For gosh sakes people...rather than pour money into crummy cars, just buy a car that is good in the first place! My next door neighbor's kid has poured $25,000 into a 99 Civic. A CIVIC! Sure...its fast now. But it looks r****ded and he could have just bought a car that was MADE for performance. I don't get it. But whatever...as long as that money pumps back into the economy. By the way...no street legal car if fast enough that you need a 3' tall plastic spoiler to keep it on the ground. Especially if its a Civic. I don't care how many mods you've put on it.
I agree with you FD. If you are doing it for the "scene", you are doing it for the wrong reasons IMHO. I'm fixing up my car because it's my hobby and it's cheaper than buying a new car. No light to light racing here. Although I'm not street legal because of the cats removed and the long tube headers grtting ready to go on, I'm doing this because I've always wanted to fix up my car.
I have a 2003 MINI Cooper S (the super charged model) Dark Silver with a Black Top and Blue/Black leather Interior. So far I've added a Cold Air Intake, Whalen Shift Knob, Yokahama AVS ES 100 tires, an Alta 22mm rear sway bar, racing stripes and my car handles so sweet. Next is a front strut brace, lighter wheels, short shift kit, and supersprint exhaust. Then as soon as my warranty is up a 15% smaller pulley for the super charger, a Limited slip differential, ECU upgrade/remap, and new throttle body. Oh and if I continue to take it out to track days at TWS I'll go with a brembo big brake kit at some point but the stock discs seem to be very adequate. Stock I was at 165 hp (2200 lb car) and I recently dyno'ed at 173 with the cold air intake. The smaller pulley and ECU remap will take me to about 205-210 hp but in the curves is where my car really excels. The stock MINI Cooper S set the road and track 75 slalom record that was just broken by the Porsche GT2. Bang for the buck I'll take my MINI.
Yeah I agre, but you'd be amazed at what they are doing to econoboxes these days- out of the factory. Mazdaspeed Protege- 20k, basically a souped up Protege, has awesome handling. One of the best handling fwd's ever made. Dodge SRT-4- 20k, basically a souped up Neon from the factory, puts down 215 hp to the wheels. This thing hangs with 350z's and S2000's stock. Subaru Impreza WRX- all wheel drive, turbo, about 24k My car is a Sentra SE-R, decently quick, bigger engine than the base sentra, nice suspension, LSD. All stock. There's no way these cars will ever touch the cars you mentioned. But I was looking for something cheap, under 20k, but still fun. They are selling pretty well too.
My daily commuter is a Truck. A Toyota Tacoma. I do not have any decals and mods on it. I just want to talk about the spoilers on cars. You people know what kind of Spoilers I am talking about. I LOVE looking at those. Especially those on the Civics. I love those dual wings. It's great how it's suppose to enhance your car's speed when it is so damn heavy, and it impairs your ability to see your rear window. Aren't big ass spoilers made for rwd cars? Bamaslamma, dude, that is what is wrong with the import cars. Some cars just are not tunable. I think the import is the much larger crowd. I see more fixed up imports than domestics. It is probably I would say an 8 to 1 ratio, maybe even higher. People fix up the Civic because it is easy.
That's a good one. I have to throw mine in too for the Domestic Crowd. Just throw some duct tape on it, and you are good to go.
Check out Sport Compact Car's 8 Great Rides: http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/features/0307scc_8greatrides/ Lots of these aren't real sports cars, but lots of fun for little money anyways.
I've read several times now that Nissan is bringing the Skyline to the US under the Infiniti badge. Dig the 928 bama, but take it easy on the rice burners - for every ugly ass civic with a wing and a fart-can muffler there are 2 jacked up rusted out camaros on the prowl.
Folks, if you want a fast car, don't build one....buy one. You can get a used 300ZX, Vette, RX-7, 3000GT fairly inexpensively. Of those, the Vette is easiest to work on, has an engine that every mechanic knows (the 350) and looks terrific. I bought my 928 and though it is fast, the parts are godawful expensive, hard to find and it is a b**** to work on. If you want misery and heartache if you are not a mechanic, buy one. Otherwise, buy a Vette. For the 25 large that numbnuts put into his Civic, he could've had a car with few mods that could run with anything.
Getting a used 300zx (the twin turbo, which is the only one worth a darn) is hard. They are still pretty expensive. RX-7, those break down all the time. I'd say go with a WRX for 24k and turn up the boost. Vette for 25k? Where? That would be nice. Another thing about the souped up Civics. How come they have enough money to build them up and put exhaust, bodykit, paint job etc., but they don't have enough money to keep the from rusting, falling apart, and otherwise looking like complete crap?
You've seen a Skyline : it's called a G35. I have no idea where you're going actually. Nissans, Toyotas, and Mitsubishis are all great tuner cars. The 300Z and now the 350z, the G35, Supras, Evo's... all are serious tuner cars. Why don't you tell us where you're going?
Tsk, tsk. Cars like the Toyota Supra could easily handle 500+ horsepower. Their engines are built to handle it. It's a known fact among tuners that Japanese blocks can take some serious punishment.
http://listings.ebaymotors.com/pool1/plistings/lowest/all/category6168/index.html?from=R0 There are plenty to choose on there. Corvettes, like most American cars, lose their value quit quickly versus foreign cars. If I had 25 grand to put in a sports car, I'd put in a Vette in a minute, especially the C5 chassis, which is quite nice. There is a Z06 on there for around 33 grand, all black.....oooooh.
I know about the Supra. A friend of mine had a twin-turbo with traction control, wood grain interior, the works that easily pushed 400-500hp back in 1995 when they weren't as easily attainable. 180mph on I-10 was easy in that ride. Also, I figured you'd understand that I am not talking about Supras, 3000GT's, 300Z's or other true sports cars with real hp, not the 180-210hp go-carts that seem to fester around the cruising strips of the US.
That's a thing of the past. Check out the WRX-Sti, the Neon SRT4, Evo's, etc. Those are dinky little sardine cans that haul ass stock. They ram 200-275hp engines into those things and they're striking fear into 350Z's, S2000's, and RX-8's. That's even before any mods. I'd never buy one, but hey...
Nice, I had no idea Corvettes lost value like that. I'm gonna have to keep this in mind in a few years. Vette > 350z, but I'll take either.
The Skyline is already here under the Infiniti badge. It's known as the G35. If you mean the Skyline GT-R. Nissan has unveiled shots of what they expect to bring over here within the next couple of years from what I've read. The Skyline GTR R35 is a beast. Nissan has said it would bring it over (the CEO, Carlos Ghosn said it), but that was back in 2001. They even showed it off at the Tokyo (?) auto show. Estimates said it would be a 400+ hp monster with a at least a turbo V8. It was expected to compete with Ferarris and Lambo's. Dunno... sounds too expensive for me.
Here is my latest project. Just got done with it not too long ago: http://www.bkauto.net/1984 Trans Am 2.htm
