Non-functional aero means parts like wings or spoilers that look cool but don't actually help the car go faster or handle better. They're mainly for style, not performance.
GT wings are big wings on the back of cars that help them stick to the ground when going fast. They're great for racing, but some cars don't need them because they're not fast enough to use them properly.
A rear wing is a part on the back of a car that helps it stick to the road better when going fast. It pushes the car down, making it more stable and easier to control.
Japanese style in cars means the way some cars are modified to look sporty and perform better, often seen in racing. This includes big wings and other parts that help with speed and handling.
Fast and Furious is a popular movie series about street racing and fast cars. It has made many people interested in modifying their cars for better performance.
Downforce is what keeps a car glued to the road when it's going fast. It helps the tires grip better, which is important for going around corners quickly without losing control.
The Scion tC is a small car made by Toyota that was aimed at younger buyers. It has a sporty look and is fun to drive, making it a popular choice for those who want something stylish without spending too much money.
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people like because it's dependable and fun to drive. It's often used in racing and can be upgraded to go faster.
Willy bars are special bars that help drag racing cars stay balanced when they speed up quickly. They stop the car from flipping over by keeping the front wheels on the ground.
Hood exit exhaust is when the exhaust pipe comes out of the hood instead of the back of the car. This is done for performance reasons, but it can make the car dirty and cause problems while driving.
Fender exit exhaust means the exhaust pipe comes out of the side of the car, near the fender. It's used to improve performance, but it can make the car dirty and cause visibility issues.
Term
2J
The 2J is a powerful engine from Toyota that many car enthusiasts love to use in different cars because it can be modified to produce a lot of horsepower.
An external wastegate helps control how much power a turbo engine produces by letting some exhaust gases escape instead of going through the turbo. This keeps the engine safe from too much pressure.
The Toyota Supra is a fast and stylish sports car that many people love for its speed and cool looks. It's known for being fun to drive and has a strong following among car fans, especially since it was recently redesigned with some help from BMW.
The Honda Civic Type-R is a special version of the regular Honda Civic that is designed for speed and fun driving. It has a powerful engine and sporty features, making it a favorite among people who enjoy driving fast cars.
Injector cooling is when extra fuel is sprayed into the engine to help keep it cool. This is important because it prevents the engine from getting too hot and causing problems.
An AFR gauge is a tool that shows how much air and fuel are being mixed in the engine. It's important for making sure the engine runs well and doesn't have problems.
Detonation is when the fuel in the engine explodes too early, which can cause knocking sounds and damage the engine. It's something that tuners try to avoid.
LIVE
Welcome back to the new year for welcome to 2026 Matt. How was how was your new year?
It was good. We're old so we don't really do anything, you know, too spectacular.
Just, you know, hanging with the kids and stuff. We let them stay up until
to your guys's new year, which is like, you know, so it's like nine, nine over here. So
that's late enough. And then they're out. Surprisingly, I made it till midnight. I wasn't
trying. I was watching a soccer game and I ended up seeing up until midnight. And
it's been a while since I've done that. So it was a little surprising.
Yeah, we stayed up with the kids. We stayed up and watched Gremlins 2. You know, we had a
Oh, nice.
We had to have a nice throwback movie with them. We try to do every year. We're going to try to do
like one of the older movies, like, you know, whether it be the Gremlins or we actually were
discussing doing, why is my brain not working? I'm sorry.
What is the, oh, National Ampuns Christmas vacation. Like, you know, we like to do a
lot of the older movies from, you know, like we're kids watching it with them and spending
that time. But so anyway, now that I completely killed that whole opening.
If you mentioned the Christmas vacation, my neighbor right next door, he does a whole
scene based on that movie, Christmas. And then people come from like miles away to see it.
He's got like the mannequins that are, you know, like fully dressed in the same attire
from the movie. There's signs that has like, you know, quotes from the movie. He's got like
everything related to that. The guy, the whole theme.
Plugging in electrocution. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the rules has that. Yeah. And then he,
he's won awards, like, I don't know, three years or something. And then people come from like miles
away to see it. And our street is complete chaos for like two weeks. And there's no parking here.
