Driven Daily

Shadetree mechanics

I’ve always been a big fan of simple cars that are easy for owners to maintain. Older cars with carburettors and distributors are wonderful first cars to work on, since they don’t have any complicated electronics to work on. A test light and timing light is all that’s needed to test the electronics for owners, and the mechanical tools you’d need really aren’t required.

I have to agree with Kenwood Tire (a local tire/repair shop) when they say that shadetree mechanics are a dying breed though. Pretty much any vehicle made after the obd2 standard was created requires special scanners (many obd1 cars also require specialized tools). It’s more important than ever to go with an old car to keep the tradition of working on cars by hand alive. They’re less expensive to buy, less expensive to own/maintain, and offer a special kind of class that newer, more complicated cars can’t offer.

Stance Reply #1 – State of Stance

This is a guest post from Tuck&Poke, sent in as a reply to http://www.drivendaily.org/owners/helladumb/.

To start off, my car has stretched tires and wheels that don’t fit so that there is no confusion. There are a few things about this post that I would like to address. I despise that people call it hellaflush. Hellaflush is a blog and an adjective that those people responsible for the blog use to describe the cars. It is in no way a universal word that everyone who is enthusiastic about this style uses. I will never go up to a car with flush wheel fitment and say “damn thats hellaflush”. Do I hate them for using it? No, everyone has their slang words used to describe different things, that’s just whats prominent in that area. You have wicked, they have hella.

Secondly, the cars are drive-able. I daily drive my car 365 days a year, up ramps, in parking garages, over speedbumps, you name it. I have gotten beached, and there are certain things I know my car cannot go over. Its a relatively small inconvenience that I am willing to deal with. If your going to criticize that, then you should also criticize any modification that reduces the drive-ability of any vehicle, like an aftermarket clutch that feels heavy, or a lightened flywheel, or high performance brake pads that don’t brake well until they get hot, high lift cams that roughen idle, sticky tires that struggle to pass 10K miles of use and are terrible in the rain. My car is no race car, I don’t track it, and I don’t care to, and there is nothing wrong with that. Not every car in the world has to be an optimized horsepower freak that can go around a track 2 seconds faster than it did stock. Now don’t misunderstand, do I enjoy those kinds of cars? HELL YEA, I love that, but I’m not going to do it to mine. There is also a lot of pride in the stance scene for daily driving the car, and driving it exactly how it is photographed. The overwhelming majority of these vehicles are most certainly not trailer queens.

There seems to be a tone of contempt that people in the stance scene know nothing about cars and are just a bunch of “ricers”. People define ricers in different ways, but one that most can agree upon are people that use cheap parts, and just in general do shoddy work on their vehicles. I as well as many others look down upon this, regardless of it being a 10 second drag car, or a car with the wrong wheels and stretched tires. Most of the wheels are in the thousands of dollars, the suspensions are extremely expensive. There is a lot of care taken into measuring and tire size and ride height. I was on audiworld the other day and some guy did a writeup on polishing the intake manifold, followed by someone saying this was a bad idea as it would increase IAT’s. This idiocy is rampant in “performance oriented” forums. If anything people in the stance scene know more about cars in general than these so called performance enthusiasts.

There is also an enormous misconception about stretched tires, which is probably one of the things enthusiasts hate the most about this culture. They say its dangerous, that the bead will become unseated, that we’re going to kill people because of this. People who have absolutely no experience, forming very strong opinions about it. I have ran stretched tires for close to 4yrs, and I’m not talking little kid shit, massive stretch. Not a single issue, no popped beads, no lost pressure, no tires mysteriously exploding, and no dead people. I’ve driven the car hard, for tens of thousands of miles.I’ve taken corners hard and not a single issue.

I know this was long and if you made it to the end, congratulations. The point I’m trying make is that there are a lot of misconceptions and generalizations. People need to stop getting all flustered about it and enjoy your cars and enjoy modifying them. I enjoy all kids of cars, from stance, to performance, to lowriders, to minitrucks. I consider myself a true enthusiast. To each his own, let others do as they please and worry about taking your own car to the next level, not so much about what someone else is doing.

Stuff I like: Wide Tires

I love wide, sticky tires.

Now that they’re finally becoming economically priced, I don’t see a reason not to add a wider contact patch to your car. While most people are into skinny tires on wide wheels, I’m into filling the wheelwells with traction. Wider tires decrease wheelspin during acceleration, prevent wheel lockup when braking, and increase cornering traction. It’s a simple concept at heart, but so many car builds seem to miss out on my core principles.

In my book, traction is at the top of my priority list, and since tires are the only part of my car that are designed to touch the ground, I’ll take as much as I can get.

