Hepa filters is one we don’t usually think of in our car. It can affect your health. Take a look at this article to see what i’m talking about.

Hepa filter means ”high effiency particulate air” filter.  What it does is screens out dust, bacteria and airborne bacteria and viral organisms.  A hepa filter can keep you from catching a cold, flu, and even help your asthma.  Most cars these days are equipped with a HEPA filter so when you turn on the air conditioner or heater the air from outside is filtered.  A HEPA filter will run you about $10-15 at your local auto parts store.

Take a look how nasty this filter is. This is a hepa filter in the dashboard of our car. Have you changed yours yet?

Our HEPA filter is located behind our glove box.

The white plastic piece is the filter. Just remove that and you can pull out the filter

A nasty shot of the filter taken out. Keep in mind the original filter was white.

This filter even kept bugs from entering inside our car.

Now i’ve installed the new filter. Just pop it back in and button up the glove box. Fresh air again. This install only took about 5 minutes if that.

Tire Wearing Out

As tuners we are always messing around with our cars.  One of the first things we usually do is lower our cars to get better handling.  After lowering it we forget about it, but there is one thing I want to point out that’s going to save you money.  When you lower your car you need to get your alignment re-aligned for the new changes.  Sure you’ll do it later but then after a few months you’ll notice that your tires are starting to wear on the inside and then before you know it it’s time to buy new tires.

I did the same thing and after only 6,000 miles I had to buy two new tires.  Lets do the math.  Alignment cost around $75 bucks.  2 new good tires cost $300+ installation, etc.  So save yourself a bunch of money and just get your car aligned when you lower you car, it’s going to ride better and save you some duckets.

As we roll up there’s nobody there.  I decide we need gas so I slowly take my time getting gas as not to get kicked out for loitering.  After about two minutes hella heads roll up and park down a court just within walking distance.  Everyone gets out of their cars and starts talking, music blasting and some fools are speeding down the street “TRYING” to look cool.  It’s guys like these who can f#@k it up for the rest of us.  We walk around for a bit and recognize some friendly faces.  A cop comes and bust this truck who has no relation to any of us for making an illegal U.  Everyone scrambles like small guppies in a pond about to get stepped on.  It’s pretty much for no reason though, that cop didn’t look like he was after us.

As we get in the line, we notice some cool cars.  A little 510 and this Toyota Startlet packed with 4 heads as well.  That thing was moving pretty good.  Next spot, Ringwood.  The cars quickly line up down the street and everyone’s out to watch.  Immediately 2 domestics line up ready to race.

As they take off down the strip  both cars roar with barely any traction on the road.  They come within inches of hitting each other.  We get about 10 minutes of some clean racing action when some dumbass yells cops, and once again 2-300 cars scramble to get the hell out of there.  As I’m running back to my car, I hear the loud pops of something going off.  Is it a gun, I look back and see bright blue green flashes and realize some dude has a roman candle in his hand.  More stuff that can make a bad situation worse.

(1:30 am)  After this we break loose and go our own separate ways.  We are passing this BP gas station when we spot this familiar Toyota Supra.  We decide to tun in and talk to it.  It’s this dude Salim who owns a 10 second Single Turbo MKIV.  We rap with him for a bit then the police come and tell us to nicely leave.  After this we end up in Milpitas at 7-11 to get a quick bite to eat.

Supra

No ones around and one of my crew is whining for some action.  We hit up 1st street to a cold welcome of nobody.  It’s back to the starting point.  We see hella fools rolling so we jump in the line, only to go down a long road, bust a U then do the same thing again.  This is leading no where, so I stop off at another chevron.  SVP and Top Notch is there to welcome us with open arms.  We just hang out there for a bit watching all the cars roll by.  I remember I had a bunch of stickers that one of my boys brought over earlier in the night.  I hand them all out to anxious school children who are eager to get candy.  (felt like it any ways).  You can’t have fun forever, so a cop shows up and we all bolt.

