Is car performance not cool any more?

Joined
3 January 2003
Messages
1,252
Location
California
I have not been into the car show sence In about 5 years at least. I have been to some car shows latly and notice that functionality and performance is not cool any more. All I see is untuned cars with unfuctinal stuff on them. It's almost like people like cars that just look like a low rider but with out the pin striping. What the hell happen to the days when a car that was bad ass because it kicked ass won the show. I actually now like going to muscle car shows more because they are still judging them on performance and classy good looks. I love imports but the import car shows are so lame now.
 
Just a thought (cause I see the same thing) is that maybe all of the legal push back against the tuner community has caused an approach of "pimped out" rather than "pumped up"? I don't know. My brother in law and I went to a local car meet and were wondering why nobody ever shows off their engines any more. Now it is about heavy wheels and bad camber. A tricycle could out handle most cars I saw there. Of course, we are getting older and may be missing the point. I used to have 2 13" subs in the back of my Prelude and thought I was the shit; what a maroon.
 
Considering the fact that most people don't track, and it has become more and more difficult to "street race", this only makes sense. Why would anybody put performance parts on cars that will only see the street, and will only be rolling at legal speeds? It's more important to look good than to go fast because, honestly, where are you going to go fast? I'm surprised the trends didn't blow up sooner.
 
Well the stuff they do to pimp them out is still not legal so that is not the reason. Plus the way I have seen weldings for cars now is so ugly also, seems like even the good welders disappeared. Maybe I am old now. But I still rather have my car go fast and turn on a dime than go slow and have no traction. :smile:
 
I can't tell if that stuff was from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome or my son's Boy Scout Pinebox Derby. I agree that street racing crackdown and the cost to track a car may have something to do with the lack of desire for high performance. Though I also think different generations express themselves in their cars differently. My era had muscle cars or we made them look like the muscle cars of the time even if they didn't perform like muscle cars. Then there were custom vans, then came custom pickups jacked two stories high, then low riders, and the tuners from Fast & Furious which bleeds into todays cars with plastic parts sloppely rivited to the cars and wheels jammed at all angles inside the fender wells with cheap fart cans attached to their exhaust. Then again maybe I'm just old and don't get it at all. I'll just take my walker over to my NSX and drive the car (that is capable of 170 MPH) at 45 mph to CVS for a bottle of Geritol.
 
It's been around since the dark ages.

50-60's chopping roofs and lowering
70's-80's lowriders and hydros
90's-today Audio, entertainment, and autozone bling
 
Could be the recession.
It cost a lot more to build a motor than it does to bolt on a wing and a fart can.
 
nothing screams, "I'M GETTING SERIOUSLY OLD" more than complaining about kids cars on the internet. LOL. :wink:

Next thread title should be......Why do kids walk on my grass instead of the side walk?
 
It's been around since the dark ages.

50-60's chopping roofs and lowering
70's-80's lowriders and hydros
90's-today Audio, entertainment, and autozone bling

This is so true.

I'm one of the younger Primers here (25) and I stopped going to "import shows" since I was 17-18 because I didn't care to see who had the shiniest valve cover with their never utilized engine swap.

I have been going to "real" shows ever since. A place where what you drive isn't half as important as HOW you drive it. I make friends from all sides of the car world (muscle, import, euro) and we all have respect and love for each other's car. It's how I think car people truly should be.
 
It's called being broke. With the rise of price on everything we really have one of the other to do. Either we pick looks that's "JDM" or "Hellaflush" inspired. Or we pick performance and the life of costly upgrades of money we already don't have.

Low and slow is a lifestyle for us. :biggrin:
 
04HondaNSX!!!... Guy's... We've been invaded by a young whipper snapper. The kid on your front lawn has just posted in our old man's forum :wink: What is this world becoming?
 
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04HondaNSX!!!... Guy's... We've been invaded by a young whipper snapper. The kid on your front lawn has just posted in our old man's forum :wink: What is this world becoming?

Lmao. It was bound to happen some day right. :biggrin::rolleyes:
 
While I absolutely agree that Hellaflush is a bad fad that must die, there are still INCREDIBLE builds going on, you just need to know where to look.

Hondas these days are the new hotrods, so of course you are going to see a large spread of different kinds of stylings.

The thing is though, one thing I love about the Honda community, is that there are a lot of enthusiasts that track their cars. Every track event is dominated by Civics, Integras and S2000s around here.

Because of the extreme tunability of Hondas, you're also going to get an interesting mixture of function AND form.

Are shaved bays functional? No, not really, but it looks nice. Moreover, it looks nice for the 250whp NA motor that's sitting in it. Sure, a lot of these cars barely see the sun, but incredible and inspiring builds do still exist, and not all kids these days are into Helladumb stuff.


Nisei Showoff 2011 by superphryxis, on Flickr


Nisei Showoff 2011 by superphryxis, on Flickr


Nisei Showoff 2011 by superphryxis, on Flickr
 
Well like I pointed out before with the muscle car crowd they are still all about building your motor even the young guys are all about that. With the import crowed now it's mostly about how low and how sideways you could make your wheels go. I don't think it has to do with getting old. I never thought I would say this but I now days rather talk to the muscle car guys young or old than the import guys. Last conversation I had with a import guy he was telling me how much better my car would be if I got some shiny wheels and slammed it. I was like if I wanted a low rider I would get one. I am still waiting for the first nsx with 1000 spoke gold wheels on air bags.
 
Lots of good points being raised about this topic. I think like other said, a couple important factors are the economy, that is people who are of the age that are into modding their cars don't have as much disposable income these days, and law enforcement crackdowns have had a chilling effect on the big motor builds.

