Senior Roman Dzivoronyuk indicated that the movie “2 Fast 2 Furious” was what inspired him to explore a passion for customizing cars. With some guidance from his older brother and mechanic, Dzivoronyuk has been able to turn his car into a full-time hobby for automobile customization.
According to Dzivoronyuk, he takes his car and enhances it, both in performance and aesthetics. Aesthetics generally refer to the visual design and style of the outer body of a car.
Dzivoronyuk indicated that Craigslist, eBay and other online markets are some of his favorite places to shop for parts. He also said that his biggest problem is how to buy the parts he needs, as he depends on his brother for financing.
“He’s kind of stable financially, and it’s just more of a hobby for me,” Dzivoronyuk said. “It’s a hobby for [my brother] too, but it’s a profession for him as well.”
The method of integrating these parts with the rest of the computerized system is a constant struggle, according to Dzivoronyuk.
“My computer that controls the engine and pretty much everything needs to be tuned, and I’ve been running into problems getting that tuned,” Dzivoronyuk said. “I can’t do it myself […] You need to be specifically trained for that.”
These are not the only problems that Dzivoronyuk faces though. Senior Agatha Maglalang, Dzivoronyuk’s girlfriend, said that she has been in the car countless times when it has broken down. Every time, however, he has been able to get it to start again, and they have avoided catastrophe.
“More than half the time I’m in it, [it breaks down],” Maglalang said.
But it’s not only when Maglalang is in the car that it breaks down. According to Dzivoronyuk, the car has been unstable and has broken down 24/7 since the day he first started modifying it.
“Last year when we had the flood, I went through a puddle and some water got into my engine,” Dzivoronyuk said. “The car on the way home died, and right away I knew what it was. I tried starting it, and it started with tons of white steam coming out of the hood and exhaust.”
Dzivoronyuk has also taken the Autos course here at South. According to Sean Reisdorf, a first year Autos teacher at South, Dzivoronyuk still has much to learn about cars. Through the autos course, according to Reisdorf, he will be able to learn the technicalities and enhance his work on cars by learning basic concepts.
“He had replaced some parts on the car,” Reisdorf said. “He had called it crash support. I’m like, ‘No, that’s the bumper.’ He goes, ‘No this is the bumper.’ I go, ‘No that’s the fascia…’ So that kind of stuff is what he’s learning now.”
According to Dzivoronyuk, he has no intent on following his brother’s footsteps and becoming a mechanic.
“I want to be an engineer or something,” Dzivoronyuk said. “I was thinking along the lines of mechanical or electrical so I could still work on cars. But I don’t really want to become a mechanic. I don’t see myself working on cars as a profession. I just see it as a hobby.”
