Simple.
This is what happens when you exceed limit. Yes, your LIMIT!!

Case Study.1 -Don’t get too excited-

I don’t know what exactly happened on that DSM (camera car). However, showing off to prove you are AWESOME won’t really work always

Case Study.2 -7 Fails-

* Stupid dork hair style = FAIL
* Shifting from 1st -> 2nd -> 3rd -> 2nd = FAIL
* 7 times of desperately repeating ‘Oh Shit!!’ = FAIL
* Frightened crying out ‘Oh My God!!!’ = FAIL
* Going to get busted soon for street racing = FAIL
* Lost control because of dirt??? No you shifted from 3rd to 2nd at redline = FAIL
* Cheap piece of crap ROTA wheel = FAIL

These two are great examples of FAILURE, especially from those idiots on the road. Don’t get me wrong. I never disrespect their cars. By the way, these two videos remind me what I watched a couple of years ago. One day, I was staying home late writing my term paper. I remember it was around 1:30 am. There was Home Depot right across my building with a large outside parking lot for customers. Bunch of shopping carts were nicely stored in the middle of the lot and there were trees planted from place to place as a purpose of decoration. Right above the lot in the air, there was Skytrain Rail crossing the middle of the place which was supported by 3~4 thick, concrete pillars.

Anyways, I suddenly heard a loud engine noise with tire screaming badly. I looked out the window (I lived on 18th floor) and found a very old VW Golf was drifting around the parking lot, avoiding shopping carts and trees as if these were obstacles just like the ones in D1 GPX. He was doing 180 turn around a concrete pillar. Right after he cleared that move, he was still moving around 60km/h or maybe more.

He smashed into a tree and the car still jumped into the shopping cart storage.

What a mess.
What an idiot.

Wait a minute…..

There are two people in the car!!
Oh I see, the driver and his girl friend!!

I was watching the whole thing from the beginning and I was thinking.
‘Should I contact local patrols for street race and crash? or just leave it?’
Well, even before I decided, there were bunch of police cars already heading toward the incident spot and 2…I repeat, 2 fire trucks!! The driver was arrested I guess. And I appreciate showing me a great live, real time car show right in front of my place!

Come to think of it now, it has been always a dilemma to me.
‘If I don’t do anything fun with my car that is meant to be fun driven, am I wasting money?’
or
‘Should I get a very normal car and do no fun?’

I don’t know. But, I clearly know that I don’t wanna end up like these people above…..I would’t say that was driving fun.

 1.1)The Birth of INCUS

In 2007 April, the former Hyundai engineers started a venture. The CEO, Yeon-Hong, Jung, announced that this new company would develop performance oriented auto parts that are designed exclusively for Hyundai vehicles. The company was named INCUS which stands for the Innovative Customization System. Hence, its ultimate goal was to become the Hyundai’s specialized tuning division (incustune, 2009), as if AMG of Mercedes Benz, MUGEN of Honda, M of BMW and NISMO of Nissan. When ordering parts, car enthusiasts usually prefer a specialized sports division of its original car manufacturer because the fitment and reliability are guaranteed. Although INCUS had a very close relationship with Hyundai, it had never been owned by it. The engineers had gained a lot of experiences by developing vehicles while they were previously working at Hyundai’s R&D center. Hyundai and INCUS were seeking for a mutual benefit. Hyundai understood the importance of working with a tuning division as a powerful marketing tool to increase its brand awareness, and INCUS could grow up from a venture to the first successful Hyundai tuner.

INCUS designs and manufactures customized auto parts for Hyundai enthusiasts who want to upgrade their cars in terms of performance and style. Having great passion and desire toward sport tuning in mind, the INCUS engineers created body-kits, sports suspension and light weight alloy wheels. The fact that those engineers previously participated in developing production models at Hyundai R&D allowed them to figure out exactly which part of each vehicle should be improved to increase vehicle dynamics. When developing a body-kit for example, the INCUS engineers went through severe tests at wind tunnel to make sure its actual effectiveness, and they proved the performance of the newly developed sports suspensions by showing improved lap times at racing tracks. INCUS promised that the company would satisfy customers by ensuring an excellent quality control and total vehicle balance.

