‘Luverlee Motor Jon’……..Or………Pimping that ride.

[Terry]

Being a miserable old git and having admitted that fact on this forum before, I’ve often been tempted to pen a little something about one of my pet erks – pimping that motor.
Now I am a petrol head – always have been – watch ‘Top Gear’ – read car magazines – follow F1 etc etc.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to make your ordinary mundane production motor car a little more personalised or different. I’ve done it several times in my life, but there is now a vast industry that is supported by folk who try to make the unbelievable out of the ordinary.
In my day it was a case of a couple of fluffy dice, a go faster stripe, a fog lamp or three and ‘Dave & Tracey’ stuck on the front windscreen.
Here in Thailand there must be a lot of Baht made out of pimping that motor and the problem is that this level of pimping has been getting to stupid levels recently.
Obviously a new set of mag alloy wheels or the big chrome versions will make your average pickup look a bit different. Put a famous Thai Pimping Company sticker – like SPOON or THIEN on it and your cred rises rapidly. Accompany that by a few Hi End Hi Fi stickers and you will end up with a great ‘crumpet puller’. Get my drift?
But there’s more.
Most of your F1 teams use Brembo Brakes. High performance and bloody expensive.
So – when you see a set of red plastic, dummy disc brake cylinder covers, on a Toyota Vios – you know something is wrong. But hey – the owner loves his ride.
The latest fashion is of course daytime running lights.
A lot of the new models within the last 3 years or so have the daytime L.E.D. running lights embedded within the headlights and they are designed properly. A strip of cheap LED strip stuck on your radiator grill doesn’t quite do it for me.
Then there are the twin, twin exhausts that you would expect on say a Porsche Cayenne, but on a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport? Come on now – who are we kidding?
Seen today in Cha Am…………………….

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And let’s not look at your VIP party tour buses with 70 or so assorted colour lights adorning them amidst a multitude of Michelin Men…………………………

I just LOVE what can be seen on the roads here in Thailand - it's educational to say the least

I’ll stop for now – but I’m really interested in other forum members’ views.

[Khundon1975]

Everyone knows, that when you put stripes on a sh@t car, it goes faster.

[StevePIraq]

Terry, what you are missing here is that the "real" exhaust pipe is diverted under the body into the Somtam compressor which with it's mix of 50 chillies and other assorted condiments and dead insects increases the horsepower astronomically and the only way to exhaust such output is via a 4 exhaust system.
Also Khundon forgot to mention that only red stripes make any car go faster.

[Terry]

Well bugger me Steve - I never realised.

And here's me being cynical..........

[Terry]

Well bugger me Steve - I never realised.

And here's me being cynical..........

Saw another beauty this morning in Pranburi - couldn't photo as was driving.

BUT

This time it was an Isuzu MUX.
Twin, twins again, but this time you could see that the inner right hand side pipe was connected to the engine, whilst the remaing three were dummies.
Easy to tell - the connected pipe was all sooted up - the other three - squeaky clean. Said connected pipe was also vibrating whilst the others were rigid.

Must say though - it was a more convincing job than the Mitsu.........

[kendo]

Our footie bus looks the part but it's no fanny magnet it's a heap. Nice paint job big sound system but it lacks wheel nuts only six missing.
The driver likes to set the cruse control at about 40 mph.

[Nereus]

Yes, pimping up a car is a bit strange. I do not know how true it is, but I have heard that some folks even give their car names, like "Doris" or "Katy", or even "Babe"

[Big Boy]

Our footie bus looks the part but it's no fanny magnet it's a heap. Nice paint job big sound system but it lacks wheel nuts only six missing.
The driver likes to set the cruise control at about 40 mph.

You forgot the disco lights that illuminate all 3 carriageways of the road home from Bangkok.

[Vital Spark]

The latest fad around our neck of the woods is a really stupid foam or plastic 'key', to make your car look like a cute little wind-up toy.



Imagine how many of those are going to fall off and cause an accident...

VS

[dtaai-maai]

... I have heard that some folks even give their car names, like "Doris" or "Katy", or even "Babe"

I've only ever named one car, and that was an ancient Mini we used as a 2nd car, which I found an absolute delight to drive - great fun. You might have been doing only 40 mph, but it felt like 80!
Her name was Clarissa, and she turned out to be a lot more reliable than my then wife...

[dtaai-maai]

I wanted to be reminded of Clarissa, so I googled 'old yellow mini'. This is one of the pics I got...

[PeteC]

Honda use (or used) the same rear skirt below the rear bumper for both their V6 and 2.4 engines. The V6 came with dual exhaust. That meant the 2.4 was left with the open space for the second pipe, but no pipe. I've seen hundreds of 2.4 Accords where the owner put on a false second pipe just to fill up the space. Shame on Honda for being cheap....and I don't blame the owners at all for putting in a second pipe. Pete

[Gregjam]

My 50th anniversary Vios had skirts and wing put on prior to delivery. It makes it look a lot more pleasing to the eye even if it means I have to reverse it up the ramp to the house as the front spoiler catches if I drive it in. The basic Vios looks very plain.
Have just added a new 4x4 Navarra to the stable and no need to pimp it at all. Lots of stickers telling the world exactly what it is and acronyms to fill a dctionary. Had to download the manual in English just to work out what they mean.

[Khundon1975]

Look what Gary did. I think there is room for more up top.

Multi-Exhaust1.jpg (54.49 KiB) Viewed 589 times

[Pleng]

The latest fad around our neck of the woods is a really stupid foam or plastic 'key', to make your car look like a cute little wind-up toy.

VS

I quite like those...