5 Popular, But Distasteful Modifications

Taste is subjective, and anything that it ends up deciding can really divide opinion. The adage is true - different strokes really are for different folks, though there are a couple of questionable mods. cosmetic enhancements or otherwise, that, as car people, we can all agree, really do nothing to positively change the outlook of your vehicle. We all want our dailies to look faster, more luxurious and more powerful than they perhaps may look stock, but here are 5 modifications we think do the opposite of just that!

Photo: Aliexpress

Race cars and professional drift cars have them, so why not a clapped out 12-year-old econobox with a healthy serving of racing stickers plastered prominently on both front doors? In the former, these tow hooks serve a very real purpose; it allows vehicles to be safely and quickly removed from the track should a collision or mechanical failure result in its inability to compete. These tow hooks are directly connected to the structure of the vehicle, and have to be built to a high standard to withstand the weight of the car being pulled from it.

Unfortunately, LTA doesn’t allow tow hooks to be attached for daily use on safety grounds, as it can cause some serious harm should you strike a pedestrian. A cheap adhesive-backed plastic piece that attaches to your front bumper isn’t at all functional, and really isn’t going to fool anyone into thinking that you daily a track car.

Photo: Aliexpress

As with the tow hooks, you see competition vehicles wearing them, so that must mean that installing one on your car will allow you to live that race car life, right? Racing vehicles have rear wings designed specifically to generate downforce for more rear grip at speed. However, it is always complemented by other aero pieces sprinkled across the bodywork to feed a stream of clean, uninterrupted air for maximum efficacy.

A cheap, oversized internet-auction site special can’t do any of that. It probably wasn’t sculpted in a wind tunnel for maximum performance, and without any of the other aero pieces attached to said vehicle, your ride tends to look more like an oversized shopping trolley than a time-attack racer for the road. Also, a side effect of downforce generation is the increased drag, an issue that plagues even the professional race teams, so a shoddy online wing can not only cheapen the look of your vehicle, but negatively impact your fuel economy too.

Photo: Aliexpress

Race cars are loud, and if I fit an obnoxiously loud exhaust to my car, I can channel my inner racing driver right? Unfortunately, a loud exhaust for the sake of it will make you not only look seriously uncool, but your neighbours, friends and perhaps even family, will loathe your presence as well.

See, performance cars have well-tuned engines and exhaust setups, developed by engineers over the course of years, that sound awesome at any point in the rev range. Race cars too, have other, equally cool sounds to back up that engine – think the whine of straight cut gears, antilag, etc. You can probably achieve the same sheer volume as the former if you so desired, but an old hatchback with an annoyingly exhaust doesn’t evoke any of the same emotions as the aforementioned, with the worst offenders often sounding asthmatic and just underwhelming. It’s best that, if your purpose of a new exhaust is to make your car louder to a bid to look cooler, that you spend the money doing other more tasteful mods that will actually have the effect that you want.

Photo: Aliexpress

In motorsports, race cars are essentially expensive, over-engineered advertising billboards. Competition, especially at the highest level, costs quite a pretty penny, and whether it is a factory-backed operation or not, every bit of free space on the vehicle is auctioned off to the highest bidder to offset the insane overheads that comes with building and racing said cars. In a professional motorsport context, as the overall appearance is a reflection of the sponsors the cars wear, experienced graphic designers and artists are engaged to ensure that the colour and patterns of the race team itself does not result in the sponsors’ logos being lost in the livery.

That is something you probably cannot achieve with an online marketplace cart full of the finest, lowest cost stickers, as well as a friend and an afternoon in an HDB carpark. The end result of all that hard graft, visually, will look nothing like anything from a race track, instead, more closely resembling what it really is - a regular road car with loads of cheap stickers on it.

 

Photo: AliexpressLet’s just get this out of the way – we’re not suggesting that all lower-cost kits are visually nasty and built poorly. That being said though, that is usually the case. If something is cheap, it is cheap for a reason, as the cost savings compared to a better made and engineered product, will have to come from somewhere, with companies sacrificing either R&D, or the actual construction, or both.

From the factory, all a car’s body lines are designed to be complementary. Combined, they help to make the car look and feel a certain way, whether the more subtle lines are visually obvious or not. What lower end aftermarket manufacturers choose to do though, is go for the shock factor, grafting on visually-exaggerated parts that muck up the OE lines. The issue is made worse with shoddy build quality that really affects all the panel gaps on the vehicle itself, making the already-cheap looking kit look just that little nastier.

We believe that if done well, modifications can help take years off your car, and also make it more liveable with on a daily basis. Steering clear of modifying for the sake of it can result in more tasteful and sensible mods that result in an increase in overall efficiency and power levels as well. Besides, brand-name aftermarket components can command some decent resale value should you decide to revert to an OE setup, and the same cannot be said of lower-end generic components. If you’re after a tastefully modified or updated car for your next daily, consider taking a look at our extensive classifieds – you’ll definitely find something that suits your taste and your budget!

Credits: Jek Ray Low