The Ten Worst Car Tuning Disasters Ever Recorded

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The next time you think of going to a no-name shop to get work done on your car, take a look at these legendary tuning fails that have popped up online and maybe reconsider.


10.) Hot Wheels Camaro at SEMA

What should have been a straightforward bodykit/paint job Camaro build apparently ended up an oversprayed mess. Camaro enthusiasts claim nothing fit, the car went to SEMA, the tuning shop sat on the build and only when a second shop got the car did they discover it'd been put together with wood screws.

Suggested By: SennaMP4, Photo Credit: Camaro5

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9.) Duke's LS6 RX-7

V8 swapping a last-gen RX-7 should be a piece of cake, right? Uh, apparently not so much. You wouldn't want to see this kind of 'craftsmanship' on a homebuilt car.

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Suggested By: Rauq, Photo Credit: norotors.com


8.) Cowboy Bebop Supra

Oh, you know, the usual tuning stuff people claim online — pistons that don't clear, some of the world's worst wiring, a tuner that cashes the owner's check and never returns any calls...

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Suggested By: JasonSoko, Photo Credit: spracing

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7.) 4A Un-Cleared Pistons

It's one thing to have a poorly-done car with pistons that don't clear the valves. it's another thing for the owner to praise and praise and supposedly praise the build right up until it pops on the dyno.

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Suggested By: burdickjp, Photo Credit: club4ag

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6.) Abandoned 'Twin Turbo' M5s

What's worse than having a shop that does bad work on your car? A shop that allegedly abducts your BMW M5s, claims they can twin turbo them, and then leaves them gutted in a corner to gather dust.

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Suggested By: Sina, Photo Credit: Bimmerboost


5.) World's Worst DSM

It's no surprise this thing only made three dyno pulls before the eBay turbo reportedly lunched itself.

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Suggested By: daender, Photo Credit: LancerRegister


4.) Honda Lowered On Bolts

Simply put, this whole thread (detailed here on Jalopnik) is pretty much a primer in how NOT to lower your car.

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Suggested By: disadvantage, Photo Credit: Stanceworks


3.) Wood Screw 350Z

Nothing like installing a bodykit with wood screws and bondo. At least the owner managed to rescue his car and restore it to good condition.

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Suggested By: fredzy, Photo Credit: my350z

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2.) Unique Performance Prison Labor

You know you're fucking up when you make the news. These Texas Mustang replicas went for around $200,000 and were poorly built allegedly using prison labor, VIN washing, andd approximately 13 gallons of bondo. Not good.

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Suggested By: Elmo, Photo Credit: 67MustangBlog

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1.) Hellafail

What sets the infamous 'hellafail' Subaru build apart is how mundane it was. It just looked like a regular stanced Subaru. Only when MotoIQ investigated the undersides of the car did you see how it was a suspension failure waiting to happen, unsafe from the rubbing driveshafts to the debeading tires to the leaking exhaust.

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Suggested By: Bakkster_Man, Photo Credit: MotoIQ

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Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

Top Photo Credit: The Wonderful World Of YouTube Fails