How to modify a car yet street legal?

[TangoR34]

I just don't know the what the boundries are. Would I get away with putting lots of anti-roll bars, blacked out windows and racing seat belts?

[Captain VXR]

I just don't know the what the boundries are. Would I get away with putting lots of anti-roll bars, blacked out windows and racing seat belts?

Most kits from proper body kit manufacturers are street legal, roll cages are fine as is most tuning, rear window tints no law but front has to let 70% light in, nothing against harnesses as they are safer than the standard ones. Put it this way - all cars in the Time Attack series and European Drift Championship are road legal :) ps. exhausts cannot be too loud but most off the shelf aftermarket ones are :)

[Daniel]

I just don't know the what the boundries are. Would I get away with putting lots of anti-roll bars, blacked out windows and racing seat belts?

Question

Do you know what an anti-roll bar is? Why do you need racing belts? How will blacked out windows make your car better or faster?

[Woodeye]

In a normal street car you really don't need anti-roll bars.

Tinted windows are good if you don't want people to see you and racing seat belts are usually better than normal ones. Not to mention racing seats...

[MadCat]

I dont see the point in modifying a car. Instead of wasting your money on "chavving" up a car (as its known round here) why not just get a better car ???

As for anti-roll bar .. its rollcage. Tinted windows are a waste of money. Its just crappy film that normally peels off in too much sunlight. Seatbelts .. depends how much money you spend as to how good they are. The "Racing seats" advertised in Motor World and other chav-tastic shops are normally **** and i've heard in some cases where proper seats from sparco etc are ripped from the bottom of the car in a large impact so again, if you buy cheap ones they're not that safe.

So, in conclusion. Just buy a better car :P

[Captain VXR]

I dont see the point in modifying a car. Instead of wasting your money on "chavving" up a car (as its known round here) why not just get a better car ???

As for anti-roll bar .. its rollcage. Tinted windows are a waste of money. Its just crappy film that normally peels off in too much sunlight. Seatbelts .. depends how much money you spend as to how good they are. The "Racing seats" advertised in Motor World and other chav-tastic shops are normally **** and i've heard in some cases where proper seats from sparco etc are ripped from the bottom of the car in a large impact so again, if you buy cheap ones they're not that safe.

So, in conclusion. Just buy a better car :P

Not all modified cars are chav cars, there's a huge difference between a chavvy cruiser spaxo and a performance car used for track days and daily driving :mad:

[MadCat]

Not all modified cars are chav cars, there's a huge difference between a chavvy cruiser spaxo and a performance car used for track days and daily driving :mad:

I know .... but (from the impression i get of the first post) we're on about modifying its looks not its performance.

[Drew]

Don't forget to tell your insurer that you've modified your car. Otherwise your policy could be validated and then you'd be screwed..

[Jag_Warrior]

I just don't know the what the boundries are.

And without knowing where you live, neither would we.

Even in the U.S., vehicle laws vary from state to state.

[Zico]

I dont see the point in modifying a car. Instead of wasting your money on "chavving" up a car (as its known round here) why not just get a better car ???

You would do well to heed this advice..

You come across as a young guy who's just passed his test.. get experience in a slower car for a few years, then once you can afford the insurance you just might be able to afford to run a decent performance car. Dont lower and stiffen the suspension and fit the 20" alloys, it will make you look like a chav and it will handle far worse than before..

With a decent perfomance car the 1st things I'd look at would be stiffening the chassis using front and rear strutt braces, replacing the rubber brake hoses with S/S braided for more feel, some fast road performance brakepads for more bite.. and a set of decent gas damperss such as Billsteins all round, for improved handling (if required). Some quality tyres, same sidewall and width may improve grip levels too.

Dont mess with spring rates/heights for normal road use, if its worth doing its worth doing properly. If you decide to make it a trackday car... and lower it, go to a renowned chassis engineer who would re-calculate your roll centres/axis's and replace the ARB's with new stiffer ones to suit the chassis. Talk to people in motorsport and at all cost stay away from the Max Power type mags, only people with few braincells to rub together are sucked in by the blinged, massive spoilered, slammed hotwheel car look-a-like marketting ploys of these mags.

Dont do it!.... PLEASE!!

[speedy king]

I don't like how, or believe it's fair how anyone who modifies their car is labelled a 'chav'. There's a huge market out there for tastefully modified cars, im not talking about cheap Halfords tat but where people have spent thousands on a car, and its not a case of you could spend that money on getting a better car, you do it because you enjoy making your car individual and spending your time and effort on the car to make it an indivdual.

