Questionable modifications: pictures inside!

  • Thread starter -Fred-
  • 38,911 comments
  • 3,215,085 views
Not this Roo, either ;)

Rue
Has a thread ever been more off topic?

car20ft.jpg
 
Handling wise, I'm sure the elise had room to compromise and still be better than almost anything else :P

Agreed, but once a modification is made for vanity but also compromises (even by a small amount) performance or handling, then it becomes questionable.
 
...but questionable nevertheless.


EDIT: Here's some more I stumbled upon:

xuning2tk7.jpg


xuning11195e79.jpg


xuning05ib6.jpg


dsc0394711ad702.jpg


20068191612542003529185.jpg


ren504011c1d64.jpg


e0300301zq4.jpg


vmaeg36756940211d32f7.jpg


mercedessltuning011c850.jpg
 
Last edited:
Are you sure that's real? My mind cannot comprehend that the standard Elise wheelarches are large enough to accomodate wheels that large, while maintaining that kind of gap between the tyre and fender.

And the disc and suspension seems a bit too bright/clear to me.

Once I saw an Elise on craigslist with 20s, but I don't remember it all that well.
 
Agreed, but once a modification is made for vanity but also compromises (even by a small amount) performance or handling, then it becomes questionable.

All mods for looks are questionable? Spending a lot for a little performance is worse than spending little for a lot of looks? :)
 
All mods for looks are questionable? Spending a lot for a little performance is worse than spending little for a lot of looks? :)

That's his opinion. I mostly agree, if I make a modification to a vehicle it MUST make the vehicle better.
I wouldn't upgrade, say, my aerial unless the new aerial outperformed the old/stock part. Same with rims, if they look good AND increase performance then i'm interested. If they weigh a ton but look good i'd rather give them a miss.

I'd much rather replace the stock speakers subtly with aftermarket units than add a subwoofer in the boot and cut up my parcel shelf for more speakers.

The big soundsystem would slow the car down, take up valuable boot space and make the car more attractive to theives. Oh, and make you look like an idiot chav who goes to large chav meets to blast out awful 'music' from their poorly balanced soundsystem. :)

Innit.
 
Yeah, I asked him about his opinion :)

I really think it's down to what you have the car for.. I'd actually say a high performance car is fantastic base for a car with some audio if you use the car daily and need bass in your life. Woofers (for instance) don't need to be built NFSU style.

Regarding wheels, I'd rather have a set of light wheels than a set of heavy wheels, of course. But, if you don't mind a little lack of performance, you aren't really questionable if you have heavy wheels. I don't know how much my wheels weigh, and I'm sure 185 on a 7" isn't optimal for performance.. But I need to drive it really, really hard to lose grip. In fact, I haven't had it up to that point yet.

If it's a show car, or if you don't mind about the radio, even shaving your arial isn't dumb in my book.

Besides, if you upgrade, you make something better.. You can't upgrade your aerial unless the new is better than the old. Then you're just replacing ;)
 
Are you sure that's real? My mind cannot comprehend that the standard Elise wheelarches are large enough to accomodate wheels that large, while maintaining that kind of gap between the tyre and fender.

And the disc and suspension seems a bit too bright/clear to me.

It's real. The discs are so bright because they are directly facing the flash. The salty treads are also fairly accurate to the cold climate.

Although I've never encountered this particular car anywhere online, I'd guess the owner decided to swap the Elises wheels with something else in his garage on a winter afternoon. It must get dismal having to tuck your Lotus away all winter, so you play a little and see what the monster rims look like on the El.
 
All mods for looks are questionable? Spending a lot for a little performance is worse than spending little for a lot of looks? :)

Looks are all opinion. One man's 'improvement' is another man's 'Questionable modification'. Performance, no matter how small or how expensive is still a tangible improvement to some extent. But even that is pretty much down to opinion too. Manufacturers spend millions on optimizing a car's set-up, even minor suspension changes to ride height, damping or even wheel and tyre size can mess all that up.
 
Back