It's just insanity. It's gotten worse over the years. It's cool. It's just sometimes it's like,
it gets both crazy, you know, and if I have a game, like, you know, usually they're at night.
All right. Excuse me. I want to leave here like at eight 30, there's kids everywhere. So I have
to have my wife come up. So I'm afraid to back up. And they're just running around, you know,
and it's our streetlight. They're not great here, even with all the Christmas lights. So
I have her just keep an eye on like when I'm back on it, make sure no little kid runs out,
because I don't want to risk it because they're everywhere. It's like Halloween.
Crazy. Yeah. So with it being the new year, I've been watching YouTube, obviously,
why we've been, we've been out and everybody's talking about the car trends that are going
to happen in 2026, the ones we're going to leave in 2025. And I don't want to, I don't want to get
too much into that because we're wheel guys at the end of the day. The wheels are a continuation
of what we've been doing. We know the style that people are looking for. We're going to,
we're going to continue down that path. So I'm not going to harp on that too much,
but I do want to talk about the mods that get necessarily a bad rap or things that
we might not understand, such as, you know, my love of limbo doors that you're not the biggest
fan of, things like that, that don't always get the best rap, but we understand why they are part
of the culture. Yeah. I think there's always a reason for, right? A lot of times those lists
are really just because it gets hit, right? Like you do a top five or top 10 or something like
that, it gets hits. It gets a little bit of traction. So they're rarely right. It's just,
you know, it's just really a matter of opinion. There's certainly a reason behind
most every mod, even if it's not your cup of tea, right? Yeah. A lot of stuff,
this is not my cup of tea because I hate everything, but I get it, you know, I get it.
So the one that I still have the most trouble with is non-functional arrows. So as a guy who
likes to build things that are functional, non-functioning arrow, you know, big GT wings
on cars that are never going to, you know, perform at the level necessary or things that
are just actively slowing the car down, just irk me. There's a really good guy on YouTube,
I can't remember his name right now, so forgive me. I'll see if we can find input in the comments
below, but he's, he track races his G 35 and the, and he really goes into detail about like
things that add to performance and decrease performance on the track. And some of the things
are counterintuitive, like just the little, they put these little flaps right in front of the front
wheels and just pushing on the fender, right on the fender. And you know, from an arrow function
standpoint, it works perfectly. And those are those like little details that unless you're
actually out there racing your car, you don't know that you're going to get benefit from. So
I like that type of arrow work where, where it's test and then see development and see
where you can make the car perform better. I just struggle where it's, I'm going to slap a
splitter on the front end, canards on it, you know, side skirts on it. And now it's,
it's an arrow monster. Like that's where I struggle to, to be like, all right, you're not
really doing it for the right reasons. Like if you needed it, that's a different story. So that's
where I always struggled. I hear you, I hear you, there is, I think that a lot of what would that
come from like the massive rear wing, the front splitters and like the, you know, kind of less
like tack on canards and stuff like that. I think a lot of that stuff just comes from trying to
emulate a Japanese style or something that was big on a track car, especially in Japan.
Taking that, that style and sort of like applying it to a street car is a little bit silly,
but I sort of see what the idea is to get that look. It is pretty obnoxious and the wings kill
me the most when I see the huge, the huge wings, especially on a nice clean car and they have
the huge wing and I'm like, man, it completely takes away from it, but I understand where it's
coming from. I wouldn't do it myself, but I do understand where people are coming from with
that. I get the difference between like doing a silhouette build, where the car has those
overflares or like a DTM style build, where it is that race inspired project, but I just don't
get like, I have a, you know, a flex fuel tuned VA WRX with a vortex wing on the back of it that
weighs more than the entire three quarter back half of the car. That's concerning to me that
you're putting that on for all the wrong reasons and you're hindering the car's performance versus
putting something on that will benefit the car. And that's, that's just kind of where, where I
will perform, you know, I'll prefer that function over form in a lot of regards. You know, a lot
of guys will go with form over function, but there, there are times where I don't want to sacrifice
that performance to the vehicle or block cooling or cars, any of those issues where I don't have to.