I hate hideous bodykits but i went to a school with a guy who had a 1.6 Honda Civic VTI Jordan (if anyone knows anything about Hondas you'll know the Jordan was a limited edition to 500 made, and still to this day retail on a T plate at around £6k) The car was immensely fast, 185bhp, everything done to it, engine tuned, full colour coded leather interior (NOT covers, real interior) professionally tinted glass, i do have pictures somewhere. The car alone was worth £6k standard but he had spent probably that again modifying it to make it a part of him, he wasn't a geek either, very popular guy and very intelligent with a well earning job when he left school. He was about to fit Lamboughini style doors when some low life scum wrecked his car, destroyed all that time effort and money within minutes, a gang, trashed the car while parked up, written off...

Unfortunately you can attract the wrong attention, and how i see it those people who destroyed his pride and joy aren't much better than those who instantly go CHAV when they don't know the person or their reasons for modifying.

I go by the belief though, if you can't afford to do it properly, don't do it at all...

[Daniel]

The thing is these people generally do stupid crap to their cars to make it "individual" and end up looking like everyone else that modifies their car. PLUS they generally spoil the handling of their cars in the process.

[Hondo]

Don't pull your regular seat belts out. You are not going to enjoy driving around strapped into a full racing harness for any length of time. And since this seems to be for "the look" and "the talk", don't use racing oil in your street car. It is formulated to be used one time and it's main claim to fame are it's anti-foaming properties at high rpm. It has no detergent package to help keep your engine clean and prevent sludge buildup. Same with racing spark plugs. Their heat range is for long stints at high rpm not poking around town. Your car won't run any faster with them in there. If anything, it will run worse.

[Mark]

I think you need to look up the definition of anti-roll bar before you make yourself look foolish ;)

[TangoR34]

i did mean rollcage but somehow i always mix em up. I not keen on modding a car like Max power and pimp my ride style because i think they r just a waste of time showing blings which make the car heavier. I always think they don't realise there something growing on their head :P
I'm into light (as in weight) tuning as long as the kit dont makt the car uglier and different, I'm fine.
Does this car with 20" alloy and lowered suspension look like a show off?:
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w103/TangoR34/cars/bt00026_21390.jpg
I thinks it looks subtle, something for performance and noting chavy.

I was thinking of making a car between trackday and daily use, but it is hard to fully adapt both. Im sure there are some good tinting windows like the US government vehicles. I think might keep both kind of seat belt on different use.
I'm brit....

Comment about this car, my school did it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8paHICJZyE0

[Zico]

The Skyline looks fine as far as Skylines go, my point was that fitting much larger wheels than what the vehicles suspension geometry is designed for, creates all sorts of handling problems.

The Merc is ok I suppose, wheels are a bit too bling for me and Im not a fan of big sound systems but at least its not too tacky.. er.. well apart from the spinners ?!? in the boot! :D

[MadCat]

That Skyline looks nice, tastefully done :)

[LotusElise]

Why does anyone want blacked-out windows? They give no performance advantage and will make people think you're a drug dealer.

That Skyline looks okay, not a huge fan of that model so it's hard for me to comment, though. I prefer the much older Skylines which were less chunky.
Zico is right about the wheels. My brother's Mini had adapted arches, hubs, shocks and bearings for its big wheels, but the arches still rubbed on the tyres with the slightest impact. Larger, wider wheels, especially those on rear wheel drive cars, can also be a total nightmare on snow.

[Daniel]

Exactly. Lower profile tyres don't necessarily give you a huge performance boost or anything :mark: They just make the car less fun to drive. The most fun I ever had was with some 75 or 80 profile tyres on my Pug in Australia. Not tremendously grippy at all but really good at telling me when they were going to let go :) Plus I didn't look like a drug dealer or just a plain chav for putting bigger rims on my car :)

[Brown, Jon Brow]

That Skyline looks like a mess.

My advice - if you want a high performance track car that you can use on the road buy a kit-car. Most Lotus7 replicas will beat almost anything on the track. ;)

[Daniel]

That Skyline looks like a mess.

My advice - if you want a high performance track car that you can use on the road buy a kit-car. Most Lotus7 replicas will beat almost anything on the track. ;)
Therein lies the problem. Spent 20 thousand on modifying a 20 grand car to be fast and you could have just bought a Caterham 7 that's faster in the first place.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Therein lies the problem. Spent 20 thousand on modifying a 20 grand car to be fast and you could have just bought a Caterham 7 that's faster in the first place.

And you can get a kit for less than £15,000 ;)

[LotusElise]

There are all sorts of insurance hoops you can jump through with kits too, which make them a much better deal, hp for hp.

