Poll: OK, American Muscle or Japanese Sophistication?

[Sunner]

I agree that American cars give alot fo power for very little money, but OTOH most handle like complete $hit so that power's gonna be wasted.

HoopDogg, have a looksee at the Venom 650 before bashing the Viper engines

8.4l V10 with 650 horsies under the hood.

 

[Cable God]

NFS4, go to gmbuypower.com andorder yourself a 2001 SS Z28 (6 speed manual of course) and be done with this silly question Without a doubt, spend $3500 extra and get the Vortech 12psi blower. That'll put it at 485hp, from a factory new car. Now that puts it in the low 11's for the 1/4 mile. 28mpg on the highway, 21 in the city, 175mpg, simply awesome for under $32K, depending on specs you order.

 

[NFS4]

<< NFS4, go to gmbuypower.com andorder yourself a 2001 SS Z28 (6 speed manual of course) and be done with this silly question Without a doubt, spend $3500 extra and get the Vortech 12psi blower. That'll put it at 485hp, from a factory new car. Now that puts it in the low 11's for the 1/4 mile. 28mpg on the highway, 21 in the city, 175mpg, simply awesome for under $32K, depending on specs you order. >>


I HATE Camaros. Too big, overweight, ugly, cheapass interior, POS. For 32k, I'd buy an Audi A4 2.8 Quattro

 

[Demon-Xanth]

In reference to the &quot;porche 4L: 459HP&quot; comment, it took them turbos to do that. And it also took them an extra $40k to make that car. For about $40k you can get a lt-1 model firebird modded by Lingenfelter to pull down 440HP and 430 Lb/ft from a 383. And this car was tested to run 192MPH, low 12's in the quarter in the 130's, and 0-60 in the low fours.

 

[aUt0eXebat]

american muscle car.

 

[StageLeft]

nfs4

They ain't pretty but lets see your audi get anywhere close to that camaro off the line!

 

[Doggiedog]

I wouldn't mind looking at the rear of the Firebird sitting in an A4 if it weren't so ugly, along with the rest of the car.

 

[ArkAoss]

hey you all forgot the ultimate, still in production nock you all on your freakin buts american super classic muscle car of alll time.. . . the 1991 plymoth voyager minivan!! already premodded with automatic, and standard if you dont like the paint job dont worry its already skinning itself like a snake paint job.

but seriously, for a street race nuthin beats windy roads, and in CT we've got plenty, of course if you want to have a nice windy road race on a sunny day, take a bike man, kawaski 500 '87 . or really good rainy day windy road race, gotta take out the minivan, you've never expirienced anything till youve tried that.

k umm if i could have a car, if i had money, i'd go for a viper viper viper , feels soo nice to type,, , i'd have a forest green , but any ways i'll never have money so.. .and if i had money, id probly go german, or european, might go japanese bike, but not cars, unless i lived in the city, but hartford DOES NOT COUNT as a city.

 

[ArkAoss]

wowb poll is tied !! ha

 

[Demon-Xanth]

One thing I wanna ask in these threads: Can we please compare cars in the same price range? When I saw Motor Trend put a Ferrari Modena and Pontiac Firebird in the same test I wanted to puke (ya know, in some places you could use that extra $100k to buy a house w/ garage to put the car in)

Is a 911 faster than a Camero? I'd hope so (if not kill the porche engineers). Is an Integra faster than a Camero? Now that is something to compare

 

[Sunner]

There's more to cars than 0-100.
What would you prefer, a car that could do 0-100 in 3 secs but looked like a milk carton on wheels, or a car that looked like... a Porsche 911 GT-3 and did 0-100 in 5 instead?

And quality is yet another matter, cheap cars can tend to become awfully expensive when they start falling apart.
Ask my friend, a bought a Ford Probe, got a good deal on it, but its cost him quite a bit since due to the crappy quality.
But then, one could argue that he should have known better than to get a Ford

 

[geno]

I like a combination of the two. The car I just bought is small, nimble and powerful. These words are normally associated with an Import, but it is in fact American. I like the combination of power (torque!) and the handling. If I had to characterize it, it would be one of the most &quot;Japanese&quot; American car out there because if it's characteristics.

The muscle cars of the past are great, but a strong engine and a 4000lb+ car just don't cut it for me. Sure, you can go fast in a straight line, but who wants to do that? That's why I appreciate the Japanese side of things. When you get an Import with some power, then that's where the competition heats up. They're as strong as some of America's finest, but lighter and more nimble - you can't beat the combination.

 

[StageLeft]

What did you buy genocide?

 

[NFS4]

<< nfs4

They ain't pretty but lets see your audi get anywhere close to that camaro off the line! >>


Yes, but my car won't be falling apart any time soon, and the interior won't look like sh!t after a couple of years.

Not to mention resale value and overall quality in general. Face it, there's a reason why domestic cars are so damn cheap.

