Some cars appear more frequently on YouTube and social media as modified rockets than others. But with skill, can’t you put any engine or any other part into any car?
Actually, if trying to maximize performance, why not build from scratch? Why is “1,800hp GTR” more interesting or common than “1,800hp car built in garage”?
In: Engineering
The real main reason is that certain cars develop certain followings and people want to “buy” cool. If your goal for buying a car is to be considered cool, you won’t mod a niche car you’ll try to get a car everyone thinks is cool.
The slightly more complex reason that goes over the head of most “car people” is that the reason why some cars become cool in the first place is because they’re good platforms for modding for various reasons. Usually it comes down to being easy to modify and getting the best return of performance on the dollar.
Perhaps the best example of this is the Toyota Supra. Why is the Supra, and its engine the 2JZ, so lauded in the car world? What makes this one coupe that much more desirable or better than any other coupe? The answer is that Toyota wanted to provide high performance and high reliability, which is not a common combination as there is usually a trade off. So they made an overengineered engine that’s understressed at factory tune so that it will be reliable. This means that the engine can very easily be upgraded from the factory without having to do a lot of extra and pricey work that’s usually done to engines when they’re upgraded so that they don’t break. This allows a coupe like the Supra to compete with much more expensive european coupes at a fraction of the cost, and at the time the Supra came out this was a huge middle finger to European brands by Japan and they did it with many cars.
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