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My tastes in cars have changed a lot from my early days of driving. There was a time when all I wanted to do was get a Honda Civic and fit it with the tallest wheels, biggest exhaust pipe, and wildest body kit money could buy. Now I’m a lot more aesthetically conservative. But if you had an unlimited budget, what would you do to your car?
The realistic answer for many of you (myself included) might be “sell it and buy something else,” but for the sake of conversation let’s skip that option and limit ourselves to modifications we’d do to cars we currently own.
I feel lucky to be able to say that I’m pretty happy with the setup on all five cars in my fleet right now. I would not put a turbo in my Civic or solid-axle swap my Montero even if I had the coin. What comes to mind first, for me, are mild improvements to my wife’s BMW E46 coupe. I’d love to put fresh factory ZSP sport-pack shocks on it, and as an indulgence, have the headliner and pillars re-done in a super nice light-grey suede.
But shoot, having re-read that last paragraph, I’m now thinking, “gosh, am I really that boring?”
How about this: Pull the 3.5-liter V6 out of my Montero, drop in a 4G63 from an Evo, pair it with some kind of paddle-shift transmission, long-travel suspension, super-wide stance, four racing seats inside … now we’re getting somewhere. I could evolve it into some kind of extreme JDM-style Baja prerunner/rally car mashup that would blow the doors off those Pajero Evos everybody’s finally started catching onto.
Hah, you know what, even with an unlimited amount of money, I think I’d rather just keep it pretty much stock and keep it running forever. But I bet some of you have wilder ideas. Let’s hear them!