1.2) Passion but Lacking Strategies

INCUS dived into the race car tuning industry with a great intention of being the best Hyundai tuner. The lack of its strategic plans, however, inhibited INCUS to successfully operate later on. Currently, INCUS stopped developing parts for future Hyundai vehicles. When this company appeared first, many Hyundai enthusiasts hoped the company would prosper and finally become the first Korean race car developer. Unfortunately, INCUS is slowing down and going into a decline phase. Why did it have to stop the future research and development? Why is this company being forgotten from many car enthusiasts?

The failure was not due to a single reason; in fact, the reasons were very inter-related. First, INCUS set an unclear direction in developing its brand image. Second, the unclear direction resulted in wrong decisions over selecting vehicles for designing parts, and this made their target consumers very unclear and small in numbers. Third, the demand from the blurred target group of consumers did not ensure the company’s profitability. Finally, its poor marketing activity accelerated the firm to fail.

Chapter 2: The Reasons behind the Failure

 2.1) Unclear Brand Positioning

Did INCUS have a clear identity as a race car developer? It manufactured body-kits, wheels, exhaust systems and even sports suspensions for those who want truly racing inspired performance from their original cars. What’s required building a race car is power because power leads to higher speeds of course. To make the car run smooth with its increased horsepower, it requires a strengthened suspension and aerodynamics. The improved suspension allows the driver push harder at extremely high speed and the great aerodynamics let the car turn around corners much faster with its increased downforce which is generated by the body-kits. These are the basics before increasing the engine power. INCUS did provide these supporting parts in order to hold more power beforehand. Ironically, it had never developed power increasing units such as supercharger and turbo kits. The company lost its identity neither as a visual, exterior tuner nor as an engine specialist. Therefore, the existing race supporting parts became meaningless without having engine modification components.

Ever since INCUS started its operation from 2007 as a race car tuner, it never designed or developed parts for sports cars. Currently, INCUS manufactures automotive parts for the Avante HD (4 door compact sedan) and the i30 (4 door hatch). Ironically, these two cars are family oriented and not meant to be driven for race. The source of demand towards the upgrading parts is the sports car owners, and these consumers could not find anything beneficial from INCUS. The company should have made their products to target a right group of consumers. If only INCUS offered their products for sports models such as Tiburon or Genesis Coupe, the company’s revenue could have been higher and the business  would be more stable.

2.2) Financial Difficulty      

As explained above, INCUS chose the Avante HD and i30 as its demonstration vehicles. However, the actual number of owners who want to modify these cars was not many. The wrong vehicle selection resulted in a low number of targeted customers and naturally, it leaded to the profitability issue. Normally, the research and development process of performance automotive parts is very time consuming and also, it requires a large amount of financial supports. Making the situation more difficult, INCUS did not receive financial supports from Hyundai when the company started its business.

Being specialized for one particular auto manufacture has advantages over other after-market parts suppliers; the company can utilize the original car’s production data and this greatly helps the tuner design the best fitting parts for a particular model. This is why most of the after-market racing parts are very pricy due to additional investment in researching process. Despite the fact that INCUS had more knowledge about the existing Hyundai cars and could lower the researching cost, the overall product price was rather higher than other competitors. Again, a small number of customers prohibited INCUS from mass production. Therefore, the company had to set its prices high enough in order to stay at or near above the break-even point. From the consumers’ point of view, however, there were many other alternatives in this price range. Other companies such as the TEIN, Japanese sports suspension specialist, and light weight racing wheel manufacturer, VOLK RACING, had competitive advantages over INCUS by offering their products at lower prices. On the other hand, MUGEN, the Honda specialist, still enjoys a high level of sales although its product price is very expensive thanks to its remarkable reputation in world racing leagues. INCUS’s high price tag could not be justified by the same reason as MUGEN because it was just a newly starting venture without any reputation yet. Frankly speaking, consumers were not attracted to buy them at all. The low level of sales caused low profitability and this financial problem made it even more difficult to develop new parts for upcoming Hyundai vehicles.

