Outnumbered...Never Outgunned
Okay, whaddya want first? The new car, or my impeccable logic?
Too bad, you're getting the car first. The Nissan Skyline R34 GTR V-Spec II is...sublime. That's the only way I can describe it. My EVO was faster, but it was faster because I was kicking a good 400-hp out of an engine that made 276-hp when it was stock. The Skyline is still making its base 276 out of a turbo'd V6.
That engine is the lovely RB26DETT. The "26" there means that it displaces 2.6 liters, and the "TT" means "twin-turbo". It cranks out 276-hp and 289-lb-ft of torque, which provides ample motivation for the car. It also has one of the world's best all-wheel drive systems, which gives it amazing handling out of the box, along with superb control. It's not a light car, but it doesn't have to be. It's good anyway.
And sweet mother of God, is it good. Plenty quick enough for everyday driving, and pretty fast for track work, too. Easy to control through city streets, and quite comfortable on the highway. I have yet to really flog it somewhere, but that'll come soon enough. It's a perfectly balanced car...while it doesn't really own any one category, it does pretty well in all of them. And here's the great part...I'm getting 36mpg right now. I won't once I start playing with it, but for now, envy me. And what do I really want to do to it?
1. More power. It's quick now, but I was spoiled by the EVO and its ridiculous power. The RB26DETT can easily produce 565-hp, as was shown by this year's Sport Compact Car magazine's Ultimate Street Car...so why not make 565-hp? That guy was able to do it and have a car that passed all the emissions tests and was still driveable on the street. In fact, it was his daily driver, and he picked up groceries with it. My plan is to add power by lowering the 8.5:1 compression ratio just a smidge, slapping on one big turbo instead of two little ones (it's easier to control one turbo than it is to control two), do some work on the engine's internals, replace the stock intake and exhausts, remap the ECU a little, chuck on a superlight flywheel, and give the clutch a re-do. I probably won't make more than 500-hp without blowing a lot of money on custom engine work, but I can easily settle for 450.
2. Better handling. Yes, I know the hahndling is really goddamn good. I don't care. And I don't care about how bad the ride is, so long as I can turn tighter than everyone else and look good doing it. And that means a Nismo R-tune setup front and rear, stiffer anti-roll bars, strut tower bar, removing the minimal backseat, replacing the hood with painted carbon fiber, and chucking on a set of R-compound tires.
3. Brakes. When you're making big power, you need big, beefy brakes mated with your big, sticky tires. I think a set of oversized, cross-drilled and slotted brakes from StopTech should do nicely. Maybe 13" up front, 11.5" in back. Or more if I can squeeze them in behind the Konig Theory rims. Oh, and a careful replacement of the brake lines with steel braided ones, because broken brake lines suck ass.
4. Sound. I'm sorry, but the stock sound system just isn't up to my personal preferences. I'm going to tear the whole thing out. First off, bass. I was thinking something along the lines of a single 1000-watt Rockford Fosgate amplifier driving two 10" Kenwood Tsunami subs. And then another 300-watt or so RF amp driving a 12" Tsunami. For the part of the system that makes actual sound and not just vibration, I'll hit Kenwood again for a six-speaker set of two-ways supplmented by another amp, 450-500 watts. And everything will be nicely controlled by a Kenwood head unit and onboard hard drive. I'll need to replace the battery with a performance one from Optima, and slap in at least one capacitator. The amps will be turned low most of the time, because big power sounds better even when you're not using it (and I'm not just making that up, it's true), because the system isn't trying as hard to produce the same level of sound. But when I've got to lower myself to the level of some dumb f*ck with two 12s in his Firebird, I'll have the ability to shake my mirrors...and his.
5. Seats. I hate them. I'll call Recaro and get that straightened out.
But yes...I'm going to put all that sound crap in the trunk. When I remove the back seat, I'll make it all nice and pretty with some carpeting and then use that as my cargo area.
Now! On to why I had to buy a car that had been shipped here from Japan for some other guy!
Enthusiasts--and by "enthusiasts" I mean people who like pushing their cars in any manner of motorsport, not people who watch Pimp My Ride--are not the majority of car buyers (surprise!). I would be deeply surprised if we even made up 10% of the total car-buying population...and bear in mind that even if we're buying a car, we may not be able to afford a sport model, or our wives might make us buy a minivan. Although in all fairness, women are deeply involved in motorsports, too, and they're pretty damn good at it. They just tend to be sensible instead of stupid.
