Turbo Nerdz

It is with great pleasure that I announce TurboNerdz being a year old today. Looking back, deciding to finally start this blog is one of the best decisions I have made in my two decades of life. Through this blog, I have improved on my writing skills, met so many wonderful people who share in my interest of automobiles and most importantly, I learned that our biggest fears only come through if we sit around being afraid. I joined Blogger in March, 2021 and immediately started writing content but did not publish any of my work until the 31st of August, 2022. My roommates knew about the blog and encouraged me to post but I was worried that people would not be interested. On a faithful evening, a course mate came into my room looking for Nifemi The Entertainer because he had a gig for him. I then jokingly told my course mate that I was available if he had any automobile related gigs but he looked at me with a puzzled face and exited the room. It was at that point I realized only my close ...

I heard that people in relationships talk on the phone until they fall asleep, it must be nice! For single pringles like myself, we make use of delusion or what they call vivid imagination. This vivid imagination of mine usually begins with some rich dude checking out my blog and noticing my passion for automobiles as well as how much work I have put into my blog over the past year. So, rich dude hits me up, offering me an all expense paid trip to wherever I want in the World. I bet you guys would expect me to pick the Bahamas, Maldives or one of those vacation spots but you would be dead wrong, because the one place I want to visit is Japan. Why Japan? 1. THE VIEW Japan's Mountain Fuji View from an Airplane  All routes flying from the West to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, fly around the south side of Mount Fuji and allow passengers to see the mountain from the left side of the plane. Seeing Mt. Fuji, complete with its snow-capped peak from above, is truly something to behold and I...

I was very tempted to name this episode ''THE OIL CRISIS'' but America already experienced that between 1973-1979. The oil crisis of the 1970s was brought about by the disruptions of oil supplies from Middle-East to America. As a result of the oil crisis, there was a sudden rise in the price of oil that was accompanied by decreased supply. This singular event was what opened the gate way for the Japanese automakers, as most Americans opted to purchase more fuel economical Japanese vehicles rather than their gas guzzling American V6 & V8 vehicles. Oil Crisis of the 1970s in America On the 29th of May 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a.k.a President Agbado was sworn into power and the first thing he did was to remove the fuel subsidy. The removal of the fuel subsidy lead to an increase in the prices of petroleum products, which in turn lead to an inflation. This is not an economics lecture, so please do not expect more details on the topic of inflation. What I sha kn...

Going into surgery, I was very unenthusiastic. I wanted the 8 weeks of posting to quickly pass by, so I could get on with my life. Unfortunately for me, I had to begin my rotations with Orthopedics which is considered one of the messy aspects of surgery. To cut the long story short, I ended up having a blast at the Orthopedics department and that is because it made me see the similarities between cars and humans. Before diving into today's topic of discussion, I need my TurboNerdz to share in my joy! During the last race weekend, Sir Lewis Hamilton won Pole Position after what seemed like a decade. In F1 there are qualifying rounds before the main race, so the racer with the fastest lap time gets to start the proper race in front of the grid and every other racer follows suit. The reason for the excitement is because Hamilton has been having issues with his F1 car since the start of the season, but him winning pole position means his car is finally responding and there is hope for ...

I stumbled upon a tweet encapsulating how a Nigerian car technician upgraded a 2008 Mercedes Benz S-Class to a 2022 model. I have seen crazy car upgrades in the past but this one in particular was mind boggling. Car upgrades are not a rare sight in Nigeria as older Benz, Toyota and Lexus models are upgraded to newer and more recent year models. Hence, the discussion for today is the ''how'' and ''why'' of these drastic car upgrades in Nigeria. Mercedes Benz S-Class; 2008 (Above), 2022 (Below) HOW? 1. DESIGN LANGUAGE Every car company has a specific design language; The first impression of a car design is usually formed by its silhouette, this is why a car enthusiast such as myself can tell what car is parked across the street without seeing it's badge. To explain this concept, I will be using Porsche, a car company with exceptional design language. It is very easy to conclude that the cars in the image below are the same exact car but are they really...

The latest gist in the Nigerian automotive scene is that a Mercedes Benz SUV worth 55 million naira that was stolen from a dealership in Abuja about four days ago has been recovered in Asaba, Delta State. According to media sources, the culprit requested for a test drive of the car, which he was granted and then he proceeded to give the car a proper test drive of over 300miles. The Stolen Vehicle The car in question is a 2021 Mercedes Benz GLB 250. The GLB class is a new SUV line-up for Mercedes as it was first introduced in 2019. Prior to the GLB, buyers were left with only two options for a compact SUV from Mercedes which were the GLA and GLC class. The 2021 model which was stolen comes with a 2.0 Litre Inline 4 engine capable of producing about 221 horse power and 258 lb-ft torque. The starting price for this car is actually about $40,000 which should be about 20 million naira but coupled with exchange rate, shipping and many other Nigerian factors, this car is selling for 55 millio...

Nigerians absolutely love giving nicknames. For example you tell a Nigerian that your name is Lawrence and they start calling you "Law Law" or ''Mr Law''. Some nicknames are so absurd that it makes you wonder what the individual was going through to have given such a name. In reality, most of these nicknames actually come about to enable Nigerians easily identify and distinguish different car brands. These nicknames are more common among Toyota and Honda, as they are the most abundant on the road with a lot of different generations of each car model. Let us dive right in! 1. Pencil Light This is the 4th generation of the Toyota Camry which was produced from 1997 - 2001. The nickname of this car is quite obvious as it has very slim headlights as well as brake lights that somewhat look like pencils. Camry Pencil Light 2. Big Daddy or Big For Nothing This is the 5th generation of the Toyota Camry which was produced from 2002 - 2006. I really do not understand the...