How Do You Make The Ultimate Import Car? Essay, Research Paper

HOW DO YOU MAKE THE ULTIMATE IMPORT CAR? Have you seen those fixed up import cars driving down the street, and wondered what the owner did to make it look so fascinating? If you don t know, now is the perfect opportunity to find out. How do you make the extreme import car? The ultimate import car is based on two things, looks and speed. When people enhance the look of their cars, they want it to look unique. As for the engine, most people intensify the engine to its maximum capability. Keep in mind that these import cars were intended to be driven on the street, therefore they have to be street legal.The looks of your car is a very important issue when it comes to fixing up your car. Super Street says that the number one rule in modifying your car is that, A street car should never look faster than it is (Staff 60). They are right on the dot when they say that. It s common sense, if a car has a striking body kit, it should have the power to back it up. It is just like writing a persuasion paper, when one makes an opinion; it should be backed up with facts in order to entice the readers. Replacing tires and rims, adding lights, and lowering the vehicle also classifies in the category of looks.The most common way people make their car look good, is by installing a body kit onto their car. A body kit is simply carbon fiber or urethane shaped into a specific style to enhance the look of your car. A body kit heightens the look of your car many ways, from making it look elegant to making it look aggressive. Nowadays, the combat kit is the most common body kit that is installed onto import cars. That is because it displays a swaggering and aggressive look. This sort of Cup O Noodles technique of building a car is both good and bad (Chang 40). It s good because it s easy and effective. You can install a combat kit on a 1998 Honda Prelude, and it looks like its ready for contenders to race against. However, its like shopping (Chang 40) at Foot Locker for the latest Nikes: You re sure to find others just like you out there in the street (Chang 40). If being original is what you re really shooting for, then you can do small modifications to the body, for instance smoothing the outside through shaving and filling (Chang 42). The term, shaving, basically means you fill a certain concavity with body filler, thus allowing the final product to look like it has been given a clean shave. There are other key factors in making your car look good; those other key factors are tires, rims, and lights. The basic idea with tires is that the bigger the tire the better the looks, bear in mind that too large of tires make it hard for a car to function. The common problems that people run into are, tires scrapping fenders, slow acceleration, and inaccurate speedometers. If the tires are too big they scrape the fenders when going over a surface that is not smooth. Another problem with too big of tires is that it makes your gear ratio higher. This means your car will not accelerate as fast as it did with the original tires and wheels (Romans). An additional problem with not having a similar size to the stock tires is that your speedometer may not read correctly, that is why most aftermarket companies advise not deviating more than 4-7 percent from the original tire size (Romans). The ideal tire would be tires with a small tire wall and wide tire tread, thus allowing it to have a sporty look. As for rims, those items are based solely on opinion. There are innumerable rim styles, and there should be one that suites you and your car. As regards to lights, light conversions make your car look unique. Most people replace their stock lights to clear lights. Instead of having a yellow casing for your turn signal, most people just buy a clear casing for their type of car. The other set of lights that most people change are the taillights. To give a car the authentic racer look, one must replace their stock taillights to clear taillights. Adding more lights, such as fog lights makes your car even more unique, but remember that too many lights makes your car look hideous. Lowering a vehicle, not only makes it more aerodynamic, it gives it great looks also. All these modifications are what people do in order to achieve their goal into making the ultimate import car. The extreme import car is not exclusively based on custom looks, what has been changed under the hood matters too. There are several performance components that could improve the performance of your vehicle. Of the numerous products most amateurs begin with the basics, exhaust systems, intake systems, and headers. These components add some or a lot of horsepower to a car, depending on the type of the product you choose and on your car.Many beginners want to have that loud roaring exhaust once they get their car, so they install an exhaust system. An exhaust system is basically a larger stock muffler and a larger tip, coated with some polished chrome. The basic idea of the muffler is for looks, but it does give some horsepower. Installing