SVP Crew

We met up with little Dex from the message boards, he was a cool hyper dude.  We stickered his car up as well.  As we are about to hit up 237 we are stopped with some Traffic.  Lights are flashing from a patty wagon police van.  As we slowly creep around it we see something totally shocks and amazes us.  That datsun 510 we saw early was tipped on it’s side.  We couldn’t believe it.  We also saw a lady who may have been crying giving her story to the police.  We don’t know if the two cars hit?  At that moment I realized how careful everyone has to be.

Crashed 510

(2:30) Santa Clara we catch up to the line and follow them to a business park.  There is some serious racing going on here.  We watched a turbo civic “WOOP” a new Firebird, a few times.  At about 3 am, we hear the distant whines of some sirens so everyone bolts again, and someone yells out the next spot.  For us, we decide to call it a night.  This could be a typical weekend night for some of you out there.

Firebird Vs. Civic

We are like the Channel 7 news.  We just cover events how we see them.  Don’t go out Street Racing and then blame us if you get arrested or hurt.  You are responsible for your own actions.  We don’t condone street racing, but we just cover it how we see it.  BTW, Wouldn’t it be nice if the cities would do something to give us our own space to race.  Skate boarders have their own parks.  Why not us racers.  Drive safe and have a good one.

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http://www.replikamaschinen.com/

Replika Maschinen

Tucked away in this building is one of the greatest places you can take your engine to. They are called Replika Maschinenen and they are a high end machine shop specializing in performance porting, head work, thermal coating and many other racing applications. They specialize in high performance and racing cylinder head work, porting and polishing, research and development, reconfiguring and vintage restoration. They also do consultation work for automotive, motorcycle and diesel engines and components for shops and manufactures.

They also apply and consult on thermal coatings, their applications and use in racing, performance and industrial applications. Custom designs, machining and manufacturing are also done at RMI.

Replika Maschinen, Inc., is owned by Don Redmon and Chris Slay who together have over fifty years of professional racing and related automotive machining experience. Don has written many technical articles for publications such as DRAG Sport, Mazda Sport, Victory Lane, etc.

Thermal Coating
There are three basic types of thermal coatings in use at RMI. The first coating is a thermal dispersant, which is semi-gloss black. This coating helps parts and components shed heat faster than these parts could were they un-coated. Typical applications are cylinder heads, intake manifolds, radiators, oil coolers, brake calipers, etc. Most any thing that you would like to see operate cooler or thermally more efficiently.

Thermal barrier coatings keep heat inside an object or bar heat from moving from one area to another. Typical applications would be exhaust systems, turbine housings, piston crowns, combustion chambers, exhaust ports, valves, etc.

This engine has been thermal coated to keep it cooler

An engine that has been fully coated will run much cooler allowing more horsepower gains.

Special Thermal Gasket

This intake gasket is made from a special plastic composite material and also used by NASA. It acts a heat barrier to help keep heat from the engine from transferring directly to the inlet manifold.

Treated Turbo

Replika Maschinen, Inc., has a special turbocharger modification package to increase the efficiency and powerband width and reduce the turbo lag of your turbocharger unit. RMI will coat your turbine housing, exhaust manifold and down pipe with a special high temperature thermal barrier coating. The compressor housing, connector pipes and intercooler if applicable, are all thermal dispersant coated to reduce the inlet charge temperature making the charge more dense. RMI also does special work inside the compressor and turbine housings.

Half Treated Piston Head

The left top side of this piston has been thermal barrier coated to help keep the combustion heat in the cylinder where it belongs.

A silvery type of coating that does not allow heat to pass through it. By not allowing the piston crown to get hot the air will be more dense because it is colder allowing for a bigger spark. A bigger spark helps get more power.

The third type of coating is Dry Film Lubricants. These coatings are typically used on piston skirts, bearings, valve springs, valve stems, etc. Wherever one would like to reduce friction whose by product is heat.

Flow Bench Testing
Replika Maschinen, Inc. uses state of the art equipment for airflow testing and measurement of cylinder heads and related assemblies. RMI’s flow bench not only measures standard mass airflow, in Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) but they can also test ports internally for velocity (air speed) and actually map out the air speed within the port itself. They can do standard dry as well as new wet mass airflow testing.