Yeah, it does kill me too. Like when I see the price tag on like the real,
like the vortex wing, it's crazy expensive. There's a lot, it's a lot of money for something that,
you know, that if you're not, if it's not part of the complete build, it's probably not going to
help very much. Or if at all, maybe like you said, like hinder it, I will say though that there was
an argument that would consistently come up. This is years ago when, when I worked for Honda
Tuning magazine and I was running the social as well. You know, you'd see a wing like on a type R
or like, like even a hatchback with the wing up on top or whatever. And it was like a competition
car. And then people would always comment on there, like, you're, you're stupid for putting
a wing, a rear wing on a front wheel drive car, it defeats the purpose. There was this whole,
there's a big period of time actually where that was really, really frowned upon. It was a way to
meet fun up, right? Part of the reason is because like, you know, movies like Fast and Furious
came out where all the cars had these huge wings or the veilside style or whatever. And for that,
it was silly, but, but there is a purpose and there is a need for it, specific settings. But
at the time that wasn't understood nowadays, you know, the internet's, you know, social media,
everything is, it's a lot easier to find that info. But at that time it was a battle and it was
regular because I'd feature a race car that had like this big wing on the back. And, you know,
it would even out the splitter and the whole thing. And then they jump in there and be like,
this is pointless. It doesn't make any sense. You know, they just think they're very old school,
but downforce only applies to the drive wheels that, you know, that's the thought process.
And I get, I get the old school thought mentality behind that. But do you remember the gentleman
who ran the Scion TC that had the spoiler, the screen? Yeah, exactly. I'm sure Max could find
a couple of pictures of that for you guys that don't remember that car. But I mean, there was a
lot of R and D that went into it and it still didn't really make it so insane that it was outside
the realm of what was possible with normal aerodynamics at that time period. So I mean,
it was actually, actually back up on that one. For Chris Rito, he held the front wheel drive
record track record for for many, many years for really a long, long time. Oh, he had put a lot,
a lot of money in the back car and a lot of arrow to the, the big talking point was this massive
wing. We'll have a nice bullet picture of it, but it's massive wing right in the front,
right in front of the car. And it was just, it was huge, right? It didn't make any sense. And at
the time, especially people were just laughing like, what the hell is it? It doesn't make any
sense. Why would you do that? But do you think he won more because of that? Or do you think that
would have still been capable without it? And that's the question I have. Yeah, I honestly
don't know because I know for a fact that he put a lot of R and D, a lot of hours into getting that
car to the point where it was at. A lot of money, right? But I don't know. I don't know the answer
to that. I do know though, after he had held that record for many, many years, a guy from Canada,
William Ion came out with, I think a nice gen Civic and he beat the record. And it was a big
deal when he did that. I was actually at the track when he did it. And it was a big deal. And,
you know, it didn't have that crazy front arrow, but we're talking like almost 10 years. So he had
like a lot of arrow that, that now is kind of standard, right? The flat bottom and I am. You
have all these, these, these screen cuts and stuff that at the time where it was kind of cutting
edge. So, you know, over time technology advances and you kind of figure out ways to go faster and
that's what happened. But she did hold that record for many, many years and no one could touch it.
And then now, you know, it's kind of behind us, but it's pretty remarkable that it held on that
low. Well, I like your insight onto that because that was more of the time where I was younger
and I was watching it happen. And I thought that he was, I knew it was. It looks silly. It looks
stupid, but it was, it's like when, when they were putting Willy bars on front wheel drive,
like civics and CRX's in the early, early drag days and people were just laughing, but they were,
it was pure function of Andrews, right? It was pushing things further. So.
