Anyone else think stages are stupid?

[ed1380]

For example. A while back I talked to a guy with an SRT4. I asked what he had done to it. He said it was a stage 2. I'm sorry but that means nothing to me or anyone outside your group of vehicles. Honda guys have their "stages", so do the Audi guys, and so forth. It makes it sound like everyone just buys kits online and installs them. The bigger the number, the better. Then you have the issue of what goes into a stage X kit, and companies calling something a stage 3 when it's comparable to another company's stage 2. Being in DSM's is different. We get straight to the point. I have X turbo with Y cams and Z internals. B flywheel with K disk. Q intake manifold with J exhaust manifold. It's simple with no number games.


Anyone care to enlighten me?

[Matt300ZXT]

300ZXs had stages before it was cool, us Z32 guys are car hipsters.

Back in the day, there was an accepted list of 300ZX mods/parts that put you at stage 1, 2, 3, etc. Now with everyone doing it, it's more of just a marketing technique. Back then it was JWT, Nismo, and other quality name brand parts that would put you at a certain stage in the Z world. Proven power gains and such from quality parts, now all these different performance tuner cars have so many manufacturers, plus crappy Ebay parts that you could have a stage 3 or 4 car by spending a whole $50 on Ebay lol

[Vteckidd]

IIRC SRT4s were because thats what the factory did right? There were different stages you could purchase?

[CarlosDanger]

IIRC SRT4s were because thats what the factory did right? There were different stages you could purchase?

Yes sir. Also, like the 300zx guy said JWT offered "stages" and it was a convenient way to buy a package of parts that would all work in concert. Thus taking all the guess work out of mixing and matching parts. But like many things in "tuner" (God I hate that moniker) world, it didn't take long for the bottom-feeders to over use that phrase and make it all but meaningless.

[RandomGuy]

It used to make sense, but then you had ebay + chinese parts that started off at stage 3 lol. Now a days, if someone says they have Stage 2 Supra Stage 3 civic, you know they're most likely an idiot. He bought a Stage 3 Extremely Frigid Air Intake on his Civic and now he's king of his block.

[Matt300ZXT]

I'm going to start a tuning parts company called Stage 17 so with $150 in a piece of crappy pipe I bought at Home Depot and an air filter I bought at Auto Zone that I sell to some kid, he can have a Stage 17 air intake.

[CSquared]

Note to self: Invent stage infinity intake - list on ebay - profit.