My Perfect Car
I saw my first Elantra GT way back in December 2001, at a
mall of all places... in the mall actually. Me and my wife and kid were Christmas shopping and some of the local
dealers had some of their new models on display. That Rally Red GT had me fooled, I was convinced it was
a Saab. When I saw the sticker price I was to say the least shocked. I was hooked and wanted one. After about 7
months of research I finally bought my own GT on July 6, 2002... in Chianti Red. That color wasn't my first choice. I had
my eye on a Carbon (Dark) Blue one but none was fully loaded like I wanted with the ABS/TCS/Sunroof package.
The Elantra (and Hyundai in general) were just starting to
really improve, although few people knew that. I started the club back in October 2002 to get the word out. This was my car in stock form:
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| Not bad, but I was gonna make it better! |
So I had my new shiny Elantra GT. The truth was I wasn't completely
happy with it. One of the things I touted when I first started Elantra GT Club was the fact the car was
so reasonably priced it left some money to customize it to your taste. Well, customize it I did! The first thing that bothered
me was the blah dash. I came across a brushed aluminum kit from Sherwood Dash and added that:
You'll notice the very tall stock shifter and knob, the lack
of a chrome tweeter cover, no Wheelskin leather wrap, no custom emblem on the wheel to name a few. All would change.
What you do see are the awesome Tibby aluminum pedals that gave my car the Audi TT look. Now look at the
TWM shifter/Razo knob combo I added compared to stock. Amazing difference, huh?
This is pretty much what I did throughout the car. I fine tuned
everything I could to be perfect for me. The interior was the first "focal point" of my car. My goal?
A sporty (but tastefully done), euro-sedan look. I'm really proud of the gorgeous Isotta leather/chrome
handbrake and leather boot. It was ballsy to cut up my stock ebrake like that to make it fit...
How awesome do these custom door sills look?
One of my favorite mods were the awesome etched glass club decals!
My interior was transformed into a very sexy, classy place to be.
It simply didn't feel (or look) like an inexpensive car.
Along the way there were some interior "misses", too. I had many variations of e-brake mods,
a number of shift knobs... I had the third brake light up "Elantra GT" and a few more I removed. That's the thing about this
car... I kept working it until it was as close to the perfect "poor man's euro sport sedan" as it could be.
Here are a few of my key interior mods