I mean, I felt like that did some of the purpose because then in it, keep the car,
like the, the counterweight of the car pushed forward or something like that. I'm sure that
I'm sure there was something, right? There are preload in the hell out of them. And yeah,
it was pretty cool. It was cool to see. So, so there was always a purpose. Now,
now since you want to bring up the Honda drag racing days, I guess something that kind of,
I get where they're coming from, but now I'm starting to shy away from it was like hood exits
and fender exit exhaust. Also one, I just, I can't stand that so much of the time you're
getting the car absolutely filthy. Like, let's be honest here, if any, anyone who's had a hood
exit or worked on cars that have hood exits, you go for a test drive and even if the car is running
perfectly, you're still getting stuff on the windshield, stuff on the fender. It doesn't,
you're not getting away from it. At the end of the day, the exhaust is in the back of the car for
a reason. Now I get trying to, you know, make things fit that don't normally fit and you're
trying to make the best of a bad situation and cramming stuff in. I get that, but I definitely
struggle with saying, okay, yeah, this is sufficient. Like if it's on a drag car or a purpose built
car that's only going to the track, that's one thing. But on the street cars, I'm really struggling
to continue to appreciate the cars that, okay, yeah, I swapped this 2J into this crazy chassis,
but I didn't do any of the work to get the exhaust out the back of the car, just lops it off,
shoved out the hood and stuck an O2 bung right on the, right on the hood. I struggle with that.
Just because I feel like you should be part of that whole engine swap mentality should be
compartmentalizing everything and figuring out how you're going to run the exhaust and drive
train and fuel system and heat management. And like when you're building a car, those are the
things that I'm thinking about. So you're talking about building a street car though, even on a
street car. Like, I know I'm saying street car is where my mentality is with this. Obviously,
if it's a drag car and you're, and all you're doing is chasing time and that's the shortest
exhaust belt possible, shortest everything, least amount of weight, that's, that's its own prerogative.
But I'm saying for cars that you're going to, you're going to take out on like a normal, you
know, Sunday drive, like the, or even on like even something you're going to play around with,
I just feel like it's a shortcut and not, not, I hate to say it like that, but I feel like it's
a shortcut. You're cutting out work though you would have to otherwise make decisions on and,
and exhaust plays a huge part into the way that the engine runs, whether it be NA or turbo. So
you start to pick up weird issues with the hood exits also where the O2 sensor bung might be
seeing, you know, the O2 might actually be seeing air because of the way the exhaust pulses are
going out. It might be scavenging a little bit of fresh air back in and your roading is not
correct. So now your engine's not running right. And it thinks it is like things like that, just
I struggle with from. Yeah, I think, um, I think you mentioned it. I mean, part of it is what's
probably the latest for some people that were put, putting like a turbo kit on a, let's say a Honda,
for example, and I know, I'm sorry, I harp on that, that type of vehicle. That's what I know the
best. But if you have a Civic with a K swap and you do a turbo setup, and maybe you don't have
the means to get a little piping route of the way that you want, whatever, you go straight up.
It's easy. It's, you know, what a foot of piping, whatever it is, and you make a hole and you're
good to go. So I think there is certainly some laziness for some people, but I think it turned
into more of a trend. And it became one of those things that like, look, you can do this. It's
inexpensive. It's simple to do. You can get some flames going, get some good TikTok videos or
you know, whatever it is. I think that was part of it as well. So I think it became sort of a
trend. And that's something to do with it as well. I get that. Also, you have to remember, too,
would like a lot of cars coming in now that are converted to all wheel drive. It's very difficult
to get the exhaust to route properly with, you may have a drive, drive shaft in there. So you
can do it. It's been done by many people. There's oval piping. There's all these different ways you
can do it, but it takes a little bit more thinking, more money, a little bit more know how. So I could
see what people would take the shortcut of going through the hood. I don't like them. I would prefer
to see the exhaust come out the back unless it's a drag car or, you know, an all out race car.
But from what I've seen, a lot of it is being able to shoot flames out the hood and have that
that footage, you know, kind of like flex that, you know? Yeah. I mean, I get, you know, if you
want to have an external wastegate or something like that to shoot for us. And that actually,
that brings me into one of my favorite topics, which is going to be the pops, bangs, crackles,
flings, all of that. So you guys all, you know, throughout the chat have all figured out over
time that I'm a VQ head, I'm a Nissan guy through and through. So I, I do like the VQ platform.
Do I think that every single moment we need trumpets running down the road, popping and
banging everywhere? No. Do I think that having that map available where you do have some
overrun and some reverb and some pops? I don't mind it. If it's used sparingly.
As far as a flame tune, I think everyone should have the ability, if you have a turbo
charged car to sit there and shoot flames out the wastegate, like you were saying, I think that is
everyone's prerogative. I think having a mini flamethrower under your hood is the whole point.