2.3) Lack of Public Relation

One of the most beloved sports cars of all time, the NISMO R34 Z-TUNE, is a very great show case of promoting a sports car tuner’s brand image. NISMO, Nissan Motorsports International, re-designed the existing stock R34 GTRs and sold 20 limited editions to true enthusiasts. The car was completely re-engineered for competition purpose for both street and track race. The R34 Z-TUNE was very much differentiated from its original model in terms of performance, yet maintaining a great reliability and serving daily drivers properly. This car impressed many car enthusiasts, gained a huge amount of attention from the world and increased NISMO’s brand awareness dramatically. INCUS also proved its ability by presenting its demonstration cars at various auto shows. The vehicle was featured with the original INCUS s-kit (sports suspension), body-kits and 17 inch racing wheels. It did make the crowd turn their heads. However, the absence of the upgraded engine performance and lacking popularity of the original car among car enthusiasts made INCUS challenge to have an image of a true race car developer. First impression is extremely significant. INCUS should have made a far more special model that was totally differentiated from its original form that the car was very powerful and impressive enough to make consumers be aware the existence of the brand.  

2.4) Legal or Illegal

INCUS started its business in Hyundai’s domestic market and there were strict vehicle regulations prohibiting illegal vehicle modifications in South Korea. The reason behind the strict regulations regarding sports car tuning was that many after-market parts did not pass safety tests. Especially, the exhaust system upgrade required air-care testing (importuner, 2006) and many aftermarket exhausts were not able to meet the minimum emission level. Installing body-kits, rear wing and front diffuser for instance, must be approved even before the production. Anything that was not approved must be taken out in order to renew insurance every year and the cost of re-modification back to stock relies on owners’ cost. For this reason, consumers were always concerned only if the installation would later be a problem. Although all of the INCUS parts were legally approved to be used both in street and track, most people were still suspicious that some of INCUS parts were against regulations. It was INCUS’s responsibility to inform consumers that the parts were safe and allowed to be used in street before letting consumers find themselves whether they could use it or not. 

Chapter.3: Recommended Strategies

 3.1) Participating the Racing League

Understanding consumer behavior and market characteristics, only the products that are proven through official competitions are able to survive. What would be the best way to succeed in this competitive performance automotive industry? The Honda’s exclusive race car tuner, MUGEN, participated in many world racing leagues. They formed an alliance with its brother company, Honda, and joined world class racing leagues and stepped into even formula 1 as a partnership in the past. Even though INCUS had technology and ability, unfortunately, these had never been shown through professional races. Hyundai used to hold an annual racing league, called Click Festival. The Click was the Hyundai’s sports compact equipped with 1.6 liter naturally aspirated engine. The modification requirements of the race included suspension upgrades, aerodynamic supports, throttle intakes and after market exhaust systems. INCUS could have been actively working as an exclusive parts supplier. Furthermore, if only INCUS formed its own professional racing teams and joined various Korean professional Touring Car Championships, building relations with public would be much more effective and ensuring the brand awareness as a true race car developer could possibly be achieved at a fraction of conventional marketing cost.

 3.2) Alliance with Hyundai Dealers

In order to approach consumers more directly and increase the chance of transaction with INCUS products, INCUS should have performed sales activities through Hyundai dealers. S-Line, Audi’s performance division, offers various body-kits and visual upgrading components as packages on complete production cars. Customers could choose different type of packaging options according to their own tastes and receive new vehicles that were already touched by S-Line. Instead of creating its independent distribution channels by making contracts with after-market automotive parts suppliers such as NAPA, Lordco or any local car shops, INCUS should have collaborated with Hyundai for more direct, effective sales activities. This unique partnership, as a tool developing a new market, would allow INCUS to easily capture not only the existing car enthusiasts but also those who were not previously in relation with car modifications. Therefore, the alliance would set a certain amount of revenues that the company could lower the level of its financial risk.

Mercedes SLS AMG

The new SLS AMG. What Mercedes Benz has developed as a new luxurious grand touring automobile is going to replace its previous supercar, the SLR.