[Zico]

Therein lies the problem. Spent 20 thousand on modifying a 20 grand car to be fast and you could have just bought a Caterham 7 that's faster in the first place.

Im just picturing a Caterham with black tinted windows and a huge sound system right now.. :D

[CarlMetro]

The most I've ever done to 'individualise' a car was applying a twin white pinstrip down the side of my blue Cavalier and changing the standard L wheel trims for GLS ones :s hock: so I'm probably like most on here who will say why waste your money?

Personally I think the Skyine looks nasty, but then I'm not much of a fan of the car before it was modded either.

I worked with a guy who spent thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours on his Mk11 Fiesta. Tri-tone paint, full body kit, 2000watt stereo system, bean can exhaust systems, flashy wheels, balcked out windows, Playstation etc. It still had the standard 1.2l engine in it and would be out-done at a set of lights by a transit minibus full of builders.

He then got a call one day from his girlfriend to say she was pregnant, this meant that he had to sell the car to get something a bit more practical. He stuck ads in all the super dooper mags and eventually sold it for £3.5k, nowhere near what if had cost him.

Each to their own I say, it would be a boring world if we all did the same, and we;d have nothing to laugh and poke fun at if we didn't have all the 'people' with their little blue windscreen washers :D

[Captain VXR]

That Skyline looks like a mess.

My advice - if you want a high performance track car that you can use on the road buy a kit-car. Most Lotus7 replicas will beat almost anything on the track. ;)

But you cant daily drive it unless you think flies taste nice whereas a tuned car doesn't have to have aircon etc removed

[Daniel]

"Tuned" is there any other word which immediately turns me off a car or makes me "tune" out when someone is talking/posting :mark:

You can buy a windscreen for a Caterham 7 no problem at all :)

[TangoR34]

yeah, bathe in the car when the rain comes...

[Zico]

yeah, bathe in the car when the rain comes...

Whatever turns you on. :D Personally I'd put the hood up. ;)

[Daniel]

Whatever turns you on. :D Personally I'd put the hood up. ;)
Strange that. Using a roof to keep the water out and all. Pretty silly idea I think :rotflmao:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

But you cant daily drive it unless you think flies taste nice whereas a tuned car doesn't have to have aircon etc removed

With the money you saved getting a kit car for track days you could buy a normal car for every day use :p

[Captain VXR]

what if you have space for only 1 car :p
+ a tuned car may be safer in a crash if its from a more modern design than a 7. Still a Westfield SEight would be really fun mmmmm Rover V8 *dribbles*

[Brown, Jon Brow]

what if you have space for only 1 car :p
+ a tuned car may be safer in a crash if its from a more modern design than a 7. Still a Westfield SEight would be really fun mmmmm Rover V8 *dribbles*

If you don't have space then you convert your kitchen into a garage ;)

[Daniel]

what if you have space for only 1 car :p
+ a tuned car may be safer in a crash if its from a more modern design than a 7. Still a Westfield SEight would be really fun mmmmm Rover V8 *dribbles*
You probably wouldn't crash as much in the 7 because it doesn't have ****ed up erm I mean "tuned" handling :rolleyes:

[Malbec]

Tango its your money so do as you like with it. If you think something will make the car look better then go for it, I'm sure when the job is done you'll love what you end up with. Just be warned though with tinting that in the UK there's a legal limit that even many legitimate suppliers don't appear to be aware of. Most of the people in the UK driving cars with illegally tinted windows aren't chavs but Chelsea mums driving 4x4s with windows tinted to keep it cool inside or hide valuables through ignorance. If the police pull your car over and are feeling particularly unpleasant they can book you if they find your tinted windows don't let in a certain amount of light.

Also its untrue that modifying your suspension etc will mess up your handling but you need to get it done by someone who knows what they're doing. Companies like M-Power, Alpina, AMG and Mugen all had to start somewhere and their successors can do a good job on your car too but it will cost money. Just dropping your shocks or getting lower profile tyres will simply make your wallet a whole lot thinner and your back a lot more painful. Try getting a copy of Evo, they usually cover upgrade packages from the better modifying companies. They might be expensive but then again if you want a real improvement on a car that a company would have spent hundreds of millions honing, it isn't going to be cheap.

That said, the most I've ever done is to install a black grille you can't even see to my MX-5 to stop stones from holing the radiator, I'm a fan of keeping things as they are.

Alternatively, why don't you just get a rare car? That way it'll be individual enough for you to feel unique without having to spend loads of money on mods.

[TangoR34]

Thanks, how about getting a Jag E-type? or a Honda Accord Euro-R? Thats very rare in here...