2017 is at its end, which means that everyone will be busy making their New Year's resolutions. We have already shared our resolutions for the automotive industry, but we thought that we would also share resolutions applicable to automotive enthusiasts. While "normal" people are busy setting their resolutions to lose weight and travel more, our resolutions are all focused on becoming better car enthusiasts. These are the goals that we'd like to accomplish in 2018. Let us know if there's anything car related that you'd like to do in the new year.
Whether your budget is $30,000 or $300,000, working hard enough to afford a new car is a great New Year's resolution. When you do eventually get something new, ditch that boring old crossover or sedan and get a sports car. This will help bring you closer to the car enthusiast community and enrich your life. You can even take this resolution one step further by buying a new car with a manual transmission. Not only will this add to your credibility as an enthusiast, but the sale will count as a statistic to show manufacturers that people still want to buy manual cars.
Our next resolution is something that won't cost you any money, but will likely save you money in the long run. We love to keep our cars clean, but sometimes we get busy with the everyday grind and just want to run the car through an automated carwash. Any detailer will tell you that this is one of the worst things you can do to a car. The brushes in the carwash are basically rubbing your car with whatever dirt and grime that they picked up from the previous car. These types of carwashes can often lead to paint swirls and other damages. Do yourself a big favor, and wash your car at home. You can even turn it into a fun family activity that everyone can enjoy.
One of the things that "true enthusiasts" like to complain about is "posers" who don't drive their sports cars and supercars the way they were meant to be driven. We'd like to see one of these people put their money where their mouth is and go to a track day. If this is too expensive for some people's budgets, autocross can be a cheaper alternative that doesn't cause as much wear and tear as a full track day. You don't even need to have a sports car to take part. So long as you don't have a high riding car that may tip over, you can do autocross with a normal car like a Toyota Corolla or Honda Accord and have just as much fun as someone in a Corvette.
In order to prepare for an autocross or track day, it may be a good idea to attend some sort of driving school to improve yourself as a driver. There are many great driving schools around the US that range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. Many manufacturers offer their own driving schools, so you can even choose if you'd rather learn in a BMW or Porsche. We recommend a school that gives you an instructor and teaches you performance driving skills. Some of these skills will make you a better driver on the road and all of them will help you go faster around a race track.
We believe that a driver mod is the best upgrade you can do to a car to make it faster. Instead of improving your car, you can improve yourself by becoming a faster driver. Still, there are many people out there who like to jump the gun and either tune or upgrade their cars instead of improving themselves. It is fun to make your car faster by adding performance parts and tuning the engine. This may be the most popular resolution for enthusiasts in 2018.