Flow Bench

Heads

Some top secret RMI ported cylinder heads being worked on. I managed to snap a picture of it while they weren’t looking.

This is RMI's "T&S" Valve seat and guide machine

They use it to cut multi angled (3 or more angles on the valve seats) valve jobs.

Naturally Aspirated and Turbo Pistons

The guys at RMI were showing me the difference between “naturally aspirated” and “Forced Induction” pistons. The “turbo” piston on the left has more metal between the top of piston crown and the top of the first ring land than the “N/A” piston on the right. The piston on the left is also “dished” to lower the compression while the one on the right has a raised crown in order to match the combustion chamber shape and raise the compression ratio.

This is why it is important to change you pistons, amongst other things, when you add a turbocharger to an originally non-turbocharged engine. Things like this make a difference in power and engine life.

Replika Maschinen Staff

Pictured from left to right is Don Redmon Luke Barnett and Chris Slay

Check out Replika Maschinen, Inc. web site at www.replikamaschinen.com  for more information about their services, additional pictures and technical articles.

Replika Maschinen, inc.
1745 Grant St., #3
Santa Clara, CA, 95050
408.986.8626 tel
408.986.8623 fax
E-Mail:
DON@REPLIKAMASCHINEN.COM

Bollywood has their own version of Fast and Furious called “Race”. Check out the video.

Track Car

When you look at this car, you don’t think about drag racing. You think of a car that handles very well on the track. These are probably the same guys that make fun of drag racing. My buddy who races in Honda Challeng came up to me and asked me for some drag racing tips. I was pretty surpised. He’s mentioned in the past that drag racing wasn’t a real sport. Now he’s seeing the benefit of it.

You see, in the beginning of the race when all the cars are lined up on grid and that light turns green you got twenty or thirty guys all in a street race to get to that #1 position before that first turn. The guy who can launch the best is going to pass at least a few cars and get the advantage. After that race starts though they won’t have to use that skill again until the next race.

So how do you get a good launch? Practice of course. It’s hard to say where to practice because doing burnouts is considered wreckless driving and some cops might even arrest you on the spot for doing it. If you have a track nearby hit up the their weekly events.

Each car is different, but the technique is usually the same.
#1 Reaction Time
Reaction time is very important. Getting the jump on your opponent can make a slow car a winning car. If your at a street light watch the other light as it turns from yellow to red and then you know your ready to launch.

At the track as the lights count down from Red to yellow to green, just as the light before the green light lights up start your launch. This will give you a 0 second reaction time and by the time your vehicle starts moving it’s the exact same time as the light turns green so you just did the perfect launch.

#2 Know your car
Since each car is totally different you’ll have to had some practice to see how your car reacts. When you launch for drag racing you keep the clutch in and then rev the engine up to a certain amount of RPM’s. For starters lets try 3K RPM.

Line up at the light, hold down the clutch, rev the engine to 3K rpm and when the light turns green step off the clutch and give it some gas. The car might do 2 things. Jerk and then stall, or your wheels might start spinning. If your wheels start spinning and your just burning out then your RPM’s are too high. If your car just stalls then your RPM’s are too low.

This is where you practice to find out what feels the best for you. You want a little wheel spin but you want that car to be launching at the same time.

#3 2nd Gear
Now 2nd Gear is going to come up quick and this is important. After those wheel spins your rpm’s are going to spool up real fast and it’s goign to be time to hit 2nd gear. You’ll need to know your redline. Since I’m in a Honda I know my car will redline at 8,400 RPM. Don’t go past your redline or your car might blow up, or the rev limiter might shut down your car.

If you had your car dyno tested or can find one of your same vehicle setup that will be very helpful. See your car doesn’t make 100% power all the way to the redline. There is a point in which the power starts to drop off and when your racing if your in the drop off zone you’ll start to lose speed.

According to this dyno chart by following the red line you can see it makes power all the way up to 5600 RPM, after that the power drops from 5600 to 6500. So you’ll know that you’ll want to shift your vehicle at the peak of it’s performance at about 5,500 RPM.

What is the blue line? That’s torque. Torque is what gives you that throw you back in your seat feeling.

