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Car Hacks & Mods for Dummies
In general, I steer myself and others away from the "for Dummies" book series since I believe a lot of material at this level can be found on the internet for free. HOWTOs and tutorials abound for using and modifying most consumer products. In this case, the time saved from filtering online discussion is well worth it. The book is well organized, with separate sections devoted to handling, power, braking, engine management, safety, and cosmetics. There are 26 chapters spread across 360 pages. As you can see, chapters are short and can be tackled easily during lunch or a short taxi ride to retrieve your broken car.
Slashdot readers may be surprised to learn that there is no discussion of entertainment electronics such as stereos or car-mounted computers. This should not be confused with engine management units (ECU). ECUs are discussed at length. Car Hacks & Mods for Dummies main focus is making your car go, stop and turn. Sections were added for safety and cosmetics, but performance is by far the emphasis.
The book does not actually explain how to do any specific modifications whatsoever. Instead it serves as a guidebook to learn what options are out there and compare one upgrade path to another. For example, there is a great explanation of the differences between a turbocharger and a supercharger, but you're not going to get an analysis of the mods required to support your brand new 10.5cm hotside. Instead there are careful treatments of the pros and cons associated with almost any upgrade car car enthusiast may be considering. The coverage of jargon and rating systems used for various products is especially useful. Whenever a new subject or car component is mentioned, the author goes over regulating and standardizing bodies (the DOT, EPA, and SAE) as well as explains how parts, pieces, and fluids are rated. While this is useful when thinking about a new project, it isn't the information someone would want to rely on once they begin such an undertaking itself. The author clearly states, "this book is not intended to be an instruction manual."
The author gets high marks for addressing safety -- both the driver's and the vehicle's -- before any modification. The emphasis on maintaining legal and effective safety devices on a tuner car is something you are not likely to get during an argument about which upgrade path is optimal, nor is it obvious that many safety 'upgrades' -- 4-point harnesses, flashy roll-bars -- actually decrease driver safety when used on the street. In addition the author consistently gives warning when introducing a mod that could put added stress on a vehicle.
If you are a professional mechanic, this book is not for you. You already know most of the contents. Mechanics would be better served by product literature and shop manuals. If you are thinking about modifying your car, but don't have any idea where to start, this is probably a good place. Just be sure to read the first chapter. Car modding quickly becomes expensive, and jumping in without knowing the attached costs (which this book addresses) can be a financial nightmare.
You can purchase Car Hacks & Mods from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Do I need to install a really big fan on my car to mod it?
Does the book cover proper application of Type R decals?
Shades of Grayden
Take airplanes for instance. They need a large amount of thrust to get off the ground, so aircraft engineers went ahead and put TWO big airfoils on each side, as well as some smaller ones in back.
It's all simple engineering really. Let me guess, you think that stickers are purely aesthetic, and don't serve their main purpose of abrateable heat sheilding during fast runs?
You've got the Civic DX too eh?
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Wow, didn't see this one coming on Slashdot.
...
About a year ago I delt with David at length while he was working for WORKS, a tuning shop in San Francisco. We were discussing the details of the power, handling, etc. modifications that they would be making to my Mitsubishi Evolution (the car they in which they specialize). For the entire time I delt with David (before he left WORKS to pursue other things, like the book) I was consistantly impressed by his comprehensive knoweledge of both the technical and legal aspects of vehical modifications (especially impressive in good ole California thanks to strict emission standards).
His expertise and professionalism have resulted in him gaining much respect within the Evolution community, and although I have not yet had a chance to review his book, if it's anything like the conversations I've had with him, you'll be amazed by just how far car tuning has come.
Before talking with him, I didn't think it was safely possible to take a $32000 car, $7k of tuning, and end up just a hair short of a supercar*. Amazing.
Hope the book sells well.
-S
* by which I mean a 2.0L 340hp 4WD beast that sprints from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds, skidpad tests to 1g, and through the twisties can out perform anything short of a 911 Turbo
**AA: a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
You're also wrong, by the way. A spoiler doesn't create any downforce. A wing is used to create downforce (negative lift, as the wing is exactly the same areofoil shape as you'd find on an airplane, except inverted). A spoiler simply "spoils" the lift generated by the inherent shape of a car. A car is roughly shaped like an aerofoil (rounded on top, flat on the bottom), and thus at higher speeds it tends to generate lift. It's certainly not enough for your car to actually fly, but it is enough to reduce traction necessary for handling and braking. By spoiling that aerofoil shape, a spoiler lessens the natural lift generated by the body shape of a car. For most non-racing applications, a spoiler is all you need, and in most cases you don't even need that (most factory spoilers are indeed cosmetic -- why is it that a Chevy Cavalier needs a spoiler, while a C6 Corvette doesn't?).
In a racing application, a simple spoiler is often not enough, however, and it doesn't really matter where your drive wheels are in that application. That's why you'll see touring cars like the Acura RSX or TSX, or the Mazda 6 with big wings in the Speed World Challenge races (and other touring car series). These are fully adjustable wings that generated downforce (the amount determined by the angle of attack, just as the amount of lift generated by an airplane is determined by its angle of attack). You simply do not need a big-ass wing like that outside of a full race car. That is why the ricers are silly for putting big ol' wings on their cars (well, aside from the facts that they suffer from "bigger is better" and "more is better" syndrome with huge and multi-level wings, and that 9 times out of 10 the wings they're buying are not fully adjustable, and that 10th time the wing isn't properly adjusted for the conditions).
Man, I've been a computer geek all my life. Recently I've started playing around with cars (got a couple non-turbo 3000GTs and a VR-4 coming next week). It's a tremendous amount of fun... As with the computer groups, there are a bunch of newbie folks and those in it just for the image... but for every ten of those there seems to be one or two knowledgeable folks.
I'm the first to admit that I know very little about modern cars. Just as with computers, however, there are things that seem to make sense but can be bad for your cars. I'm still in the fix it stage -- trying to put a car back to complete stock condition. It's almost like restoring an old Atari ST or Amiga to full functionality. E.g., the other day it took me a couple hours to change the front fog lights. The bolts had frozen up and grime had covered one of the screw holes so it wasn't immediately obvious how to remove them. After lots of cleaning I got them off, changed the bulbs, and got the housings repainted. The second time around it was a fifteen minute job. So, like learning some weird bash shell construct or new awk script, it was satisfying.