Stance b/s

Wait, it's ok to care about aesthetics now. Whew! That's great especially when you consider "we've" been doing that for thousands of years!

Despite my theory of live and let live and to each his own, i would like to tell the Rat-Rod guys and most of the kids I see at the mall that YOU DO INDEED CARE ABOUT AESTHETICS. You can lie to yourselves if you wish but you put a ton of thought and preparation into looking E36-M3y

ditchdigger wrote: Who the hell doesn't choose wheels based on how they look on the car? Who makes an investment in wheels without saying "These will look nice on there" If you make your decisions based strictly on measurements without considering the visual appeal you are no different than the person who chooses their blandmobile based solely on what consumer reports says. Seriously? If he had tossed in the word "driver" in there you would be just fine?

What's this "just fine"? I'm simply making an observation, any good or bad is up to the reader.

I do find the idea of wheels as "investment" kinda funny, though, but then my opinion of them is skewed by the idea that you need to have a minimum of four sets of wheels - street tires, snow tires, rally tires, and backup rally tires. Probably several sets of those, actually, since mounting/dismounting rally tires is truly a sucky job so it's best to just mount them and then sell them as mounted tires/wheels when you're done with 'em.

Knurled wrote: I do find the idea of wheels as "investment" kinda funny, though,

semi-non-sequitur.....

A few years back I bought a set of ratty, dirty white Enkei Tarmac wheels (a JDM competition wheel) that a local had been autocrossing on for 4 or 5 years and apparently never cleaned. He bought them in a group deal years before and they are "JDM only" models. They were stained with brake dust, tire sealant, and other nasty stuff. I paid $400 for them with some used AD08's on them.

Spent a few weeks scrubbing and using all solvents known to man and got them almost new-looking. Ran a full autocross season on them and the tires.

Sold the setup to a buddy the next year for $500.

He did 2 trackdays on them. Sold them to someone on the forums for $700.

So....wheels "can" be an investment if they're rare/unique/JDM.

And they'd look hella-sweet stanced yo.

Yah, I did that too, practically gave away a set of 15x7 K1s because I didn't need 110mm bolt pattern wheels anymore, and the guy who bought them needed something that would fit fat enough tires for his V8 converted FB... but given that I paid about as much for the car they came on as I got for those wheels, I still came out ahead

But the idea of a consumable as an "investment" makes me think of some guy poring over charts and stats and thinking, if I use this wax and that buffing wheel, I'll be able to keep these wheels in AA-Fine condition and the value of these wheels in AA-Fine has gone up 60% in the past three years... but on the other hand, this other wheel, while not as strong a performer, has less depreciation if there's any curb rash, so it's a safer investment on these uncertain roads we drive on. Hm.... better call around to get expert opinions.

Knurled wrote: But the idea of a consumable as an "investment" makes me think of some guy poring over charts and stats and thinking, if I use this wax and that buffing wheel, I'll be able to keep these wheels in AA-Fine condition and the value of these wheels in AA-Fine has gone up 60% in the past three years... but on the other hand, this other wheel, while not as strong a performer, has less depreciation if there's any curb rash, so it's a safer investment on these uncertain roads we drive on. Hm.... better call around to get expert opinions.

I totally just read that in Urkels voice

ebonyandivory wrote: Despite my theory of live and let live and to each his own, i would like to tell the Rat-Rod guys and most of the kids I see at the mall that YOU DO INDEED CARE ABOUT AESTHETICS. You can lie to yourselves if you wish but you put a ton of thought and preparation into looking E36-M3y

And that, in a nutshell, is why I think that "No Berkeleys Given" RX-7 is hilarious. Everything on that damned thing was carefully, deliberately crafted for an aesthetic purpose.

OTOH, I don't think any serious rat-rodders will deny that they do what they do for aesthetics. Hell, the whole idea is that it's an aesthetic. It's the antithesis of the "if it don't go, chrome it" crowd. (The modern-day parallels are the "if it don't go, carbon-fiber it" vs. "flat black/deliberate rust", on several levels, which are kind of a fascinating study in the reasons why certain things become an aesthetic, and how the more things change, the more they stay the same...)

irish44j wrote:

turboswede wrote:

This is the kind of E36 M3 that makes "stance culture" look stupid though. I'm quite certain that having the steering wheel quick-disconnected on the highway is both moronic and unsafe. I would, however, LMFAO if the dude accidentally dropped the steering wheel right after this pic was taken

lol the "stance culture" is stupid. It's the adult form of the trailer park kids who used to own hondas and had fart can exhausts. That pic IS stance.

Usually you only see FWD honda idiots doing this and usually it's in some E36 M3ty neighborhood. If I saw some miata doing this i'd throw an open can of beans in his car.

Knurled wrote: I do find the idea of wheels as "investment" kinda funny, though, but then my opinion of them is skewed by the idea that you need to have a minimum of four sets of wheels - street tires, snow tires, rally tires, and backup rally tires.

No one said "investment" as in "a means of making money." Sinking money in to them is an investment of money, whether you MAKE money off of them or NOT. besides "invest" meaning look for profit, it also means "to devote (effort, resources, etc., to a project)" AND "to purchase; buy"

When building my Mustang up, I invested money into the wheels to make the car look better to me. I went from this:

to this

i "invested" money into the project to get a benefit out of it: aesthetics.

And I only had to have the two sets: stock and custom. Technically I didn't "need" the stockers anymore, but I kept them around to revert back to stock when I traded the car in.