Although the previous model was developed by corporation with McLaren, the best known Formula One Race car constructor, the new SLS was designed by its in-house brand, the AMG. The AMG is a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz and it is specialized in high performance luxury cars; hence, the name, AMG, implies the most expensive and highest performance of each Mercedes vehicles. The new SLS AMG was first revealed in 2009 at Frankfurt Auto Show, and it is now on sale as Mercedes promised on the official press conference in the beginning of the year.

The Marketing Communication. Mercedes Benz has decided to deliver the new model’s essence of vehicle dynamics and its exceptional performance by showing a very impressive promotional video. This TV commercial simply exhibits all of the car action without any description or narration. The commercial starts by showing the Mercedes R&D center where a lot of engineers are calculating some numbers and all staffs seem to be very busy preparing the drive out. The scene changes to a closed road where there is a long tunnel ahead. Soon a professional racing driver gets in the car, launches the SLS AMG at full throttle and amazingly drives up side down sticking on the wall as if the car is doing a looping inside the tunnel.

Product is the main theme. Among the 4 marketing mix elements, Mercedes Benz approaches consumers with the ‘product concept’ to assist in implementing its marketing strategy. The term, ‘product symbolism’, refers what a product or brand can mean to consumers and what the consumers can experience after they purchase the product. The commercial delivers an idea that this perfectly designed car is able to let the drivers experience great high speed stability, its outstanding performance and the sensibility of the German engineering is a great bonus. In other words, the SLS AMG commercial appeals the viewers by revealing the beauty of speed that only a true sports car can draw in mind. Therefore, consumers are lead to establish their value upon the product.

Price relates to Choice. Obviously, this is not a car for everyone and the target group of this product is not broad. Although there are many other super cars currently available in the market, just a few selected wealthy car enthusiasts are allowed to enjoy the new SLS AMG. Those who want to be differentiated from others and have high self-esteem choose the AMG’s new creation from the latest German technology. Also the AMG’s name value empowers the car as the most finest car ever built; this is a strong element to motivate the specific group of consumers to purchase the product. What consumers want from super cars is pure performance, scarcity, specialty, and of course, beauty. Once the customer value is satisfied with the elements the product offers, it builds brand loyalty and consumers are finally motivated.

My first impression about the Genesis Coupe was that the car looked way bigger than I felt in the picture. This car was actually bigger than those compacts I was already familiar with. The impression by its size could be a vehicle characteristic reminding a battleship on the road. In fact, the car looked nicer than how it appeared in photos. Like it or hate it, I believe it has quite a presense on the road, so I’d give it a good score.

Interior

The 3.8 liter track version’s navigation and the multi-functional meter far more developed than Hyundai’s previous models, although I personally thought the transition from navigation to total function mode was slightly annoying to me. Overall, the interior was quite acceptable. I could see Hyundai’s effort by looking through its audio and the manufacturer’s final touch on the smart key system. The seat was comfortable and it held my body pretty well; in fact, the seating was my favorite part of this vehicle. However, Hyundai’s cheap, crappy plastic feel over the dash was still a bit disappointing, yet some may not complain about it at all. I would say overall it was somewhere between OK and Great.

Engine Performance

The 3.8 was quite smooth and linear having a good engine response. However, the engine didn’t feel like it has very explosive thrust for the spec because 300hp can still feel very explosives if you look at some of other cars. Rather it showed calm acceleration with fine throttle response would be right choice of description.  Even though its acceleration until 3rd gear wasn’t very impressive, however, the car digested its power better off after shifting into the 4th well-pushing the car to the limit. It may be the benefit of its relatively big displacement. To understand better, you can think of it somewhere around G35 level.

The 2.0 liter turbocharged failed. The turbo didn’t even feel like it was properly spooling up the power unit, and its power band was a complete failure that I couldn’t feel any torque for any RPM range. The throttle response was worse than any shxxty car; hence, there’s a stupid throttle hang after releasing the gas pedal. The 2.0T sounded as if I was driving a hybrid with diesel powered engine, having me anticipate that this car could possibly get eaten by 100 whp Toyota MR-S. This car is that slow. Even though I considered its size and hence the heavy weight, the acceleration was not even close to the level of acceptable. There would be no excuse from Hyundai regarding with its super short gear ratio too.