 

[Looney]

Bah, i have a 98 mustang, and would take Japanese any day. I'll probably sell this car within 6 months and get Japanese. Would like the RX7

 

[NFS4]

<< Bah, i have a 98 mustang, and would take Japanese any day. >>


Any particular reason why?

 

[Doggiedog]

Cause he wants a Prelude Skoorb.

 

[rahvin]

<<The bigger the safer!>>

Ok I've had it with you saying this and I'm going to correct you. Bigger is NOT safer. I doubt bigger will ever be safer. Those little balls of tinfoil often have lower death and injury rates than big 6000lb vehicles. You know why? Crumple zones save lives. A 6000lb car doesn't do you a bit of good if you decelerate so quickly because the car doesn't dissipate the energy of the collision. And I will tell you this, roadside safety features (ie attenuators) are designed for passenger cars, you hit one in a pickup or other big heavy car and you will be seriously injured. So I say again, Bigger is NOT safer. Check the safety ratings at the NTSB on cars and you will see it.

 

[StageLeft]

rahvin

Yes, but the larger the car the more available room for crumple zone, and if the engineers make it so that the crumple zone is fully used extra distance of metal will mean a slower deceleration of passengers in the car.

Then another reason big is good vs. small in an accident is because of things like this: big vs. small

 

[DABANSHEE]

Bigger cars are safer if you smash into other cars, because there's more car to absorb the crash. But smaller cars are safer if you crash into concrete walls as there's less kinetic energy to be absorbed.

 

[Imported]

Anyone see the crash test results of the BMW X5? Those things are damn safe.

 

[rahvin]

<<Yes, but the larger the car the more available room for crumple zone, and if the engineers make it so that the crumple zone is fully used extra distance of metal will mean a slower deceleration of passengers in the car.>>

Bigger cars often don't have crumple zones. Believe me, I've seen lots of wrecked SUV's, vans, and older cars and they don't have crumple zones. The bigger heavier engines also limit the ability to crumple and result in more serious injuries. The top injury in car crashes these days is crushed legs and pelvises because the engine entered the passenger compartment. A bigger car results in more momentum, something you don't want in a crash. Bigger cars have an advantage when being rear-ended, other than that they are often more dangerous to be in than a smaller, lighter vehicle.

And for the record, 30% of fatalities are from single vehicle run-off-the-road accidents. Roadside objects are stationary and big heavy cars have a BIG dissadvantage when hitting stationary objects.

Now don't get me wrong, a properly designed vehicle (read modern and expensive) can be heavy and still be very safe. Some of the big Mercedes models are top notch in the safety ratings.

 

[HoopDogg]

sorry about using the word oriental, its proper for me. didn't know people thought its wrong as compared to asian? I was just using it to be more specific. anyways...

8.4l and only 650 hp????

PLEASE!! LETS HAVE SOME ENGINEERING HERE!!! Such a huge engine!! Please please please, some engineering??

Say, hows about that Audi le Mans car?

3.6 litre, um, 610hp??????????????????????????

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

lets look at ratios here:

610/3.6 (audi)
OR
650/8.4 (viper)

um, hm.....

audi: 169.4 hp per litre
viper: 77.3 hp per litre

that makes the audi 219.15 % more efficient, over a large hp scale
come on!! ENGINEERING!!!!!!

american muscle: &quot;Ah, lets just make the engine bigger! More gas, more air, bang bang bang fuel just pours in like a frikken fire hose and you get power!&quot;

good in theory, until you end up w/ a viper

audi engineering: &quot;Ja, das frikken auto is das gooden auto! (my lame ass attempt at german or whatever)&quot;

end result, FUCK THE AMERICAN MUSCLE!!

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Audi Le Mans car? that's a race car, not a street car. If you wanna compare race cars we got 6000HP top fuel engines from 500CID. Also, you're forgetting that a NA car can have turbos and superchargers ADDED onto it still. Take the Lingenfelter twin turbo vette, about 650HP on the boost and still has the torque off the boost. With the full handling, brake, and other paraphanelia packages it's still cheaper than a 911 Turbo and will easily do well over 200 (220 sound good to you?) and have better handling than any road will be able to utilize.

Displacement and turbos are just two ways of making power. When you've already used the turbos and refuse to increase the displacement what are you gonna do when the guy with the displacement adds a supercharger?

Edit: oh yeah, and turbo charged cars have been harder and harder to pass EPA and CARB emmisions standards because the turbo robs some of the heat that the catalitic converter needs to work. And do you honestly think that a 2L DOHC engine with a turbo would get much better gas milage on hills as a 5.7L V8? (guessing similar HP) I doubt it. Effeciency is measured in fuel used vs. work produced, not the size of the engine displacement vs. output

 

[HoopDogg]

buy an SR-71

that'll top his top speed!!