Turbo Nerdz

If the English dictionary needed a word to perfectly describe the phrase "stupidly dangerous but fun", it would be "Rallying". Rally Racing Rallying according to Wikipedia is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests, navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. My own definition of Rallying will go thus, "the motorsport that has produced the most number of widows and orphans, but we all love it". I agree that my definition is quite exaggerated but rally is considered one of the most dangerous motorsports because both the drivers and spectators are at risk of death in the event of an accident. Spectators almost crushed to death by a rally car Rallying as a form of road competition can be traced back to the origins of motorsport, including the world's first known motor race, the 1894 Paris–Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition which was s...

As a medical student who has rotated through the orthopaedic unit of the Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), it has come to my notice that 98% of road traffic accidents are usually motorcycle involved. It is common knowledge that motorcycles compared to motor vehicles are less safe but the rate at which people get involved in motorcycle accidents is truly alarming. So I decided to do my research. The first thing that caught my attention was that nearly all the speedometers (gauge cluster) of motorcycles in Ogbomosho are either not working or totally absent, meaning there is even no speedometer to start with. As a student who doesn’t own a car and whose major means of transportation is via motorcycles, I have ensured to look out for this anomaly and I have not been disappointed so far. Out of every 5 motorcycles I enter, four and a half of them do not have functioning speedometers. Motorcycle with a missing speedometer The above picture was taken personally by me and as you c...

Outside Nigeria and in fact Africa, passive driving has become the norm as self driving cars with a lot of driver assists have made life easy for daily drivers. On YouTube, there are countless videos of people sleeping off in their self driving vehicles and they get away with it, arriving at their destination unharmed. I dare those sleepy drivers to try the same in Nigeria, it would take only one Dangote truck to send them to their maker. It is sad but the reality is that self driving cars cannot work in Nigeria, at least for now because very active driving is needed to survive the roads of Nigeria. Tesla Driver Sleeping off on the Highway There are multiple reasons why self driving cars in Nigeria is near impossible and they include; 1. Most Nigerians Do Not Obey Traffic Rules and Regulations Just imagine yourself chilling in your self driving Tesla at a red light and then the light goes green, alerting your cars software to get the car moving again. Your car then begins to move, only...

I do not know if it is Nigerian jazz or German Voodoo, but the people of Nigeria are so in love with the Mercedes Benz. Benz cars are generally aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and luxurious, nevertheless there is always room for improvement and this comes in the shape and form of something called a Maybach. The Mercedes Benz auto-tuner Maybach is simply the epitome of luxury and exclusivity. Virgil Abloh Maybach We have previously covered Benz auto-tuners in a post called "Mercedes Benz Tuners", so you can check that out after reading this one. Just a recap, Mercedes has a few tuners and they include Brabus, AMG, Mansory, Maybach among others. Brabus and AMG focus more on performance but for Mansory and Maybach, it is all about making a Benz look even sexier and Maybach wins in that respect. Send in your post requests! The original Maybach company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son Karl Maybach. In 1960, Maybach was then acquired by Daimler-Benz, making it ...

Since the last blogpost, I have gotten quite a number of topic requests, so I will be taking them one at a time. For this week, my friend by the nickname Pablo Escobar requested that I write a piece on his car, which is a Pontiac Vibe. 2007 Pontiac Vibe The name Pontiac takes me back to a great time in my childhood. Back when I still had a Play Station 2 and video games cost only two hundred naira per game. My Dad would give my brother and I one thousand naira during the holidays and we would purchase five games to keep ourselves occupied all through the break. One of those games we purchased was the Need For Speed Underground 2 and my favourite car in that particular game was the Pontiac GTO. As a kid, all I knew was that the Pontiac GTO was really fast and I used it to defeat my brother in split screen mode. I simply took note of the name and emblem of this particular car. Need For Speed Underground 2 - Car Select (Pontiac GTO) Coincidentally, during my Easter holiday in 2013, my cou...

When I saw the text message in the image above, I felt good because it meant that people are  beginning to see the light. Coincidentally, I have been contemplating writing about the Mercedes Benz GLC because it is my Dad's favorite car at the moment. He has been in love with the GLC since he first read about it and this made me develop a similar interest in the car. My Dad has superb taste when it comes to cars, so trust me when I say the GLC is the most reasonable Mercedes Benz you can buy as a Nigerian living in Nigeria. (NOTE: I will advice you to check out the blogpost "Understanding Mercedes Benz SUV's" before diving into this weeks post) 2016/2017 Mercedes Benz GLC The Mercedes Benz GLC was introduced in 2015 for the 2016 model year to replace the GLK. Quite a lot of us are familiar with the GLK ( mini G-wagon)  which is common among Nigerian Big Boys. The GLK is a good car and it sold well in the market but it lacked that modern look of midsize SUV's it was...

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 ...