Why do you do it?

[Calaber]

This forum sees many modified Commodores posted every week.

Many of them are well maintained, well engineered and carefully modified cars that are obviously fully legal and safe.

Others are so stupidly modified, I can't help wondering what the owners are thinking. Maybe it's just the desire to be different, to express yourself, or to have that "fully sik" look, but dumping your car to within two or three inches of the road, tinting your glass so dark that you just know you're going to have trouble with the cops, tinting tail-lights....

Is it really worth the hassle of risking fines and being defected off the road, just to be "individual"? Some of you are actually convinced that your cars are safer than they were originally designed to be, because they have such low centres of gravity due to excessive lowering or because the suspension is so hard it has no compliance, so the car sits absolutely flat around corners...just hope the road is smooth though. Some of you remove heater-demisters to fit additional gauges in the vent spaces, some have huge tacho's mounted dangerously where they can cause serious injury to driver or passengers in a prang.

This isn't a rant from an old fart. We used to modify our cars "illegally" by fitting six inch rims with maximum offset on early Holdens to widen the track as much as possible. We lowered the cars, but only by 2 or 3 inches (50-75mm), we fitted small diameter steering wheels and hoped that the cops would never notice them. Our cars, in basic form, were bloody awful compared say to a standard VY Executive. We hotted the engines up with multiple carbs, big cams, big valve heads, extractors - nothing so different to today's owners. We often had cars with too much power for the brakes - shitty little thin discs on the front only, crappy drums out back. Four wheel discs belonged to Euro exotics and were still ten years away on local cars. Leaf springs on the rear - crude as buggery.

But we didn't go to the extremes that so many drivers go to today. And our cars didn't look stupid. Can't say that for many running around today.

Just my two cents worth. (Flak jacket now on.)

[social]

Because we can. Its an achievement in our and other peoples eyes (obviously depending on what people) and its normally something to be proud of. Thats my opinion anyways. But yea there are some absolute idiots out there.

[227shanno]

problem with the commodores is that its the most popular car in australia, pretty much whatever model you have you can garentee there'll be one next to you at the lights- different is good

[fuzzy2308]

it has nothing to do with trying being individual its done because we like it that way and there our cars and we will do what we want with them.

[sweefu]

I would like to agree and disagree, i guess its just people's tastes. I have spent alof of money on suspension for my car, to make it handle better and yes it is lowered, but it sits well on 17's, compared to my mate who chopped his springs with standard stroke shocks and standard everything else. now we pull up to skool and people say how much better his is, cus it is lower .. with chopped standard springs and standard everything -- wtf!
I guess some people do it in an attempt to make their cars look like something decent when parked.
Again, just my two cents.

[Philthy]

To impress the ignorant masses, as opposed to building a tasteful car for yourself

[HARVZ-6]

This forum sees many modified Commodores posted every week.

Many of them are well maintained, well engineered and carefully modified cars that are obviously fully legal and safe.

Others are so stupidly modified, I can't help wondering what the owners are thinking. Maybe it's just the desire to be different, to express yourself, or to have that "fully sik" look, but dumping your car to within two or three inches of the road, tinting your glass so dark that you just know you're going to have trouble with the cops, tinting tail-lights....

Is it really worth the hassle of risking fines and being defected off the road, just to be "individual"? Some of you are actually convinced that your cars are safer than they were originally designed to be, because they have such low centres of gravity due to excessive lowering or because the suspension is so hard it has no compliance, so the car sits absolutely flat around corners...just hope the road is smooth though. Some of you remove heater-demisters to fit additional gauges in the vent spaces, some have huge tacho's mounted dangerously where they can cause serious injury to driver or passengers in a prang.

This isn't a rant from an old fart. We used to modify our cars "illegally" by fitting six inch rims with maximum offset on early Holdens to widen the track as much as possible. We lowered the cars, but only by 2 or 3 inches (50-75mm), we fitted small diameter steering wheels and hoped that the cops would never notice them. Our cars, in basic form, were bloody awful compared say to a standard VY Executive. We hotted the engines up with multiple carbs, big cams, big valve heads, extractors - nothing so different to today's owners. We often had cars with too much power for the brakes - shitty little thin discs on the front only, crappy drums out back. Four wheel discs belonged to Euro exotics and were still ten years away on local cars. Leaf springs on the rear - crude as buggery.