But that being said, I do struggle with the guys that are always on, you know, every shift is
crackling and banging. Like I was in a shop and we, we did a lot of that work and it gets to the
point where some of those cars were just obnoxious. Like they genuinely were not enjoyable to drive.
They were enjoyable to be around. You know, a set of long tube headers on a bone stock VQ35
is not an enjoyable sound. Into straight, into straight pipes, mind you. It is, it's painful,
especially when it's running on the dyno in the shop behind you as you're trying to work on other
cars. Nothing makes you drop a 10 millimeter faster. That being said, you know, so I, I struggle
with it because I do, I, I'll be honest, when I'm in sport mode, I do have a, you guys have seen the
little video where I popped as I was taking off and, you know, I do have a little bit of
if I'm on throttle for a long period of time or I get it just right and I lift it will pop.
But other than that, I don't want added, added audio to the car necessarily. So I get where
some people are like, let the car do it itself. You know, it's the natural overrun of the engine
and then you'll, you know, you'll have richness and it will light off. I get that. But what's
really fun is you can have the full on race car that does that and then you can still have the
daily driver like I do with chas cats and still makes popping sounds. Yeah, I don't get to shoot
flames because obviously the catalytic converter stopped that. But if you have the race car,
there's all the more reason you should be able to shoot flames. I think that it's just something
you just switch the map and you sit there and have fun with it. I hear where you're coming from.
I hear around here a lot. There's a lot of, there's a good amount of BMWs and newer Supras
and they all have that run here. Like I hear it all the time. There's a mean road that runs
not too far from my house and there's, there's been a good amount of like racing on that street
and I hear them all the time, like midnight pop up. So I'm just wondering, since you have experience
with it, the difference between that occurring naturally, because there are some cars that will
kind of pop and verbal, you give it some gas, get off the throttle, you cut it back off and
you get some, maybe some flames and stuff between that and actually tuning it so that it has that,
that actual verbal, that actual sound. So keep in mind, I'm not a tuner, but I'm going to give you
the layman's version from the best of my understanding. So when you're tuning that in, you're actively
causing over enrichment. So you're throwing raw fuel past the exhaust valves at that point.
Usually it's getting into the manifold before it ignites. You're also retarding the timing back
far enough that the valves are hanging open while that injector is suffering open. So you're
essentially dumping a crap ton of fuel into the manifold slash downpipe area, I guess you would
say. Okay. So is that happening, is that happening on demand or that's all the time? So if I want to
give it a lot of throttle, depending on the map. So, for instance, I have the ability to, if I'm in
on the correct map and I go full throttle and then I come back to about half throttle,
it will throw itself into that part of my map where it's been tuned to do that.
Now, as far as can you move that window, a tuner would be able to tell you more, but
from what I understand, you can move that window no matter where you want it
to anywhere on that trace map, as long as you have the ability to get the throttle position
and load into that area. But yet again, as I said, this is very layman's. I didn't tune
them on the car, I just made sure the cars could run while they did this.
I made sure we removed that. That was my job. But the big part of it also with the cars that
do it naturally, it's you have more high performance engines where things are tuned
turned up more. You usually will have cams, things like that, where the duration of the
cam causes the valves to stay open a little bit longer so that flame front starts to work its
way out of the cylinder more so than when you're actively doing it with the time and control of
the engine. Well, I'll tell you, this is many, many years ago, my buddy and I, my buddy Lloyd
from SportCarMotion, we went to a short automotive testing, it's like a big dyno, not a big, but
like a well-known dyno place here in SoCal, and we both got our cars tuned. We were driving home.
He at the time had an EK9 Civic Type R, and it had a fully built V-Series stroke to two liters,
tow to everything, like individual throttle bodies, cams, everything towed to the top end.
That motor actually later became mine, but at the time we just finished it. You got it tuned,
we're driving home, and every time you get on the throttle and let off, it would pop a really
sizable flame, right? As long as the RPMs were up and which they were because the transmission
slowed close in the final drive. But we were coming home on the freeway and he got pulled over,
and the cop came up to him. He's like, do you realize every single time you
accelerate or lane change, you pop the flame? I've been watching you for like five miles.
