We’ve all had our Hamlet moment as we’ve queried the vagaries of standard Original Equipment specification. Because deep down we know what appears on the showroom floor is never quite what the designers or engineers intended. For every decision there’s always a bean counter, or a legislator, stifling the true promise of our chosen one.
But the path of modification is fraught with peril. Consider it a tightrope across a gaping chasm, where on one side the OE fanatics furiously polish their VIN plates; on the other the Max Power crowd hang half way out of their windows, doing burnouts. Somewhere between these points is automotive perfection – but one wrong move, one ill-advised fake carbon splitter – sends you plummeting into the ravine below, into the grisly land of the 3D number plate, smoked tail lights and tinted windows; a damnation from which there is no escape.
If plunging into these gruesome depths represents abject failure, what is our ultimate metric of success? I argue that for mods to truly improve a vehicle, that improvement has to be recognised by the market – that is to say, your car is worth more modified. Not less, as is usually the case. You’ll be delighted to know we’ll be assessing the genius (or, ahem, otherwise) of my personal quests of modification shortly but first, you lucky people, some technical analysis. What might the market see as a genuine improvement?
