by GlassWolf » Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:44 am
I have a hard time believing that GT-S. 7th gens are known as "slowicas" for a good reason.
FWD failures with extremely weak transmissions. Only way he'd run mid 10s in that car is with RWD conversion and a different drivetrain/motor.
then it's just a celica shell/body and nothing more.. something akin to funnycars.
the 3000GT is a pretty car. I test drove the twin turbo VR4 model when they came out, with AWS, AWD, active aerodynamics, etc.. neat cars.. just extremely heavy weighing in at over two tons. They weigh more than my '66 B-Body. It's a shame Mits couldn't have found a way to skim about 1500lbs of those cars. They'd have been a real rocket then.
My problem with most of the tuner scene is the rampant stupidity throughout much of it's members, and their obsession with fallacies like HP/liter having any meaning tor relation to performance or efficiency, or FWD economy cars having massive performance potential, or thinking a fifty shot of NOS on mom's Corolla is going to make the car walk a dragster.
You think I exaggerate, but alas, these are all things I've seen, and much more.
Here's the big difference I've found from experience between tuners and musclecar wrenchers:
People with old big V8s, building power have to know what they're doing, and have a fairly intimate knowledge of their cars, and how every aspect of that car works in order to build a lot of power (generally speaking) because most of the ways to build that power are esoteric tricks and arts learned from others, and through experience. Port-matching, setting timing, cam grinds, things like this are all skills needed to make it work out.
Tuners.. thrive on "bolt-ons." Everything they do to a car is out of a friggin catalog and twelve other cars on the block already have the exact same mods. It's so cookie cutteresque, that 95% of the tuners out there have literally NO understanding of anything about the function of the components of their vehicles. They just bolt on parts, and hope everything works together. Then they make up HP numbers, and run around trying to race everything on the highway.
I just get tired of sitting at lights and having some kid in his mother's Acura rev up and give me stares, like he thinks there's any way in hell he'd stand a chance. It's not even worth the effort of engaging the trans-brake.
Sure there are fast imports out there. I still believe however that there's no replacement for displacement, because no matter how much forced induction you slap on a small high revving engine, I can slap more of the same onto a bigger V8, and with OHC i4 and V6 engines being so physically huge, they don't really weigh much if any less than a cam-in-block V8, and the V8 is physically smaller, to boot.
example: mazda 13b rotary engine. "1.3L" (according to mazda.. which is bullsh*t by the way it's actually 3.9L) is about the same size and weight as an LS1 V8, and the LS1 produces more torque and horsepower, both stock and built, and with greater reliability than the apex-seal failing, turbo-eating, intercooler failing rotary.
I have a hard time believing that GT-S. 7th gens are known as "slowicas" for a good reason.
FWD failures with extremely weak transmissions. Only way he'd run mid 10s in that car is with RWD conversion and a different drivetrain/motor.
then it's just a celica shell/body and nothing more.. something akin to funnycars.
the 3000GT is a pretty car. I test drove the twin turbo VR4 model when they came out, with AWS, AWD, active aerodynamics, etc.. neat cars.. just extremely heavy weighing in at over two tons. They weigh more than my '66 B-Body. It's a shame Mits couldn't have found a way to skim about 1500lbs of those cars. They'd have been a real rocket then.
My problem with most of the tuner scene is the rampant stupidity throughout much of it's members, and their obsession with fallacies like HP/liter having any meaning tor relation to performance or efficiency, or FWD economy cars having massive performance potential, or thinking a fifty shot of NOS on mom's Corolla is going to make the car walk a dragster.
You think I exaggerate, but alas, these are all things I've seen, and much more.
Here's the big difference I've found from experience between tuners and musclecar wrenchers:
People with old big V8s, building power have to know what they're doing, and have a fairly intimate knowledge of their cars, and how every aspect of that car works in order to build a lot of power (generally speaking) because most of the ways to build that power are esoteric tricks and arts learned from others, and through experience. Port-matching, setting timing, cam grinds, things like this are all skills needed to make it work out.
Tuners.. thrive on "bolt-ons." Everything they do to a car is out of a friggin catalog and twelve other cars on the block already have the exact same mods. It's so cookie cutteresque, that 95% of the tuners out there have literally NO understanding of anything about the function of the components of their vehicles. They just bolt on parts, and hope everything works together. Then they make up HP numbers, and run around trying to race everything on the highway.
I just get tired of sitting at lights and having some kid in his mother's Acura rev up and give me stares, like he thinks there's any way in hell he'd stand a chance. It's not even worth the effort of engaging the trans-brake.
Sure there are fast imports out there. I still believe however that there's no replacement for displacement, because no matter how much forced induction you slap on a small high revving engine, I can slap more of the same onto a bigger V8, and with OHC i4 and V6 engines being so physically huge, they don't really weigh much if any less than a cam-in-block V8, and the V8 is physically smaller, to boot.
example: mazda 13b rotary engine. "1.3L" (according to mazda.. which is bullsh*t by the way it's actually 3.9L) is about the same size and weight as an LS1 V8, and the LS1 produces more torque and horsepower, both stock and built, and with greater reliability than the apex-seal failing, turbo-eating, intercooler failing rotary.