Louder, stiffer, faster, lighter, lower; Is it better? Enthusiasts like to modify their cars, and the logic goes that the more stuff we can put on a car the better it’ll be. We deliberately make our cars more difficult to live with by installing less comfortable seats, stickier tires, stiffer suspensions, and louder exhausts. There’s something in our lizard brains that makes us happy about a demonstrably worse car. There’s probably a tipping point where modifications become too much. Where does that line fall for you?
In this new video from Vin Anatra on YouTube, he explores that tipping point by comparing a stock Porsche 997 GT3 RS with one that has been enthusiast modified, and a third that has been completely overhauled with real-deal race car parts. Which one is the best to own? Which one is the most fun to drive? Which one is worth the money?
These are quite expensive cars, but the point stands with lower priced enthusiast cars as well. Manufacturers spent a lot of time designing and building a car that would suit as many consumers needs as possible, then we go in there and muck it all up to make it exactly what we want instead of a lowest-common-denominator product commodity.
Just based on the expressions Vin has on his face while driving BBi Autosport’s Street Cup machine with a sequential gearbox and a built motor, it seems like this would be the easy choice. Clearly this completely impractical machine is a riot to drive, but it’s strung like a leashed bobcat and needs some finesse to drive properly. It’s also a deep-six-figure build on an already-six-figure car, so you’re going to end up spending a whole lot of money to replicate this thing.
It seems like Vin’s own car, the “bolt on” modified car with coilovers, an exhaust, an intake, and a tune is probably the goldilocks solution.
