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Sometimes the factory makes the best parts for your project
We all froth saving up to buy a part. When that box turns up and you get to lift out the shiny new Doohickey to go on yourThingamibob, there is a big old Dopamine hit you'll struggle to get elsewhere - but it isn't the only way to build a cool car. Since way back in the day people have bought base or lower-grade models of car and fitted parts from the higher-spec, or flat-out racing versions, to make their ride better. This is known as OEM+, which stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer Plus. Fitting high-end options to entry-level cars has been a...
Big turbos win the Internet but aren't great on the road
Making more power is always the goal of modified cars, right? Well, if you think that, then it sounds like you haven't watched Marty's epic episode where he made his Levorg a better car with a smaller turbo [CLICK HERE]! The pursuit of power is intoxicating and driving an overpowered car is definitely a lot of fun... but why are you better off moderating your turbo sizing (and making a bit less power) for a car that lives most of its life driving on the street? And why do "street cars" need such special treatment? As Marty laid out in his...
The Lotus Cortina set the stage for M3s, WRX and Evos, and countless other rad cars
People tend to think of cars from the '60s as being muscle cars, English sports runabouts, or exotic supercars. But, for people who love mid-size performance cars like the Mitsubishi Evo, BMW M3, Ford Sierra RS, or Subaru WRX, the car which came before all of them is the mighty Lotus Cortina. Launched shortly after Ford's revolutionary new Cortina model hit the showrooms, legendary race car manufacturer Lotus cast a keen eye over the small Ford's bones and realised it could be a Very Good Thing to use in motorsport. Colin Chapman and his Lotus employees came up with a DOHC head...
Why stock parts are sometimes needed in project cars
If you've watched the episodes where MOOG discovers the ECU is fried (CLICK HERE) and then when Marty and VAG Commander Myles fix it in secret (CLICK HERE) through a long process of electronic shenanigans. A lot of followers asked why we didn't just rip the stock ECU out and bash a Haltech in to get the car running straight away. Well, the answer isn't that simple and getting the Up! GTI swap to run and function as a car almost involved more work on laptops than physical spanner-twirling and bolt-threading. Long-time followers of the show know we have had...
We bet you won't be able to pick every variant of the GM T-car...
In the 1970s vehicle manufacturers cottoned onto the idea of large-scale platform-sharing to minimise development and tooling costs. Companies like General Motors had a mind-boggling number of brands (GM alone had more than 15 car brands in the '70s) under their one corporate umbrella, so it really didn't make sense to the people in charge of dollars and cents to have every brand spending the time and money to develop their own cars. Enter the T-car platform. Aussies, Indonesians, Japanese and Kiwis know this model as the Gemini, sold by both Isuzu and Holden since the mid-1970s. But did you know...