Those were some damn cool stockers and seemed to proportion well with the rest of the car.

I felt them to be ugly and made the car look wimpy and disproportioned. Had they been the optional 18" 5 spokers, I probably would not have changed them:

But I really liked the look of the BOSS 338s I did choose, as they were fairly unique on the car (I've seen almost no other Mustang with them...).

Just saw this on another forum and LOL'd

I don't do stretch, and I don't do crazy camber.
I'll leave that for the cool kids

I will add that I do not like trends. I don't understand them actually. Why people try so hard to be just like everyone else escapes me.

I remember when I built my first Samurai. There were NO others I saw for at least two years. And even then I only saw one or two and they were more or less stock and never saw one on the trails.

Same with my first XJ Cherokee. Now there's a dozen in my area with a lift and mud tires. Which is why I probable wont do another.

I hope I don't offend anyone but as the tattoo craze wore on and every guy my age got one, I seem to be the only 30-40 year old without one. It used to be a tattoo set you apart from the crowd. Now it appears they make you one of the crowd.

/diatribe

ebonyandivory wrote: I will add that I do not like trends. I don't understand them actually. Why people try so hard to be just like everyone else escapes me. /diatribe

I'd say it's imposable to avoid trends. People follow trends they find appealing, and we all find something appealing in life. What stations do you have pre-programed on your radio? What is your general dress style? How do you decorate your house. I'd say everyone has a general style/ethos/ethic/trend in their likes and dislikes. It's just as will all things in life, people take these trends to extremes.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Just saw this on another forum and LOL'd I don't do stretch, and I don't do crazy camber. I'll leave that for the cool kids

I saw somebody here describe GRMers as 'automotive hipsters' because we tend to like old, obscure cheap cars. I can safely say, though, that I don't think using your neighbor's lawn trash to beat your other neighbor's broken water heater into submission is going to be a trend any time soon.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

ebonyandivory wrote: I will add that I do not like trends. I don't understand them actually. Why people try so hard to be just like everyone else escapes me. /diatribe

I'd say it's imposable to avoid trends. People follow trends they find appealing, and we all find something appealing in life. What stations do you have pre-programed on your radio? What is your general dress style? How do you decorate your house. I'd say everyone has a general style/ethos/ethic/trend in their likes and dislikes. It's just as will all things in life, people take these trends to extremes.

Radio preset? AM talk

General dress? Shorts and shirts with a powerlifting motif mostly. Even at work.

Home decor? Coffee tones throughout.

Not much trendy about me. Boring maybe, but not trendy!

ebonyandivory wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

ebonyandivory wrote: I will add that I do not like trends. I don't understand them actually. Why people try so hard to be just like everyone else escapes me. /diatribe

I'd say it's imposable to avoid trends. People follow trends they find appealing, and we all find something appealing in life. What stations do you have pre-programed on your radio? What is your general dress style? How do you decorate your house. I'd say everyone has a general style/ethos/ethic/trend in their likes and dislikes. It's just as will all things in life, people take these trends to extremes.

Radio preset? AM talk General dress? Shorts and shirts with a powerlifting motif mostly. Even at work. Home decor? Coffee tones throughout. Not much trendy about me. Boring maybe, but not trendy!

You just made my point, you still have a theme

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

What theme is that? The one where I do things that I like with no input from others? Yup!

I'm pretty damned trendy in my powerlifting shirt, listening to AM radio in my beige living room!

ebonyandivory wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: What, that I do things that I like with no input from others? Yup!

How do you think you learned to like them? Observing others.

You don't waer 1800s clothing because you like more modern clothing. It's modern because other people have made it so. Simply by buying things you like that other people have made makes you following/liking/buying into some trend or fashion.

Actually I don't wear 1800's clothing because its hard to find at Walmart, too expensive and I wasn't born until 1970.

And humans do have inate appreciation of colors and shapes. Study anthropology etc and you'll see.

ebonyandivory wrote: Actually I don't wear 1800's clothing because its hard to find at Walmart, too expensive and I wasn't born until 1970.

Event T-shirts and work uniform pants, on the other hand, are easy to come by...

And humans do have inate appreciation of colors and shapes. Study anthropology etc and you'll see.

Yep. We're not much different than birds in that respect.

What theme is that? The one where I do things that I like with no input from others? Yup!

Pfff. Bro, do you even trend?

My take.

Trendy: Buying or doing things because of what other people think about them.

Not trendy: Buying or doing things without considering what other people think.

In most situations I would consider myself to not be trendy. Others, not so much.

I think a lot of things about a lot of things and when people agree with me they tend to be right. I'm not ashamed to associated with those people.

I'm sad. I just found a set of Work Eurolines, 17x9 +1 offset.

I figured they'd look fly as berkeley on the MX6 slammed on its nuts over them.

But then 4x100. Boo.

ebonyandivory wrote: I will add that I do not like trends. I don't understand them actually. Why people try so hard to be just like everyone else escapes me. I remember when I built my first Samurai. There were NO others I saw for at least two years. And even then I only saw one or two and they were more or less stock and never saw one on the trails. Same with my first XJ Cherokee. Now there's a dozen in my area with a lift and mud tires. Which is why I probable wont do another. I hope I don't offend anyone but as the tattoo craze wore on and every guy my age got one, I seem to be the only 30-40 year old without one. It used to be a tattoo set you apart from the crowd. Now it appears they make you one of the crowd. /diatribe

So you were the first guy to throw a lift kit on your jeep?