celica gts vs. sentra spec v

[cressida]

another look at the Spec V thread by Rallispec

 

[Ultima]

<< The Sentra may only be slightly faster on paper, but it will feel a lot more fast in everyday driving due to the superior torque curve. >>



Uh huh. So is this still true if you have a motor with say 1000ft. lbs of torque but the same HP? (like a big truck or something)

Anyway, Celica seems to have similar specs to Integra. I wonder which is faster in the curves...

 

[Ultima]

Celica GT-S
Nissan Spec-V

When it comes to looks, I don't really prefer either all that much. The Nissan looks too much "Family Sedan"-ish and the Celica is too much "Plastic car"-ish. Plus there's other things about the Celica that look weird. Going for looks, I think I might pick it over the Nissan though. I dunno...

 

[Rent]

It would be close. Its near impossible to keep a celica on the second cam when shifting to 2nd, but it can be done. If both drivers are good, the Sentra would edge it out - BARELY. 6,100 redline really really really hurts the SpecV

 

[Rallispec]

<< another look at the Spec V thread by Rallispec >>




what can i say.. i love my car and want to share the joy with everybody else.


and it could be worse.. at least its not a "hello i'm new", "what car should i buy", "help me with girl problems", "useless poll", "dumb joke", or "name this song" thread..

 

[cressida]

 

[iamwiz82]

this is a great alternate name for this thread: which car has an uglier design?

The celica is uglier, but Nissan has a history of making extremely ugly cars. I think i'll say the sentra, for having a history of being ugly.

 

[dawheat]

ehh those numbers are bogus- I've seen stock GTSs run low 15s easy in the quarter. Stock for stock- the GTS will win in the quarter. As for handling- the GTS has one of the best stock suspensions (superior to the RSX-S I'll admit). Even with smaller tires, the response, steering and braking is superior to the Spec V- though it probably loses out on overall grip.

When i ran the Spec-V:

- the Spec V chasis felt limp. The suspension made a good effort to stiffen the response of the car, but over pot holes and rough pavement the car's limp chasis is noticeable.
- The rear suspension is a joke.- i think the Spec V is still using axle beams
- the top end is flat- the engine just runs out of breath
- first gear is terribly geared- destroying a good amount of the tourqe advantage over its competitors

<edit> its easy to just focus on the bad and not the good. On a smooth road- the handling is excellent and the LSD is a wonderful suprise on a car of this price. The engine is flexible and tourqey down low- easier to troll around in 3rd or 4th gear.

I'm actually biased against both cars as I drive the RSX-S But i have driven both the GTS and Spec V hard. The Spec V is a nice car, but like the GTS, WRX, RSX- no car is perfect.

 

[BornStar]

I could have sworn we were talking about stock cars here, so explain again why those numbers are bogus?

 

[rootaxs]

Rallispec, you forgot to mention that the Spec-V has HLSD. That thing will greatly increase your get-up and go traction off the line.

Ih8Canada,

<< Dont even tell me you can fit 2 6 foot ppl into the back of your sentra LOL not possible now in my taurus you can fit 3 6 footer's.
edit- my 24v 3.0L duratec would smoke your lil ricers. >>



That's not fair dude. In defense of Rallispec and my car's li'l bro. My 3.5L VQ engine will slap your Duratec silly from here to eternity

 

[toant103]

Spec V for the money

 

[dawheat]

what i mean by bogus is that the GTS is faster than a 16 second car. The GTS has consistently ran low 15s in the quarter stock- and belive me this is not from a proponent of the GTS. There is always a problem in "mag racing" and not running them yourself or seeing real world results. I mean edmunds.com- not exactly performace burners ran a 6.9 0-6 0 for the GTS and a 15.4 quarter.

You have to give props to each car as they deserve it- the Spec V was never intended to be the fastest, badest drag car out there, nor the GTS for that matter. Its a car made to handle and it does it quite compentently at an exceptional price.

 

[geno]

No matter what you prefer, which you think looks better, the Celica is lighter and stronger, I'd give straight line acceleration to the Celica...Handling is tougher to decide, I know the Spec V has a helical LSD, not sure what the Celica has for a diff, but again, it's several hundred pounds lighter, so with the right suspension it could be right next to the Spec V.

