At what ET do you respect an "Import"

I'd respect a 14. I also respect the guys who put tasteful body kits on and it matches. some do look really good. More power to them if they have the parts available to do those kind of changes. What I love to see most is the completely stock looking cars running in some fast numbers. most of the "car guys" into imports have stock looking cars. sure they have a bunch of extra accessories under the hood to tweak the power, but it's like changing out a cam in an older muscle car. Putting larger injectors in with a pressure regulator is like swapping the stock carb for a holley double pumper.

To get an import to run fast, it's a whole diffrent ball game than working on a muscle car. they still have their weak links like we do. and they learn the quirks and limits of everything like muscle car guys do or did.

There are a lot of posers however in the field, just because they drive their parents civic in high school dosen't mean they are car guys or slaped the wing on the hand-me-down car. It's almost like the craze to put large stereos in cars. or even the van phase. when the van phase was around there were still muscle car guys. but a lot of others were just into putting side pipes and small round windows with crazy paint on or in their vans, because THEY thought it looked cool. History repeats itself, just with a slightly diffrent spin on things.

 

You said wagon! hee hee hee!!!!!!!!!!

Locally we have a couple of ricers that move.

First there is a import wagon that runs 11.4 at the local track. The classic black front clip and gold back half.

And then the Toyota Supra that has the non turbo engine with a turbo and NO2 and he drives the car on the street and has run 10.15.

And the last is a tube chassis Ford Probe with a Supra Turbo engine that pushes the rear wheel drive car 9.21!!!!!!!

The simple fact is force induction makes power and the bigger the air pump the more power.

 

Aren't we missing one thing here guys, how much does the average import weigh? I tell you what, bring on your fastest Civics and I'll go stuff a Civic with a 455, and if I loose.... :grin: Then you'll have my total respect. p By the way I have to agree most imports are dressed up like their owners taste buds are in their socks.

 

It's amazing how history repeats itself. I give the younger crowd credit for doing
their own thing. It's really the same as in the 50s the stuff we used to do. Some
good, some not so good.
Spinner hubcaps, laker pipes (non functional), port-o-walls(eek), lead sleds,
we started the stupid fuzzy dice too, and probably a lot of other stuff that the
older guys thought was weird. Back then the classic stock people looked down their
noses at us too. So there is room in the hobby for all sorts.

 

I have no respect for them, no matter how fast they get those $hitboxes to run. To me, it's not about ETs, it's about liking the cars themselves. I don't even consider them to be in the same hobby/sport as the one I'm in. I wish they would all just go away. Hate the way they look. Hate the way they sound. In most (but not all) cases, I can't stand to be in close contact with the kids who drive them. They probably feel the same way about me. Good. Then we understand each other.

 

larry that story was great!!! :TU: glad your out pounding the pavement with it. you deserve it!! keep knockin em down on the street lol just dont get caught :3gears:

 

I respect anyone who likes their car enough to work on it. Import or not, quick or not. May not agree with what they are doing but they ARE doing something!

 

you wouldnt like to be in close contact with me because i drive an import? id like to be in close contact with you and your amazing machine.. why dont you like me :ball:

all kidding aside, we arent all ricers, we hate them just as much as muscle car guys. there were ricers back in the muscle car era as well, they were the guys with the cherry bombs and the rear end jacked up 3 inches. It doesnt take much money to get an all motor import to be fast. and if you stuffed a 455 in a civic, and ran against a built all motor civic, youd lose. theyre too light for such a large motor, youd be scraping the front end, and spin the tires at anything but idle. sure, it takes more money for them to make the same numbers that a muscle car does, but they weight around 1000lbs less on average, so it takes half the power to go just as fast. 200whp is good for 13's in a honda. a fast car is a fast car, if you cant respect it you arent a real car guy. import drivers have crazy amounts of respect for american muscle. the ones that dont arent real car guys. i guess you guys cant get over the fact that we arent all like that.


ill drive an american car again one day, but until then, ill be building my integra and soon ill be running with camaros and mustangs with it, for under $2500.

 

There is a WRX in the neighborhood here who supposedly runs in the 11's. He drives by the house and spools it up just as he passes here. Makes me want to puke. The car stays in the shop more than out because he is constantly breaking something from stupidity. No problem for him, Mom and Dad own several McD's in the area. I've heard the last trip to Atlanta to have some ricespecialist work on it ran them over $10,000 . Funny though, when I do a big smokey burnout in town and a cop happens to see me they just wave and I'm pretty sure he's on a work restricted license :laugh:
from being pulled over at every opportunity. Being old and driving a classic still has some perks.

 

Sure is an interesting thread! I rember when I was 17 and was drilling a hole in the dash of my 63 Sport Fury my dad nearly had heart failure. I told him I wanted to mount a tach on top of the dash, he wanted to know why I even needed a tach. He looked on my automotive hobby the same way a lot of us look on the automotive preferances of the kids today. I voted for 14 seconds which was really the benchmark back in the 60s. The faster they are the more I like them, the more decorated they are the less I like them. It seems like a general rule that the more decorated they are the slower they are. ou: Now if I was buying a new car it'd be a Subaru WRX!

 

AMEN to that :TU: :TU:

I'd like to see a ricer get sideways :3gears: at 30mph on his way to 100+ in front of an Undercover... only to just get told to "Be more Careful" :grin: that'll be the day :laugh:

I darn near Crapped myself when he lit me up :eek2:.

You have to admit... AWD + TURBO = some nice numbers. Would we still be calling them "Ricers" if GM would've produced the AWD Turbo Beretta "Mule car" they tried??

 

For me it's not the car it's the owner. Anyone with more attitude than experience is annoying.

I'd rather talk with someone who has done the work to improve the performance of his import than someone who paid Boyd Cottington 6 figures for something bright yellow.