But we didn't go to the extremes that so many drivers go to today. And our cars didn't look stupid. Can't say that for many running around today.

Just my two cents worth. (Flak jacket now on.)

LOL at tinting taillights....


and i think its down to the person.. most people that dont know what theyre doing do it for looks from others, i do things to my cars for MY personal taste i dont care what others think

[227shanno]

To impress the ignorant masses, as opposed to building a tasteful car for yourself

girls and mates are easily impressed arn't they !
but seriously, whenever a mate gets a commo or something, the first thing you say is "when are you getting it lowered" and "what size rims?" its like the done thing...

[Tom_1569]

Any modification I make to my car is to make it more practicle for what I use it for, I couldnt give to shits at to how it looks, aslong as its mechaniclly in top condition and is practicle.

[ephect]

lol u made another thread similar to this one but specific to why do young blokes lower commodores?

u modified ur cars back in the day with what was available and we are doing the same, except these days there are more options available, and the need to be different hence the kits from jap cars n newer model kits developed for older models n the likes.. My dad had spray on tint on his XW, lowered, ran 15" rims 12inch wide, shortened diff.. mildly worked 302.. everything was available then as it is now, there are just more options today..

u didnt specify why u modded the cars u had?

me personnally, i like to be practicle, unique yet subtle, classy and think outside the box. i mod because i like it, i have a picture of what i want my car to look like, and what i want to achive.
i say each to their own, n just think if it wasnt, we wouldnt be laughing at the odd balls out there. n we would be driving cars that look the same

[Goon]

it has nothing to do with trying being individual its done because we like it that way and there our cars and we will do what we want with them.

i 2nd that, we only live once... so why not

[Ozzie]

Because its a cheap way of doing things? lol

Personally I have to agree their idiots, but that said.. each to their own. Its not my call to judge and I can only warn.

Mines fully legal in every aspect and people still seem to mock it. But I guess safety played a big part in that decision.

[1991_Vn2nV]

To be different, and everyone has their own tastes!

[ibt18u]

like alot of ppl said its to be diffrent but im guessing as well some ppl dont know that they are breaking the law by fitting a pod filter or somthing.especally young guys.they see this stuff in the shops and buy it thinking well they sell it in the shops in like supercheap or where evea and installl stuff and get done for it.ive done it and been busted for things when i was younger and didnt know i was doing wrong why because i didnt know the rules.i may have thought twice if i knew i was gunna get a fine for it im not sticking up for ppl doing the wrong thing but just saying that somthimes ppl dont know whats right and whats wrong mod wise

[nemesis_adrasteia]

mostly mod for looks for example i think some 18 inch wheels would look nice on my car if i had the cash id buy them, also i think my car would look better if it was a bit lower.

notice how i was say I and MY thats because its my opinion of what looks good on my car as everyone else has their opinion, i honestly dont give two shits about their opinion

[stocky]

cant say that uve seen people installing gauges where the demisters are. maybe where the other vents are, but i dont see a problem with that.

as for the rest of it. i try to keep any modifications practical, without looking stupid.
my car is low, but not too low. just enough to handle fine. its actually higher than when i bought it. i still have factory FE2 in the front and the car sits nice and level now.
my car is loud, but im looking into making it quieter, yet it doesnt really concern me when motorbikes are allowed to go around with exhausts twice as loud and noone cares. i have more cats and mufflers on my car than there were when it came from factory
my car has a bodykit, and a wing, but thats factory
my car has big wheels, but theyre only 1 inch bigger than factory so meh. anything bigger than 17/18 inch i dont see the point in really.

as you said, you modified cars differently in your day, and i wouldnt be surprised if they were a hell of a lot less safer, yet you still survived. plenty of people here upgrade their brakes along with their power upgrades. perhaps these days, people can get away with a few stupid modifications, because in comparison, these dodgy cars of today would still be considered safer than the leaf spring, crap braked, non airbag, non abs, etc, cars of your generation

not that im supporting dodgy cars though. i hate seeing cars that have no springs in the back, cant see their brakes lights through the tint, or cant see the driver of the other car behind their a-pillar full of gauges

[MikesCalais]

what we should be asking is WHYYY are people STILLL putting spoilers on berlina's and calais'

[Calaber]

A few responses have been along the lines of "we do it because we can" (well, yes, I realise that, but not legally, which was my point.

