Car Club/Comunity Mod
From Mod Mania
Julian Winata s3222817 Modded by
Tom Burford-Orr
Contents |
Car Club/Community
"What is a car club? Car club is a community filled with people who enthusiastically love their car so much; they usually mod it with different things and style to make it unique from other people. As a community, they also act like a company, have bosses (leaders), secretary, etc." -JW
So what makes a car club? Passion, Adrenalin and a decent amount of obsession best sum up the personified qualities of what drive car lovers. The clubs are formed like a business with standard business hierarchies. "they ... act like a company, have bosses (leaders), secretary, etc."
What is the point of having or joining this community?
"The question leads to what are they doing exactly inside the community. First of all, the people inside the club itself has already liking tuning their own car and being inside the community make them feel welcome as it’s the congregation of car enthusiast like them too. Each member will understand and help each other to understand in what to do with their car." -JW
By joining a car club, the member gains access to a community of like minded individuals, others with the same passion for tuning, driving and loving cars.The feeling of being "part of the club" is a welcoming one in which the congregation of car lovers work together to expand their knowledge of cars.
What is tuning a car?
"Tuning a car is a hobby to modify it in order to improve its performance, handling, and presentation and improve the owner’s driving style. In shorter words, car tuning means getting the maximum performance out of your car. It is not a problem whether the person drives an exotic or just a stock car, with some car tuning, they can not only increase the performance easily, but make it much more fun to drive and attractive to others. Although attractive is relative and depends on how creative you are as quite a lot of trash looking modified cars we see on the road. As most cars leave the factory set up for average driver expectations and conditions, tuning has become a way to personalize the characteristics of the driver’s preference. Car tunings performances are mostly never complete as they are built for pleasure of owning and driving such a vehicle. " -JW
To tune a car means to modify it beyond its stock/'From the factory state'. This is done to improve the cars performance. For example Handling and presentation help to improve the cars image by being more aesthetically pleasing and improving the drivers driving style. The ability to improve a car is not so much reliant on the quality of the car as much as it is on the creativity of the modder/tuner. This is evident from some of the "trashy" poorly tuned cars everyone has seen on the street. These cars are examples of poor choices when modding vehicles. Almost every new car sold today leaves the factory set up for average, fuel efficient, street driving. By Tuning the car the driver modifies to a custom state. a state in which the car begins embodying its only personal characteristics. This creates a strong bond between car and driver. 'Tuning Up' is a general term used to describe modifying a car. for example replacing several parts of your car or even just getting it re-sprayed. A common misconception is that tuning up is purely superficial. When in fact most of the modded parts will increase the cars lifetime and performance. a standard tune up would include "A tune up should involve replacing the air filter, replace or clean the spark plugs, and replacing the distributor cap and rotor, etc. Areas of modification are varying from audio, interior tuning, engine tuning, suspension tuning, body tuning, and detuning."
"Tuning a car
Tuning up generally includes replacement of several parts on your car. These parts may seem superficial, but failing to replace them regularly can cause decreased in performance in the car. A tune up should involve replacing the air filter, replace or clean the spark plugs, and replacing the distributor cap and rotor, etc. Areas of modification are varying from audio, interior tuning, engine tuning, suspension tuning, body tuning, and detuning." -JW
Legal requirements
"Every state or locality has specific rules regarding what is legal and what is not when it comes to vehicles on its roads. Legal requirements usually revolve around these tree specific types of car tuning modifications, modifications to emissions, modifications to the sound of the vehicle, and the exterior of your vehicle. For example, all vehicles in Victoria, Australia, must conform to construction standards to ensure vehicles provide drivers and passengers with maximum level of safety. There are also restrictions for P Plate drivers which can prevent young drivers from driving modified vehicles. Some countries are illegal to increase the headlamps to an unsafe level or show off neon lights that can be distracting to other drivers on the road. If the car is not legal, people still can enjoy modifying the car, except the only place available for them is either on private land or on the track and the driver should transport the car via trailer or flat bed as it is not street legal." -JW
Different states have different rules and laws regarding vehicles. A lot of these will refer to restrictions on tuning vehicles. Three target areas are emissions, sound and exterior. All of these rules and regulations come down to safety. One example of which is that younger inexperienced 'p-plate' drivers are not permitted to drive modified vehicles. However these rules do not mean drivers aren't aloud to do what ever they want to there cars. If car doesn't pass one or any of these rules or laws then that car is not road legal. This means the owner is free to use the car on any private property or race track, although they are not permitted to the drive the car on public roads.