I remember a gold Nova with the back jacked up 4 inches and massive tires sticking out of the wheel wells. It had a hood scoop over a wheezing stock engine. That car was just as annoying as a skirted, stickered, fart canned "ricer". They are both irritating because the owner is trying to impress us with bull. They spend all their time trying to impress us and none of their time or money doing the real work.

These are the people who believe in secret tricks, advertised horsepower gains and everything but the slow process of sorting a car out properly.

The only consolation I have is the entire industry devoted to seperating these fools from their money. Some of my favorites: Vornados and magnetic fuel line enhancers.

We should start a seperate thread for the useless trash sold to posers.

John

 

Yes---my thinking also--- :beer Pete

 

I voted them down regardless of speed. I mostly do not like the cars. I do very much like the WRX especially in STi guise because it is a factory hot rod. The point of a car like that isn't drag racing though, it is a rally car. Handling and durability are the important features. So while I am impressed that they are able to get ricers to run fast at the dragstrip I think it completely misses the point of the cars to begin with. Our cars were built with drags in mind, that was the purpose behind stuffing 455 cubes into a mid sized car.

I've owned some high priced imports and they were fast, but not drag strip machines. I took my Porsche to the track and ran a 13.7 with it, stock. The car was way out of its element though, much like a front drive Civic is. That night at the strip convinced me to get back into muscle cars and do some drag racing. See, when I want to do something with a car I buy the best for the intended use. I had a Porsche for road racing, I have a Buick for drag racing, I have a big turbodiesel truck for towing these toys around. My wife really likes the STi and I would indulge that too because it is a cool car, but most of the ricers, fast or not, are just way out of place on a dragstrip. That leads me to think that whoever is going that route is misguided. There are much better things to race at the strip than rice cars, why would you bother?

 

The only one I respect off the floor is the WRX. Other than that they have to at least break 13.7 to gain it from me.

 

AMEN, Preach it, Brother!!! :Smarty: :laugh: :laugh:

I respect anybody who works on their own car, I don't care what they drive, or how fast it is. :beer
I have no respect for people who don't know a dwell-meter from a torque wrench from their own a$$, and just throw money at their car. :spank:

 

this is my all time favorite "store"

the evo is just as quick as the sti. lets not forget rx-7's, stealths, 3000gt's 1 and 2 generation eclipses, some vdubs, mr2's... all those came stock with turbo, most with awd as well. most people think import=f&f car.. not true at all. around here i see more 6cyl camaros with a "type R" wing on them than i do imports. rice is the driver, not the car. true, most imports are out of place at the strip, but they want to be respected by the muscle car crowd, so they play on their turf, and get so much flak because they arent as fast as a built big block car. many run 14's stock, think about it, what did your car run stock back in the 60's n 70's? try not to be so closed minded guys, theyre into the same stuff you are, they just arent as mature as you are, give them a while, when theyre your age, theyll be complaining about the next generations way of playing with cars.

 

[QUOTE='71buickg.s.]this is my all time favorite "store"

the evo is just as quick as the sti. lets not forget rx-7's, stealths, 3000gt's 1 and 2 generation eclipses, some vdubs, mr2's... all those came stock with turbo, most with awd as well. most people think import=f&f car.. not true at all. around here i see more 6cyl camaros with a "type R" wing on them than i do imports. rice is the driver, not the car. true, most imports are out of place at the strip, but they want to be respected by the muscle car crowd, so they play on their turf, and get so much flak because they arent as fast as a built big block car. many run 14's stock, think about it, what did your car run stock back in the 60's n 70's? try not to be so closed minded guys, theyre into the same stuff you are, they just arent as mature as you are, give them a while, when theyre your age, theyll be complaining about the next generations way of playing with cars.[/QUOTE]

I'd have to at least admire a little bit, under my breath, any import that wasn't "all full of turbo" that had a "built" engine that could beat my old car.

I have no problem with the young 'uns drivin' rice. It helps save all the old muscle for us old foggies! :TU:

Go ahead Josh, drive your rice.... I have my old granny mobile to tote me around!! :moonu: :moonu: :moonu:

Who might this youngster be driving the red GS conv? A 16 year old racing a granny in another GS conv? uzzled: :shock:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[QUOTE='71buickg.s.] there were ricers back in the muscle car era as well, they were the guys with the cherry bombs and the rear end jacked up 3 inches. 200whp is good for 13's in a honda. a fast car is a fast car, if you cant respect it you arent a real car guy. import drivers have crazy amounts of respect for american muscle. the ones that dont arent real car guys. i guess you guys cant get over the fact that we arent all like that.
[/QUOTE]

Now, the Cherry Bombs and jacked up rear I can identify with! :laugh: Don't forget the Lakewood ladder bars too! And 15x10 Cragars with N-50/15s on the back. That was me at 17-18 years old. I'm sure back then, older car guys (my age now :ball: ) looked at my '69 Grand Prix toolin' down the road and shook their heads in disgust! And so, I continue the tradition of looking down my nose at the new "thing". I don't harbor any ill will toward you personally (you're into Buicks, how bad could you be?), and I agree that it takes talent and a sincere interest in cars to make one of those $hitboxes tear ass down the track. But, if that's the future of drag racing, then I'll be quitting the sport in the future! They can be fast, they can be high tech, the owners can be nice, cool car guys. I still want nothing to do with them. Remember what I said...it's not about how fast they go, it's about liking the cars. That's why I don't hang out at "hot rod" car shows either. Pro Street '57 Chevys and chopped '50 Mercs are just not my bag. o No:

PS - Here's a picture of my car in high school with my buddy's '71 Challenger in the background. Were we "ricers"? o No: I doubt it.