As such, the overwhelming majority of cars that are introduced are not going to be sporty at all. Or even semi-capable. A few might accidentally be designed well enough that they're worth modifying and tuning. Cars like the 1992 Nissan Sentra come to mind when I think about that. Or the 1992-2000 Honda Civic (not the new ones, which are fat and slow and expensive).
Then there are the ones that are good cars, but hampered by the legal department and the bean counters. In this group, I place lovely little things like the Acura RSX Type-S. Great little car, but in Japan (where it's sold as the Honda Integra and comes available in the R-type race package), it's got all kinds of extra goodies. It did bring the K20 engine here to America, but for the most part, it's being held back.
Then there are the magical few good cars. In this list, I place the Mitsubishi EVO, the Subaru WRX STi, the Chevrolet Corvette, the Honda S2000, and a few others. Some--namely, the EVO and the WRX--are really more built for the professional racers. See, in Group N rally, you can only change a few minor things about the cars before you race them, mostly safety and maintenance things. In fact, they have restrictors on the intakes so the cars they race are slower than they were in the showroom. But in the EVO and the WRX, there are all kinds of little performance goodies that never get used in the stock ECU configuration but make a difference in rally. Other cars, like the Corvette, are built because everyone wants one and they've got a tradition to continue. So they accidentally build a decent car.
But for the most part, manufacturers focus on cars that offer a comfortable ride (brick-like handling), good gas economy (glacial acceleration), nice seats (extra weight), and LCD screens for the kiddies (stupidity). And enthusiasts have to put up with them.
Too bad, you're getting the car first. The Nissan Skyline R34 GTR V-Spec II is...sublime. That's the only way I can describe it. My EVO was faster, but it was faster because I was kicking a good 400-hp out of an engine that made 276-hp when it was stock. The Skyline is still making its base 276 out of a turbo'd V6.
That engine is the lovely RB26DETT. The "26" there means that it displaces 2.6 liters, and the "TT" means "twin-turbo". It cranks out 276-hp and 289-lb-ft of torque, which provides ample motivation for the car. It also has one of the world's best all-wheel drive systems, which gives it amazing handling out of the box, along with superb control. It's not a light car, but it doesn't have to be. It's good anyway.
And sweet mother of God, is it good. Plenty quick enough for everyday driving, and pretty fast for track work, too. Easy to control through city streets, and quite comfortable on the highway. I have yet to really flog it somewhere, but that'll come soon enough. It's a perfectly balanced car...while it doesn't really own any one category, it does pretty well in all of them. And here's the great part...I'm getting 36mpg right now. I won't once I start playing with it, but for now, envy me. And what do I really want to do to it?
1. More power. It's quick now, but I was spoiled by the EVO and its ridiculous power. The RB26DETT can easily produce 565-hp, as was shown by this year's Sport Compact Car magazine's Ultimate Street Car...so why not make 565-hp? That guy was able to do it and have a car that passed all the emissions tests and was still driveable on the street. In fact, it was his daily driver, and he picked up groceries with it. My plan is to add power by lowering the 8.5:1 compression ratio just a smidge, slapping on one big turbo instead of two little ones (it's easier to control one turbo than it is to control two), do some work on the engine's internals, replace the stock intake and exhausts, remap the ECU a little, chuck on a superlight flywheel, and give the clutch a re-do. I probably won't make more than 500-hp without blowing a lot of money on custom engine work, but I can easily settle for 450.
2. Better handling. Yes, I know the hahndling is really goddamn good. I don't care. And I don't care about how bad the ride is, so long as I can turn tighter than everyone else and look good doing it. And that means a Nismo R-tune setup front and rear, stiffer anti-roll bars, strut tower bar, removing the minimal backseat, replacing the hood with painted carbon fiber, and chucking on a set of R-compound tires.
3. Brakes. When you're making big power, you need big, beefy brakes mated with your big, sticky tires. I think a set of oversized, cross-drilled and slotted brakes from StopTech should do nicely. Maybe 13" up front, 11.5" in back. Or more if I can squeeze them in behind the Konig Theory rims. Oh, and a careful replacement of the brake lines with steel braided ones, because broken brake lines suck ass.
