Are forums fading out, or do they just burn red hot till they are done?

[GeoffM]

Back in those days, people would get excited about a 5hp gain. These days, people take their factory turbo car back to the dealer, throw money at them, and walk out later that afternoon with an extra 50-100hp.

Not saying that the enthusiasts aren't still out there, turning their own wrenches... but the naive, innocent forum dwellers of a decade ago are a dying breed.

What's an example of this?

[XCRN]

What's an example of this?

Nismo, Rouche, AMG, Alpina. I would imagine go to the dealer, put in some of those in house tuning parts on the standard car and BOOM! faster car.

[deevergote]

The Neon SRT-4 had factory upgrade options up to "Stage 3" or "Stage 4", I believe. I don't know the exact gains, but I'm quite sure those upgrades are good for at least 50hp.

I also have a friend that has had his STi modified through the dealership with various SPT and Cobb Tuning upgrades. The car hasn't seen a dyno, but it is assumed that he's putting down around 300whp (which is about 60-70whp over stock, I believe.)


These days, souping up your ride is easier, and sometimes cheaper, to just have the dealer do it. You don't have to take your car to a pricey custom shop for upgrades anymore. You don't need a forum to tell you which parts to pick out of the factory performance catalog. You just ask the service writer!

[h22sparkle]

The car companies also seem to be responding quite well to the market's desire for affordable sporty cars.
Right now, you can spend $20,000 and get a new or nearly new car that offers considerable performance... right out of the box. Many of those cars can be taken back to the dealer for upgrades.

Because affordable performance cars have come such a long way, old "enthusiast" cars are likely getting less popular. Serious projects are less common, and fewer newer enthusiasts are actually looking to modify and customize old cars. With fewer enthusiasts about to participate in forum discussions, the forum activity drops drastically.

Back in the early days of internet forums, everyone was learning about all the fancy JDM parts, super-expensive race parts, etc... Now, those parts are usually common knowledge, or they're so old and rare that finding them is impossible.
Back in those days, people would get excited about a 5hp gain. These days, people take their factory turbo car back to the dealer, throw money at them, and walk out later that afternoon with an extra 50-100hp.

Not saying that the enthusiasts aren't still out there, turning their own wrenches... but the naive, innocent forum dwellers of a decade ago are a dying breed.

That's very true

[h22sparkle]

The Neon SRT-4 had factory upgrade options up to "Stage 3" or "Stage 4", I believe. I don't know the exact gains, but I'm quite sure those upgrades are good for at least 50hp.

I also have a friend that has had his STi modified through the dealership with various SPT and Cobb Tuning upgrades. The car hasn't seen a dyno, but it is assumed that he's putting down around 300whp (which is about 60-70whp over stock, I believe.)


These days, souping up your ride is easier, and sometimes cheaper, to just have the dealer do it. You don't have to take your car to a pricey custom shop for upgrades anymore. You don't need a forum to tell you which parts to pick out of the factory performance catalog. You just ask the service writer!

Technically you are correct bout half ways. Like my srt4 had 230 out the factory then I went stage two which gave it a bump with toys to 275 along with other mods and that's without a intake I brought the intake along with a downpipe from mpx and intake from Mopar while ditching the Mopar exhaust and made 320whp.

And thats with a check engine light on holding back on power. With my check engine light off without high octane mode on from the methanol I made 375. With high octane mode on I made 425 without a tune and never had to worry about it blowing up.

With that said in mind I felt cheated to a certain degree but I think the main advantage I had was that I never had to bring it to the dealer to throw the parts on and it was under warrantee aside from the clutch but that was already covered.

On that note my experience with other cars making them built for boost when they are not gave me an advantage that I passed down to other cars srt4/evo9 and so on. People buy the cars out of the box fast without grasping their tuner roots from where it started. Then when their cars breaks down they are like shit how do I get it fixed and it can be as something as minor as an axle or reading a cel and that's sad. I have all these cars and I still went back to Honda that's gotta tell you something right there. Start with something good after awhile your gonna want it back.

[HenRoc]

for kicks/giggles i tried to buy the domain of mycb7 but was told that is was owned already

Fact: The guy who started mycb7.com actually used to be a member on this site a few years back, something happened which he got turned off by and split from the forum and few months later he booted up mycb7.com

I joined but to be quite honest, everything I need is all right here. I doubt he was trying to mirror this place but when you have a well known forum and you're a guy trying to create a similiar forum..it usually never works.

I rarely see any activity out of that forum to be honest.

[deevergote]

Not fact. Erik didn't leave this forum because he didn't like it, nor did he start MyCB7.com as a replacement. That project was actually in the works while he was active here.
He focused his attention on MyCB7 once it launched, so he wasn't here very often. There was also supposedly a bit of drama surrounding him and a female member (unrelated to this forum, but apparently someone was cheating on their significant other... and it got dragged onto this forum.) I don't know how much of that is true, though.

