Having impure thoughts...

OK, so I'm driving the wife's car after being told it was making funny noises. Can't find anything wrong with the car to be honest. Its a 2000 Accent with 190k miles. It's going to make noises. Like wind noises, road noises, engine thrash.... the normal stuff.

So sitting in traffic, dealing with 'rons that think 1" of snow on the ground must mean the apocolypse is near.... I start thinking "this car would be a lot more fun is it had some better springs and new struts on it." So I mentally thrash the idea of $400 worth of new springs/struts on this 11 year old, nearly 200k mile car. Then I realize that the 185/60R14 Fuzion HRi's just aren't going to be able to turn this beast with a good suspension under it and realize that it uses the same bolt pattern and offset as the miata/EF civic. So a set of Kosei's and some 225/45R15 Hankook RS3's would HAVE to be in order. I mean.... what's a suspension without tires right?

So as I'm rolling forward in first gear I realized that with a great suspension and fantastic tires... what am I going to do with those when you only have 92hp at teh crank? I mena, the 0-60 time could be measured out accurately in fractions of a minute rather than seconds. Then I remember that Beta Swapping this car (2.0 Beta engine out of the 2001-2003 Elantra, 140hp) is literally a bolt in affair. So I could almost double the power, have better gearing and have a killer suspension and awesome tires on this little pile of crap....for under $2k. But then I'd need a seat.....

Someone please talk me out of it. I already have a project C4 that's not getting done... help me banish these thoughts with a good dose of reality!

Car in question:

There is nothing wrong with two projects right?

That's not helping.

Imagine wiping your ass with 20 hundred dollar bills and then flushing them - then note that the Accent still won't wipe your ass when its complete.

Without even seeing it... project C4 is cooler than a tarted up old fwd korean hatch with 184hp. Spend the $ there.

This would be my new DD and the wife would get my current Elantra as her Daily....

Hi Bob! I'm here to talk you out o-

Wait. That's not gone well. I'm sure you don't want my input in this thread.

Bobzilla wrote: This would be my new DD and the wife would get my current Elantra as her Daily....

You have a modified Elantra already.

I think i'm done here, since anything i say will be INTENSELY hypocritical.

Bob, your curse is spreading. I'm half-shopping for a reliable POS commuter, and I keep seeing Accents on autotrader for cheap.

It's all your fault! You should do it so I won't have to.

Do EET! C'mon Tom... Come to the GOOD "H" brand... and no, it's not Hummer.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Imagine wiping your ass with 20 hundred dollar bills and then flushing them - then note that the Accent still won't wipe your ass when its complete. Without even seeing it... project C4 is cooler than a tarted up old fwd korean hatch with 184hp. Spend the $ there.

Agreed.

2 projects means that neither will get done in a reasonably time frame.

To be honest... the vette will NEVER be finished. THat's why it's a toy! But it is coming in this weekend to start tearing apart the suspension.

Honestly, if you were going to start modifying it. Just make sure you do it so you can finish the modification over a weekend and keep it on the road rather then just turning it into a project sitting in your backyard.

Bob,

Quit whining, stop complain, cease contemplating, and get going already. You've already done 90% of the work which is sorting out what you need, now just go about acquiring parts and bolting them on, that's the brainless part...

DD the C4, race the Accent.

Bobzilla wrote: To be honest... the vette will NEVER be finished. THat's why it's a toy! But it is coming in this weekend to start tearing apart the suspension.

I'm not saying not to do silly things to cars - that would be hypocrisy of the highest order. I'm just noting that one will be considerably cooler for having spent $2k and the other will still be an old Accent.

Do it!!! When the weather warms up I'm so figuring out how to stuff Bilsteins/Konis/whatever else under my '07.

A few weeks ago I thought of getting an older accent for cheap and doing more or less the same thing.

In reply to petegossett:

some interesting research going on here...

http://www.hyundai-forums.com/index.php?showtopic=57315&st=0&gopid=392562&#entry392562

You realize you guys are NOT helping me here. Yes... the swap could be done in a weekend. Yes it would be after spring hit and the vette was back on the road giving me 3 working vehicles..... and yes I know it would still be an 11 year old Korean sedan. Body/suspension is in excellent shape to be honest. The chassis has another 200k miles in it easy.

I volunteer to sit around and drink beer in your garage while you swear at that thing.

If you ask the people on this board to talk you out of something, it means you will get talked into. Come on you had to of known that by now which just means you really want to do it which means you should do it.

^ Are you implying that I just needed to hear the right motivational speech to start this project?

Actually the biggest hurdle is the wife. But that is easily defeated by an engine that suddenly lost oil and was driven at 70mph in second gear until it locked up.....

I am assuming that engine seizure is due to some flaw in the design, and not operator error "accidentally" leaving the drain plug in the garage......right?

what drain plug?

Sadly, as tough as that little Alpha engine is, that would probably just make it tick a little more and it'd still keep running.

I think it would be the perfect accent to your commute

^ BWAHAHAHAHAHA! That's classic!