Wide Body Kit
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Joined: Feb 2003
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From: McGregor
no he has a point...you add weight with the kit then vent it for functionality, but you already need to do something to compensate for the extra weight you've added, plus aerodynamicaly the car is totally different and you won't know if it's in a good or bad way unless you use a wind tunnel for testing. These kits are purely cosmetic in most applications. So no matter how much functionality you add to the kit you are still going to adversely affect performance just based on extra weight (unless you add more power).
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Joined: May 2004
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From: Kalamazoo
alright... well... wonderful. I was trying to keep this out of widebody bashing, but cool, im glad you put your two cents in. However, there is a lot i think you are missing here. Yes, it's probably firstly cosmetic, but there isnt any reason why a wide body kit cannot be functional AND cosmetic.
Weight, is not an issue. By replacing the *metal* body panels with lighter materials; ie. carbon, kevlar, polyurithane(sp?), most likely, you'd be losing weight, not gaining. Keeping in mind that a wide body kit usually (or atleast should) replaces both front and back facias, both fenders, and rear quarter panels, the only thing it ads, besides width, are the side skirts. AND YES there are those kits that are all tape smoke and mirrors, and twelve hundered pieces, but thats not what im going for. direct replacement. Ill give it to you that, give or take, there could be ten pound either way, but you can lose that in replacing the exhaust.
In terms of wheels, bigger, wider tires and rims are GOOD providing you know what your doing. You want a good balance of weight vs. grip. Obviously 20 in chromes are not what you want in terms of performance. But 17-19 are not nessicarily a bad idea, you be surprised how light they can be, when you take a look at alloys. Try diving into the old wheels of Enkei, Konig and Motegi, each of them had racing wheels, 17s no less, that weighed between 8-10lbs. Granted they werent the prettiest but...hell they work right?
And power is not the issue... if you're not going fast enough, there is almost unlimited possabilities to go faster.
SO PLEASE, done right, whether its wide, or slim, IF ITS DONE RIGHT, each is just as functional. Practical in terms of money, maybe not, but its all in what the owner wants. So please, dont argue just because its not your style. I was asking for constructive criticism of my plans, not mockery. And, if there isnt a person out there that agrees with me, then i'll happily take my opinions elsewhere.
and if you like indy and f1, thats cool, but you should try looking to Time (or Lap) Attack, and D1. An S is not an indy car (yeah, i know duh), but honestly, try looking to competitions from japan. I think you might be surprised at what kind of products they use.
Weight, is not an issue. By replacing the *metal* body panels with lighter materials; ie. carbon, kevlar, polyurithane(sp?), most likely, you'd be losing weight, not gaining. Keeping in mind that a wide body kit usually (or atleast should) replaces both front and back facias, both fenders, and rear quarter panels, the only thing it ads, besides width, are the side skirts. AND YES there are those kits that are all tape smoke and mirrors, and twelve hundered pieces, but thats not what im going for. direct replacement. Ill give it to you that, give or take, there could be ten pound either way, but you can lose that in replacing the exhaust.
In terms of wheels, bigger, wider tires and rims are GOOD providing you know what your doing. You want a good balance of weight vs. grip. Obviously 20 in chromes are not what you want in terms of performance. But 17-19 are not nessicarily a bad idea, you be surprised how light they can be, when you take a look at alloys. Try diving into the old wheels of Enkei, Konig and Motegi, each of them had racing wheels, 17s no less, that weighed between 8-10lbs. Granted they werent the prettiest but...hell they work right?
And power is not the issue... if you're not going fast enough, there is almost unlimited possabilities to go faster.
SO PLEASE, done right, whether its wide, or slim, IF ITS DONE RIGHT, each is just as functional. Practical in terms of money, maybe not, but its all in what the owner wants. So please, dont argue just because its not your style. I was asking for constructive criticism of my plans, not mockery. And, if there isnt a person out there that agrees with me, then i'll happily take my opinions elsewhere.
and if you like indy and f1, thats cool, but you should try looking to Time (or Lap) Attack, and D1. An S is not an indy car (yeah, i know duh), but honestly, try looking to competitions from japan. I think you might be surprised at what kind of products they use.
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 523
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From: McGregor
I agree if it's done right (about 20 grand right) you can increase the funtionality of the car, but for that price (30K for S2000 and 20K for all of the extra body work/panels) I could buy a Z06 and have all of the fast car functionality I want. It just doesn't make sense to spend that much on a car when it starts to creep into the price territory of cars like the Z06. But if people want to do it that's cool...different strokes for different folks.
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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 23,233
Likes: 5
From: Huntington Beach, CA
The Mastergrade kit is by far the best widebody kit out there. I looks even better in person. If your intrestead, just give Will a call over at Mastergrade, they're a bunch of great people