Right well I've got my flame proof vest on ready for all the Subaru sarcastic comments... ;)

I've been into Japanese sports cars for ages now, got a Subaru at the moment.

Anyone else out there a jap car enthusiast? Had any jap cars, what you got now? and whats your favourite? :D

Oh yes, also, JoeP kindly agreed to let me post a URL for a website for jap car enthusiasts in Yorkshire. Cheers Joe! :)

www.yjcc.co.uk

Im a Subaru Impreza enthusiast myself.I justlove them. I know they arent the best cars in the world, but they are my personal faves.

My last car was a Subaru Impreza and my next will be an Impreza aswell. I cant do without one.

I'll let you guess what I drive.
It's not a 'sports' car though, it's a performance/GT car. I wouldn't call a Scooby/Evo a sports car either, they're performance cars, too.

Sports cars are MX5s and other such vehicles aimed at girls ;)
(Steve is also wearing his flame-proof suit)

My car (http://www.showoffyourcar.com/galleries.asp?carid=1650)

EDIT: This thread is worthless without pics!

P.S. Also had a Black 1988 Celica 2.0GT - that was fun, too. :)

I know what you mean I've been wanting an Impreza for a long time :D

Sorry Steve, you're quite right, performance cars are a better tag :) Very tidy looking Supra there 8)

Had a Supra myself at one point, was the old shape 3.0 single turbo though. Still pretty good fun :D

As for the piccies comment, heres a snap of mine:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/Michael_H/P101110750p.jpg

And a couple more:

http://www.yjcc.co.uk/MemberCars%20MichaelH.htm

Thats not a bad ride youve got there Spikey. Blue is one of my fave Subaru colours. Looks pretty tidy, liking the graphics. :thumbsup:

Cheers Spyro :)

Can't take the compliment for the graphics though, the missus talked me into that one. Quite happy she did though.. :)

Well I know a lot of people say that graphics spoil the car, but I personally think graphics look good, as long as they have been done properly.

Very nice :)
It's difficult to pull the graphics thang off, but that looks nice mate, you must be pleased :)

We should do specs as well as pics! :clap:

Mine is a completely stock 1994 Jap-Spec (imported by me via a friend in August this year) Supra Twin Turbo with just shy of 39k miles on the clock.
326bhp, Manual 6 gears, and to get the pub talk out of the way it does 0-60 in 4.9s on paper ;)
Once i delimit it (and go to a lonnnng track) it should reach a top speed of between 170~180mph. :D

Cheers :D I must admit I wanted something a bit different, seen loads of scoobs with yellow graphics, silver look pretty good though :)

Specs?

How long have you got? :lol:

Ok here goes.. hope you've got a few minutes!

2002 Subaru Impreza Sti-Uk Prodrive
Detangoed indicators and side repeaters
Silver rally graphics
Rear window tints
Eibach springs (lowered 40mm)
Subaru 6 speed quickshift
Hayward & Scott turbo back decat
Uprated fuel pump
TD05/06 20G turbo
GT spec gen 2 headers with heat wrap
APS cold air induction
Triple port boost solenoid
TEK3 ECU remap

382.6bhp & approx 340 lb/ft

As for pub talk, had a 0-60 times at 4.1 secs when it was 330bhp, so probably sub 4 seconds now.

Not proven yet though. :D

Its still limited to 155, not sure what it would be capable of without that due to the gear ratios.

Had a mate with a Supra twin turbo. he stuck a decat and induction kit on it and was pushing out near 400bhp, couldn't keep with him on the motorway. That was before a few recent mods though.. .;)

His gearing was much better suited to high end speeds though, he kept bouncing off the limiter just as it seemed to be getting going!

You got any other mods planned?

Started off with a UK Impreza 5 years ago. Then went to an Evo 6 and have currently got an R34 GTR Skyline in Bayside blue with a stage 1 on it bringing it up to the 430 bhp mark.

My brother too is a huge jap enthusiast having a monster Spec Tommi Mackinnen with over 450 bhp and huge amounts of torque.

One great thing about Jap cars is their reliability. can't fault them.

How did the Evo compare with the scoob? Won't be offended if you thought the Evo was better, just interested :D

R34, very nice 8) V Spec?