What type of people modify their car
"Modified cars are economical and produce power higher than its average capacity, in other words, a proper handling of the car is a must to prevent something unwanted happen. To improve the handling, modifiers have to tune the enhances of aerodynamic features by utilizing splitters, air vents, light wheels, real and front bumpers, and side skirts. Some people add spoilers and kits to the body to generally improve both its aerodynamics and physical appearance. Some tried to modify the interiors of the car by upgrading the factory installations such as audio. Upgrading the seats is also common in modifying a car to make it more comfortable and stylish. Some vehicles become expensive because they add vinyl lights and stickers on to the body, these kinds of cars are termed as pimped cars." -JW
When increasing a cars power it is essential to also increase the cars handling through use of aerodynamic features. "splitters, air vents, lite wheels, rear and front bumpers, side skirts and spoilers all help to improve handling and increase engine efficiency. As the cost of the car increases the driver tends to add lights and vinyl stickers to the cars body. These extravagant cars are colloquially referred to as 'Pimped Cars'.
So what are they doing inside the club if they can do modifying themselves?
The abundance of car clubs out there is a great indicator that their must be some defining communal feature, some great attraction the typifies the car club culture. This attraction is why so many people prefer to share their mods with online media such as dedicated forums. There is a club or forum for almost anything tuning. even clubs dedicated to particular models of car.
One community for example are all about the new Mitsubishi Lancer and Lancer Evolution X. This community are extremely close knit. They utilize a forum format that supports live chat. They are eager to share there knowledge with newcomers top the forum. This community have annual and other get togethers where they can hang out and achieve a greater social depth then what they could achieve via the forum. Some perks of this club include sponsorships that allow member to receive discounts at participating stores.
The addictive nature of tuning cars can be dangerously expensive, however this downside is nothing when compared to the enjoyment of being part of one of these communities. The clubs social atmosphere has the ability to give you a break, from the day to day paradigm, is relieving and therapeutic to the members and enthusiasts. Over all like any club the car club gives people with similar interests a chance to meet, make friends and expand their knowledge, with beneficial communal results.
"The community of car club is not only about modifying their cars and showing it off on the road. As a community, they usually hang out together and their relationship is very strong inside. Most of them have an online forum to chat and showing off what their car has become but not able to meet the others physically. Car club are not only about cars, but also having fun around people who have the same way of thinking. Some car clubs are having specific features for new members to join. For example, only the specific brand such as Mercedes and the members of course the ones drive a Mercedes brand. There are also specific cars such as Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, so the members are all driving the same car.
I recently observe one community with the same car, which is the new Mitsubishi Lancer and Lancer Evolution X. They are located in all Australian territory including Melbourne and they quite often hangout with each other. They are a big community with more than a thousand members. They have a forum and in this forum, they can talk to each other live with a chatting system. They know each other and some of their personal life like work or what are they doing right now, etc. This relationship they built inside the club is quite close to each other and they are good with new members, giving them advice and all. Strangers also are welcome in this forum, you just have to register and you can ask anything about cars basically as many of them are actually have knowledge of modifying cars. This club also has some sponsors and they can get some discounts while buying car parts in some shops.
In my opinion, joining a club like this gives you some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are you will have this ‘other’ family who you can rely on sometimes and you can enjoy having this relationship with many people inside the club. They also usually are planning some trips which you can join anytime to make refreshment from whatever you are doing in life. The disadvantages are you will spend more money on parts and keep modifying your cars as an enthusiast. This activity of modifying is very addictive, especially when your surroundings are people who also like the same thing and I am saying this based on my experience too." -JW
Reference:
http://glamgirlcars.com/car-tuning/legal-requirements-for-car-tuning/