She's like, you weren't speeding, which is fine, this is great, but every time you change lanes
and you accelerate, you pop a flame, and my buddy was like, oh, I didn't know that. We knew,
but it's one of those things. I think that type of thing, we always try to keep it like
low profile, and that was one of those things, we got to figure this out.
And so eventually we did, but it was an aggressive tune and it had that issue,
and that was like a buy product, you would say. Well, from what I understand, that also has a
lot to do with using injector cooling. So you'll find that a lot of tuners will build in a slight
overrun, right? If you watch your AFR gauge, a lot of you guys will see this where it will
rich in up for a split second before it leans out after your car has been retuned,
while you accelerate and let off, because what ends up happening is for that split second,
we allow the injectors to spray a couple more times to cool the top of the piston,
that way we don't get detonation right when you get back into throttle, because
if you get on throttle back incorrectly and that piston is hot, you can get a hot spot on the piston
and ignite the fuel before it's ready. So ideally you want to cool the top of the piston
through active cooling by letting an injector hit on that and then push out the unburned fuel,
and that's how you actively cool the top of the piston. So you'll see a lot of times you'll see
your AFR gauge spike rich for a split second, and then the car will realize you're off throttle and
will lean up and everything will go the normal way. But the tuner will build in that window where
you'll have a little bit of that overrun. And a lot of times on bigger injectors, like if you're
onto a hot piston and you have a flame front because it lit off, it ignited somewhere in that
process. So there's a window there, you're sort of asking for it, right? Yes, exactly. So I think
with, it's funny because that same engine, we put that engine into my car later at the time,
and then retuned again because I changed a few parts, and then it was a less aggressive tune.
I didn't have any issues with like, I didn't want the flames, I wanted to keep a low profile. So
that was good, but man, that thing was, it was wild seeing that. I mean, every time it was just
popping, you know, it was crazy. So the only one that I, that I really wanted to touch on, and
this is actually the one that I'm not the fan of, I'm done with forged carbon fiber. This whole
trend of the, the hot mud. Yeah, I can't, I can't do it. I like little touches of normal
weave carbon fiber. Like I have a windshield cowl. I have like a little couple touches on my Z
that are carbon, you know, like, you know, fog light ducts, things like that, but not anything
crazy. I cannot stand like the, the forged carbon fiber doors, fenders, you know, bumper,
like it's too much. One, the weave is cool because it's, you know, it's motorsports inspired. Yeah,
this, that the forge just looks like somebody was lazy and glued a whole bunch of shiny pieces
of black paper together. Now I didn't really get, I remember the first started like becoming,
I won't say invented, but when it first started kind of entering our, our market, our industry,
and I thought it was very strange because it was so unorganized. And I was like,
I guess that's the point, right? Kind of just being like a hot spot, just kind of like put
all together, but it didn't have the same flow that you would expect from like, you know, from
like a proper fiber weave. And I think it didn't really, I don't know that really caught on. And
I think along the way, like over the years, we've had situations where carbon companies have tried
to introduce some new looks. And I remember we had for a while, it was silver, but they called it
white, white carbon. It was actually silver. And that was like going to be the next big thing.
And like it came in wet so fast. And it would, you know, it didn't stick around.
A few people had it, and I haven't seen it in years before a while they were doing hoods, wings,
and front lips with that material. Did spoon do like a carbon Kevlar hood, like a yellow,
like I know you're a hot guy, I could have sworn there was like one of those.
It was a carbon fiber. Oh, okay. But it was a yellow. They do use
they do use Kevlar and a lot of their stuff, but the hood was just regular carbon fiber. But
yeah, that silver or white stuff came. And then there was like up here where there's a lot of
people doing colored weave, like, you know, green and red and yellow, maybe that's maybe that's
maybe that was a pretty good, pretty good about a time where people were doing that. Our companies
were doing that. And there's still some of that around, but not nearly, you know, as much as what
I think they expected. So I didn't really hit that hard. So there's always been people trying to
introduce new things and try to mix it up a little bit. And it doesn't always stick around.
