Question about rims and intelligence

[glatt]

Hey, tw, that's a good post.

[Bullitt]

Well i guess someone has to stand up for these people and i guess itll be me. I love everything about cars. Especially driving a stick shift. It's like having your own personal roller coaster really. These people, along w/ myself, enjoy customizing and messin w/ their cars because thats what they love do, its their hooby, their lifestyle. And driving is fun! Ya'll sound like those people who complain about boring sex. Its just somthing you do to get it overwith and done. You have to make it fun by changin it up and MAKING it fun.

Now granted, I think some of this stuff is pure crap like the spoilers for front wheel drive cars and resonators for lil 4 bangers that only put out 120 hp, and POS's that have rims that are worth more than the car, blah blah blah. But its all part of the culture of car customization and if you don't respect it, then you have no right to criticize it. Period.

Personally, I own a '03 Civic stick and i love driving that thing. And ( i know ill never hear the end of this) I have a blue neon underbody kit on it (the car is silver w/ a black nose bra). SO WHAT? Does that make me less of a person, an underling compared to everyone else who just drives their car and gets it over with? No it doesn't. It just makes me a person who enjoys making his car look a bit different and fun looking than all the rest of the cars out there. Its my hobby, my passion, and I don't appreciatte unwarranted, uninformed attacks on it.

Let my flaming begin.. bring it on.

[garnet]

I used to go out with this guy who had this super-fast, late '90s Corvette. I think Corvettes are hideous to start with, but this guy had all the extras, and had literally spent like $50K making that car faster...and faster...and faster. It was never good enough, and he was always yelling at me for slamming the door too hard when I got in (I actually think the car was his girlfriend, not me). Well one day he started the thing up and the engine basically just exploded--he'd fucked with that car just a liiiittle too much. I thought it was very funny, but he failed to see the humor in the situation. We weren't together much longer after that.

[Trilby]

garnet--- !

poor guy!

[xoxoxoBruce]

More noise means the engine now has less power to wheels. Lower gas mileage. And yet these fools actually 'feel' it creates more power.

I agree with most of your post but that point is not necessarily true. Factory exhaust systems are designed with many compromises. Maximum performance requires low (but some) backpressure and preventing the exhaust pulses from the individual cylinders from interfering with each other. I could expound until everyone falls asleep, but that’s not nice.

The funny thing about the Harleys is that straight pipes (no mufflers) will reduce horsepower about 12%.

Back on thread, most cops will determine if you actually came to a full stop, at a stop sign, by watching the front wheel. Spinning wheels may get you a ticket.

[Chewbaccus]

Originally Posted by Lady Sidhe

Considering the price of those particular rims, it seems to me that it would make more sense to put a down-payment on a decent vehicle, rather than put good rims on a crappy car.

Do you know what brand of rims they are? Because - and God as my witness, I wish I was making this up - you can pick up spinners at Wal-Mart. I have a friend that works at one Upstate, and he broke the news to me.

It still undoubtedly looks stupid as hell, but chances are he didn't exactly spend that much coin on them. In fact, going by the Twomey Corollary, it may end up working in his favor. Of course, I'd have to see the car before I made a ruling.

[Bullitt]

I think what your frined sells are spinner HUBCAPS chewie. I've seen those at Walmart. Spinner RIMS are extremely expensive if you get the quality ones.

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by tw

Why waste so much money on basic transportation when it does nothing but say, "I have no values?"

Well there are people who have no brain and no values. Just like the girl with a pierced face. It makes the "public" interesting and individualistic much like circus freak shows. I don't condemn them for trying something different - for learning by making mistakes. Its called fun - nothing more. As long as they realize that all fun - ie casino gambling - is about throwing money away just for fun. As long as it is fun and as long as they do have the disposable income to pay for that fun; not at the expense of a 1 year old child.

Am I a circus freak who throws away money on somthing i love instead of some obscure 1 year old child that I have idea where you got from? Is having a hobby a mistake? Do I have no values because i love tinkering w/ my car and driving in a fun manner? I think you're being the ignorant one here bud. Maybe you should um, not talk about cars anymore because apparently you don't have any respect for this culture. It's no different than people who customize their computers, customize thier HOUSE, or their f'ing wardrobe for that matter. I think you just thought you found an easy target to pick on and you took advantage of it. (insert old man voice) Those dumbass street racers who got no repsect, blah blah blah.

Think what you want pal. Meanwhile, i'll keep "throwing my money away" on somthing that makes me happy.

[Clodfobble]

Bullitt, while I personally find cars to be the most boring thing on the planet, I can understand the desire to make a car look different and fun. Heck, I paint the inside of my house funny colors too. The aesthetic things bother me less than the mechanical things--spending an obscene amount of money to get an extra 10 horsepower, for example. But the most repulsive thing about it to me is the idea of spending so much money on a hobby when you clearly need that money for other things, like rent and food and retirement savings. And that would bother me about any over-indulged hobby; it just seems the "car culture" is a lot more susceptible to it.

[Bullitt]

Indeed it is Clod because alot of people in the car culture (at the epxense of sounding somewhat racist) are young, black men (and some white guys/other minorities; the street folk) who care more about their image than their overall well-being. But grouping these people in w/ other people who just love tinkering w/ their cars into a category of people who throw their money away and are stupid/ignorant/have no values is just wrong, and THAT'S where i take offense.

[Lady Sidhe]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

No, then you grew old. :p

Nice rims on a rough car can be a poor sense of priorities, however there is another possibility. The guy (usually a guy) may be planning on fixing the car up, either restoring or customizing it. The normal route is to do all the mechanicals and safety items first, then the body and paint, lastly the interior and trim. Usually these projects are done on a budget and it seems like it will never be done. To the guy that's gotten bloody knuckles most every weekend for months(years) and doesn't see any progress even though he knows how much he's accomplished, a new set of wheels can be a boost.