Remember people, he said who would win, not which is quieter, not what's more comfortable in city driving etc.... overall I'd take a Spec V cause I'm a bigger fan of torque, but I still say a Celica would edge it out in the 1/4

 

[geno]

<< Dont even tell me you can fit 2 6 foot ppl into the back of your sentra LOL not possible now in my taurus you can fit 3 6 footer's.

edit- my 24v 3.0L duratec would smoke your lil ricers. >>


LOL, go get a SHO, then come back and talk smack For now, just deal with your family car

 

[Ih8canada]

no thanks genocide couldnt find any good deals on 99's so i passed. my tauri is an excellent sleeper.

 

[rootaxs]

Well, at high 7's for 0-60mph of course it's "a-sleep"-er just playing with ya



<< no thanks genocide couldnt find any good deals on 99's so i passed. my tauri is an excellent sleeper. >>

 

[rootaxs]

Actually somewhere in that range is what most people are getting their Spec-V's for (high $16k's to low $17k's)



<< the thing is that you can't really get spec V for $16500.....it will cost much more once you really go to dealer and bargain with them. >>

 

[BornStar]

<< what i mean by bogus is that the GTS is faster than a 16 second car. The GTS has consistently ran low 15s in the quarter stock- and belive me this is not from a proponent of the GTS. There is always a problem in "mag racing" and not running them yourself or seeing real world results. I mean edmunds.com- not exactly performace burners ran a 6.9 0-6 0 for the GTS and a 15.4 quarter. >>



I think that you need to take into account allowances in test equipment and track conditions. From what I've read of Car and Driver, they use some of the latest timing devices and every number I've ever read from them sounds right. I could take my 2.2L I4 Camry to an empty road with a stop watch and the internal speedometer and run it to 60 in 2.0s. What you don't know is that I've adjusted the speedometer to read 40mph high and I was a bit trigger happy with the stop watch. I'm not saying that Edmunds.com isn't credible, I'm saying that everyone tests in a different manner.

 

[SpongeBob]

The sentra would probably win in a race, but I'd rather have the celica and day. The sentra's styling is so bland, whereas the celica's styling is aggresive looking. Plus, I think toyota is higher quality than nissan.

 

[pecel]

between 2 of them I'll choose Celica GTS and add action/agressive package it will be cool

but I rather have Acura RS-X type S.

what u guys think?

 

[Jejunum]

umm subaru impreza rs 2.5 for same price

awd and 2.5 liter engine- yes im biased

though sentra over celica any day...torque and its not so feminnine

 

[geno]

What I don't get though is your guys' reasoning when you say the Sentra will "destroy" the GT-S. How??? Like I said, the Celica is lighter, and has more HP. I think the LSD and the added torque will help the Sentra off of the line, but I say that once the Celica gets a rolling start, it'll run all over the heavier, lower revving Sentra.

 

[rootaxs]

HP isn't everything, the Sentra's higher Torque will help move the car just as well from a full-stop as on highways. High-revving also doesn't always mean faster car. Most high-revving engines don't make most of their power until redline. Most Nissan's (at least that i know of) make most their power in the mid-rpm range thus putting down more power earlier in the powerband. The S2000 is a good example of this. Unless you drop your clutch at significantly high RPM's (beyond 5k) and keep the power up there it will never achieve the mid-5 second 0-60 times it's known for.

The power-weight ratio on these cars aren't that far off either. At best these cars are going to be very close in terms of performance.

I don't think these two should be compared to begin with though, the Sentra S-V is a good 4 door sports sedan that can haul when needed. The Celica OTOH is a sports coupe. Prices are also significantly different.

In terms of price/performance/practicallity ratio's the Spec-V wins hands down.





<< What I don't get though is your guys' reasoning when you say the Sentra will "destroy" the GT-S. How??? Like I said, the Celica is lighter, and has more HP. I think the LSD and the added torque will help the Sentra off of the line, but I say that once the Celica gets a rolling start, it'll run all over the heavier, lower revving Sentra. >>

 

[geno]

<< High-revving also doesn't always mean faster car >>


Sorry, I should've been more specific, I was talking about the breathing aspect and how the 1.8 takes more advantage of the higher revs while the 2.5 can't breathe as well. 300lbs is a big difference between cars when dealing with mid 2000's, and I don't think that just torque can make up for that...

 

[N8Magic]

Spec V > Celica GTS.

I test drove both in my lonnnnnnnng search for a new car. The Spec V just felt quicker to me, and for those of you that haven't driven one, I guarantee that you are underestimating it.

I would have bought one but there was one MAJOR MAJOR gripe I had with the car. The interior. :disgust: I'll bet if they put a somewhat regular interior in there, they would sell a lot more of them.