the muffler itself adds approximately two to four horsepower. The larger the muffler is more horsepower it would give (Pearson 39).Another way beginners add real horsepower is by installing intake systems. An intake system allows the engine to intake more air, and more air means more horsepower. Mathew Pearson stated that, most stock air intake systems are fine for their intended purpose, but when you start trying to get more horsepower, they simply can t flow enough air (51). When most people buy intake systems, they just buy the simple bolt-on filter. But if they can t just put a filter, they install the whole system, by replacing the stock intake system (Pearson 51).A great combination amateurs use is replacing the exhaust manifold (headers) and installing an exhaust system. Mathew Pearson and Neuspeed installed a N2 header and an After-Cat exhaust system on a 1998 Honda Accord. The N2 header has four coats of ceramic on the outside to keep the pipes cool. It also has one coat of ceramic on the inside, to ensure maximum airflow. They basically removed the stock header and bolted on the N2 header, and the same with the exhaust system. After running a test on a dyno, they discovered that the Neuspeed header and exhaust combined produced 16 more horsepower (Pearson 39).Of the several ways to increase horsepower and speed, most experienced people begin with turbocharging. Turbocharging is one of most beneficial ways of creating pure horsepower. Doubling the horsepower of your engine isn t as easy as those simple performance components. Turbocharging along with other forms of forced induction, is the best way to get large amounts of reliable horsepower (Choo 76). Robert Choo, the writer of the article of double up, does an extravagant job explaining how he and some of his associates installed a turbocharger kit into a 1990 Honda CRX. To start out with, the CRX had a fully-built 1.8 liter non-VTEC Integra engine (76). As you can see, swapping a car s stock engine with a better stock engine would certainly be an advantage in your goal of increasing horsepower. One question that was being buried into Choo s head was if the car s engine could withstand the harshness of turbocharging. Therefore, they made a complete engine upgrade. They replaced the stock parts with: Crower rods, compression pistons, high-performance ductile iron sleeves, a rotary wheel, competition valve springs, a new oil pump with bearings and seals, and turbo cams to integrate valvetrain events (76). The engine makeover allowed it to generate 133 horsepower, but Choo s goal was to double it, 266 horsepower. He would accomplish that task by installing the turbocharger kit.

Installing a turbocharger kit would be easy if engine workshops made a turbocharger kit for all cars, makes, models, and years. But that would be useful money down the drain. That s why engine workshops only make turbochargers for common import cars, such as Hondas and Acuras. Robert Choo knew that there wasn t going to be an easy bolt-on turbocharger for his CRX project. Hence, he got in touch with JG Engine Dynamics of Alhambra, California. They were more than willing to take on the task, Choo stated (76). They don t call turbocharger kits, kits, for no reason. They are called kits, obviously because there is more than one item required to accomplish the task. The main parts of a turbocharger kit include an intercooler, a turbocharger, a blow-off valve, and a proper fuel system. Robert Choo said, The intercooler was the first on the list to buy (76). An intercooler is used to cool the charged air temperature. Choo and his crew wanted to buy the largest front mount intercooler they could find. But it would also have to be able to fit snuggly into the front-end body kit, without making any extreme modifications to the front-end itself. An XS Engineering GTR core intercooler was chosen for the job (76). The intercooler they chose was the premium choice. It was able to adequately cool the air of a 500 horsepower engine, which was their goal of the project. The next thing to get was the actual turbocharger. They felt that XS Engineering s turbocharger was the perfect applicant for the job. We wanted a turbo that was going to make horsepower with the proposed pump-and-regulator fuel system but also still be sufficiently sized for the high-boost horsepower that will be related later in the buildup (77). After some consulting with XS Engineering they chose a custom T04E/T3 turbocharger with exhaust housing (77). The stock exhaust manifold was not suitable to direct the exhaust gases. Therefore, a JG Dynamic mild-steel header was required to sufficiently direct the exhaust gases to the T3 turbo flange. Now they needed a component that would regulate the boost pressure, so they got an HKS standard wastegate to perform the task. All the boosted pressure needs to go somewhere. Thus, they got a Greddy Type-R blow off valve to prevent compressor surges. After the actual turbocharger was installed some extra performance components were needed so successfully reach the 266 horsepower goal. If you want more