a friend and his money...

....are quickly parted. I have a roommate who spends too much money on his car addiction. His particular poison of choice is a r32 89 nissan skyline gts-t. To be fair it was/is his dream car and who can really fault him for aquiring it. He imported it from japan and enjoyed it for the first year he had it, and then the modding itch got him. He did the much too big and overweight wheel/tire combo, the interior led "upgrade" and the huge subs and amp system in the trunk thing. He tells me its going to be a track car, and i remind him he keeps adding weight, not reducing it. Then he decides that he isnt satisfied with the looks of the car and that he is going to re body it to 2001 specs. He pays too much for a body kit for the r34, and brings it to a local shop to instal. It turns out that the kit he bought was actually to convert an actual r34 to a widebody kit, so it wasnt a bolt in affair. My first instinct would be to stop and buy the right kit, but my friend decides to just go ahead and install anyway. After much cutting and reassembaly and more cutting he has it mounted to the car. Already 3000 dollars into bodywork he is told its going to cost a whopping 6000 dollars for a finished product!!! Its his money but i cant help but feel dumbfounded that he would spend money he doesnt have (credit) on pure looks alone. By the time he is done he will have 20 grand into a car that is barely faster then my $1000 swift. I try to get him to read grm, but he prefers super street or whatever.

anybody else have friends like him? i feel like im going crazy!

Well thanks for letting me vent hope i didnt come off too harsh.

I have a few friends like that. They're a different kind of car people altogether. It's why I spend so much time on here talking to you lot. Most people in the 'real world' just don't get it.

It's mind boggling to me that anyone would use any form of credit to pay for modifications to a car. I assume that he's using credit cards to spend this money he doesn't have, and, if you're close enough to this individual that you know his finances, you might be inclined to talk to him about the debt he is incurring and the difficulties of paying down a large principle at a high interest rate.

Aside from how financially disastrous you friend's choices sound, I say tend to subscribe to a "to each, his own" philosophy when it comes to cars or any other area of personal taste.

I guess what I'm saying is that you really shouln't bother to critique him on matters of preference, but you would be doing him a favor if you helped him get his finances in order.

My friend blew his engine in the Supra that his father got him... So his father got him a JDM swap. Twin turbo. I got to drive it before he wrecked it a week later. It was fun. Then daddy got him an MR2. Ask me, his pops has the same problem. Those R32s are sick, though.

Nod and smile, man. I would definitely try and explain that, eventually, he has to, you know, pay for this silliness. My dream is an original Cobra Daytona Coupe, but you don't see me just getting a 6 million dollar loan (ha!) to pay for it. So, yes, I can fault him for that, dream car or not.

Subs, LEDs and a Skyline with a weight increasing, aero decreasing bodykit and giant wheels and tires? Sounds like the wrong kind of friend. Give him the last Challenge article and explain to him that 3/4 of that sub 2K field would mop the floor with that car of his. If that doesn't work, insist that he take it on a track day with you. After a session or two, let him ride with you in your Swift. If he still doesn't get it, forget it.

Your friend sounds like an shiny happy person.

How much did importing that car cost him in the first place?

Easy now guys......he called this guy his friend, so lets assume he has some redeeming qualities.

It sounds like this guy is modding his car to attract attention (probably from the opposite sex) ie... big stereo, goofy wheels & tires, body kit. It doesn't sound like he's a track kinda guy.

Save him some money and get him a girlfriend. You could "buy" (rent) quite a girlfriend for $20K

My neighbor has this huge over the top bar , biker crazy paint and nascrap dodads bikes cars all over the place . Its got to be 2 million easy . It should be in Daytona or St pete but its right next door . He had maybe 50 people in there all day yesterday . He is shelling out a crap load of money and getting non in return . Gotta love it . highoctanesaloon

Joe Gearin wrote: Save him some money and get him a girlfriend. You could "buy" (rent) quite a girlfriend for $20K

You can buy half the women in SE Asia for that... it's the shipping that kills you. You can only pack so many in one container.

Sounds like my ex-coworker with an FC S4 'Vert. He wants to do it up with lights and stereo and all that. I on the other hand strip as much weight out of my DD as posible without making it uncomfortable.

Different strokes.

When I had my supercharged '02 Civic Si hatch ep3 those clowns "raced" me all the time. I'd be droning along on 270 on the way home from work and they pull along side and gesture and jack the chumpy (I will relate the "jacking the chumpy" story later for context later - generally it's random and gratuitous throttle mashing to show loudness, how awesome your APC exhaust tip is, or possibly to assert your superiority in the form of BOV noises) at which point they'd give the "3-2-1-GO!" gesture, blast away, as I'd do nothing, and flash their 4-ways in confirmation of the "kill"

The only time I'll play now is occasionally I'll get one tailgating me as I approach an on-ramp in the M3 track rat - It's essentially a NASA GTS2 car minus the front half of the cage and an electrical shut-off. I don't lift or brake, and gradually speed up on the way in to take the "I just completed a pass way too deep in the braking zone and need to go deep and square this one off" line. Sometimes they're so intent on staying 8' off my back bumper they don't have any concept of what's gone wrong 'til they're pushing wide and I'm fully on the throttle and rocketing away.