Some say because they like the look. I'm certainly not against lowering - a small amount can genuinely work for looks and handling, but I'm obviously talking about the extremes we see in this forum so often. The comment about getting a new car and being asked/told to "lower and rims" is dead right. Check "My Ride" and nearly every new thread will have comments to lower and fit 19's or 20's within the first half dozen posts.

My reference to fitting gauges in the vents related more to the fact that some here actually delete the heater-demister (which is required to be installed by law as it's a safety feature), so that they can use the vent spaces for guages. I think it looks rather clever and neat, but deletion of important safety equipment isn't too smart.

To realise why we used to do so many mods to old cars like EH's and XW's, you have to appreciate just how crude and lacking in basic safety those cars were. The suspensions were soft and lacked real control on poor roads, the brakes were deplorable (especially on my EH - a billy cart had a better chance of stopping), tyres were 6.40/13 or 6.95/14' crossplies - hell, you put better tyres on your old trailer these days. In other words, there was an enormous amount you almost HAD to modify just to get the safety level of those old cars up to an acceptable level and you still would have been a long way short of what a basic six cylinder sedan offers today.

I think the trend today for some car owners is to go to extremes and the lowering/black window/black tail-light treatment is typical of that look. If you load your car up with all three for example, you have no right whatever to whinge when you get booked. You might like the look, but all three (when taken to excess) are illegal. Full stop. (which raises the point that this stuff is available from retailers who know it is illegal, but still sell it. Minux's view that sellers should be legally liable for doing so is valid.)

And for those of us who put spoilers on our Berlina's and Calais', we also like the look, just as much as those of you who prefer to remove them don't and they don't affect the road-worthiness, safety, comfort or legality of the car one little bit.

[Lumps of cheese]

I used to muck around doing some of the things mentioned but these days i like to be practical so as time wears on i think you slowly grow out of it.

[SV62NV]

my cars not lowered and i dont plan on getting it lowered, in return i dont attract attention from the police (touch wood). MY opinion is im not a fan of lowered cars, but thats me

[Bravotwozero]

I modify my car to go handle better, stop better and go faster. They're the only mods that I'm interested in. I've got almost 400rwhp yet my car looks stock as a rock. Never get hassled by the cops that way!

[Fonzie]

Of course there are idiots. And, illegal doesn't necessarily mean unsafe. Ridiculously dark tint, tinted tail lights, and exceedingly low are some of the illegal AND unsafe things. But how is a cam unsafe? How is a properly lowered car unsafe? Intake, Turbo, Exhaust, Rockers... Unsafe? For every properly modified car, there are three screw ups.

[azkwazere]

And for those of us who put spoilers on our Berlina's and Calais', we also like the look, just as much as those of you who prefer to remove them don't and they don't affect the road-worthiness, safety, comfort or legality of the car one little bit.

If you don't ensure you have appropriate brake lights to replace/compensate for the reduce lighting either through removal of wing or coverage of adding the wing it will.

So you like stock cars.. where is this heading? What do you want us all to say honestly?

What outcome do you want from this thread other than the shit fight your causing now?

aZk.

[stocky]

Some say because they like the look. I'm certainly not against lowering - a small amount can genuinely work for looks and handling, but I'm obviously talking about the extremes we see in this forum so often. The comment about getting a new car and being asked/told to "lower and rims" is dead right. Check "My Ride" and nearly every new thread will have comments to lower and fit 19's or 20's within the first half dozen posts.

My reference to fitting gauges in the vents related more to the fact that some here actually delete the heater-demister (which is required to be installed by law as it's a safety feature), so that they can use the vent spaces for guages. I think it looks rather clever and neat, but deletion of important safety equipment isn't too smart.

yes people suggest putting on bigger wheels, but most of these cars are optioned with big wheels from factory anyway. VYs have had 19s from factory, and as long as any other wheels are a similar load rating, i dont see the big problem? even then, the older cars such as VN, VP, etc really arent that much different than the newer models underneath, so once again, as long as load ratings are suitable, no big deal on the big wheel issue

i really would like you to post a link to one of these cars with gauges where the demister is. ive never seen that before. you know the demister is on the top of the dash yeah? i think youre thinking of the vents on the centre of the dash

[pedrotski]

I have 5% tint on my car. its really the only illigal mod i have, and its to preserve the immaculate interior