What a Cool Car Is

To decide what car is cool is not an easy task. There are multiple components you must look at. I will be discussing the aspects of the engine and suspension which make a car cool.

Suspension is really what holds the wheels to the car, absorbs shock and even controls steering. Many car enthusiasts will not include steering in suspension, but for this idea of cool, we shall include it. Basically your tires are on a rim, whether they are nice shiny/pretty rims, or covered with a hubcap, you have a rim. The rim connects to a hub. This hub is composed of a few different components. Brake rotor or drum is attached, a strut, control arms, axle, and steering linkages (in the front). Remember this is no mechanical guide I am giving you a breakdown of what makes a car cool, not how to take a car's suspension apart. Every car is different some have different components. A cool car's suspension should be tight. Meaning all these parts connected to the hub are strong and sturdy. Some cars like Cadillacs and other luxury cars have a less stiff feel, this does not mean they are uncool. When you push down on the car, how much does it give? Does it bounce back? These are all things you must think about. You have to see what you like. Personally I like a car that does not bounce much, and has a high stance. The low stance, which is often referred to as "slammed" is very popular. The way a car's ride height is determined is by the spring and strut combo. To make it easy to understand a strut we will compare it to a hydraulic trunk, hood, or even house door support. That hood support would be much more powerful and larger. Wrap a spring around it and that's the strut spring combo. The length of the spring is usually the same, but it is the amount it's compressed. If the spring is highly compressed it makes it shorter, dropping the car. Using after market struts with stock springs, is usually OK, but research is key before changing struts. After market springs on the other hand are not supposed to be used with stock struts. It is best to use Coilovers. Coilovers are a full after market piece, it is the combination of the coil spring over the strut preassembled, they are also adjustable making them extremely useful. Now as you can see suspension is pretty deep. I did not scratch the surface, but I am sure you can understand now what you feel is a cool car. Maybe you realize you like drop springs on after market struts, or you might enjoy using some coilovers and slamming the car. Personally my Toyota Supra will have after market shocks with stock springs. It will be stiff and high, just like I want. Suspension is important. At high speeds a car with bad suspension can be extremely dangerous. Even lane changing at fifty miles per hour is extremely dangerous with worn out suspension. Having bad struts can make the car feel like it is still changing lanes, but is stopped. Basically the body of the car keeps drifting over due to momentum, but the wheel is no longer turned. To move in general you need a productive motor.

A cool car has a motor that lasts. Any car can have power. For instance the new Hyundai Genesis has tons of power, but it is not proven to last yet. New cars are not very cool. They may be pretty, but how do we know the engine is reliable. Old proven engines are what I am into. Engines have multiple setups. Going into the basics of engine's will be too much to discuss. To make it short, the combustion is done in a cylinder. The more cylinders the more potential power the car has. Car cylinders range from usually four to twelve cylinders. For a race car you will want more power obviously so usually six or more cylinder engines are used. This is not to say four cylinder cars do not move. Some four cylinder cars are extremely fast, and pretty fuel efficient. For the most part the less cylinders the less gas the car will use. There are exceptions, Nissan Six Cylinder cars are nearly as fuel efficient as Hyundai four cylinder cars. The way the engine is made is important for fuel economy. Forced induction is a term used for an engine that is turbocharged, supercharged, or even Whipple charged. Naturally aspirated refers to an engine that is not forced induction. This is good to know. A cool car like an Audi A6T will be a six cylinder turbocharged engine. Right from that you should know it won't be as fuel efficient as the Audi A4. Cylinder amount coincides with the amount of gas a car can push through the engine. Four cylinder cars, usually goes up to 2.3 liters. Now you can see how BMW names their cars, they have a series, such as the 3 series. A BMW 325i means it is a 3 series, 2.5 liter engine. This is a six cylinder engine. This is not the case with all cars, so you should best research or look under the hood to see the engine size. A cool engine size for a speedy maybe second car is a 3.0 liter engine. A cool engine size for a small daily driving gas conserving car is 1.8 liters. This will have enough power to remain cool. Hyundai's are not cool. The accent is 1.6 liters and lacks power, but it does get great fuel economy. Now that we have the sizes and cylinders explained, we can see how this correlates to different companies engine longevity. Some companies make cool six cylinder cars that can achieve over 300,000 miles while their four cylinder engines may crap out at 150,000 miles. This is research that one must do on their own. No one can say what car lasts the longest. It is a matter of the rate of failure. Every car has the potential to fail, but how many actually do is whats important. Was it not properly maintained, or beat on.

This is a brief description/guide to help people understand the cars I find cool. This I hope people can learn a little from. Just maintain your car, do oil changes and tuneups. Don't beat on the car, do not floor it all the time.