LED LIGHTS AND STROBES
For quite some time there appears to be an obsession with LED lights and strobes amongst VW owners and probably many other car owners as well. Looking back in time, I quite clearly remember some young dudes with older cars — Datsun 120Y / Datsun 120U range — connecting purple 12V powered CF tubes under their cars, giving it an eeiry purple glow at night. It actually looked cool but somehow the outer appearance or rather the general condition of their cars seemed old and neglected. The purple undercarriage lights were soon followed up by other young dudes sticking blue "Xmas-like" snake lights around the outer edge of their number plates., both front and back. These light display was usually also accompanied by loud music.
On closer inspection these older cars were also decked out with really powerful MosFet amplifiers, speakers, tweeters woofers and sub woofers and music systems with USB and Micro SD inputs. In some cases the audio gear filled the entire boot space and the interior was colour coded to match the car's exterior paint job. I even saw a few cars with sun visor and front headrests with embedded LCD screens and DVD players mounted where the glove once was. At first glance it appears that some of these dudes were over investing in their 70's & 80's vehicles. In most cases the on-board electronics seemed to be worth more than the actual vehicle.
I was curious enough to inquire as to their foolish behaviour and I was met with roars of laughter of at least a dozen such car owners. The joke was on me. These young dudes were the street racers, or rather horsepower hustlers. They were severely influenced by the whole "9 sec car" craze, and by the American muscle V8 cars, big block engines image, specifically like the Mustang Shelby, the Pontiac GTO, the Chevrolet Camaro, the Holden Minaro, the Plymouth Barracuda , the Pontiac Trans-Am, and the Dodge Charger, etc.
Anyway, their cars needed to look like the underdog in order to fool the more yuppi car owners with their flashy BMW's, Volkswagens, Hondas, Mazdas, Audis, Fords, etc. Their intent is to race for pink tickets or rather the keys to your car, should you loose. The whole idea was to teach their peers who walk about with a "sense of entitlement", a lesson they will never forget. This sceneria smacked of "Need for speed" , "Fast and the Furious", "Street Racer" and "Tokyo Drift", etc. According to several of these young racers, their car's supped-up engines alone cost more than the cars they intend to win.
This whole concept was like really old. It is what we did in the late 70's for fun. I remember that my brother's friend, now deceased, who was a mechanic by trade spent years building his "ultimate car" into the shell of a Datsun 240Z. One night I was witness to the fact that he won the keys to a Ford sierra, a BMW 3 series, and a BMW 5 series. He never ever allowed anyone to peek beneath his Datsun's bonnet and he became known as "Dicky Datsun". Those old Datsuns never had disk brakes, nor ABS, nor Turbos, nor air shocks, nor nonslip diff but Dicky's Datsun was fitted with all of them and more. The power to weight ratio of his car further enabled by Nitrous (Nos) and his aerodynamic scoop, including the general poor outer appearance of his car and his personal dirty garage overall attire gave him the edge. He taught lessons of humility to so many who were either born with a silver spoon in their mouths or had a huge chip on their shoulders, or though they were the bees knees, or thought that they pee'ed ginger ale, or just downright haughty.
His Datsun 240Z's head was ported and fitted with fast highly modified intake manifold, the block was fitted with "Mahle pistons" and a "Callies crankshaft". It had a 102 mm throttle body supplied by an Aeromotive fuel pump. The Datsun body was fitted with Bilstein double adjustable struts, and a Ford Racing 8.8 aluminum differential. The drivers seat was even fitted with a 5 point racing harness. This car was the imputus to his car dealership, a place from which to sell all the cars he won. The last I heard, he also owned 5 houses financed from his cash winnings. If you want some idea what this car could do, have a look at CPR (Custom Performance Racing) at http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/videos/the-car-to-beat/
Be that as it may, these young racers took the 80's concept of racing for keys to a whole new level. Their supped-up engines are in fact artworks of Performance Racing Workshops, implying when two cars race, it is the technical expertise of one workshop against that of another, and of cause the drivers ability to drive well. The flagman was replaced by a scantly dress young female. Payment guarantees are arranged before the race. Payment arguments are settled by the biker gang friends. The moral of the story, "don't bet anything you cant afford to loose".
The idea behind the purple lights fitted beneath the cars, is so that the spectators can see the car at a distance since all racing is done in the wee hours of the night, obviously when the cops are not around. This whole lights concept was further fostered by day time running lights fitted to newer cars as a standard feature, though it can be turned off via the ODB-II with a diagnostic scanner. Or in some cases it can be switched of via the instrument cluster. Even the cops are into blue strobe light fitted inside the grills of their cars. They just need to drive behind you with these light flashing to grab your attention without the need for a siren. They are able to stealthily get you to pulled of the road without announcing their presence to fellow motorists.
Then there are the doctors with their white strobe lights sucked onto the windscreen in the middle of the dashboard, flashing away when they are in a hurry, purely to make you think they have an emergency, but in some cases its a ploy to circumvent grid lock traffic. With these low cost LED and strobe lights virtually everyone can have them in their cars and homes. With the ever looming power outages it is also a good idea to invest in some of these LED light for the home. I've even seen fishermen with these led lights attached to their foreheads with some headband strap when fishing. Its time to jump onto the band wagon and get some strobe lights and some LED light to pimp your car.
