My addiction

[EVILUTION]

Hello, My name is Jeff and I'm addicted to cars.

As far back as I can remember I've always loved going fast and pushing the envelope. I remember talking to my parents about cars and racing. I once asked my dad why he got rid of his sports car and he said "As you get older you out grow that kind of stuff and settle down" I always thought I would too but I've come to the conclusion it going to be a part of me forever.

Times have changed since my pops was doing burn outs. People make more money, they have better cars, there are more race events, more tracks, and a huge aftermarket. The list goes on and on.

I'm writing about it because I simply cannot stop reading about cars and racing. I bet it consumes at least 4 hours each day of my life. That is pretty significant. Yea, its pretty much a never ending mission to reseach something related to cars. I think it goes beyond calling it a hobby.

Lately I've been trying to fight off the voices in my head telling me to purchase coil overs, 20g turbos, and alchohol injection. Its fricken hard as hell not to take the plunge. Everytime I add another mod I say that I'm finished. How many times have you read "project evo complete". I've even tried removing parts hoping it would take some of the fun out of it. But it seems like modifications and racing is always on my mind. I constantly have an itch for something more or something different. I had the same problem with the probe but at least that car had its limitations. Problem is I haven't even scratched the go fast potential of the EVO. By spring I could turn Darth into a 10 second drag car or balls to the wall road racer. Those damn voices, I feel like I'm fighting an addiction.

I'm trying to be content with what I have as its better than I had expected it would be and its leaps and bounds above the Probe. But nothing is stopping me and the voices can be pretty convincing. What is a guy to do?

[Pointdsm]

WOW, myspace has gotten to your head!

[ZXTUNER]

listen to the voices

[EVILUTION]

What does myspace have to do with this?

This weekend I spent at lease 12 hours online looking at car stuff. Don't you think that is a bit much? Shouldn't I have something better to do? Hmmmmmm I have nothing to do.

[Pointdsm]

I just ment posting your thoughts how you did. I do that everyday basically, at least 3 hours a day is always devoted to me looking up stuff on cars. Todays thing was mostly on Autobahn, tires, and safety rules.

[ZXTUNER]

What does myspace have to do with this?

This weekend I spent at lease 12 hours online looking at car stuff. Don't you think that is a bit much? Shouldn't I have something better to do? Hmmmmmm I have nothing to do.


how cares how much time you spend lookin if thats what you enjoy then do it 8)

[TomKat]

I'd suggest taking it easy on modifications to the hot rod and participating in more events. You really didn't attend that many this year. Although you may not like auto x events they really do help hone your skills.

[VPT]

I had my first car when I was 13, did my first motor swap at 14. I spend over 12 hours a day at least 3 times a week in the garage with cars and parts, you think you have a problem?

[Dizmm, (Old Account)]

I am the same. I beleave thats why we are all on thie forum, we all share the same passion. I too can not stop looking at car shit at work, and when I am not at work, I can not stay out of the garage. Its an addiction.

[EVILUTION]

I figured many of you are the same why but that doesn't mean its normal. We all have a preoccupation with cars that doctors would describe as more of a compulsion than a hobby. Can you serioiusly justify the amount of time you invest as normal?

[Dizmm, (Old Account)]

All depends on what your classification is of normal? I do what makes me happy and there is nothing that makes me more happy than racing, or workin on something that is going to make my racing more pleasent.

[VPT]

I figured many of you are the same why but that doesn't mean its normal. We all have a preoccupation with cars that doctors would describe as more of a compulsion than a hobby. Can you serioiusly justify the amount of time you invest as normal?


I believe it is normal. If it wasn't there wouldn't be car shows, all day TV channels for cars, barret jackson auction, the prices of some cars, ebay, unlimited car mags, and race tracks.

[EVILUTION]

That is one angle but it doesn't mean that most people watching speed vision are watching it 24 hours a day or even 4 hours a day. It just seems like alot of wasted time to me. I probably should be working on something productive maybe a professional development course that would in turn help to increase me income. There should be more to living than chatting with virtual friends and day dreaming on the internet about the monster car I could build. I wish there was another hobby that appealed to me.

Here is the question: What do most of you do with your after work free time?

[Dizmm, (Old Account)]

90% of my "free" time, I spend in the garage.

[VPT]

I probably should be working on something productive maybe a professional development course that would in turn help to increase me income.


Arrrg.

[devlish]

Here is the question: What do most of you do with your after work free time?

1. my son is with me part of the time, not enough, but i make good use of the time he is with me. those of you that know me or call me to do something know the answer is always NO if bradley is over.

2. I spend a good 2-3hrs a day reading online about the cars i enjoy.

3. then another hour with a headache wondering if i should buy those parts, or change this out, and do another little mod... etc. etc.

4. i don't sleep well at night due to #3.

5. I work on my car when time permits.

4. sometimes i lose track of what i should be doing, or what number i'm on...

FINALLY...
i have forced myself to spend some money on my house instead of my cars. it is a WAY better return investment. homeowners on here know how much a new furnace & AC cost, as well as garage door openers, etc.. but also know that i'll get that back out of the house when i sell it in 3-6years. whereas dumping $5k into a car will get me about $1k if i sell it next week!

