How to tell if some cars are all show and no go?

[Alex]

Been looking around for threads on this topic so I’m starting this one up.

How do you guys determine if someone driving a car that looks flashy is just all “show” and no “go”? I’ve seen some cars that have new exterior parts and also look like they can be speed demons but notice their cars sound stock. Anyone else seen this? How would you tell is my main question.

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[Lorrin Barth]

Every young person wants a fast car. Movies are made about people driving fast cars. The thing is you are sharing the streets with grandma in her Buick and a young mothers with their children in minivans. Fast cars that aren’t driven like slow cars kill people.

I once owned a VW bug. Climbing the grades in the Rocky Mountains, I found myself in the slow lane with the big trucks. That car could have used more power. A couple of years ago I drove my mother’s Honda Civic, loaded to the hilt with many of her personal belongings, from Southern California to Eastern Colorado. This car with a 1.6 liter engine climbed all the grades with ease. It was fast enough. I can’t think of any vehicle sold in the USA that isn’t fast enough.

The only people that have any purpose for a fast car are the hobbyists or professional drivers who take their cars to the track. For a car to be useful on the track it has to be a well balanced car. By well balanced I mean it has to have handling, great brakes and with those two in place, maybe more power. A car with a powerful engine without the other two is not useable on the track and is therefore not a fast car.

To be competitive track cars usually end up being modified to the point where they become useless for driving on the street and these cars are brought to the track on trailers.

The only improvement I think a stock car could use is improved handling. This would lessen the number of rollover accidents. The possibility of a DIY mechanic achieving better handling without much experience is small.

So, to the people who like to decorate their cars with fins and spoilers and things, I say more power to them. The only purpose for a fast car on the street, unless driven like a slow car AT ALL TIMES, is to kill the driver.

[Rudy Wilmoth]

🙂 Being able to tell a real fast car from a fake one can be both easy and difficult. What is your level of mechanical ability ? Can you tell when a car has a big cam or a supercharger by listening to it ? Yes, you are right, in most cases you have many types of people with fast cars. The dangerous one is the person with a fast car and no ability to drive the car. There is the poser,who has a fast car and can’t drive it fast or it looks like a fast car and the car isn’t. You also have the racer types that have camouflaged cars that look stock but are high performance. It is the combination of observing the person and his car to determine if they are the real thing.
You can tell a real car by a couple of things, first look at the tires. Look at how wide the tire is and if they are summer rubber or a cheap Chinese look alike. Real performance cost money, if the parts look cheap, it can be fake. But, sometimes fast people will make their car look cheap, but it really fast. You can’t always tell by looks alone. This is where your level of knowledge comes into play. Look at the exhaust pipe and not just the tail pipe and look at the diameter of the pipe. If the pipe looks big, then the engine should be considered fast. But also know what you are looking at,like a diesel truck has a bigger exhaust pipe than a regular car. It is knowing what you are looking at will determine if the car or truck is the fast. A cheap Honda has a tailpipe of around 1 inch, a ricer or a real fast Honda will be around 2 and 1/2 or 3 inch pipe. It is the sound of the exhaust that tells you if it is a real fast car or not. A deep burble at idle says the car is real, a tin like rasp is the usually the sound of a poser. Look at the front end of the car and look for an intercooler in the grill, then a turbo or supercharger is present. Nitrous can not be seen usually but sometimes it can be heard as the gas is vented. Fake noises can not replicate the real thing.
It is only be observation and knowledge can you tell a real fast car from a fake one. You can also be wrong, but real drivers with fast cars do not brag and do not show off. An immature driver is dangerous and should be avoided.

[Kevin]

A lot of it is just knowing what the car is capable of in stock form. 90% of cars on the road won’t have more than wider tires, exhaust and some kind of air filter mod.

Knowing the car’s factory performance comes into play when you figure out that 4cyl cars won’t be fast without extreme weight reduction ( gutted interior, carbon fiber parts ) or they have Forced Induction which will cost a pretty penny.

However, that muscle car that just drove past has more of a chance of having some actual mods. Why? Because those kinds of cars were meant to go fast to begin with. Owners are typically people who want a fast car. Fast car seekers are more likely to spend money in the correct way to make the car faster.

In most cases, its the ” Ricers ” who want everyone to think they have a fast car when the truth is that they would likely be too scared to drive a car with 350hp ( which is more than enough to get an inexperienced or unskilled driver into trouble )

TL;DR – Speed costs money. It costs more money to make a car with a little engine fast than a big engine. Generally, the Hondas/Toyotas/Mazdas/Nissans,etc will be slower than the Firebirds/Camaros/Mustangs/Challengers/Chargers.

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