[mclaren1885]

It always begins with a stock car run a few thousand kms doesn't it ?? Its different this time .. Its a brand new car , the intent was simple .. Pull the head out the day 1st service is over ..

And then you meet a few mad men and their leader by name psycho whose only intent in life isto psyche people out .. Atleast he psyched me out into doing things I was thinking for ages now .. Managed a pic of the culprits at my first TBHP meet :



It all began the day I took delivery of my car with only one intent .. Take it to the tracks .. As most of us are aware completed the run-in and the 1st service in two days .. Head straight to the track on the third .. What a way to run-in your car .. Then it was the time to mod , against the wishes of plenty of people who thought I was crazy ..Crazy enough to rip the engine off within the first week of purchase .. No I dont hate my car , I love her too much and hence all this ..

First set of mods were stage-II porting and polishing , drag spec headers , K&N filter , stock exhaust to give it that rally note and an enlarged throttle body .. One of the crazy men by name c3po got to drive the car for the first time after the mods .. I drove it back from SR and the car completely lightened was indeed fast .. There was a lot of change in the way the car behaved .. The way it revved .. It felt good , it felt even better with every passing minute .. Redline was the only aim and getting as fast as you could to it was the only goal .. It took me a couple of days to adjust to the increase in perfomance .. How to be wise to use the throttle .. Get to know to handle the car .. Be adventurous and run them on STOCK SKINNY TYRES .. You must be thinking I am nuts isn't it ?? Yes I am ..


Then came 2nd track day and we had to do something about the tyres .. Switched to 2nd hand 14'' rims and borrowed tyres from memo .. And this is where the saga began with the tyres .. Here is where the collection begins , a collection that has got me a million abuses from people back at home and my crazy friends here on TBHP .. Being adventurous that I am , in the next year and a half went onto buy or borrow :
1. 5 15'' corrolla rims ..
2. 5 14'' swift rims ..
3. 5 13'' baleno alloys ..
4. 5 13'' steel rims that are still on the car ..
5. 5 Bridgestone s248's that came with the car ..
6. 4 eagle F1's that we later used to learn to drift (or slide as wolf says) as they had become slicks ..
7. 5 Ice tyres inflated to 40psi ..
8. 5 15'' eagle F1's ..
9. 5 bridgestone re88's ..
10. 4 15'' Advan Neova's running on the car currently ..

The total is 20 rims and 28 tires all stacked up in the garage , my bedroom at times and currently in one of the spare toilets now .. Its like a museum .. And no , I am not proud of it .. Here is a sneak peak :





Went onto be even more adventurous or stupid as others call .. Decided to run a combination of tyres , to get the handling right .. To get to know to handle the car whatever be the situation .. This lead to some weird combinations .. Something that I am very famous for ..
1. 13'' in the front and 14'' at the rear ..
2. 14'' in the front and 13'' at the rear ..
3. 13'' in the front and 15'' at the rear ..
4. 14'' in the front and 15'' at the rear ..
5. 14'' all around for a very brief period until the slicks started to spin into 4th gear and slide about any turn ..
6. 15'' all around is what I have settle for now ..

Each combination was a different experience .. Handling wise , it taught me a lot .. Really .. Thanks to farhan , sawan and gang ..

[mclaren1885]

And then it was time to move on .. It was time to meet sameerji (yes the very same tattoeed hairy tree we all know) .. It was time to get him psyched now , it worked I guess .. Now he drives a CRDI .. Had his eyes popping when I told him or rather showed him the pistons I had got for 17k .. These nuts (the mad scientist and yeti) decide to use my pistons as ash trays , and they call me mad .. Then came forged conrods , forged crank .. A buildup to my dream project .. A TCed baleno putting out 220+ bhp .. Will get there someday .. The high compression pistons , forged crank and conrods all went into the engine .. Double head gaskets meant a CR of atleast 11.7 , it hit over 12 somehow .. Meant using 97Oct fuel + Octane boosters at all times .. Its expensive , its not the same anymore .. Its no longer a daily driver , its only for short sprints , for night outs .. Cant take it out of station , it will knock if fuel is not right .. The build in itself was so scary that I was forced into getting my suspension done .. Infact mad scientist refused to do my build unless I had agreed for the suspension work ..

But this was the best time I ever had with the car .. It was fast , it was SCARY .. So fast that we had to run-in at less than 80kms/hr all the way from bangalore to pune .. And then all hell broke loose .. Opened the throttle , got shoved back into the seat .. Seat of pants ?? You must be nuts .. It was unbelivable seeing the RPM needle climb .. It was music to hear her revv .. Its different and the smile on my face was worth a million bucks .. Car easily crossed 210 mark and maxxed out the speedo , we blew past a C class who was doing 200 himself and left him dead .. Within a km we lost him .. Torque , that thing is amazing .. It really is .. Its feels like a diesel now .. There is torque everywhere .. 5th gear feels like 3rd , the car needs another gear ATLEAST and I am not talking about reverse here .. Shifted atleast a million times from 5th to neutral and slotted it back to 5th just to make sure I wasn't in 3rd .. No I wasn't hallucinating .. It was true .. Thought we had arrived at SR Bombay 07 with style .. We did I guess .. We had a sliding silver swift welcome us .. Now that's an entry .. It was nice to see a familiar face and nice to put a face to someone I had been chatting for a while ..