No one has balled a car up yet, but hopefully something is learned. I doubt that though.

motomoron wrote: The only time I'll play now is occasionally I'll get one tailgating me as I approach an on-ramp in the M3 track rat - It's essentially a NASA GTS2 car minus the front half of the cage and an electrical shut-off. I don't lift or brake, and gradually speed up on the way in to take the "I just completed a pass way too deep in the braking zone and need to go deep and square this one off" line. Sometimes they're so intent on staying 8' off my back bumper they don't have any concept of what's gone wrong 'til they're pushing wide and I'm fully on the throttle and rocketing away. No one has balled a car up yet, but hopefully something is learned. I doubt that though.

You need to be careful in M3's, a friend was being harassed by a Mustang on the interstate one time so he took a round-about, he looks back to see the Mustang tumbling through the ditch.

I would love to have an R32 but sure as heck wouldn't want to dress one up like an R34. I would have kept it original body and then start working on suspension and power. I have never really been hugely into the all show no go cars they just make me scratch my head and go "Huh?".

Yeah spending a crap ton on mods for the car on credit is no win. I just used some credit to get some new tools for my shop but plan on having it paid off by the end of summer.

hope i didnt come off too harsh.

You're not being harsh enough. You need to tune him up. Make him feel like an irresponsible piece of E36 M3 every chance you get. You'll have done a service to humanity, and he'll thank you one day.

I had a kid do something similar to the whole "jack the chumpy" bit. He rolled up along side me, and revved the ol' d16 so I could hear it (I'm slowboating in the right hand lane in my ms3 at this point). Now because of the intake design and the uprated BPV I have, you can hear it. So- in order to see what said squid would do, I popped in the clutch and revved it so it'd spool and ping the BPV. His face turned GHOSTLY white after I did that. I don't think he was expecting a turbo. Generally tho, I just don't care.

mndsm wrote: I had a kid do something similar to the whole "jack the chumpy" bit.

Back in high school I had a beater 67 Newport with a 383 from a wrecked drag car. Being a 383 with open pipes, it sounded like a leaky exhaust or some backwoods tune job till I got on it.

Now, I was cruising along up a 4 lane into PA, when some dingus in an Integra was riding my ass, pulling up next to me and revving and other standard moron moves. I don't know why he thought a 4 door land barge would be suitable prey for his Teg, but I don't have the thought processes of a dipE36 M3.

So after about a mile and a half I was getting fed up with the buzzing, so I stomped the gas, the tranny downshifted, and the battleship fired a shot across his bow roaring and spinning the tires till it went into third. After that he pulled off at the next exit.

I loved that car

That's about the only advantage i have in my car. If they roll up and start acting a fool on my passenger side, i just blow big fireballs at them. They don't stick around long after that.

Dont get me wrong he is a great friend, one of the best i have, but his money habits drive me nuts. I show him the challenge articles and he tells me "i dont care if it runs 10 second quarter miles its still a beetle or a k car" AAAHH

geomiata wrote: Dont get me wrong he is a great friend, one of the best i have, but his money habits drive me nuts. I show him the challenge articles and he tells me "i dont care if it runs 10 second quarter miles its still a beetle or a k car" AAAHH

Wow - I don't think we're the right crowd for this guy. So he cares more about what the car was initially sold as than what it can actually do. Huh. I think they call that a poseur.

geomiata wrote: Dont get me wrong he is a great friend, one of the best i have, but his money habits drive me nuts. I show him the challenge articles and he tells me "i dont care if it runs 10 second quarter miles its still a beetle or a k car" AAAHH

Oh, so we weren't being too harsh.

Just tell him," I don't care if it's a skyline, it's still pathetic."

tuna55 wrote:

geomiata wrote: Dont get me wrong he is a great friend, one of the best i have, but his money habits drive me nuts. I show him the challenge articles and he tells me "i dont care if it runs 10 second quarter miles its still a beetle or a k car" AAAHH

Wow - I don't think we're the right crowd for this guy. So he cares more about what the car was initially sold as than what it can actually do. Huh. I think they call that a poseur.

Different strokes for different folks. Who would daily drive a K car if he didn't have to?

rotard wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

geomiata wrote: Dont get me wrong he is a great friend, one of the best i have, but his money habits drive me nuts. I show him the challenge articles and he tells me "i dont care if it runs 10 second quarter miles its still a beetle or a k car" AAAHH

Wow - I don't think we're the right crowd for this guy. So he cares more about what the car was initially sold as than what it can actually do. Huh. I think they call that a poseur.

Different strokes for different folks. Who would daily drive a K car if he didn't have to?

If it ran 10's? I sure would.

I would even if it didn't. Nothing wrong with k cars.

geomiata wrote: Dont get me wrong he is a great friend, one of the best i have, but his money habits drive me nuts. I show him the challenge articles and he tells me "i dont care if it runs 10 second quarter miles its still a beetle or a k car" AAAHH

Meh. There's people on these forums that say similar things. I'm not bugged by this kid other than the fact that he took an R32 (which i find beautiful) and turned it into an R34 exterior wise. (Which i find not nearly as good looking.)

motomoron wrote: ...I will relate the "jacking the chumpy" story later for context later - generally it's random and gratuitous throttle mashing to show loudness...

Otherwise known as "throwing revs."