Back to shifting into 2nd gear. If your car is stock don’t shift super fast. Chances are you mis-shift and your car is going to hear the clang clang clang noise. Clutch all the way in and bring that hammer down in a nice smooth motion and then clutch out again quickly, get on the gas and repeat.

Once you can get a good launch down then it’s usually always the same. That is until you start modding your car.

Parts for better drag racing
There are quite a few parts you can buy to help you become a better drag racer. Some is just bling but it kind of shows other people your into the sport which is cool.

Shift Light
This type of shift light uses what they call pills. You just pop in a pill that has the RPM’s you want to shift at and when you hit that magic number it lights up to let you know when to shift. That was my first mod. The price is about $80 or so.

Monster Tach
The ever so sweet Monster Tach. These are expensive but if you want that true racer look then get it.

Launch Controller
When your staged up at the light, hit this button and it will hold your RPM’s at a certain pre programmed RPM like 4000K so you can take your foot off the gas

UPGRADED CLUTCH
Now your hitting big time. Upgrading to a stronger clutch will help a lot in the world of drag racing. Here is the descritption:
The Racing 4-Puck version clutch has an upgraded HD Street Disk with Xtreme Duty Pressure Plate over the factory clutch. The HD improved disk and pressure plate provides a new torque capacity of up to to 577 ftlbs, and the pressure increase being 59%.

You can go 6 puck but then your clutch is either on or off. There is no in between and for the street it’s too hard to drive on.

Nitrous Oxide

Drag Radial Tires
Tires make a huge difference when it comes to racing. Drag Radials have more surface area on the ground so you can stick better and get a better launch. They’re not too good for wet weather though.

Good luck, be safe and have fun!

As you know in today’s world of aftermarket parts for you vehicle, there is always a wide variety to choose from. With the boom of parts being made cheaper overseas it seems that even the least popular cars to fix up have a good variety of parts to choose from.

The first and most common performance modification that most people do to their cars is an intake. An intake system is usually an item that replaces the factory stock airbox and replaces it with some type of other system that allows more air into the engine.

You can think of an engine as an air pump. It sucks in air on one side and expels air on the other. If it can flow more air it can make more horsepower (in most cases). Cold air brought into the engine is more dense and fires better in your engine. This allows for more horsepower gains too. Drawing in warm or hot air into your engine can give you less horsepower.

Stock Air Box

Stock Air Box

This article will go into detail about the many different types of intakes on the market that you may choose from. Each intake system works differently and depending on what type of application your looking for, and your budget.
Stock air box installed in a Honda Prelude. The picture on the right shows stock air box removed.

Stock Air Box.
With fuel injected vehicles you usually can’t even see it. It’s usually enclosed plastic. The vehicle designers usually make the stock air box draw cold air from outside the vehicle usually from the fender well. The air flow is restricted for emission purposes.

Advantages
Helps keeps the engine quiet.
Vehicle is usually optimized for best gas mileage.
Air filter is affordable and usually very easy to replace.
Helps keep the environment cleaner.

Disadvantages
Robs vehicle of untapped horsepower
Does not look good.

Paper Air Filter

Paper Air Filters
Pretty much all cars come from the factory with a paper air filter inside its stock air box. It’s just the traditional filter used in today’s market for stock vehicles.

Foam Filter

Foam Filters
Foam filters are made of very porous foam. Foam filters usually allow the most air to flow into the engine.

Advantages
Very high air flow

Disadvantages
More noisy than paper filters
Might not filter as well as paper systems do.

K&N Replacement Filters

K&N Drop in replacement filters.
Most places that sell OEM replacement parts will usually carry these. They are not intake systems but actual stock air filter replacement elements that flow a little better then the factory OEM replacement. When we say OEM we mean Original Equipment Manufactuers. (Stock replacement parts).

Paper Cone Filter

Paper Cone Filters
Paper cone filters are made of porous paper that allows air to filter through but tries to collect dirt and debris from passing through the paper.

Short Ram Intake

Short Ram Intake System
A short ram intake system replaces your factory air box with an intake system usually consisting of a metal pipe connected to a filter. This system usually stays on top of the engine.

