to me. Grew up with that most of my life, and then of course you have those with the best (or the worst according to this thread) of both worlds. Some of these people could register a 10 on the Richter scale if they tried hard enough. Definitely not friendly to those with sound sensitivity.

 

[clg114]

We've got a young man lives near who soups up cars, he's sometimes heard zooming out of the car park near his flat with a loud engine. Not often enough to be really annoying, but it does worry me how fast he drives as there are families with young children on this road, and older people crossing, plus the cats of course. Wow there he goes now!

Bikes are another noise issue, young ones ride them in the river park area, and it erodes the paths as well as being dangerous and noisy. But it's fair to say, where can they go with them? They tend not wear helmets either, unwisely.

You are very right about the helmets. I used to race motocross and later two of my sons raced. In the racing community, they have a name for people who ride without helmets. "Organ donors."