They’re finally starting to come into popularity, with 315/35-17 sizes becoming commonplace so I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m going to have to order some wheels to mount them up on my next fun daily.

Hellaflush definition

This is going to be the last post I write on the whole Hellaflush thing. Reactions to my thoughts on Hellaflush and Stanceworks have been heated, and I’m always intrigued about the discussions that crop up on various forums about it. It seems strange that so few people actually contact me directly to correct me, but instead hide out with other like-minded people and bash whatever it is they disagree with haphazardly. I write exactly what I mean on here, based on exactly what I see. I see a lot of silly people trying to show each other up by making their cars less and less driveable. Most of the people I see doing that call their cars Hellaflush, or Stanced. Those are the people I was complaining about.

If your car can be daily driven, and a set of tires lasts you 20,000, you’re not one of the idiots that make everyone look bad.

Thankfully, a few people did email me, trying to set the record straight on exactly what it is and isn’t. You’ll see their responses this week, and can make up your own mind as to whether this is just another automotive fad or if it’s the best thing since radial tires. I’ve seen a few discussions pop up (I’m pretty aware of what goes on all around the internet) and thought I’d toss out a couple of responses to the communities that’ve made me chuckle.

Stanceworks – You guys have impressed me. More than half the replied I got came from your forum and a few of them were really well-grounded and rational. I think the biggest complaint was that many of your definitions of “hellaflush” or “stanced” cars differs from what I complain about. If your tires aren’t rubbing, you have suspension travel, and your tires aren’t stretched, you’re not what I was complaining about.

Montreal – I’ve been in a flushed car, and I drive the most practical car I can get that’s still fun. Therefore, a Camry isn’t even an option. I’m not sure if it’s just the language barrier (my French is pretty bad), but you guys seem to get off topic pretty quickly.

VagDrivers – Your forum’s name makes me laugh. I’m not sure I ever got further than that, sorry.

I’m going to re-open comments and let you all tear into each other on my fresh, new forums. Try not to hurt each others’ feelings too much on there.

Discussion Forum Launched!

Our community forum is still in its infancy, but I’m proud to announce that it’s live and launched and available to the public. If you’ve posted here on Driven Daily, you already have an account (and maybe a post) on the forum. The way it’s set up, all comments on posts are synchronized between the forum and main Driven Daily page.

If you have a few minutes, head over and visit!

CRX B18a1 vacuum diagram

Back by popular demand, a wiring diagram for the obd0 b18a1 in an MPFI 88-91 CRX (that’s HF and Si, not the DX). This should also apply to EF/ED Civics, but I’m running on memory here and don’t have a car to verify this on.

If there are any questions or corrections (as I’m sure there will be), feel free to leave them in the comments.

Happy Birthday, America

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I had an awesome early 4th celebration last night, we lit off a bunch of fireworks over the lake and enjoyed the night. Nothing car-related happened at all. Sometimes that’s a nice change of pace for a little while.

Off Seasons

I’m not a fan of this whole drift movement.

That being said, I love this video:

off seasons from Drift Alliance on Vimeo.

It was posted on Jalopnik a few months back, and I tried really hard not to like it but failed completely. I still drop by to watch it from time to time. The setting is beautiful, they put in some EXCELLENT shots, and it’s amazingly graceful.

My only real complaint is that it sounds like he’s bouncing off the redline a lot. In my experience, I don’t have trouble breaking the rear tires loose without redlining (being closer to the torque peak is what does it), but I’m no drift specialist. I am in love with this video, though. Anybody know of some more?

200,000 Miles

My BMW just rolled over 200,000 miles, and I realized that the 200k mile mark is a defining point in a car’s life. A vehicle that’s survived for 200,000 miles has been through a lot, and came out on top.

So at this point, I’m dealing with problems as they arise and doing normal maintenance. I need to finish budgeting exactly what I want this car to be when all is said and done. I think the final build plan will end up in the USD $5k-$10k range. For not, I’ve just been performing routine maintenance and keeping costs low.

Have you crossed the 200,000 mark? How many miles have you racked up on your daily driver?

BMW Civic

I’ve been driving my e36 BMW around a bit lately, and ended up parking next to a Civic today. They had similar paint colors, and I realized how close the styling of the two cars are from the rear. I’m considering debadging the rear of my BMW, since I’m not a huge fan of how pretentious that logo makes me feel. For years, Honda owners have been replacing their H’s with BMW badges, but I’d do the opposite for my car (if I ended up with any badges at all). There are a number of technical merits the 325is has, but its reputation isn’t winning me over.

Anyway, I snatched a couple images of the two vehicles, and I’d like to get a side-by-side comparison sometime soon. If I end up parked next to a Civic again with my camera, I’ll be sure to get some shots.