A lot of people in the automotive world talk about "built not bought" being the only way you can be an automotive enthusiast. Not us.
"Hypocrites" you may call us here at Fuel Files, let me explain to you why we aren't hypocrites.
In this society there's automotive enthusiasts that to others are hypocritical who know every bolt that goes in their cars but prefer to leave them stock. Leaving their cars stock to others seems like the most absurd thing to do; something someone who has the need for more speed and performance finds to be ridiculous. The people stating that building a car is better than buying one have their reasons and yes, I find much more satisfaction in building my car into something I want it to be, therefore I fall into the category of people that prefer building.
However, what is the reasoning behind those who don't modify their cars? After all, they do claim to love cars and have a passion for them. Although they aren't engineers, they're capable of grabbing a wrench and doing something or getting their hands somewhat dirty struggling to make their car at least a little more personalized to them, right?
Right.
However many of these people take other routes and find themselves to me more "purist" than others. And just because they chose to not swap a single turbo RB26 into their Datsun to make it an absolute riot to drive on the road, doesn't mean they haven't gone through a struggle to get to drive their dreams.
A lot of these people come from humble beginnings. Some, not so humble, but these enthusiasts still went through the hardest years of their lives in med-school struggling to stay awake studying or through sleepless nights working on their start up companies to be able to make those dreams realities.
So they do still struggle with getting their cars, however its not the same struggle as fitting an LS1 into an s14. Yet there still is a passion that fueled them into getting these cars. It's a passion to getting the best of the best and being happy with their decisions. Rather than going through headaches building and learning and researching their cars, they simply go for cars with all the engineering and development already done, making them content.
All in all, people will still call each other out for not building their cars. People will still scrutinize those that leave their cars completely original just for "resale value". What really matters at the end of the day about your car or about your passion no matter what it may be, is that you are truly happy with it.
Therefore, as long as you're happy with your car, no other opinion should matter.
-Esteban Larranaga
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