Advantages:
Cost efficient to the consumer.
Very easy to install. Can be installed in under 20 minutes in most cases.
Easy to replace filter as needed.

Disadvantages:
Can draw warm air from the engine bay into the engine.
Can be noisy.

Cold Air Intake

Cold Air Intake System
The cold air intake system replaces the stock air box with an intake system that uses a longer pipe than the short ram. This pipe usually goes down under the engine and allows the filter to draw cold air from outside the vehicle.

Advantages:
Colder air brought into the engine creates more horsepower. Gives more power over the short ram intake system.

Disadvantages:
Costly to consumer
Harder Installation. Sometimes requires that wheels be removed and fender linings be cut during install.
Installation can take hours
Not very easy to replace filter
Water can be sucked into the intake and destroy your engine.
Can be noisy.

Air Flow Meter Adaptor

Air Flow Meter Adaptor

Air Flow Meter Adaptor

An air flow meter adaptor kit is an intake kit with no piping. It allows the filter to be directly bolted up to the engine using an adaptor plate.

Advantages:
Easy Installation
Allows many types of vehicles that don’t have intake applications a way for a custom intake to be added to the engine.

Disadvantages:
Draws hot air into the engine
Can be noisy

Legal Issues
Adding an intake system to your vehicle may make it illegal for road use. Because you are altering the engines emissions system the government wants to make sure that it does not create more pollutants than it should. California has the strictest laws pertaining to this so the better manufacturers will get a CARB # for the intake system. CARB means California Air Resource Board. Once an intake has been approved by CARB the intake system will require a sticker to be placed on a visible location on the intake system. It will have some numbers on the sticker called an “Executive Order Number”. This can be shown to smog technicians or police or CHP / State Troopers. Since California has the strictest emissions policy the intake will then be 50 state legal.

This is the Air Resource Lookup webpage for aftermarket parts:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aftermkt/devices/amquery.php

Why Spend $200 vs. $40 for an intake?
Here is the reason why. The $200 intake system was probably designed and created by the company selling it. This means they Dyno tested different lengths and designs to try to gain the most horsepower for each vehicle. They then applied for a CARB number for this intake. When ordering your intake make sure it’s 50 state CARB legal.

The $40 intake system is just some company in the US importing over a generic design or copied intake system from China. These will not have a CARB number and the filters will usually fall apart within 6 months.

You might want to buy a cheap intake because you don’t car about CARB and you probably won’t get caught. If you do get caught, here is the scenario.

Police officer pulls you over. Asks you to pop your hood. They check out the intake and ask for the CARB number. There is none. So what happens? He gives you a fix it ticket to be signed off by the State Ref only. This ticket is charged by the city from $10-$100.

You then have to put on your stock air box (if you still have it), and then make an appointment with the State Referee. This cost $75 for them to inspect your car. If you have any other modifications they’ll find them, anything wrong they’ll find it and you’ll fail. These guys are strict.

Maybe you passed, maybe you didn’t? If you didn’t you have to go back to the State Ref until you do pass. If you did pass then they’ll sign off your ticket.

Now you have to go to court. You have to go show the judge that you got your ticket signed off. He’ll chuckle at the case, but you’ve already spent 2 days taking care of this ticket. So do some research before you buy and try to buy a 50 State CARB Legal intake for your car. Some good brands to look into are AEM, Injen, K&N, True Flow, and Weapon-R.
http://www.aempower.com
http://www.injen.com
http://www.knfilters.com
http://www.weapon-r.com

You can find intakes to purchase at our online store at

http://www.sroperformance.com/air-intakes-html.html

I’m eager to hear your comments on the show.

My father always encourages me to buy online because it’s cheaper but I tell him that I want to support local businesses in my area.
It’s always my custom to ask what if it doesn’t work, or what’s the return policy on any type of electronics I purchase. So a few weeks ago I inquired about a DVD player for my car. My car is a very limited production Acura NSX so I was very cautious about what type of stereo system I wanted to get. I talked with the salesman who was very nice about the car for quite a while. He was very familiar with the setup of the car and what I wanted. He assured me that if it did not work for any reason just bring it back. No questions asked. Since this purchase is nearly $500 I wanted to make sure that if anything happened there would be no problems at all.