I'm in the same boat as Evil, i feel it is more of an addiction than a hobby at this point... and i'm just trying to find other more usefull things to do with my time & money. but it is not easy. that's for sure.

good luck to the rest of you!

[Dizmm, (Old Account)]

I feel its just as enjoyable to remodel the house, or put an addition on. I like to do that sort of stuff as well. I usually tend to do more stuff to the garage since I am in the more often. Next spring I plan on doubleing my garage size as well as re-roof and re-side the entire garage. It will also be completey insulated as well.

Also a garage door opener devlish cost about $100 at Menards right now.

[barubabe1]

My 2 cents, for those who want to hear it: having an "obsession" (whatever it may be...mine is reading...go figure) is perfectly fine, AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T INTERFERE in other aspects of your life. By this I mean taking valuable time away from your family, doing home maintenance, doing a decent job at your workplace, etc. or spending money on your hobby/obsession that you can't afford or that needs to go someplace else. And I totally agree with Devlish that investing in a home and home repairs is probably smarter in the long run, although perhaps not as much fun. I guess my thought is that being addicted to cars is much safer than being addicted to half the other crap that's out there (meth, etc.). So Evil, if you spend that much time on cars and it isn't hurting or negatively effecting other parts of your life, I say go with it. But if you are worried about it, or uncomfortable about it, try a new hobby. Come play tennis or racquetball with me and TomKat or something. Try new stuff and if you like it, great. If not, at least you tried!

[devlish]

yeah, it consumes some of my time that should be spent elsewhere (except for bradley) but i am slow to get stuff done around the house because i'd rather be reading up on fuel maps or suspension tips etc...

but i do agree, there are much worse things i could be spending my time & money on. my house and internet porn not included! :twisted:

[Dizmm, (Old Account)]

internet porn not included! :twisted:

Who wastes money on internet porn when it is accessable for free. Acctually what I should be doing is selling a collection of porn on a 20 DVD set so you dont have to waste time downloading it. You would not beleave how much porn is on our backup computher which we use to backup everyone's files when we have to reload windows on their computer. its NUTS

[TomKat]

Evil - I would say based on my experienced of hanging out with car people that you do not have an obsession with cars. Most of your activities/vacations are not based on cars at all. I'd classify you as mildly into the automobile scene.

I agree with Barubabe. If the rest of your life is going fine then it's OK to spend a lot of your free time doing what makes you happy.

[EVILUTION]

The above advice sounds great except for the fact that its coming from fellow crack heads!

Maybe its not so strange but it sure seems like it should be. My return on investment should be much better than what it is. I mean I spend all this time on the internet reading about cars and all I have is an EVO with exhaust and computer.

I get to work today (after driving around for 30 minutes) and my boss says "how was your weekend what did you do"?

LOL.... Lets see.....I took Caseman for a beat run in the EVO in which I performed at least one felony at put his life at risk several times..... I think he enjoyed it though..... I made an irritating animated gif of my EVO flashing its lights..... Spent about two hours on myspace and did nothing...... I put blingy slotted rotors on the jeep.... I sold a bunch of car parts I had laying around the house..... I spent 16 hours on the internet reading about turbos and using E85 as a replacement for turbo blue.... My parents came down for a few hours and we discussed Hawaii and moving out of this town.... Watched some TV with Carole, took our muts for a couple walks,.... I didn't go visit any friends but I did spend several hours on the CWSCC forum talking to other car addicts which in turn throws even more fuel on the fire. I would have gone to a "college" party and JWs thing but I wasn't invited. In all I guess thats not too strange but its still a ton of internet and wet dreams of cars.

Thats not to say I had a bad weekend, I loved it, but what the fuck do other people do?

[Pointdsm]

This weekend, I party'd friday night, worked all day saturday got home and party'd, then sunday worked all day again, got home and relaxed. My spare time was spent playing cards and looking up car stuff and talking to my girlfriend. Hell, i'm going to love my life when I get home, I'll sleep, go to work, get home, eat, work on the talon, sleep....etc

[EVILUTION]

Maybe its just that I dont get to socialize as much as I used to. You know when you are in college you see people everyday and you normally have a part time job where you meet new people. I work with a bunch of dull computer nerds that live, eat, shit, and breathe computers.

For a new years resolution I should take a class or get a part time blow off job.

[Pointdsm]

Didn't working at Guu's get you out and meeting more people??? Not saying it was a good job, but you can try something along the same lines again. Maybe you can start building a car to your likings, and race alot more?

[EVILUTION]

Yes Guus was fun.

As for the car.... Tom is right.... I should leave it alone and just start driving it more.

[devlish]

i wish i could decide which car to drive more.

[Dizmm, (Old Account)]

I wish i had more spare time to do nothing. Seems like i work, get hom around 7ish every day, and I either work on 1 of my 10 million projects that i have going on. I like to try and take 1 or 2 days out of the week to NOT work on car stuff just so my hands can have some time to heal and get clean.

[devlish]

you just take on too many projects i think. well make sure you spend some time with your woman tonight on her bday. that's a good excuse to stay out of the garage.