For quite some time there appears to be an obsession with LED lights and strobes amongst VW owners and probably many other car owners as well. Looking back in time, I quite clearly remember some young dudes with older cars — Datsun 120Y / Datsun 120U range — connecting purple 12V powered CF tubes under their cars, giving it an eeiry purple glow at night. It actually looked cool but somehow the outer appearance or rather the general condition of their cars seemed old and neglected. The purple undercarriage lights were soon followed up by other young dudes sticking blue "Xmas-like" snake lights around the outer edge of their number plates., both front and back. These light display was usually also accompanied by loud music.
On closer inspection these older cars were also decked out with really powerful MosFet amplifiers, speakers, tweeters woofers and sub woofers and music systems with USB and Micro SD inputs. In some cases the audio gear filled the entire boot space and the interior was colour coded to match the car's exterior paint job. I even saw a few cars with sun visor and front headrests with embedded LCD screens and DVD players mounted where the glove once was. At first glance it appears that some of these dudes were over investing in their 70's & 80's vehicles. In most cases the on-board electronics seemed to be worth more than the actual vehicle.
I was curious enough to inquire as to their foolish behaviour and I was met with roars of laughter of at least a dozen such car owners. The joke was on me. These young dudes were the street racers, or rather horsepower hustlers. They were severely influenced by the whole "9 sec car" craze, and by the American muscle V8 cars, big block engines image, specifically like the Mustang Shelby, the Pontiac GTO, the Chevrolet Camaro, the Holden Minaro, the Plymouth Barracuda , the Pontiac Trans-Am, and the Dodge Charger, etc.
Anyway, their cars needed to look like the underdog in order to fool the more yuppi car owners with their flashy BMW's, Volkswagens, Hondas, Mazdas, Audis, Fords, etc. Their intent is to race for pink tickets or rather the keys to your car, should you loose. The whole idea was to teach their peers who walk about with a "sense of entitlement", a lesson they will never forget. This sceneria smacked of "Need for speed" , "Fast and the Furious", "Street Racer" and "Tokyo Drift", etc. According to several of these young racers, their car's supped-up engines alone cost more than the cars they intend to win.
This whole concept was like really old. It is what we did in the late 70's for fun. I remember that my brother's friend, now deceased, who was a mechanic by trade spent years building his "ultimate car" into the shell of a Datsun 240Z. One night I was witness to the fact that he won the keys to a Ford sierra, a BMW 3 series, and a BMW 5 series. He never ever allowed anyone to peek beneath his Datsun's bonnet and he became known as "Dicky Datsun". Those old Datsuns never had disk brakes, nor ABS, nor Turbos, nor air shocks, nor nonslip diff but Dicky's Datsun was fitted with all of them and more. The power to weight ratio of his car further enabled by Nitrous (Nos) and his aerodynamic scoop, including the general poor outer appearance of his car and his personal dirty garage overall attire gave him the edge. He taught lessons of humility to so many who were either born with a silver spoon in their mouths or had a huge chip on their shoulders, or though they were the bees knees, or thought that they pee'ed ginger ale, or just downright haughty.
His Datsun 240Z's head was ported and fitted with fast highly modified intake manifold, the block was fitted with "Mahle pistons" and a "Callies crankshaft". It had a 102 mm throttle body supplied by an Aeromotive fuel pump. The Datsun body was fitted with Bilstein double adjustable struts, and a Ford Racing 8.8 aluminum differential. The drivers seat was even fitted with a 5 point racing harness. This car was the imputus to his car dealership, a place from which to sell all the cars he won. The last I heard, he also owned 5 houses financed from his cash winnings. If you want some idea what this car could do, have a look at CPR (Custom Performance Racing) at http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/videos/the-car-to-beat/
Be that as it may, these young racers took the 80's concept of racing for keys to a whole new level. Their supped-up engines are in fact artworks of Performance Racing Workshops, implying when two cars race, it is the technical expertise of one workshop against that of another, and of cause the drivers ability to drive well. The flagman was replaced by a scantly dress young female. Payment guarantees are arranged before the race. Payment arguments are settled by the biker gang friends. The moral of the story, "don't bet anything you cant afford to loose".
The idea behind the purple lights fitted beneath the cars, is so that the spectators can see the car at a distance since all racing is done in the wee hours of the night, obviously when the cops are not around. This whole lights concept was further fostered by day time running lights fitted to newer cars as a standard feature, though it can be turned off via the ODB-II with a diagnostic scanner. Or in some cases it can be switched of via the instrument cluster. Even the cops are into blue strobe light fitted inside the grills of their cars. They just need to drive behind you with these light flashing to grab your attention without the need for a siren. They are able to stealthily get you to pulled of the road without announcing their presence to fellow motorists.
Then there are the doctors with their white strobe lights sucked onto the windscreen in the middle of the dashboard, flashing away when they are in a hurry, purely to make you think they have an emergency, but in some cases its a ploy to circumvent grid lock traffic. With these low cost LED and strobe lights virtually everyone can have them in their cars and homes. With the ever looming power outages it is also a good idea to invest in some of these LED light for the home. I've even seen fishermen with these led lights attached to their foreheads with some headband strap when fishing. Its time to jump onto the band wagon and get some strobe lights and some LED light to pimp your car.