4. Sound. I'm sorry, but the stock sound system just isn't up to my personal preferences. I'm going to tear the whole thing out. First off, bass. I was thinking something along the lines of a single 1000-watt Rockford Fosgate amplifier driving two 10" Kenwood Tsunami subs. And then another 300-watt or so RF amp driving a 12" Tsunami. For the part of the system that makes actual sound and not just vibration, I'll hit Kenwood again for a six-speaker set of two-ways supplmented by another amp, 450-500 watts. And everything will be nicely controlled by a Kenwood head unit and onboard hard drive. I'll need to replace the battery with a performance one from Optima, and slap in at least one capacitator. The amps will be turned low most of the time, because big power sounds better even when you're not using it (and I'm not just making that up, it's true), because the system isn't trying as hard to produce the same level of sound. But when I've got to lower myself to the level of some dumb f*ck with two 12s in his Firebird, I'll have the ability to shake my mirrors...and his.
5. Seats. I hate them. I'll call Recaro and get that straightened out.
But yes...I'm going to put all that sound crap in the trunk. When I remove the back seat, I'll make it all nice and pretty with some carpeting and then use that as my cargo area.
Now! On to why I had to buy a car that had been shipped here from Japan for some other guy!
Enthusiasts--and by "enthusiasts" I mean people who like pushing their cars in any manner of motorsport, not people who watch Pimp My Ride--are not the majority of car buyers (surprise!). I would be deeply surprised if we even made up 10% of the total car-buying population...and bear in mind that even if we're buying a car, we may not be able to afford a sport model, or our wives might make us buy a minivan. Although in all fairness, women are deeply involved in motorsports, too, and they're pretty damn good at it. They just tend to be sensible instead of stupid.
As such, the overwhelming majority of cars that are introduced are not going to be sporty at all. Or even semi-capable. A few might accidentally be designed well enough that they're worth modifying and tuning. Cars like the 1992 Nissan Sentra come to mind when I think about that. Or the 1992-2000 Honda Civic (not the new ones, which are fat and slow and expensive).
Then there are the ones that are good cars, but hampered by the legal department and the bean counters. In this group, I place lovely little things like the Acura RSX Type-S. Great little car, but in Japan (where it's sold as the Honda Integra and comes available in the R-type race package), it's got all kinds of extra goodies. It did bring the K20 engine here to America, but for the most part, it's being held back.
Then there are the magical few good cars. In this list, I place the Mitsubishi EVO, the Subaru WRX STi, the Chevrolet Corvette, the Honda S2000, and a few others. Some--namely, the EVO and the WRX--are really more built for the professional racers. See, in Group N rally, you can only change a few minor things about the cars before you race them, mostly safety and maintenance things. In fact, they have restrictors on the intakes so the cars they race are slower than they were in the showroom. But in the EVO and the WRX, there are all kinds of little performance goodies that never get used in the stock ECU configuration but make a difference in rally. Other cars, like the Corvette, are built because everyone wants one and they've got a tradition to continue. So they accidentally build a decent car.
But for the most part, manufacturers focus on cars that offer a comfortable ride (brick-like handling), good gas economy (glacial acceleration), nice seats (extra weight), and LCD screens for the kiddies (stupidity). And enthusiasts have to put up with them.
posted by Jack Red at 3:45 AM
3 Comments:
You do realize that you suck, right? I mean, really, could you sound any dumber?
A couple of points on that one.
1. The first line is something we grown-ups like to call "sarcasm".
2. So I like fast cars. Sue me. And I like fast cars that can still do things like stop and turn.
3. The bit about why almost all the cars made today, to be frank, suck, is pure honesty. No one's going to make a really good car at the expense of stupid things people like you want in a car because there's a lot more stupid people than there are car geeks.
4. If I sound stupid, it's only because I had to speak in such a way so that you could understand what I was saying.
5. I apologize for using multi-syllabic words, if that's what offended you. In the future, I will attempt to communicate through grunts and pretty pictures.
Hey Jack, ever considered getting the Elise? It's a heck of a ride mate. Eventhough I've never personally driven one, I've been driven around the Lotus track here in the UK. It's brilliant man. Better yet, wait for a few more months and get the Exige. It should be available to the US next year. Really, it's a car literally designed for enthusiasts.
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