Thought about chopping the Impreza for a skyline not to long ago but decided stick with it for the time being. Probably get a skyline next though. :)

I'm planning on the usual for Supra TT owners - de-cat with supporting mods = 380+bhp for not that many pennies :)

I want to upgrade the brakes first tho - the stoppers are the most important thing on any performance car IMHO. Jap-spec brakes are smaller then UKs and tend to suffer from fade when on the track - and as my car is my toy and I intend to use it for track days starting next year, this has to be a priority for me. Unfortunately (sort of) that means I need bigger wheels - and tyres to match. All in all it's going to cost me getting on for £3k :o

Never mind, it's my only vice ;)
It's already got the factory option of uprated Bilstein suspension, so at least that doesn't need doing :)

Sounds good 8) Always ends up costing loads though.. :(

How big are you going for wheels-wise?

Just got standard sti brakes on mine at the moment, they seem pretty good so I'll probably only upgrade these when they need replacing.

Not been to a track day yet, nearly went to one this month at Snetterton. Think I'll also end up giving it a try next year. Had it down at Santa Pod a few times and up to Elvington for some 1/4 miles runs. That was fun :)

I'm sure a track day would be even better :D

Im still not back on the road yet since my last scooby. The money is there, but I am being very picky.

Any suggestions on a decent ride for around the £6k mark?

Although I love Scoobys, I am open to other suggestions :thumbsup:

'How did the Evo compare with the scoob? Won't be offended if you thought the Evo was better, just interested

R34, very nice V Spec?'

A UK Scoob runs out of puff compared to the Evo. Was a good car at the time as I'd stepped up from A Golf VR6. However my brother had a Type R impreza at the sametime(hence the reason I got the evo being competetive etc) and that car I have to say was very very quick off the mark. Had over 300 bhp but the short gear ratio it was so much fun to drive. Best car of the bunch tbh.

Bought my Skyline from a Mitsi dealer up north in standard form. TBH 286 bhp on such a big car is rubbish. However all skylines need at least a stage 1 which really unleashes the horses and in de-cat version sounds the business.

No its not a V-spec but tbh there's no difference apart from V-Spec has a firmer suspension set-up and cooling fins on rear diff. Interior the same.

Only other thing it gulps petrol like there's no tomorrow. I'm lucky if i get 8 mpg on a run!!!!!

On a 6k budget I'd go for an old wrx.

:loopy: :loopy: :thumbsup:

I wouldn't buy anything Japonese becasue they have never really apologised for what they did to our troops on the Burma Railway. I would suggest that anyone who has enough money to spend to be able to afford to buy an expensive car, thinks about this before the profit ends up in the hands of the people responsible. There is little point in wearing a poppy one week and buying a £20,000 car from the Japonese the next.

Yeah, I've heard good things about the Evos :)

Skyline is the daddy for me though, want to get an R34 one day, hopefully the V Spec, but they seem to be a lot more expensive! :(

8mpg! :o Thought I had it bad on fuel consumption!

£6k should get you a decent older wrx, I'd be careful of sti's that are within that budget.

Originally posted by KenH
I wouldn't buy anything Japonese becasue they have never really apologised for what they did to our troops on the Burma Railway. I would suggest that anyone who has enough money to spend to be able to afford to buy an expensive car, thinks about this before the profit ends up in the hands of the people responsible. There is little point in wearing a poppy one week and buying a £20,000 car from the Japonese the next.

I dont wear poppies either, so I will continue to buy Japanese cars :)

Had a lovely "standard" looking scooby in for tinting last week, gets talking to the owner, it puts out @ 380 ponies apparently. Took me for a spin in it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! & I think it proberbly did as well. Makes the boxster's we have in look slow!

Sounds 8) Nice to have one that takes people by surprise a bit as well :D

People seem to see mine coming a bit though... :oops:

Bog standard looking apart from limo black tints, he did say that wheels & tyres were slightly bigger, the the induction roar when he hit the load peddle was amazing. a true "Q" car.

I have an '04 STi. Bone stock except for a K&N drop-in filter. I'm about to sell it though. :(

I love this car...the US spec has a 2.5 litre engine (300 BHP, 300 lb/ft torque) instead of the UK's 2 litre. I was gunning it on some twisties only last night - the engine sounded awesome, held on to the road without a hint of letting go...so sad to have to get rid of it.

Hopefully, I'll soon have something else in the garage that'll make me smile.