[barubabe1]

The above advice sounds great except for the fact that its coming from fellow crack heads!

HEY! I resent that! I agree with TomKat. You're doing just fine. But like I said before, you just need to try another hobby to see if you feel good about spreading your time around. If not, so you like your car and working on it and researching it. Big deal. Be thankful you have the opportunity and means to do so. Life could be worse my friend! 8)

[EVILUTION]

How come Perfect10 is on here but Brian isn't? Doesn't he have a love for cars?

[Dizmm, (Old Account)]

who is Perfect10 and Brian

[devlish]

perfect10 = barubabe = love for drama
brian = her husband = no love for cars

[EVILUTION]

The guy works at a dealership, has owned a nitrous powered Cavi, now owns a modded WRX........ how can he not have love for cars?

[barubabe1]

perfect10 = barubabe = love for drama

Not nearly as much as some people on here!

[barubabe1]

The guy works at a dealership, has owned a nitrous powered Cavi, now owns a modded WRX........ how can he not have love for cars?

The guy also just graduated from MidState a few days ago and has been working full time and going to school full time for quite some time. No time to sit on a forum!! And the Cavi is still nitrous-powered. He was just too busy this year to get it out.

[DSM Girl]

Let's see here what do I do.
Work at Sentry all day and then head over to my part-time job at Furniture. I work weekends also.
I'll be starting school again in the spring and so that will occupy the rest of my little free time that I have.
Sometimes I have time to check my email or post on the forum.
If I'm not working, I'm trying to get stuff done around the house or run errands.
I'm actually busy at work so I don't have time to look stuff up on the internet.
Then there's the car thing. I would say I might have a car buying issue (for a girl) since I've gone through about 7 in the last few years. If extreme would stop bringing home cars that I want or have mods laying around I might save myself some money! :wink:

I would love to attend events that I could put my car to use, but always seem to have to work. Oh well it's better to make money than burn it up on the parts I would need.

Right now I just got done eating some delicious Christmas cookies that I found in the door that were for Extreme. They go really well with martinis!

[devlish]

Right now I just got done eating some delicious Christmas cookies that I found in the door that were for Extreme. They go really well with martinis! hey... i know where those came from!

[Extremedsm]

F**cking casino!!!

[EVILUTION]

I've been giving a lot of thought to this thread and I think I have come to the conclusion that the car thing isn't a problem. Thanks for confirming that.

Over all, I'm a pretty well rounded guy. I have a professional 40 hour a week job, I have a part time weekend job (reserves), I have a home, two dogs, two cars, and a significant other and I really like cars. Basically my life as I had imagined it as far back as I can remember. As far as I can tell there's nothing wrong with that picture at all.

I've come to the conclusion that the problem may not be mine at all. All week I've been listening to the coversations around me. Been trying to figure out what everyone else has to talk about. It's actually kind of funny. The people that have the most to say are the ones in the most fucked up situations or they simply like to talk and wont shut up even though they should. I hear the fucked up ones talking about overdue bills, cheating friends, kids gone wild, and basically shit that shouldnt' be any of their business anyway. Then there's the people that wont shut the fuck up. They like to talk about absolutely nothing. Guys talk about how we dont have winters like we used to and the ladies talk about baking cookies. Then there are the people that simply need to talk about thier kids, the packers, and holidays. Bla bla bla how flipping boring is that shit?!? I'm sorry if I'm not interested in what teams some darky played for prior to the packers. Not to say that sports suck. I enjoy a good game or a good fight. I like the highlights like the big basketball fight. That was pretty fun to watch but I'm not about to buy tickets to the game.

I beleive it boils down dependancies, preferences, and politics. I prefer silence over useless chatter. I'm perfectly happy simply spending quiet time with someone. I dont need conversation every second of the day. I don't spin myself up about back stabbing friends or people that drive me nuts at work. I deal with that shit in my own way. Of couse if there is some seriously whacked out shit to discuss then I'm all over it, but I dont care if so & so's relationship is solid or not. I also dont feel the need to get shit faced and act stupid accomplishing absolutely nothing in the process. Gonna rip on me for being in Shoko parking lot? WTF did you do instead that was so much more productive? I honestly dont give a shit what people think. I do what I want to do and to hell with the tards that have a problem with it.

In the end I suppose I could try to add something ADDITIONAL and productive to the mix. What that will be I'm not sure. I have to dedicate some more thought to it. But whatever it is, its gonna be something I enjoy and it isn't going to terminate my enthusiasm for cars and racing.

Cheers,
JJ

[Pointdsm]

Amen...

[VPT]

F**cking casino!!!


LOL

was there any cookies left?

[Extremedsm]

MMMMMM cookies.

Time for a tourney tonight. :shock:

[VPT]

All in!

[DontStopMe]

There are a lot worse things than cars. If anything, my cars helped keep me out of trouble all through high school.

[Pointdsm]

Same here, main reason why my parents didn't stop me from doing what I have done and am doing.

[DSM Girl]

I do what I want to do and to hell with the tards that have a problem with it.

AMEN TO THAT!!!