Transmission

As mentioned already, the 2.0T’s gear ratio was very short that it hardly over ran 60 mph with the 3rd gear. The previous year models’ had a 2nd gear stuck issue that this 2.0T didn’t have any. When performing quick shifts however, the clutch and the mission couldn’t properly catch me up, although Hyundai might have set like this on purpose for smooth driving.

The 3.8 liter’s ZF automatic did pay off its title as a great mission connecting itself to the engine very well. But still any aggressive downshift was not allowed in order to protect the transmission, yet I still personally prefer traditional manuals. The automatic was set up too smoothly as if I was driving a luxury vehicle.

Traction Control Off

I turned the traction control off first since it might intervene when shifting from the 2nd to 3rd while aggressively pushing the car. The noise insulation wasn’t bad but you don’t want to expect great noise killing as in the Lexus IS, although these two are not meant to be in the same segment anyways.

Suspension and Ride Quality

The car seemed a bit harsh and the suspension didn’t really match the overall vehicle’s movement in some ways. The tendency of the front end, trying to turn in, definitely convinced me that I was driving a typical FR sports. However, you can’t hide heavy weight; the car was still far away from being nimble or lively handling like a heavy battleship. The suspension’s detail of controlling bumps on the road improved, but I wasn’t sure if Hyundai truly fixed this problem. The car reminded me a Japanese car. The brake was, unfortunately, not the Brembo, but I guessed it did its jobs without too much trouble.

Final Thoughts

The overall ride feeling was supposed to be like a battleship or a cruiser. The vehicle approached itself to become a GT Sports but it wasn’t very comfort, neither a pure sports. Contradictory. The streering feedback was ok, and the car felt like a true rear wheel drive. However, the lack of road holding ability when running over small bumps at high speed was a proof that Hyundai’s suspension set up knowhow was still not at maturity yet. In my opinion, the genesis coupe was somewhere between the G35 and Camry.

Did I want to buy it? I don’t know. Overall, the car was pretty refined reminding me a Japanese sports coupe, yet there was still a clear gap in between. It improved for sure if you compared it to the previous models such as the Tiburon. Only if there were a great tuning potential with great reliability, I might reconsider myself to put it on my list. For now and in my opinion, there are currently many substitutes in this price range. Enthusiasts may not be much interested in this car unless he or she was totally obsessed in the Genesis Coupe only.

Originally written by CT26SupraTurbo from www.worldcarfan.com
Translated and edited by Jay H.Ahn

‘Hey Jay!!!’
‘I just picked a new car. I am driving it for the first time right now!!’

I was slightly surprised because he never asked me or told me about buying a car.

‘Wow! really? I didn’t expect that bro! Which car did you buy??’

‘Well I will just show you today. Are you home? Can I drop by?’

‘Man you are more than welcome. I can’t wait to see what car that is!’

Actually, I was worried since he was the guy with no knowledge about cars and not much interest in vehicles. I was just hoping he wasn’t ripped off from an evil dealer. About 20 minutes later, he came to my building. Amazingly, it was a white IS250 AWD.

‘Holy! How did you have all that money? Did you just pay it off?‘

‘Yes man, my dad bought me a car actually, what do you think?’

He was showing off a bit. Of course, I understand his feeling and I didn’t want to ruin his day by saying such negative things about the vehicle. In fact, the IS is a good car, right?

‘Hey man, we should race someday haha!’

‘What? you wanna race me? You must be kidding me lol’

Of course, he was serious because he somehow believed the performance was proportional to the price of the vehicle.

‘Anyways, nice car man. I am jealous on you’

‘Haha, now I can find a girlfriend more easily right?’

And again, I guess now that he was quite serous about this stupid belief.

‘Well I think there isn’t not much correlation between getting a good girlfriend and driving a nice car. Man just pop the hood, I wanna see the side of the engine bay.’

After he read the manual book for about 5 minutes, he finally found the lever to open the hood. I was looking through the engine and other parts and he suddenly shouted by checking Toyota names on little pieces.

‘Damn! They used the Toyota parts!!’

‘You didn’t know it was made by Toyota??’

‘What? it was made by Toyota? Common! This is Lexus! Why such Toyota things are there??’

