I got to thinking about this after reading "AlaskBuick's" thread over on the TurboBuick forum... Imports (AKA Ricers) get an awful lot of crap from the muscle car guys nowadays. Granted... they bring alot of it on themselves when they sticker up their Honda and put a fart can exhaust on it (and think it's fast) But I gotta say, I'm facinated by the quick ones. When I see a Honda drive to the track and run 12's, 11's, 10's, or even 9's prolly getting 20+ MPG, I'm awfully impressed. So my poll is this.... At what ET do you respect an "Import". My opinion.... once it breaks into the 13's I have to repect the guy regardless of how many stickers and fart cans he has on his car. I've had alot of cars over the years, and the majority of my street toys have ran in the low 14's to 13's. That's a pretty quick daily driver in my book. On a regular "drive to work" day, you should be able to take on 95% of the cars on the road if you can run 13's. What say you? :beer
I respect them when the cars are not three tone and mismatched body pieces all stickered up, with useless and illegal ground effects and can run with the muscle cars. So pretty much that only leaves the Subaru guys.
An import could do 5's in the quarter mile and it still would'nt impress me. I just cant get into them at all. But, to each his own.
Should have seen the WRX at the local track last weekend run 9.48's...She'd kick most of our asses but good..Have to respect that!!!
I'm kinda that way with "rails".... They all look about the same, and they're all pretty quick, and it seems that most of them have a SBC in them. I don't know what it is.... but I just can't get into them regardless of their ET. o No: One exception!... Top Fuel rails .... I LOVE watching those! :TU: :TU:
That's the advantage I see over imports that muscle cars have. For under 5 grand and some know how you can get your car running REAL decent times, whereas with imports you spend 5 grand just for a turbo, then you have to go spend more to get it dialed in on a dyno, and if the computer ever fries you're gonna be taking out a loan from the bank to have it fixed.
Define import? I'm impressed when a crappy riced out Jap-X car can make it into the 12's mostly because it shows atleast some level of either credit car application or speed work. Now a RWD or AWD car that is built more along the lines of an American car, pick a 5.0 Mustang just as an example of a late model American car with potential, then you are talking about reaching into the 10's before I'm "impressed" with just its speed. If done right it can be average on the strip just like most of our stuff but I still like it. Personally, dislike Supras that aren't blazingly fast, like moderately fast, well exicuted Lexus SC300 and SC400s for the 2dr crowd and the GS300 and Gs400s for the more door crowd. To sum it up, the more stupid the package the faster it generally has to be unless we are talking about surprise crappy stuff like the rare winged, spoilered, neoned, baddly lowered Civic that can actually run 12's. Just my thoughts on the subject, I'd love to have a turbo GS300 in black with tan leather that looks like a middly improved stocker that can run high 12's on pump gas.
Saturday night, family asleep, dad sneaks out of the house for a little street action: WRX vs. 35 year old Concours Stage 1, rolling start about 34 -40 raced up Route 7 until I lifted about 95 - 100. Old school Buick show car by at least 2 car lengths. Went home, fell asleep with big smile on face. :3gears:
Larry, There was a stock appearing STI that was blue(common color though) but it had no effects or stupid stickers and looked like it was just driven off the Subaru lot but a 10.88 @138 mph was way too awesome. I agree there was so many stupid Fast and the furious looking"Naws" cars as well,but some looked really stock and proved themselves to me an Super Pro type of guy...lol
I must admit that out of the import barrel the Subaru appears to be the most pure and true to its roots. Definitely not an "all show and no go" car. The WRX got my attention, but I got his too. :TU:
For me it's more the guy/gal rather than the car. I, like many of us, was a dumbass in my day (still am sometimes). Looking back, I'm surprised at the folks who put up with me! I learned a lot from the people who did manage to hang around, even when I was being obnoxious. Back in the early '80's, I was the guy quoting "theory" from what I read in Hot Rod and Car Craft. In other words, talking BS with no experience. Since then I've lost races, broken my stuff (and that of others) and otherwise been humbled, at least to a point. So, as far as imports, domestic brands, hybrids of any of the above, I say if the person owning/driving has the heart of a Gearhead, more power to 'em! I have to admit though, it's absolutely precious to smoke 'em with a car twice as long and heavy as theirs! Hey, we all got our start one way or another, right? I just try to remember how patient people were with me, and try to pass that down the best I can. Devon
I'd say 14s. Hey, it's an import, so you have to lower your standards Seriously, though, anything doing 14s is nice. Perhaps not the fastest, but anything can do high 16s, and 15s with a little work.
if you spent 25,000 on an import motor, youd be in the low 9's. it takes far less money than you would expect. on honda-tech.com, there is a guy with a completely stripped 91civic hatch, weighs 1900 pounds, the guy put a STOCK integra gsr motor (1.8l, 170hp.) into this car, and put nitto's on it. he ran a 13 FLAT with a 2.1 60' foot. a complete gsr swap, including motor, trans, axles, pcm, motor mounts, etc, can be had for around 3 grand. 12's with better tires for around 3 grand? i think thats impressive. my 1.6l civic had 170hp, and it ran with mustang gt's all day long. never got it to the track, but figured it to be about mid 14's. i voted on 13's because thats where stock stis and evo's run out of the box, and they are the benchmark for most import drivers goals.
Like any other vehicle, import or not, horsepower (low ET's) costs money. Sure, there some very fast numbers from some of the ricer guys, but i'm still not impressed with the numbers compared with the number of dollars it takes to put them there. I'm sure there are plenty of them, but i haven't seen any fast ricers withough some kind of power adder like turbo, twin turbo, nos, etc.. Some might say, "but they're only 4 cylinders". My answer to that is, "Yeah, but i'm more than twice as heavy as that beer can on wheels, and i can do it on motor only!" I do, however, believe that technologically these guys are coming, and coming fast! Whether you like them or not ( which i do not) they are getting faster every day. Like Buick64203 said, no matter how fast they get, i just can't get into them.
There you go guys.. proof positive that even guys with 6 figures in a concours resto will have fun with it.. if that is what he wants to do with it. Other guys prefer to not drive them, with that kind of investment, and there is nothing wrong with that either (especially when there are other "toys" in the garage). JW P.S. Larry- you have no idea how much Rick and I loved that story, especially after everything you went thru to get it done..... now go out and wipe down the underside!!! :laugh:
Don't laugh. Don't! :laugh: This was my "import killer" in the '80's (yes, there were a few imports trying the scene even then), James P. Cole Blvd and sometimes the freeway. I hid the N2O behind the back seat and the cardboard in the trunk. I could reach the valve through the rear seat speaker grille. Still ran the 430 back then with my first VP converter. The stock hood is much nicer, maybe I'm getting conservative in my old age. I had fun, though...I guess that's what counts. Devon
Jim, I want you and Rick to know that the car, including the underside is as clean and perfect as the day you gave me the keys. You guys really are awesome. :TU:
My WRX wagon runs low 14s, gets 30 mpg and handles like it's on a rail. I can respect that. :grin: :TU:
