- Ever since I got my very first car when I was 13,
a $1,500 1983 Mustang GT, but it was an early '83
so it was a four speed instead of a five speed
I found myself doing anything and everything
in my power to learn the ins and outs
of all things automotive, from putting a cold air intake
on my 2.4 liter Pontiac Sunfire,
sup j-body.org fam, all the way
up to putting salvaged supercars back
on the road, RIP BTC.
Needless to say, I've tried just about everything
in the book to personalize and modify vehicles
for myself and a bunch of other people,
both on and off of budget, and over time
I like to think my experience has given me a better outlook
on what is, and isn't worth it, a lot
of which my opinion has changed on over time.
So that's exactly what we're going to talk about today.
This is my list of car mods that I changed my mind about.
But, before we get into all that,
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So let's go ahead and get right
into probably one of the most obvious ones here,
all right.
Cold air intakes, Ram air intakes, Boat Ram intakes.
I don't care what you call it.
They all pretty much do the same thing.
And I think we all know
that no matter what the manufacturer actually advertises
you're probably not picking up any horsepower just
by changing the tube and the filter that leads
to your throttle body or your turbo inlet.
And that's really the big reason why these things
get kind of a lot of hate from a good portion of people.
And I will admit I was one
of those guys at one point in my life.
I thought I was the expert and thought, why, and the same,
how would you change it if you don't even get any benefits?
What a waste of money, right?
Well, I thought wrong.
There are so many more benefits
to a solid piped, open element induction system
than I realized.
While it may not actually increase performance,
and technically could actually filter out less contaminants,
there are so many more benefits to a solid piped
open element induction system than I actually realized.
While it may not actually increase performance,
and technically could actually filter out less contaminants,
the way a cold air intake can clean up
an engine bay is pretty impressive
for a really low dollar amount.
Case in point, my 2003 Mustang GT Centennial edition
with just 93,000 pampered miles, which is for sale,
so slide into the DMs if you're looking
for a nice limited production Mustang.
Anyway, here's a photo of a stock engine bay
and here's a photo of one with a $95 cold air intake.
Look at that difference.
It looks so much less cluttered.
It's easier to clean the engine bay.
It's easier to work on the car and as a whole
and even if you feel nothing on the butt dyno
it makes cool noises and overall enhances your experience.
If you're hating on intakes like I used to
I'd urge you to give it a shot.
Spacers and adapters are another huge one here.
You know, everyone and their mother read
about a guy whose friend saw on a forum
once that all their lugs broke off
and sent the wheel through the fender.
And there are plenty of legitimate horror stories
with spacers and adapters.
And these stories always end up being a user error.
You didn't get longer lug bolts or studs
or they weren't torqued down properly
or the surface was corroded
so the spacer didn't seat properly
or the adaptor wasn't hub centric.
And it honestly took me until working here
to see these misconceptions behind the stories and see them
in action on some really extreme cases
that held up with no signs of issue.
Two years ago, I'd tell you to just buy a different set
of wheels with the correct offset
to dial in your desired fitment
or get a wheel you don't like as much
because the one you've been dreaming
about doesn't come drilled for your application,
but after seeing the countless successful use
of spacers and adapters, I really understand the appeal,
especially when you run into things
like ordering the perfect spec wheel
for your vehicle,
to just barely clear your factory calipers,
but it turns out, at some point in the vehicle's life
someone put some slightly larger A6 calipers on your B5 S4,
and you need a three millimeter spacer to clear.
What a lifesaver, wow.
And while we're on the subject of wheels,
my biggest lesson of 2021 is that ceramic coating
your wheels is one of the best investments
you can make when it comes to protecting your wheels.
I'm not going to lie.
When I first learned about ceramic coatings and whatnot
I thought it was way too expensive
for what I thought was a glorified wax.
What are the longterm effects of this coating?
And there's no way it can actually last for years.
And how easy is it to make a mistake while installing it?
Well, it turns out there really are
no long lasting side effects
and it does in fact, last for years
especially if you follow the coating maintenance regimens.
But what really turned my mind around
on this one is when I actually went to wash a set
of ceramic coated wheels.
90% of the unsightliness on the surface of the wheel
quite literally washed off with just water
out of the hose, and what I did need a Washman for
just simply wiped right off with zero effort.
It makes such short work of cleaning potentially one
of the hardest cleaning portions of your car.
The next one is going to be liquid wraps.
Look at, wraps have probably one
of the worst stigmas in the game right now, but the tech
and the quality behind liquid wraps has come full circle.
I think the fact that it was so accessible
it had everyone and everyone running
down a Walmart and using aerosol cans of Plasti Dip
to change the color of the car or just paint the trim
some big, stupid, dumb, bright color.
You even had people buying dip your car kits
but still refuse to properly prep,
not follow guidelines, and rush everything
and then spraying in on-controlled environment,
leading to a less than stellar outcome.
And this gave the whole liquid wrap scene a really,
really bad stigma, when in reality,
so long as it's done correctly
it's really hard to tell the difference
between a properly applied liquid wrap
and a vinyl wrap or even paint.
Once you actually see how well the liquid wrap
can be applied, it will change your whole perspective
especially if you're the kind of person who will be changing
up the theme and the color
of your vehicle every single year.
P.
The next one is probably going to be the most controversial
and the most exciting all at the same time.
And I'm of course talking about underglow.
Listen, underglow is coming back fast
and it's not like it used to be 99.99999999% of underglow
these days is super, super easy to install RGB LED strips.
It's super stealthy, and it's easy to hide.
It's way more reliable than the old neon tubes
we used to use.
And with the availability of 16 million different colors
and pattern choices, you can change up the look
and the vibe of your underglow on the fly.
The best part is it's so freaking cheap.
We actually carry Black Label Lighting
underglow kits for just $160.
That's cheap enough for it to be a complete gag
if you wanted it to.
I used to think underglow was a weird Ricer flex
but I totally get it now.
It's such a cheap, fun and easy way
to customize your vehicle,
grab attention, just get a laugh
or even be used as utility in low light situations.
The best part is no one even has to know that you have it
if you're not using it.
It's quite literally a win-win.
This next one is absolutely crucial: tires, tires, tires.
Now I love me and affordable tire
that I can beat the absolute crap out of
and not feel any remorse for for destroying it
on purpose, but good golly, miss Molly
are premium tires, the absolute jam.
If you have a real sports car and want to
extract actual performance out of it,
I cannot say enough good things
about high end performance tires.
I'm talking about things like your Pirelli P Zeros,
your Michelin Pilot Sports
your Toyo Proxes, your Yokohama Advans.
You get the point.
These are tires that don't just perform, but they also last
and they typically provide a quiet ride
all at the same time.
It's heavenly in a car that you want to drive
and thrash on.
Sure, it's easy to justify a tire that has similar
on paper stats for half the cost.
I do it all the time.
But if you want an actually perfect tire
a premium summer tire's the way to frigging' go.
But that hasn't always been the case for me.
I used to scoff at people
who would buy these super expensive tires
like it was just a flex on your budget oriented builds
even though they never actually use them for anything,
but after experiencing what a premium tire can do
on the track, and how tame it is, and how little you have to
sacrifice on the street when you're not trying
to squeeze every last drop of grip out of them,
it's nothing short of amazing.
Ethanol fuel is another big one for me.
Back when it first started coming to gas stations
in my local area, I thought it was the dumbest thing.
Why would anybody want to put this dirty corrosive
cheap corn oil gasoline in their vehicle
and then get worse fuel economy.
Pass.
But the more I started reading up on it
the more I felt cheated and lied to by all of my peers
because here was a fuel that I could buy at the pump.
that would be the cheapest fuel at the pump
Be 85% renewable,
it's going to produce less harmful emissions
than regular gasoline
and it's going to have a race-like resistance
to detonation with an octane rating that ranges anywhere
from a hundred to 108
and sometimes even more with your race-oriented ethanol.
Now sure, you probably shouldn't let the stuff sit
around for a long time, run it in small engines or put it
in anything older than say like your late nineties vehicles
without fuel system changes
beyond the pumps and the injectors,
but God damn if this (beep) isn't good
to pick up 20% in power just by switching fuels
on a boosted application.
It's wild.
My 2004 PT Cruiser GT that I had went
from a fun Bolton SRT4 powered car
to a high 12 second quarter mile beast
just by switching out the fuel pump injectors
and then running an E85 tune.
If you're still on the fence or think bad things
about ethanol fuels, I highly encourage you
to do a little more research.
And lastly, I want to touch on lightweight wheels
rotary formed, rotary forged, spin formed,
whatever you want to call it,
formed wheels, more specifically.
You see, just a few years ago
lightweight options were pretty much RPF ones.
And then fully forged wheels.
This really kind of either left you
with choosing a wheel that was on everyone else's car
or spending a few thousand dollars on a set of wheels
which, outside of sports and exotic cars,
I never really saw wheel weight as so important
that it was worth spending multiple thousands
of dollars on them.
But with rotary forming manufacturing processes
becoming more and more affordable, you can start getting
into lightweight wheels that both look good
and make a difference in how your car puts power
to the ground and how efficient your suspension works.
(smacks lips) Yeah.
So with lightweight wheels being a lot more affordable
saving five pounds per wheel
for a few hundred extra dollars over a fully cast wheel
with similar aesthetic is much, much more,
It gets you a lot more value for your money.
I mean, hell, Dakota went
and put some Artisa ArtFormed Titans
on his 10th gen Civic SI and it dropped 32 pounds.
32 pounds, with an 18 by nine and a half.
Technically that's like picking up 3.2 horsepower.
That's more than your cold air intake's going to get you
just by dropping some weight
let alone the fact that it's legitimately going to
put power to the ground better, because the less
rotating mass equals less parasitic drive train loss.
And your suspension is going to move much more freely
and be a lot more efficient as a whole for $1,080.
I don't know how they do it
but boy has it changed my perspective and outlook
on a wheel weight for all cars, not just sports cars.
But what are some car mods?
Oh my God.
But what are some car mods you guys...
(loud typing in background)
(sighs)
but what are some car mods you guys (laughs)
But what are some car mods you guys changed your mind about
for better or for worse?
Let me know.
I'm Sean, and if you guys want to see more videos,
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Peace.
What if they don't know?
What if they don't know and I just left them hanging?