Then it was show time .. Practise run , we decided to cool it and not risk pushing the engine to the max .. Strict instructions to shift at 6000 and not the 6750 it was designed for , car wheelspins off the line (almost into the crowd I am told) and shoots past .. And then I loose sight of it .. It timed a 16.287 .. It was good , it was fast .. It was 2nd fastest for the day .. Had we done it ?? We knew from day 1 we couldn't take on mihir .. Looked like it .. Few of our bombay counterparts were impressed with the car .. And then everything went wrong .. Filled up 97 Oct fuel at one of the renowned bunks I am told .. The saga of blunders began .. Poor quality fuel meant the engine would be strained .. Its sad , you pay 60 bucks to a litre and you get adulterated fuel .. Car became slow , started puffing .. Changed the spark plugs to colder range to stop the knocking that emerged .. And then the inevitable happened ..

Car was slow on the official run , it clocked a 16.450 .. I am told it was the 4th fastest ET though the car shut off engine automatically 20mtrs from the finish line , threw up all the lights on the dash and came back on on its own .. I was shattered , I knew something had gone wrong .. Disappointed , took the car back to the garage where we worked on our cars , parked it there and left for the meet .. Car was slow , it had run the final run like this .. Finally Jitu (ford rocam) decides to take it for a spin and see whats wrong .. He takes a long time to come back .. We have hooked his Gtech .. He comes back limping , something is wrong .. Atleast looks like it .. Gtech only shows 87bhp .. Engine seems overheated .. We let it cool down , by now all our fears are confirmed .. Headgaskets are blown .. Hopefully its only that .. Atleast we pray .. Take out the plugs and crank the car .. Coolant woozes out of the 4th cylinder (or was it the 3rd ??) .. Meaning the car had run the drag on just 3 cylinders .. It showed 87 horses on 3 cylinders .. We had to tow her back to the truck yard .. She had to be trucked and I had to desert her .. I was in tears .. Literally ..


I had a flight to catch , memo stayed back to get the car trucked .. It took them another 5 days to find an empty truck , while memo had to leave to bangy 3 days since I had left .. With no updates on where the car was or how she was I was scared , but then finally got a call saying she had reached .. I could finally go and see her , talk to her .. What a relief ..

Towed her to the garage and work began .. Headgaskets were replaced .. But a few things were overlooked I am guessing .. Car didn’t quite feel the same as it was in Bombay .. Finally on the Nandi Hills drive seeing the puffing and coughing of white smoke decided to get her back to running condition .. Figured , that there was a slight coolant leak from the headgaskets , a bent valve and a crack on the piston rings blah blah .. Dropped the CR and put in a cam .. She is back , back to business .. The smile on my face was unparalleled .. Since then she has kept me happy and I have treated her similarly ..

[v1p3r]

The only reason I'm still friends with this guy.

[mclaren1885]

From personal experience , it takes a lot to mod a car .. And to go to the extremes .. It takes a lot of guts , a lot of money , a lot of research , a lot of discussion with your tuner , a lot of sleepless nights , a lot of hours at the garage , a lot of driving to give necessary feedback for further tuning , a lot of abuses from the family asto why the car is at the garage for a long time , and even longer nights at ashoka making your tuner pay your late night coffee bills .. As I said it needs a a LOT

You are bound to have problems , bound to have reliability issues .. I had to replace headgaskets twice , replace the cam position sensor and the throttle position sensor once .. And that’s about it .. But don’t loose heart .. Its all a part of the game ..


And then , you have friends .. Friends who taught you to live , to enjoy , to drive .. With the amount of money you have spent , with the amount of mods gone in your responsibility goes up .. You can no longer just throw the keys at anyone and ask them to drive .. You tend to get choosy .. A few friends think you are being rude and arrogant .. Specially those who have just learnt driving and think its not some bugatti veyron’s keys that they are demanding .. After all its just a Baleno .. You cant make them understand neither can you let them drive your car .. A war begins , a war of egos .. But at the end of it , both parties are hurt .. This is something that annoys me a lot .. I can never say no to someone who asks for my keys and now I have to .. Its HARD , really hard .. But you learn with time ..