It seems like the forge carbon thing is sticking around though. And I think it's because it's
used on those higher level, like super cars. And so there's a little bit of influence from that.
And I think that's going to give it some staying power. I don't see it a lot, but I know what
you're talking about. I do see it around. See, we I see it a lot in the Q 60s, a lot of those guys
Q 50s. And then it got into the beamer side. So a lot of the M guys all have it. So I've seen it
all out of those cars. I just, I feel like it's, I don't know. I'm yet again, I guess we're all
getting old, but you know, whatever, well, you are not me. But what if you're talking about,
what if we're talking about like a car that has a lot of carbon fiber on it, though it's not forged,
like it's got the carbon fiber with the classic weave, but like the hood, the fenders, the lip,
the wing, the door panels, is it, is it like, so does it annoy you or are you still into that
type of thing? It's hard because if it's done, like, all right, if you, if you have say an EG
and you do the fenders, hood bumpers, just that front half, then the back half is white
and it's on some drag wheels, I get the whole look, I understand what you're going for. It's
supposed to feel like one of those old drag cars, like I say old, but you know what I mean,
you know, it meant to feel like a drag car. I struggle when it's everything order from
Team Moon, nothing fits right. And then it's a three quarter or seven fit, you know, or five
sevenths car, like it doesn't have any thought process to the layout or, or it's, they are forged,
this is all forged carbon fiber, or this is regular carbon fiber, and then, oh, we wrap to this.
That's the thing that I don't like. But like, if you get into like the, the active, what's
active garage, I think it was the name of the company, the guy that does the carbon fiber.
Yeah, that's a whole different ballgame, but that whole car is carbon fiber. So I respect
the work that was put into achieve the product. I wouldn't drive it. Honestly, I mean,
obviously if it was given to me, I'd drive it anyway, but you know what I mean, like it would
not be my build route at all. Yeah, I think it feels a little bit like the younger generations
tend to overdo it. Well, I've seen it overdo it, just in my opinion, they overdo it with the carbon
fiber stuff. And it's always been that way. You know, many, many years ago when, when forms were
still a thing, I remember a lot of guys doing carbon parts, like on Honda tech and stuff. And
it was like, you know, let's do carbon, I got fenders now, I've got this, I got,
but basically my whole car is going to be carbon seeing that type of feel. And remember,
there was a group of guys that were like adamantly agents that and there was always a big, you know,
a big fight, a big debate about that. And I think, you know, I think at one point I had like
a carbon hatch and hood and I was like, man, this is too much already. So I remember painting it
and then liking the look much better. So I think for, it just depends on what you're into,
you know what I mean? But when I was younger, I think I preferred a bunch of carbon crap.
And then as I got older, I think I liked it better, just one color or at least,
you know, mostly one color with maybe some highlights. Like right now I have
a Kevlar lip and wing and then I'm good. You know what I mean? I don't need much other stuff.
That's all with my Z, the windshield, cowl and the fog light ducts, those little touches go,
like those go, they make more of a statement when they're on a otherwise clean vehicle
versus when it's all that on the entire vehicle. I think statement's better.
It can certainly get away from you, right? You can, you can always do too much. And I think
when you're younger and you're just like, give me everything, I want all the stuff, all the parts,
you know what I mean? I get that sort of, I wouldn't say it's maturity because the kind of,
the kind of like is downplaying the enthusiasm. I think it's just more your opinion changes a
little bit as you get older. You kind of like, you've kind of done it, you see it and done it
and you're like, all right, well, that was cool. But now I think I want a cleaner,
cleaner approach. And I think that happens to a lot of people that haven't done it anyways.
Well, see, you say that, but I'm still heart set on these Lambo doors. I'm just saying that
I will have, so there's actually a 300ZX that I follow on social media right now
that's got an LS swap. He's got like a pretty aggressive wide body on it and he's got Lambo
doors and he is, it's just so perfectly like that, that I went to the car meet and this,
this is the car that I saw a feeling. Like I know that, like I know that it's not like a
magazine car, but it's just such a home build and it's cool. And to see a kid out, you know,
a guy out there doing it on his own and building that is really cool because I don't know his
background. I don't know what he does. I don't know if he wrenches all the time or whatever,
but it's not like a, it's not like a big project. It's something that's achievable in the driveway.
