Lum wrote:
Insurance is stupidly high for any vaguely interesting cars. When I was 24 I was paying £2200 on my Legacy with 3 years no claims (would have been £4400 if I'd insured it at my Liverpool address), I'm now only paying £1000 (with more no claims, of course)
When I was younger, I would have been looking at a grand to insure, say, an XR3i, and was being refused quotes on an RS Turbo. I also managed to get a 5 figure quote on my dad's C reg jag from the AA.
So yes, I can understand kids tarting up their cars to look more like the car they'd actually want to own. Doesn't stop me laughing at the more badly done and extreme examples though.
I have an issue with some of these points though..
[QUOTE=Mole]It makes my hair stand on end when I see some of these "Lax Power" muppets charging round in their Saxos and Corsas with 18" alloy wheels shod in "BIG BOOTS" proudly displaying their original tiny little brakes through the spokes!
Those wheels wont make much difference to the acceleration of the car. They may give it a little more grip which would add the potential for more acceleration IF the engine is capable of spinning the wheels, which I doubt somewhat. They are less likely to come off on a corner and may stop a little better due to the increased grip (though better gains could be had by not fitting Kwik-fit own brand tyres). Yes the bright red painted brake DRUMS behind the spindly 18" alloys do look comical, but it's not a safety issue.
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As cars get more and more sophisticated, I wonder if they realise what the one-piece front end job will do to confuse their airbag computer in a crash? What the gullwing door conversion will do for their side impact resistance and what the kevlar racing bucket seats will do when their side airbag goes off.
Who cares? The only person going to suffer from this is the driver/owner themselves, and possibly their chav underage girlfriend who was stupid enough to agree to get into the thing.
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I sometimes wonder whether lowering the car 4" and replacing the 195/60/14 tyres with 255/45/18s will maybe affect their ABS, stability control and braking performance in some way?...
The affects of lowering and replacing tyres are fairly well understood. Done properly it will be an improvement. Cut the springs and it will handle a lot worse.
I doubt most of these cars have stability control to be honest. It's usually found on the higher end cars that actually need it.
As for ABS. I honestly don't know. People replace wheels all the time so I'd hope any problems with this would have been noticed by now. At the end of the day all ABS has to do is detect that a wheel isn't turning and do something about it. With the possible exception of Ford's godawful mechanical ABS I can't see how different size/shape/weight wheels will affect ABS.
I do accept the point about "fart cannon" echausts however, but apart from that if they aren't causing a nusiance or driving dangerously then leave them be, I say. I'd rather they spent their money on their cars than on heroin or knives.[/quote]
Some of the mods can make a BIG and dangerous difference. As the wheel & tyre diameter goes up, so does the torque it can exert on the brake disc. Imagine putting a tractor rear wheel (as an extreme example) on the hub. You'd probably be able to turn it with your hand whilst someone stood on the brake pedal! OK, I'm exaggerating to make a point but upping the rolling diameter of the wheel can leave some of the more extreme "Maxxers" in a situation where the car is struggling to lock its wheels on a dry road!
As for grip, maybe / maybe not. Typically, as they lower their trusty steeds, the cambers go more negative at each corner. At the same time, going to much lower profile tyres makes them very stiff in the sidewall indeed so tha tthey are really only running on their inside edges. They could even end up with LESS rubber on the road if they really cocked things up properly!
I agree that they probably won't have stability control...
...yet. But more and more cars are starting to appear with it and these will one day filter down to this end of the market!
I wouldn't like to say what the effects on ABS might be but I wouldn't have thought it would be wise to change the moment of inertia of the wheel & tyre significantly. I don't know this for a fact but I could see how the original manufacturer might have optimised the wheel lock frequency for a particular setup and changing one part of it might set up a resonance with (say) suspension bushes whereby you end up with wheels hopping violently backwards and forwards in the arches as they lock up!
I do feel sorry for these lads. When I first learned to drive, I could buy "CCC" in any newsagent and go and try things on (looking back) very simple machines with very low limits. Nowadays, these poor sods are lucky to so much as fit a set of seat covers and still get insurance! As has been said, their wacky styling and "ICE" isn't my cup of tea but I have to admire the skill that goes into making some of the better ones!
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