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Less is More
Less is More
Originally printed in Z-News, published by the
White Rose Z Club
Like me, you're a driver. If you weren't you wouldn't be reading this. All of us want 600
horsepower and an open road. We want our car to exhibit cornering G-forces so high our shoe
laces become untied. Most of us begin the journey of building a performance car with extreme
expectations and grand plans. We fantasize about whale tails, flared fenders and superchargers.
In pursuit of enviable performance no stone is left unturned. By now, all of us know that a
smaller carburetor is better than one that is too big. This applies to many other areas as well.
Your car is a system of parts. You cannot radically change one part without suffering undesirable
consequences elsewhere. Think of tour car as a chain. The old saying "a chain is only as strong
as its weakest link" holds true. Installing a huge cam is a performance loss without increasing
induction and exhaust. Increasing exhaust pipe size, by itself, does little for a stock engine.
It's true that ground effects and spoilers begin to effect aerodynamics at speed above 40 M.P.H.,
but they really aren't needed until you reach speeds that I shouldn't mention. At 130 M.P.H.
spoilers and air dams can make a squirrelly car stable, but at normal speeds the same spoilers
can cost you one mile per gallon in fuel consumption. Most of us are lured into doing more
(spending more) incrementally. We get headers and we figure we might as well get a cam while
we're at it. Wanting more acceleration, we decide to change the rear axle ratio. To get this
new found power to the road, we install larger tires which necessitates new wheels. This is about
the time we start looking at how much more time, and money, this simple header installation is
costing. Then we begin rationalizing. "Only a few more items and I'll be set", so we think.
We decide to install larger sway bars, and while we're at it, let's use urethane bushings. After
some aggressive driving we realize we MUST upgrade the brake system. Now we start thinking, the
cam we installed two months ago just isn't hot enough. We decide to get a bigger cam, which
necessitates bigger injectors (or larger carburetion) and now we need larger exhaust pipes and
mufflers. Married men rarely get to this stage. Typically, a concerned wife (a nag) points
out how much money all this is costing. The final stage is lowering the car, with sectioned
struts, and while we're doing that, we might as well put some stiffer springs at all four corners.
Admiring teenagers, gas station attendants and the police know us on a first name basis. After
being discouraged by frequent tune ups we decide to buy an MSD system. We now have a car that
rides rough, hates to idle, loves gas stations and sounds like an approaching thunderstorm. We
have a race car on the street. (The married guys are divorced at this point.) Instead of enjoying
the car, we live with it. Somehow (as an act of common sense) the car gets relegated to weekend
duty only.
Don't fall into this trap of incrementalism. Build your car less radical than your imagination
wants. You'll bee able to drive it more. More importantly, you'll enjoy driving it. One day,
you'll meet an admirer who starts talking about his "hot" car at home. He'll tell you how fast
it is and how great it performs explaining that it's "too hot for the street." He'll leave wishing
that he could be driving his "hot" car. You'll leave driving yours. He'll be dreaming. You'll
be driving. I'd rather be driving, wouldn't you? That is why you have a performance car,…isn't
it?
At your service,
By 8,000 RPM
© 2007 Triad Z Club
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