I got the item and the next day called my friend Craig Hardy who is a professional car audio installer at a local shop called Autohaus in Hayward. He just happens to be one of their top installers doing car audio and video at dealerships for the last 12 years. Doing dealership work requires that things be perfectly installed because they are installing what looks like factory options.
Craig did the install and the DVD player worked great. Right after he left I hit the eject button and the DVD was stuck inside the unit. I could hear a clicking noise as the eject mechanism failed.

I didn’t worry though, because the item was only purchased a few days ago and I know buying from a reputable company like Best Buy should be able to take care of me. This did not turn out to be the case though.
I went into the store with the unit and explained what happened to the customer service representative. He got the sales guy and we went over and talked about how the item broke. I was looking at possibly getting a little more expensive unit because the unit I had was now sold out. As we were talking the customer service representative came back to us and told me that the warranty on the item was voided. So we went over to the desk and I asked him how?
This DVD player has a wire that needs to be wired into the parking brake in order for the DVD player to play. This is a safety feature. The wire is Yellow with a blue stripe. He had said that I had wired that wire into the Ground wire which is a black wire. Upon inspecting the black wire, there was a grey wire wire tapped into it. Not the Yellow and Blue wire like he said.

I asked about that discrepancy and he said the installer cut off the wire. Yet I asked for the proof and he didn’t have it. They insisted I voided the warranty. My system was hooked properly into the parking brake like the diagram had specified. I even told them they can come out to my car to see the wire but they just brushed me off.

I then asked to talk to a manager on duty. As a person she seemed nice, but had no technical ability at all. She also lacked any type of customer service skills. I had explained to her the situation but she just sided with the customer service rep. I had asked her how she felt about losing a great paying customer like me for life over some silly mishap like this. She just said “Oh well, there is nothing I can do. I can’t see how a billion dollar company would have a problem trying to keep a customer happy in a time of need!

I haven’t been that angry in years. I was literally getting furious. I kept my cool though and just left.

I left the product at the store in Tracy, Ca. I did not get my money back or a new product. This way I couldn’t so call “tamper” with the wiring.

A few things I would like to point out about this so called voiding the warranty.
1.There was nothing on the box. There should be some stickers stating something.
2.Nothing on the receipt.
3.Nothing on the walls.
4.The sales person didn’t mention anything. He just said bring it back for a full refund if ANY problems at all.
5.If it was a critical wire it would have a fuse to protect the system.
6.I felt bated and switched. I was reeled in hook, line and sinker.

The night managers name was Mercedes. After numerous calls to corporate they said they could offer me $300 for the unit. I told them forget it. I finally went back and got my dvd player from Bestbuy in Tracy. After that I just went to their Dublin store and took the unit back. They didn’t give me any problem. Although in the end I was able to take my unit back, I had a hell of time taking it back. It was worse than taking something back at Fry’s Electronics, and we all know how that is!

Have you ever thought about buying a used car and fixing it up? If your on this site then the answer is most likely yes. If you’re like most of us, you’re on a budget too.

We’ve all had the desire to build the car of our dreams. It’s funny when you think about it. Cars can become fads. A movie or a cartoon can glorify a certain type of vehicle, and then that older car becomes very sough after. Lately I’ve been pondering about buying an older Nissan 240SX. Flashback to 1989 when my friend bought his brand new, I found the car to be a disgustingly ugly. It was a hatchback and just the whole car looked to be a bit funky. My friend had told me that the suspension was based off of the 300ZX so it handled well. We weren’t really into cars back then, but I never knew that his car would become this cult classic sought after by drifters, mountain runners, and road racers.

As of today I’m one of those madmen you find out on the back roads in the late hours of the A.M. on some deserted dark road where if you make one mistake it can cost you your life. You start to think out there about the dangers that lie ahead, such as Deer, Bigfoot, or some aliens abducting you, because really your out in no mans land and nobody is around for miles, but then there’s that stupid thing called adrenaline which makes you think your invincible while having a fun yet dangerous time. It’s just you and the road on a dark cold night. It’s nice when you have a full moon though.

