There was a thread on here a while ago about tasteless customisation of cars (or is all customisation tasteless?).
Today I saw a prize example. It was an early Ford Fiesta whose bodywork was modified with massive wheelarch extensions like on the Metro 6R4 Rally cars. But what was missing was any sign of wide wheels - the car was riding on standard looking XR2 pepperpot wheels, inset maybe 10 inches from the wings. The car looked a bit ropey all round and appeared to have been sprayed using Halfords aerosols!
Maybe this car a set of wide wheels kept for special occasions, but It's difficult to imagine any roadwheels wide enough to fill the arches!
cheers, Sofa Spud
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I thought the same, yesterday, when I walked past a Y-reg Punto with badly flared arches, huge 19" wheels each with five narrow spokes, and - la pièce de résistance - the original poxy brake disks and drums, that now looked totally daft.
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I saw a discussion elsewhere about some guy who heard that painted brake callipers looked good. He posted photos of his effort - they showed the brake discs & pads on the grass, sprayed white, overspray all over the grass.
There then followed many posts urgently advising him not under any circumstances to re-fit a painted disc & pad.
Still don't know if it was a windup.
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Saw a brown mark IV Cortina today with various body stickers and allow wheels and it sounded like a custom exhaust. Some people just have money to burn.
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I saw a tarted up Honda or similar saloon the other day - owner had even gone to the lengths of painting the rear drums silver with black spots to look like cross-drilled disks
--
Sept 2004 - 'Britain on the Move'
curious ? see www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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I have seen a few tasteless gems around here. A hearing aid beige punto with pinky/purple body kit, now seen some sort of thing in a metallic hearing aid beige with a hint of pink and those small light conversions. This may of course be the original punto with a new tasteless outfit. I also have seen a renault clio with blacked out windows (to hide their embarassment or ugly girlfriend) that had wheels so large they were obviously snagging on the arches so the driver had to take a huuuuge amount of space to turn round in. It would have helped had he been able to see over the steering wheel.
I usually have a camera with me but I often don't quite have the courage to take photos in case the owner arrives and thinks I am admiring their efforts rather than entering them for the 'mutton dressed as lamb' modification award...
teabelly
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Always keep a disposable camera in your glovebox, handy if you see or are involved in an accident, and for taking a photo of this sort of nonsense. Just a few quid an absolutly essential. Every car should have one.
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There's a MkIII Fiesta around these parts that is painted matt black with grey 'flame' details around the rear parts (so to speak). Hilarious doesn't even come close.
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Here's a real creative example....
tinyurl.com/677xw
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In a cinema in Newcastle-Under-Lyme the other week I saw 2 laughable efforts.
The first was an old Honda Civic, with a bodykit which nearly doubled it's width. The bodykit was ugly, unsymetrical, and primer coloured. Nice.
The second was a BMW 318 which had had holes cut in the bonnet, seemingly by a blind man with a hacksaw, and some sort of weird fake intake slotted through them. Everything else on the car was standard.
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In the US, the problem of ridiculously tarted up cars - particularly Jap and other Asian cars - has reached epidemic proportions, due largely I think to the influence of the \'Fast and Furious\' films. For example:
- In a supermarket car park, a piece of pink fluffy dice bottom of the range Hyundai with a massive whale-tail Cosworth spoiler.
- Cars with stupid Japanese/Chinese writing on them
- Brand new Lexus LS400 with \'spinners\' on the wheels
- Pickup trucks with huge Stars and Stripes/American Eagle logo in the back window
- Ten year old Honda Accord completely standard but with flames painted down the side
- Numerous 1.4 Corollas and Civics with vast booming 9\" diameter exhaust pipes
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Yeah the guys that do this stuff go way overboard. It is affectionately known as "ricing out" a car since this trend started with Japanese cars which are sometimes referred to as "rice burners". Perfect example parks in my apartment complex. Base model dodge neon in fading red (due to the AZ sun). Anyway, this guy has mounted a MASSIVE wing on the back, it resembles some kind of snow plow (plough?). The exhaust pipe is as wide as a sewer line and it sounds terrible.
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Tarting up an old Punto is one thing, the ones that puzzle me are mods to good cars.
In Puerto Rico, I saw a new BMW M3 with spinners on the wheels. I could have wept!
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