Anyway, MyCB7 has been gone for a month and a half now. It went down on December 20th. Aaron, the guy that took over for Erik, offered the site to me. I wanted to take over and keep it going. However, it seemed that Erik never transferred full control to Aaron. He wasn't able to provide me full access to the server and database... therefore, I wouldn't technically have owned it. I passed... and the domain expired. MyCB7.com is gone. It makes me sad, because it was a good forum.

[Honda_Lady]

I rarely see any activity out of that forum to be honest.

yea me either, it is pretty much dead, I also joined but I haven't been back in like 6 months to a year because nothing ever gets posted.

EDIT: so it's gone now huh Deevergote?

[deevergote]

Yup. Gone for good. According to Aaron, Erik says he doesn't even have access to the database anymore. Essentially, it's completely gone.

[HenRoc]

I had no idea it went down like that. So I apologize for the misinformation.

I do remember that drama but it was so long ago

[Accrdwgnguy]

Im on not one, but 3 forums for my 92 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser. There are literally dozens of forums dedicated to big GM cars, yet most of them were just a bunch of guys who drove the cars and had no technical knowledge about them.

The best one is Badass. NO really, search for badass of ne. It's all local New England guys, and the forum is very active considering it's target audience. I posted an issue I was having with my trans, and I got 25 useful replies within a week! Everyone there is very helpful and knowledgeable. Plus every once in a while they have "Mod Day" where a bunch of guys get together at someone's house or shop and work on each other's cars.

Then there is GM Longroof, a wagon dedicated forum. Very active forum as well considering it's target audience, big old cars driven by old guys.

Impalassforum is also good, lots of tech, you can find everything you need to know about a B-body there. Very active as well.

I believe it's the target audience of this forum, unfortunately. Just look at the facebook group. You got a bunch of guys how have just discovered their $500 beater Accord is cool, and they want a quick and easy tuner car since that's all they can afford. Once it breaks down or they can afford a cooler car, they move on. Thats the story of Hondas really. It'll continue until only the core enthusiasts are left.

Oh, and I still have my CB9.

[HenRoc]

^^ which you rarely drive

but I did find an SS about an hour away from Nashua.

[RyanD]

Why did I have to fall in love with an old chassis.

Accordwgnguy is right though. In this type of forum the only ones that keep it alive are the core enthusiasts. They are the ones that are gonna stick around. I consider myself one. There is not other car I like more than a cb

[deevergote]

We have a number of people on this forum that have moved on from the chassis, yet continue to keep the community alive.

I can barely remember the days when Ralphie and MikeW had CB7!



I've actually had considerable difficulty finding a quality forum for my CTS-V. A handful of CTS and V-series forums were all but dead. CadillacForums.com is a corporate wasteland, and LS1tech.com (very useful information for the LS2 found in my car) is very reminiscent of Honda-Tech.

The older, less "popular" cars tend to have the most devoted forums. Small, but the populations are generally very loyal, knowledgeable, and helpful.
Civics are more popular... and I challenge anyone to find a Civic forum (especially 1992+) that is as tight-knit as this forum. It's not that Civic drivers are any worse than Accord drivers... it's just that Civics attract people that are looking for an easy project, or people that want to adhere to the current fad.
The same goes for Camaros, Mustangs, DSMs, Evos, WRX/STis... any number of cars are easier to pull performance out of, and they attract larger, less passionate crowds. The true diehard enthusiasts of those platforms get lost in the mix, and remain there for a very long time.
CB7s, the 90s Caprice (and related models), nearly forgotten classics like Bobby's Vega.... cars like that may see a surge in popularity for a short time, but the non-serious followers tend to fall off pretty quick, leaving just the core enthusiasts.


What I find to be very interesting in this particular community is that, although "it's all been said" and "it's all been done"... we've had a larger number of truly innovative, interesting projects started/completed in the last half of CB7tuner's first decade of existence than we did in the first half!
Sure, we're not terribly excited about the 500th H22A swap being completed, and there aren't many rare JDM goodies that we're not aware of (though tippey has informed me of far more than I realized I had missed in the past couple years.) Still, we've seen K swaps, a RWD swap underway (by one of our own... I know they've been done by others, but never by anyone active here), crazy N/A F22A builds, BB6 dash swaps, and plenty of other interesting things!

[Accrdwgnguy]

^^ which you rarely drive

but I did find an SS about an hour away from Nashua.

I never drive it now, too rotted to pass inspection. I can't let it go tho, had it too long.

The Caprice guys are a dedicated bunch, you have to be to keep dumping in the amount of gas it takes to go from A to B. Myself, it's always been a dream of mine to own a big boat, finally attained it and my wages are now at the level where it's affordable for me to drive it every day.