A lot of the things people do to their cars can be considered trendy, and and trends come and go. What is "in" today (i.e. hellaflush, bike racks, whatever) is going to fade away and be replaced by something else in a couple of years. Time will tell. In the "performance" camp, things have changed over the years as well. What was cool in the 90's and early 00's, like big, laggy dyno queen turbo setups, has kind of transitioned into more usable power builds, area under the curve, streetable power. Technology progression plays a role in the builds that people do.

I would say that performance is definitely not dead, though. Look at the Texas Mile, and the kinds of builds that fosters. Plenty of 13, 14, 1500 whp builds on Supras, Ford GTs, Gallardos, GTRs, etc. I'm not saying this represents your average enthusiast, because these are very high-$$ builds, but they are definitely pushing boundaries, if you look in the right places.

I like those examples phryxis posted. To me they are examples of enthusiasts that love their cars, put in a lot of time, money, elbow grease or whatever into their project and it's something they can be proud of. They don't have mondo turbos and they aren't race cars, but they are doing very nice work with what they have. Taking the car you love, improving it in almost every way, is what hot rodding is really all about. The wire tucks look clean and as long as they're not hurting anything, I don't see where the negativity comes from. I'd bet a lot of those care are just as fast or faster than my NSX, and if they are done cleanly, props to them.

The car scene is so varied. If you don't like what you see, keep looking elsewhere, and you'll find like-minded people.
 
go to a track event and you will see some real cars... car shows were never good in my book... it went from neons, wings, and stickers to hellaflush, rust, and bikeracks.
 
I must be getting old cuz I think shaved engine bays look like shiet :wink:

They might not be for you, but at least you can recognize the extreme amount of work that goes into shaving a bay. It's not my cup of tea either, but I'll admit, after going to that show last year, I got 'bay envy' from looking at how immaculate their engine builds are.

I like those examples phryxis posted. To me they are examples of enthusiasts that love their cars, put in a lot of time, money, elbow grease or whatever into their project and it's something they can be proud of. They don't have mondo turbos and they aren't race cars, but they are doing very nice work with what they have. Taking the car you love, improving it in almost every way, is what hot rodding is really all about. The wire tucks look clean and as long as they're not hurting anything, I don't see where the negativity comes from. I'd bet a lot of those care are just as fast or faster than my NSX, and if they are done cleanly, props to them.

The car scene is so varied. If you don't like what you see, keep looking elsewhere, and you'll find like-minded people.

It's funny because we both have a similar opinion on stuff like this, so it's like I'm reading a post I would write :)

And yeah, at a car show, you're going to see show cars. At a track day, you'll see track cars.

Literally 50 S2000s that day.
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Legit Spoon Aero
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Bonus pic, me passing up an M3 :)
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Performance isn't dead, it's just at the track.
 
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I think there are more go fast cars out there now than there have been since the muscle car era ended with the "high" price of gas. Now you can get a 600+ hp car from Ford. Ford built the GT. Porshce makes a sports car Carrera S with 400 hp - that's just about what the GT3 had just a few years ago. I'm not sure if you are going to the same car shows I'm going to?

There is AMG and all the exotics are having HP wars right now. Damn there are more models of Lambos than ever. Ford, Chevy, Chrysler/Dodge - even the small Japanese cars are coming around - what about the Hyundai RSpec? Damn that car is faster than a Mercedes V8 - I'm not sure I know what the OP is talking about - anyone watching what the heck is happening out there. Doesn't seem like anyone is worried about the high price of gas. Geez - almost all the Mustangs have a ton of power, surely more than you need and the interior of the Charger and Camero are about as utilitarian as you can get. Hell even Lexus and Acura are building sporty cars and let's not forget the new NSX is coming. I also just read about the new 918 they are on track with that cars debut set for a year from now I think.

So all I have to say is what is up with the OP? Oh and they're building the Viper again - geez what the hell do you want? You want HP all you have to do is close your eyes and go into a car dealership - hell you can still buy a Cadilac with a manual shifter for crying out loud. I must have missed something. :rolleyes:
 
I think there are more go fast cars out there now than there have been since the muscle car era ended with the "high" price of gas. Now you can get a 600+ hp car from Ford. Ford built the GT. Porshce makes a sports car Carrera S with 400 hp - that's just about what the GT3 had just a few years ago. I'm not sure if you are going to the same car shows I'm going to?

There is AMG and all the exotics are having HP wars right now. Damn there are more models of Lambos than ever. Ford, Chevy, Chrysler/Dodge - even the small Japanese cars are coming around - what about the Hyundai RSpec? Damn that car is faster than a Mercedes V8 - I'm not sure I know what the OP is talking about - anyone watching what the heck is happening out there. Doesn't seem like anyone is worried about the high price of gas. Geez - almost all the Mustangs have a ton of power, surely more than you need and the interior of the Charger and Camero are about as utilitarian as you can get. Hell even Lexus and Acura are building sporty cars and let's not forget the new NSX is coming. I also just read about the new 918 they are on track with that cars debut set for a year from now I think.

So all I have to say is what is up with the OP? Oh and they're building the Viper again - geez what the hell do you want? You want HP all you have to do is close your eyes and go into a car dealership - hell you can still buy a Cadilac with a manual shifter for crying out loud. I must have missed something. :rolleyes:

Vamp is talking about the semi-sad state of the tuning scene, with kids being into making their cars as undriveable as possible. If you haven't seen the scene recently, you might not want to look. If you're curious, google 'hellaflush'.
 
Try to pass California smog with a modified engine... Good luck...
 
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