Originally Posted by Spudracer
I don't mean to insult the skills of the good hobbyist mechanic who has invested the time to learn about cars and the money in tools and who lavishes loving attention on his cars. My point is, how do I as a stranger buying a car tell that guy from a ricer or an idiot trying to save himself five bucks with a wrench kit from Walmart and a pair of jack stands? And someone who would modify a sports car may also be someone who was looking to go racing. I don't want a used car with racing wear on it.
the quality of the work speaks for itself. look at rudy's v8 as an example. with the exception of a thinner aftermarket fan its very diffucult to tell that the cars he builds didnt come that way from the factory. also the quality of the parts. from stainless to teflon coated intakes hand built manis and so on. these ooze quality as some (not all) homemade intakes and modding parts look like they were bought at a walmart and hacked to fit.
i also disagree with the modding =racing theory. look at bigkids list of mods. he has matched every part, researched the impact of the parts and has a high quality very powerful RACE CAR. yet he never takes it to the track or abuses the car. he simply wants the best he can find and takes pleasure in knowing he can blow the doors off most anything around him
racing wear? do you mean the guy that tracks his car and replaces fluids after each track day and brake and suspension parts as soon as they exhibit signs of use or the guy who has a stock srt-6 nd races everything in sight from stoplight to stoplight and never uses the right oil only the cheapest he can find runs his tires to the core and replaces them with the cheapest he can find? abuse takes many forms. an educated eye can see the abuse from a mile away