‘Lexus is a sub-division of Toyota to be known as a luxury brand, its a Japanese company after all….’

‘What!!!!!!?????????’

Believe it or not, this actually happened once in my life time. And I re-discovered that Toyota’s marketing was truly successful creating something that doesn’t even exist into something else with additional values on it. I still have no idea what he talked about with the dealer.

Lesson:
Car is a high level of involvement product. Therefore, know what you are going to buy first. Also, simply having a nice car doesn’t guarantee you to get a hot girlfriend for free.

If you are a car person and loves racing, you definitely heard the name Type R. Honda develops the current models such as the Civic, Integra, NSX into racing inspired limited sports models with the name tag, Type R. Although the cars are still far from true racing cars we see on the track, these are great enough to give the drivers the impression of racing feel. Those Type R vehicles have not been exported overseas (the EP3 Civic Type R was imported to the Europe), yet the original Type R model available only in North America is the DC2 Integra Type R.

Since the DC2 was replaced with the newer version DC5 Integra in 2002, commonly known as the RSX, there were no more Type R models after. Although the new RSX came out with the Type S, the enthusiasts argued that this was not good enough to succeed the reputation the previous Type R had built in this market.

I found it…

I was lucky enough to find a very rare, clean and great condition DC2R at the local Acura dealer in 2006. The car was 100% stock with only 55,000 km on it. Although the car was bit more expensive than average used Type Rs, it caught my mind looking through its condition and its scarcity. In Canada, the Integra Type R came in Championship White, and the Phoenix Yellow was available additionally during year 2000 only. Hence, if you see a legit yellow Type R in Canada, that must be 100% manufactured in 2000 and imported from Japan.

I wouldn’t spend much time talking about the car and vehicle characteristics. The car has been on the market for a long period of time and there are tons of articles related to this Honda. Simply speaking, it is nimble, quick, light, well-balanced and most importantly, driving this is such a great fun. I know there are many other substitutes in these days, but none of them are this much focused on a specific role. This car completely focuses on driving fast only.

Not even the RSX Type S comes with the LSD. You would understand with what purpose in mind the car was built if you take a close look. Anyways, I didn’t much complain about anything about the car at all, yet I decided to improve overall driving feel with bolt-on parts.

I didn’t intend to make the car much more powerful or faster. If that was what I wanted, I would have bought something else. My personal preference was not the power but I wanted the car to be more agile and sharper.

Modifications

This ceramic header didn’t really pay off the price. I didn’t know if I really liked it. As a matter of fact, it was super lighter than the stock, looked much nicer under the hood, gained little bit more torque I could feel from the mid to high rev and more growling sound when the engine was at idle.

Believe it or not, I did give me downforce. The car became much more stable at high speed, especially when turning wide corners. Considering this car was front wheel drive and therefore, the front is bit heavier than the rear. The wing held the rear end much tighter and pushed the car down to the surface. Hence, I was able to step on the gas deeper and longer. Angle adjustability allowed me to have different settings depending on my needs.

Some of my friends told me my car felt like an arcade game machine. The stock steering wheel was too big. I still don’t understand why Honda put such a huge steering wheel. For a stock sports car, I would say the S2000 steering is an ideal size. I usually lowered the steering wheel for my driving position but the big size wheel continuously bothered my knees, making me uncomfortable. After I replaced my steering with a very small one, the problem was solved. Although the steering feel got much heavier, this gave me better ability to accurately angle the front wheels when turning corners.

Come to think of it…

I didn’t truly enjoyed this ride. I did drive this everyday and I had great fun by modifying this on many weekends. However, I regret that if only I was able to go to the track more often and if only I was able to further transform this into a true race machine. Come to think of it now, I guess I only tasted a bit of it and maybe this is why I am still obsessed with this car. Although I had to sell it for my personal matter in life, this car would have been in a completely different shape if I still had it. It’s been already a year since I got rid of it, but it still hurts my feeling when I see the Integra Type Rs on the road. It was truly a great car Honda has ever built and wish they would export another North American Version Type Rs in near future.

Behind Story

When I came to Canada with my family, I was only 17. We were looking for a car. Yes, our first car which was going to be a great new member to my family.

