im new to the tuner world and i was wondering what would be a good car to start with. i have a pretty low budget of about $3000 for the car.  

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im new to the tuner world and i was wondering what would be a good car to start with. i have a pretty low budget of about $3000 for the car.

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Take a look at the link below. This is by a bunch of veteran tuners at SCC (myself included). If this doesn't help you, buy a bicycle and save your money.  

http://forums.sportcompactcarweb.primedi...24.1&maxT=9  

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I empathize with you-I'm new to the tuning world myself. Also, like yourself, I have a small budget of under the 5000 dollar range per say the moment. I don't know for sure what the best thing to do is; though what I do know there are usually plenty of vehicles (most of them rust buckets but hey those are fun to learn from and work with) in the classifieds or, if you're my age, the parent's driveways.

Now I'm lucky-my parents are touring bikers and we have plenty of old cars, small engines, odds and ends parts laying around the back yard. This is the best way for anyone to start-in my opinion and if they can find someone-to teach them the basics. Most people learn about tuning by themselves...

I recommend going to Canadian Tire (or whatever you have in America/Japan/Europe) and getting some manuals (usually car year/type specific) to read. The thing I like about mechanics is that it's applied work and learning...in order to truly learn something about what you're working with you have to "tinker" with it and get to know the insides and outsides of each part (trial and error my friend). Alas...it is best to do this with an older car engine (under 1990-5) as you don't kick yourself later when you seriously f*cked something up :S beyond repair (which happens a lot with me ).

I liked that article...if there's one thing I hate it's a driver (especially one who isn't new) pulling off stupid stunts on the main road or tailgating and then flaring his 20 000 candlelight bulbs in your rearview...that's happened to me a lot. Then there's the wannabe-street racers who fly all over the road trying to mess with you or start a race (Can I say NFSU??).

I don't want to give too much driving advice if you're not a new driver (You did specify "new tuner" though so I can assume...) but here's some of my personal favourites;

-Turn off. Your. Freaking. Highbeams. When. You. Are. In. Front. Of. A. Vehicle. Not only is it dangerous but annoying as hell

-Don't tear out of stopsigns...it DESTROYS the transmission and if you're really ignorant to what you're doing (like putting on the parking brake while stopped) then say goodbye to your anchors.

-Leave the stunts (burn outs, fishtails, drifts, smokescreens, flares, neon smokescreens, and last but not least; FIREWORKS) until your on a track or somewhere out of main traffick. I remember in the past I did a lot of that... (aside from the fancy stuff) in public which earned me a stack of fines and bad reputations. Now I did come upon ONE dipstick who fired some sort of firework system from the truck of his car just before leaving the stopsign (to date I don't know if this is precisely legal or not but I'm guessing it'll earn you a cruiser on your tail) while firing a live flare at me sitting next to him in the center lane(thus why my passenger seats are all burnt now).

Er...that last one is a bit of a "given" but you'd be surprised how many people are out there and think they're cool with their 3 ring circuses. I don't mean to sound silly...but..safety first.  

i always recommend the Integra GSR  

3 words used car lot.  

You can do what ever you want but if I was you I would stay away from the Honda Civic unless you have lots of money to spend.  I have some experience in that.