But building a racing car that clocks speeds of 270kmh is perhaps going to the extreme in giving a helping hand.
A Chevvy Monza imported from the United States and extensively rebuilt over the past couple of years is propelling Dunedin driver Mike Wallace and his team to the front of the pack in the popular muscle cars category.
Muscle cars are American cars constructed before 1980 such as Camaros, Mustangs and Chargers.
The vehicles cannot be changed aerodynamically or within the basic chassis when imported but can be worked on in many other ways.
The Wallace family has really put the work in to get the Chevy going as fast as possible.
With connections to Nascar outfits in the United States, plenty of work has gone into the vehicle.
''We have spent the past couple of years building a high-performance racecar in Auckland,'' Mike Wallace said.
''I have been around motor racing for all of my life, did New Zealand V8s for 12 years but have not done anything for six or seven years. Then we decided to get this car. It was basically a shell which we imported and it has a whole lot of Nascar bits in it.''
Much of the work for the car, which packs a 800hp Hendrick Nascar engine and state-of-the-line suspension, has been done by Colin Wallace, father of Mike.
''My dad is very, very clever and has been working hard on the car for all those two years. He is self-taught with an engineering background and has the car going really good.''
The car has been lining up in the South Island muscle car series and also the series in the North Island. Every race in which Wallace junior has been driving, the car has finished in the top five.
He had a performance to remember at the Terotonga Park meeting in Invercargill last weekend.
Wallace led across the line in three of the four races, but received a time penalty for jumping the start in one of them, relegating him to third place.
Wallace also set a lap record on Sunday, leaving the mark at 1min 01.774sec after Paul Clarke, of Mosgiel, who finished second overall for the weekend in his Ford Mustang, had set a record of 1min 02.068sec on Saturday.
John Hepburn, of Timaru, in his Holden Monaro was third overall for the round.
Wallace said the car was performing well, reaching speeds of 270kmh at Terotonga, which he described as thrilling.
The South Island series will finish after a race at Highlands early next month.
Wallace, a log contractor, declined to say how much money the vehicle had cost but it was significant.
It was a lot of fun, he added, but he could not have done it without plenty of support from family and his racing team.
Next season's lofty goals involve competing in both the North Island and South Island muscle car series, and then heading to Australia to compete at a muscle cars event in a Supercars round at Phillip Island.