horsepower, then you need more air, and more air means more fuel. Too less of fuel can do some severe damage to your engine. But too much fuel can decrease the amount of horsepower, by flooding the system. Unfortunately the stock fuel injectors can t supply the sufficient amount of fuel. So Robert Choo got, a set of RC Engineering 310cc fuel injectors with an MSD 500-horspower in-line fuel pump (77). A mixture is a combination of air and fuel. Because it s hard for the ignition to light the mixture under boost, Choo installed a Fireball ignition box with a Blaster 3 external coil to ignite the entire mixture for maximum output of horsepower. Now Finally Robert Choo s 1990 Honda CRX project had to be put to the test. They put the CRX on a dyno tester, and its first run made a total of 190 horsepower. They did some diagnosing, and they discovered that the mixture was too rich, thus robbing some horsepower from the engine. A more lean mixture would allow the engine to try its hardest with out over working itself. After some justifications they adjusted the boost controller to change the mixture. They put the car back on the dyno and the CRX had a total of 210 horsepower. That was not the goal Choo was trying to reach, therefore some more fine-tuning was required. They made more alterations to the boost controller. Then, they drove the car back onto the dyno, and an outstanding 279.5 horsepower was calculated from the 1990 turbocharged Honda CRX. An alternative to doubling your horsepower is to equip your car with NOS. NOS is known as nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide was first used in German combat planes in World War II. A pilot would use NOS when an enemy plane had him targeted. Just when the enemy plane was ready to attack, the German pilot would activate the NOS, thus allowing the plane to accelerate very quickly and evading the attack. This magnificent boost of pressure is accomplished when a blower feeds air into an engine, and nitrous adds oxygen under bottle pressure (Griffey 88). When the bottled oxygen is combined with a properly-balanced fuel ratio, as Evan Griffey stated, a vast amount of horsepower is generated (88). Evan Griffey says that solenoids are used to release the flow of nitrous, micro switches are used to trigger the system at wide open throttle and the basic design of the nitrous bottle is the same (90). Basically he is saying that, by the touch of a button, nitrous can allow oxygen to be released into the engine mixture, resulting in a massive blast of horsepower. When someone says, I got 50-shot NOS, it means he has a nitrous oxide tank with a 50 horsepower boost. Which of the two methods is the best? NOS may be easier to install compared to a turbocharger kit, but it does a number on your engine. If your fuel system is not good enough for the NOS system, then it will cause detonation-induced catastrophic engine failure (Griffey 90). Fundamentally, it will ruin your engine. The NOS system may be cheaper than the turbocharger kit, but its more reliable. NOS is only reliable if there is something left in the bottle, turbo is always on from when the car is started, to when it is turned off. Obviously turbocharging would be the better way to go. Due to that it won t ruin your engine and it much more reliable then the nitrous oxide system. All those exterior and engine modifications, are they all street legal? Why yes, of course they are. The Revised code of Washington (RCW) 46.37.200 affirms that a vehicle must have taillights and a red or amber color must be visible somewhere on the taillights (RCW 174). RCW 46.37.200 (2) states that the turn signals of a car must be clear, amber, or anything in between (RCW 171). If you wanted more lights on your car, RCW 44.37.210 says that a vehicle cannot have more than two fender lights and one running-board light. It also states that it can have one or more backup lights, and one or more side marker lights (RCW 172). Over all, your lights can only be white, yellow, red, amber, or anything in between, nothing else. RCW 46.61.680 states that it is unlawful to lower your car past the edge of your rim. Consequently, if the clearance between your car and the ground is less than the size of the tire wall, then it is considered a tire infraction (RCW 293). It may be hard to believe but all the engine modifications and everything else not mentioned above is street legal, just as long as you abide the speed limit and the rules of the road. From here and now, when you see an import car, you will know what they did to make it look so appealing. You may not know of the engine modifications, but when you do find out, you can give opinions and know what your talking about. The ultimate import car has a one-of-a-kind look, with several modifications to the body; as well as upgrading the engine to its maximum capability. Keep in mind that this extreme import car was made to race and have bragging rights; therefore it must be street legal to be seen out on the streets. Now, you re the judge on whether or not it can be classified as an ultimate import car.