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
As a really simplified answer, some cars just have better starting points.
To make a fast car, you need strong cylinder walls. To make a fast car, you need a real good cylinder head. To make a fast car you either need a large engine, a turbo/supercharged engine, or both. The list goes on.
The point is, yes, you could add all those things to any consumer engine, but, some engines have some of these features straight out the factory.
As a specific example, there’s an old jaguar that had a huge 6 litre v12 engine. But the cylinder head is garbage, it doesn’t even make 300hp, and it’s so poorly designed for performance that it simply isn’t worth the extensive modifications that would be needed to make it a fast car.
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.
Some cars just aren’t worth the effort of trying to improve mechanically. The ‘tuner cars’ you see commonly modified were built to be performance cars from the ground up, and have the basics required for performance driving and engines capable of producing a lot of power which can then be expanded with a plethora of aftermarket parts that have usually accompanied the potentially decades of models of those cars.
More budget utilitarian cars don’t have the basis for performance, tend to have uninspiring transmissions and steering, engines turned entirely for economy, and usually lack the aftermarket support to do much about any of that. They just weren’t built to accomodate performance, and you can easily make a car worse by trying to bolt crap on it just because. With a lot of time, effort, money, and skill you can do almost anything to almost anything, but it quickly reaches a point of why not just start with a car that’s already good and easy to make better.
Building a whole car from scratch is a huge amount of work and is far outside the capability of almost everyone. Bolting on purpose built parts is something anyone can learn. Even if you’re going to build an extreme race car, you’re still going to start with a performance oriented chassis that a manufacturer has spent billions engineering.
Every car you listed is turbocharged, which is very easy and cheap to increase power. ECU tuning, bigger turbo, bigger intercooler and you have 100hp more. You can’t do this that easily with naturally aspirated engines.
Availablity or parts, bodykits etc…
For example say you own a Nissan 350z, there’s loads of parts to upgrade your engine, bodykits/rims to change how it looks. Whereas a Ferrari 458 might not have a many parts available or little to no bodykits.
Some cars are just a better “platform” for modifying. Even more common cars (GTRS,Supras are getting pretty expensive)
Honda motors are strong, and interchangeable almost like a nerf gun, while the Honda chassis are light.
GTIs are a good starting platform because all it takes is a tune and you’re pushing 100 extra horsepower.
Like another commenter said, building a car is tough, but starting at a base with a motor that’s already proven capable is a lot easier and less time consuming.
Building a car from scratch? Even massive custom shops geared towards racing use common chassis because engineering a car from the ground up would be stupid expensive and take forever.
Latest Answers