2002 Toyota Camry LE

In 2002 November, my mom purchased a Toyota Camry because it had a great value for money and the reputation of its reliability sounded quite promising. Back then, I never expected this would be the car I could register my car insurance under my name.

My family was planning to go back to Korea and I was supposed to stay here in Vancouver and continue my study in university. I was excited to become a college student and have my own part time job to buy my first car.

He Said…

‘Can you handle such a fast car without hurting yourself? You got your drivers’ license only about a year ago. To make it worse, you do not have much experience to drive these kinds. Why don’t you just keep the Toyota and start to mature your driving skills?

I was quite disappointed. However, what he told me was completely true. It may not be a nice sports car, but it was still my first car with lots of good memories with. A car that I could drive out anytime I wanted. Fair enough. In fact, I must appreciate my parents to give me a car for free.

Started to Change

I really liked driving, and as time passed, things started to change in my mind.

‘Can’t I just modify it a little? There is no such a car that was meant to be modified from the scratch. Why the Civic is ok but the Camry?

People tune their rides in order to improve areas where their cars are lacking, right? So the type of a car doesn’t really matter after all. Could I just make it run better and look nicer?’

I personally had no idea how to start. Since not many actually modify the Camry, it was bit difficult to find a reference car. I had to come up with my own plan. The main theme was to improve its look along with better drive feel.

Modifications

I first tried the Tein S.Tech lowering springs. In terms of lowering the ride height, it did work. However, simply installing the springs may result in poor ride quality. The reason is simple. The shocks were designed to match the stock springs, but not the springs are way shorter now with higher tension rate. Hence the shock gets continuous stresses and may blow up sooner or later. Once the shocks are gone, the ride quality indisputably bad. Imagine you are driving a car that is relying only on springs without properly absorbing any shocks from the road. Later, I decided to go with the D2 Coilovers. It was lucky that there was a company manufacturing suspension parts for a family car. With the new suspension, I reinforced the chassis with the front strut tower bar.

For the exterior, I decided to keep the stock feeling but much better than the current face. Since my car was LE version, I installed the upper model, SE version, black housing headlights with a new HID kits and 2005 SE’s front grill. I kept myself away from extra ordinary super outstanding looking Ebay body parts, yet the only thing I put on was the lip trunk spoiler.

As I mentioned, first trial usually comes with unexpected issues. After I lowered the car and put 18 inch Enkei wheels, my brakes felt too weaker. Frankly speaking, I had to step the brake pedal way harder to gain enough stopping power. I still don’t know exactly why this happened. I guess the coilver reduced the body roll which is good, but since the weight shift to the front when braking became less as well. In other words, the shifted weight to the front was not enough, resulting worse stopping ability.

I had two options. Upgrade brakes or back to stock suspension. I ordered new rotors with better cooling system from Brembo and installed them with ceramic brake pads. Come to think of it, the brake mod was the most bang for buck upgrade. I was very much satisfied by this modification. One thing I learned was that a car that doesn’t stop well is more stressful than a car with not much power to run strong.

Looking Back..

The new intake and exhaust system were more like test trials. My conclusion is that a sedan is still a sedan. It was equipped with an automatic transmission killing the effect of these so called ‘power-up’ parts. Funny. Some say ‘now the car sounds better’. So what? Yours isn’t a race car. It may be a great sound to you. Remember, it can also be noise to others.

This car had to be comfort and quite. Bigger engine noise and louder exhaust note are not plausible for such a car. I didn’t hate the modification but I would reconsider those parts when I am working on a sedan.

Well it may sound like I was a complete ricer, but I really enjoyed my time by replacing parts to upgrade its exterior and driving capability. Although sadly it was equipped with an automatic transmission, this car did improve my driving. In addition, I tasted a little bit of car modification. My family’s first car in Canada and my first ride ever in my life.

2002 Toyota Camry (acv30l) 2.4liter Inline4

D2 Coilovers
SPW front strut tower bar
Brembo front rotors
Axxis Ultimate ceramic brake pads
Enkei EV5 18″x7.5
Toyo Proxes4 Tires
TRD Short ram intake
Tsudo Catback exhaust

0-100km/h Run