Ok, back to reality. Let’s say we’re looking for our project car. We’ve got a little money saved up so where do we start? I usually look at Craigslist.org, Autotrader.com, or Ebay.com. Not sure if I’d buy a car from EBay, but I like to look. It’s best if you can find something in your local area so you can check it out. If you find a car online that you like, then you can jump onto Kelly Blue Books website at http://www.kbb.com and see what your dream car is worth.

If your going to look at a vehicle try to bring a friend for a 2nd opinion and also ask if you can do a compression check. A compression check checks the cylinders and see if any are weak or not. Linked from the Valvoline website on a step by step procedure for compression checking. BTW when doing the check don’t hold the spark plug wire in your hand.

Some Terms you should get familiar with when looking for a used car.

Salvaged Title: This means that the car was in some type of ordeal where the insurance company told the current owner to junk the car and buy a new one, because to repair it would cost more than the vehicles actual worth. You can find a lot of cars cheap because they have this title. Btw most loan companies won’t loan money on a car that has a salvaged title, so you better have cash to buy it.

There are quite a few reasons a car can have a salvaged title:

Fire Damage – Car had an electrical problem and caught on fire or was in a fire.

Water Damage – Car was flooded and damaged.

Theft Recovery – The car was stolen and maybe a lot of pieces were missing.

Totaled – The vehicle was in an accident and the damage was beyond repair. (I’d personally stay away from these.)

Clean Title: just what is says. The vehicle has no title discrepancies with DMV. You can check a vehicles title http://www.carfax.com. It cost money but it might be worth it to lookup a vehicle’s history.

No Title: For some reason the owner lost the title to the car. Well sucks for them. With no title, you have no idea if the car is really theirs to sell. I’d stay away from these too.

I’ve found my car! A 1989 240SX on Craig list.org for $1300. Have I thought about what this will all cost me to fix up and make a decent car for my needs? We all have different goals so everyone’s outcome will be just that, different. I like my cars to handle well, power isn’t a big issue for me.

When I’m dreaming of making a car within my budget I use the good old internet for research. The net is great for finding out parts and prices etc. I make a list in Excel what I think it’s going to cost me. You should probably add about $500 more to this figure when your done for any unforeseen expenses. This is what I came up with.

240SX On a Budget		Source
Vehicle			Total
1990 240SX	1,300.00		3,520.00
Suspension
H&R Sport Springs	217.00	OptAuto
KYB AGX Front	218.00	Tire Rack
KYB AGX Rear	170.00	Tire Rack
Eibach Alignment Kit	25.00	Tire Rack
17″ Wheels & Tires	700.00	Wheel Max
Bomz Front Strut Bar	62.00	Speedstash.com
Bomz Rear Strut Bar	62.00	Speedstash.com
Engine
AEM Short Ram Intake	150.00
A’PEXi N1 Exhaust	479.00
Other Costs
Shipping	137.00

So for something a little under $4,000 I can build my handling car that would be fun to drive. Start adding in the real mods you want and that $4,000, will quickly become some big dollars. Well this just takes a minute. Here is a 240sx how I’d like it

240SX How I’d like it
Vehicle		Total
1990 240SX	1,300.00	20,130.00
Suspension
Tein Basics	900.00
Camber Kit	250.00
18″ / 17″ Wheels & Tires	1,900.00
Custco Front Strut Bar	150.00
Custco Rear Strut Bar	130.00
Engine
SRODET Engine / Tranny	3,200.00
Intercooler	1,200.00
Installation	1,500.00
Radiator	350.00
Other Costs
Shipping of parts	200.00
Paint Job	2,000.00
Recaro Seats	1,200.00
Seat Rails	200.00
3 Point Harnesses	300.00
Carbon Fiber Hood	400.00
Exhaust	500.00
Body Kit	900.00
Stereo	600.00
Amp	200.00
Speakers	200.00
Turbo Timer	100.00
Blowoff Valve	300.00
Wastegate	800.00
SAFCII	350.00
Roll Cage	1,000.00