Oh,... and maybe he stole the wheels.

Well, the car's been a piece of crap for at least six months, so I don't know if he's working on it or not.


Jane Says: This is one of my pet peeves. I hate, hate, HATE car people and their stupid crappy rims, whether they're on a $500 car or a $50,000 car. I hate low riders. I hate big trucks with big tires. I hate rice burners. I hate car clubs. I hate stereo competitions. I hate it all. To me a car is simply transportation. I cannot understand all the bullshit that goes along with the "car culture". I don't think it's because I'm getting older, either. I'm 29 and I thought it was stupid when I was in high school.
This could have something to do with the fact that I live in a fairly rural area and "car clubs" are all over. I can't go through the fucking Wendy's drive-through on a Friday night without being ogled and hooted at by a bunch of seventeen-year-old asshats and their sorry-ass, mama's boy forty-year-old counterparts.
I remember when my sister brought one of those inbred fucktards home to meet my parents in a truck that could not have been four inches off the ground. My dad said "Boy, I hate to tell you this, but if you hit a possum in that thing it'll be totalled."


I agree. To me, a car is transportation. All I'm worried about is whether or not it runs and is safe. When I see those spinning rims (yes, these are the ones that spin independently of the tires), all I think is, "y'know, I could've paid my rent for two months for what he paid for those." Spending that kind of money on a toy is just, I don't know, ANNOYING.


TW: Properly noted are examples of misplaced intelligence. For example, the hood ornament once had purpose. It enabled the driver to open and refill a hot radiator. No longer required. So why is it still there to gore pedestrians? For the same reasons that some brag about the size of their penis?

What is the rear spoiler for? It does nothing because cars just dont go fast enough. But the mentally challenged among us think it is 'cool' to spend $400 just to have a chunk of plastic that obstructs rear view visibility.

Why mufflers that make a car sound like a low performance vehicle (ie Harley)? Again many fail to first learn facts. More noise means the engine now has less power to wheels. Lower gas mileage. And yet these fools actually 'feel' it creates more power. Why? They 'feel' it has more power because they feel the noise. Missionaries for the church of mental inferiority. They hear more noise. Therefore the car must be more powerful. One can only pity those financially poor perverts who have yet to learn how to think for themselves.

The same can be said of chrome, V-8 engines, SUVs that sit so high as to increase road fatalities by 11% (HumVees are not designed that way because HumVees are for the intelligent off road drivers), windshield wipers that use two blades per arm, and neon undercarriage lighting. Somehow style to no benefit is more important no matter what the cost.

I see some CA entrepenuer laughing all the way to the bank about making his first million on fools who spend everything on wide tires and chrome plated rims.

Yes it is rather interesting to see a monster truck - little body atop tires that are larger than the truck. Impressionistic art is also interesting when done right. However that is only for looks and shows. Why waste so much money on basic transportation when it does nothing but say, "I have no values?"


Spoilers, I agree, are a dumb waste of money. The loud mufflers are just annoying, and the monster trucks just look stupid to me. Those loud-ass stereos are the pinnacle of "shoot me, because I'm too annoying to live" car things. I absolutely HATE those things. There is absolutely no reason to rattle cars a mile ahead of you. It just makes people hate you and talk about how stupid you are. A good stereo is one thing--but there's no need to aggravate everyone else within a two-mile radius.

A cop friend of mine once gave a guy a ticket for a too-loud stereo. He was sitting in waffle house having coffee, and the guy drove up--every window in the place was vibrating. The guy came in, stared pointedly at my friend, sat down, ate, paid his ticket. When he went to leave, he got in his car, and, pointedly looking at the cop again, cranked the stereo up all the way. My friend went out there and promptly wrote him a ticket for violating the noise ordinance. So this guy gets an attitude, saying, and I quote, "you just doin' this because you don't like a black guy having a good stereo." My friend said, "if you have enough money to buy that stereo, you've got enough money to pay this ticket." End of story. He was going to give him a pass, but the guy did it intentionally, staring at the cop as if daring him to do something about it.

Well, he did, and I applaud him.

Sidhe

[garnet]

If someone's hobby is their car, that's fine. Whatever floats your boat. I don't get it, but that's just me. I actually get more annoyed by people driving these gigantic SUVs and trucks who have no legitimate reason for needing a vehicle that big. If you've got eight kids or you need it for work, that's fine. It really cracks me up when I see one of these giant 4WD vehicles crawling over speed bumps in grocery store parking lots. These vehicles are designed to go off road, yet the people who own them will never ever use them for that purpose.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Spending that kind of money on a toy is just, I don't know, ANNOYING.

Whoa Nellie! What the hell is that about? Jealousy of his money? Criticism of his choices? Censorship of his budget?
In spite of what Bush and Ridge are doing this is still a free country, and I'll defend to the first band-aid, his right to buy toys with his money.

[russotto]

Originally Posted by glatt

Hey, tw, that's a good post.

Well, it's technically incorrect on a few points. But at least it's fairly short.

[jaguar]

I think what your frined sells are spinner HUBCAPS chewie. I've seen those at Walmart. Spinner RIMS are extremely expensive if you get the quality ones.

Ah, I thought the same.

I never got the whole ricing cars thing, they're still mostly shitty cars, just shitty cars with lots of expensive useless plastic. Saw some kind of bastardised toyota the other day with a huge Type-R sticker on it, talk about self parody.