And then there is disappointment , when drag events are cancelled .. When you have to travel 1000kms to open the throttle without having the fear of killing someone and yourself .. When there are no track days , or you don’t have money to go out on that long drive to relax .. It’s a risk you are willing to take .. It’s a part of life you are willing to live with ..

But at the end of it all , all the pain , all the troubles taken it pays off .. The satisfaction , the smile everytime you floor the throttle .. Everytime you get shoved back into the seat .. Everytime you see the RPM needle climb .. Everytime the wheels spin into second .. And then when the adrenaline levels drop , put it into 5th and coast down at 2000 rpm .. Shift at 1750 .. Set yourself a goal , a goal of achieving exemplarary FE figures .. Atleast that’s what I do ..


This modding scene is addictive .. Specially for someone who gets used to power really soon and tends to get bored even sooner .. The quest to upgrade leaves you with a lot of empty dreams and empty pockets .. And a lot of abuses from your tuner for constantly eating his head .. Then tired he goes to sleep like this :





And when he wakes up , he asks you not to hand over the keys to your car to anyone or belt the car .. Gives you loads and loads of gyan on how to maintain the car blah blah .. And then while he is at his tuning best does this and seems pretty proud of it too :



You make new friends , you learn a lot , then you make a few enemies .. You make a profit , then at times a loss .. And at times you make credit and at times you help your friends my lending money too .. Its just not modding your car alone , it comes with additional goodies .. Its a complete package ..

[BunnyPunia]

*bows with deep respect*

How can some people be so nuts? Damm.. you are one hell of a car lover brother. Deep respect!
The Baleno must have felt as if it was running on NOS.. blowing past a merc doing 200.. Man!

edit : just read ur post no 4. True true.. im not in modding,, but the things you have mentioned here make a lot of sense and i can feel what you are trying to say.
The love you have for cars and mods, i have a similar love for long distance biking and the himalayas.. although this passion almost turned my life upside down when i got a dieseas which almost meant my biking days were over.

Your posts have been a great read

[khaadu75]

Dude, Give up dragging cars and going to college .... take a laptop , go sit on some mountain top that has Reliance data card connection and start writing a book --- Im sure that book will be a BEST SELLER !!! You can write man .....

As for the pics of the tyres in the loo ... finally I get to see it on a bigger screen than that of a mobile phone -- guys in Delhi still can't iover the mad kid who buys tyres and then wonders what to do with them -- and then stacks them up in his loo or hangs them instead of curtains in his room on the curtain rod . Im telling you .... you are knows as the ' rubber kid ' by the Delhi guys who met you .

And thanx for handing me your car keys whenever I've put out my hand ... though I wonder of you will do the same when you have her TC'd ??

Cheers

PS -- Love the way you write man ....

[Jaggu]

what do i say to you guys, nuts absolute nuts...

love ya all...

cheers:

[hydrashok]

Hats off to your spirit, man!

It made a great read. I'm amazed by how focused you are, at your age. It really doesn't matter what it is that you have in your sights. You know what you want, where you need to go to get it, and what you will have to go through on your quest. And you still go and go and go.

And I really know (though you haven't mentioned it) the sacrifices you must be making to raise the green for all this.

I've always thought you were a bit nuts but now I definitely know it is a good sort of nuts. Pedal to the metal, buddy!

PS: I think this thread will make a great sticky.

[Vid6639]

See Godfather was right you have lost your nuts. hehehe.

Really nice write up dude. Cant wait for the next write up on the next stage in the car.

Man tyres in the loo. I got shouted at from mom to keep the spare in my room for a day. Dunno how you manage.

Good job dude.


Seeing that pic of the tbhp meet it looks like you were eyeing psycho since that day. lol!!

[theMAG]

Well written man. In fact, I'll go on record to say there's nothing like this ever written before. Btw, Psycho is still alive, right?


EDIT: I've voted 5 stars for this thread/writeup.

[aZa]

Awesome write up mcleran, it was a great read!!

total RESPECT dude

[furioussphinx]

Met you just once and man! You are one serious car lover and your Baleno is lucky to have you! Love your write-up! And tires in the loo...speaks the entire story! Kudos to you!

[planet_rocker]

a big bow to you man! very nice write-up - loved it. yeah you are right about what one goes through while modding his own ride.

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Btw, Psycho is still alive, right?

It sure looks like a long obituary, hoped that he had a good life and a peaceful demise. RIP!

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

This modding scene is addictive .. Specially for someone who gets used to power really soon and tends to get bored even sooner .. The quest to upgrade leaves you with a lot of empty dreams and empty pockets

Note: It seems to have left me with empty pockets myself paying for dinners / coffee's etc.

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

Its a complete package ..

Ever heard of a small gift in a large package

[Godfather]

Awesome Stumpy.. your car does mean a lot to you.. Now i know why you shifted your drink to Whiskey...
PS: can i scratch it..

Godfather