Every day we feature various modified car builds with big and small upgrades which range from simple OEM+ add-ons to complex high-performance solutions for track and competition use. They all serve different purposes, but every single project has time and effort invested in it by it’s owner or a shop.
A trained eye of a car nut can usually spot the upgrades, but sometimes it takes much more to understand the real value of the build and appreciate the amount of work invested into it. To make it easier even for the beginners we decided to implement our own build complexity score which helps to distinguish the builds from each other and illustrate the complexity of their upgrades.
Of course it’s nearly impossible to take into account all particularities of every build, like the availability of parts, rarity or condition of the vehicle, extent and depth of custom modifications and uniqueness of every solution, so we decided to settle with a simplified score system that takes into consideration the presence of key upgrades in every category and gives a certain number of points to each item:
Suspension
| Type of Upgrades | Difficulty Points |
|---|---|
| Lowering Springs | 3 |
| Coilovers | 6 |
| Air Suspension | 8 |
| Advanced Sports / Track Suspension Setup | 10 |
Performance
| Type of Upgrades | Difficulty Points |
|---|---|
| Supercharger / Turbo / Engine Swap | 4 |
| Stock Turbo Upgrade* | 3 |
| Air Intake | 1 |
| Exhaust system | 1.5 |
| Tune | 1 |
| Perfomance Brakes | 1.5 |
| Cooling / Fuel system / Other upgrades | 1 |
Exterior
| Type of Upgrades | Difficulty Points |
|---|---|
| Full Wide Body Kit / Complex front end Swap | 8 |
| Bumper swap | 3 |
| Bumper lip | 1 |
| Fenders / Fender flares | 2 |
| Side skirts | 1 |
| Rear Diffuser | 1 |
| Rear Spoiler / Wing | 1 |
| Custom headlights / Taillights | 1 |
Interior
| Type of Upgrades | Difficulty Points |
|---|---|
| Roll Cage + Stripped Racing Interior | 7 |
| Sports seats | 2 |
| Custom Steering wheel | 1 |
| CF Trim | 2 |
| Reupholstered interior | 3 |
Please note that this simplified scoring system intentionally excludes several nuanced aspects of car builds to maintain clarity and ease of use.
We don’t differentiate between premium and budget parts within the same category, nor do we account for the rarity or quality level of certain components.
The scoring also doesn’t consider whether modifications were professionally installed or done DIY, as these factors can vary greatly based on location, budget, and personal experience of the vehicle owner.
Additionally, while some builds may feature perfectly matched components working together as a comprehensive system, this synergy or style effect isn’t reflected in the basic scoring.
These factors, while important to the overall quality and complexity of a build, are left to the observer’s subjective appreciation rather than being quantified in our straightforward scoring system.
While not perfect, we think this basic system helps car enthusiasts to understand and compare different modified vehicles easier. If you have any suggestions on how to make our rating system better, please let us know!