And it's just such a cool little car. And then with the Lambo, I feel like we missed the mark
with Nissan not doing Lambo doors on the car from the word go. I mean, Lamborghini got our
headlights. I feel like we should have got their doors and everything would have been fine.
Yeah. And I think everything is fine without those. I think we're all right. I think Nissan's
good. And Nissan is not good right now. Well, it's not either good or not doing that. They're
like, you know what? We did the S13, 14, 15. We're all right. But I mean, is there any of those
ones that anything that you can think of that? Well, I think, you know, if I really wanted to
like dive into all the little Honda ones or so many, but I mean, some of the ones that I still
see that annoy me is like guys getting, you know, they want to do everything JDM. I think it feels
Have you seen those little bumper parking poles? Oh, a lot of the civics.
Yeah, the little glasses stick out, right? Yeah, you can like, you can, there's like a button inside
there's a switch for it, right? You can extend it and what it is. So you can kind of have like a
marker for your parking. You can kind of see how to use it as a guide for when you're parking.
Yeah, it's like a French, it's like a French antenna for parking, right? Yeah, it's actually like,
and actually extends on a switch and you can put it back down. I don't know. I just think that stuff
is, is silly. You know, I understand though, because again, it's one of those things where
like they're going after a certain theme, they want to get every single little bit. So I've got like
the JDM flare inside and they've got, you know, a little corn box with some of that stuff.
I understand it. I just hate it. It drives me nuts because I think it just takes away from
the car. Like you have this, this clean through bumper and then you've got like this parking
pole on it. It reminds you of like the RX seven, how it has this nice clean front end and then
it has that, that big bolt for the license plate. It drives me nuts. If I, if I had one of those,
I'd have that shave off immediately. But, but, you know, it's just one of those things that
takes away from the real cool more than adds to it. So you got a front plate ticket in New York
because you shaved it off. Yeah, we get it out here too. I would make a bracket or something.
So annoying. No, no car should have a front plate, but anyway. So I mean, I guess that
kind of wraps up what we were looking to cover. I'm glad. I'm sure I'm pretty sure people that
are watching cut a lot of ideas are a lot of things that they're like, I hate this or I hate
that. So let us know below. I get wings to see the comments on this whole one. And I'm sure,
I'm sure my, my grease monkey explanation of, of pops and bangs is going to, I'm going to have
somebody like admin come in and correct me on my way of just explaining it. But that's okay.
Because as I said, I only fixed the cars when they were broken. I wasn't the one tuning them. So
that's, that's a little above my pay grade, but we'll see. See if I see all right. I was in the
comments. Let us know below if there's something that you, you recognize of being definitely played
out or something you hate, but you kind of understand it like Lambo doors, like, you know,
what's up the Nick likes want to hear about it. That's Armin. Yeah, we're going. Peace.
About this episode
The hosts dive into automotive modifications that often receive criticism but have their own appeal. They discuss their personal dislikes, such as non-functional aero parts and hood exit exhausts, while also acknowledging the cultural significance behind these choices. The conversation touches on the balance between form and function, the evolution of car trends, and the nostalgia associated with certain mods. With humor and insight, they explore how tastes change over time and the reasons behind some of the more contentious modifications in car culture.
Some car mods make us cringe… but at the same time, we kinda get why people do them.
In this episode of the KONIG Behind the Wheel Podcast, we’re talking about the mods we can’t stand, yet somehow still understand. From cars running way too much aero for the street, to overdone carbon fiber everywhere you look, to exhausts that shoot flames and burble tunes that never seem to shut off—these are the trends that divide the car community.
We break down why these mods exist, where they actually make sense, and when they cross the line from functional to full-on spectacle. Is it all about attention? Chasing race car vibes? Or just doing what makes you happy, regardless of what anyone else thinks?
Whether you love these mods, hate them, or secretly want them on your own car, this episode dives into the fine line between form, function, and personal taste in car culture.
Listen in and let us know—what’s a mod you hate… but totally understand?
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