Originally posted by Spikey1
Right well I've got my flame proof vest on ready for all the Subaru sarcastic comments... ;)

I've been into Japanese sports cars for ages now, got a Subaru at the moment.

Anyone else out there a jap car enthusiast? Had any jap cars, what you got now? and whats your favourite? :D

Oh yes, also, JoeP kindly agreed to let me post a URL for a website for jap car enthusiasts in Yorkshire. Cheers Joe! :)

www.yjcc.co.uk

I'm a Yank car enthusiast, and according to the rules we dislike you rice burners :loopy: All Turbo's and no CI (cubic inches). We have loadsa CI's and we get decent MPG compared to your rice burners. Granted our Cubic Inches are nearly or higher than our HP, but with a little tweeking here and there we take some beating on the strip :thumbsup: .

I own a 1980 Pontiac Trans-Am (a 2nd gen "Smokey and the Bandit" lookalike), with a 79 400CI engine fitted (6.6 litre). I will never sell the thing, I think its great. Unfortunately unless they discover a new clean, renewable fuel, then I won't be taking it out again either.

Don't worry, I won't bang on about "Peak Oil" etc. You'll either soon learn about it. If your lucky you may understand it before its too late, if it isn't allready :loopy: :help:

Originally posted by wayne72
I'm a Yank car enthusiast...

What do you think of the new GTO, 'Stang and Charger?

They all look a bit uninspired to me...very boxy (I'm one to talk owning an STi). However, nothing on earth sounds like a nice, throaty V8 rumble.

I'm not sure what my next will be...I think I'll see where the STi and Evo go. Maybe a 'Vette...I should be hitting my mid-life crisis just in time for that. ;)

Must admit the new GTO and Charger are well uninspired, neither do anything for me. I do love the new Mustang though, I think Ford's got a real winner there (and sales prove it). I like the look of the new Camero too, although its a year or 2 away from production. I just hope this means the rebirth of the Trans-Am too, well one can dream :thumbsup: .

What next, the return of the Barracuda, or maybe even the Hemi-Cuda? Well I suppose one can have 2 dreams
:clap:

Any suggestions on a decent ride for around the £6k mark? [/B]

My boyfriend has an FTO - cost around £5k and really good cars. I'd recommend one of these.

I had an Black FTO for a year, it was great until things started to go wrong. Problems with the emissions and then the bloody gear box failed on me. All very traumatic (and quite expensive)
It was a great car tho, fun to drive, made a great noise, especially when the Mivec kicked in :D
Biggest problem I found was that no one in Sheffield could fix the things, the best garage I found was in Guildford, quite a long way to go!! Infact thats where it was going when the gear box died.... :mad:

Originally posted by headup
I have an '04 STi. Bone stock except for a K&N drop-in filter. I'm about to sell it though. :(

I love this car...the US spec has a 2.5 litre engine (300 BHP, 300 lb/ft torque) instead of the UK's 2 litre. I was gunning it on some twisties only last night - the engine sounded awesome, held on to the road without a hint of letting go...so sad to have to get rid of it.

Hopefully, I'll soon have something else in the garage that'll make me smile.

For some reason we've only had the 2.0 option available... :(

Until now. The new 06 model which is available now is a 2.5 litre. No idea why we had to wait so long for one though!

Hope you manage to get another fun car in the near future :D

Yank cars?

Well as a Jap Car owner the rules say I don't like them.... ;)

To be honest, I'm a big fan of american muscle cars. Just harder to get hold of a good one over here. I expect one day I'll have one, maybe a firebird or mustang (love the new one!). But am sticking with the jap cars for now :)

A cheap fast jap car would be a Starlet GT Turbo. Very underrated cars (1.3 litre turbo) but very quick. Sub 7 seconds 0-60 and can be picked up for about £3k.

I'm looking for a honda s2k at the moment, if anyone see's one for around 13 - 14k send me a pm.

got to be a scooby!

had a few
currently on a 2001 wrx with prodrive!

nice to drive!!

Looks like ill be going for another Scooby then. I cant believe I was thinking about selling out :gag:

lol lol

yeah! had all sorts 300zx twin turbo, gto,'s but there is something about these scoobys!

Theres nothing better than the purrrrrrrrrrrrring of a good Scooby engine :)

I agree (but am completely biased!) theres nothing quite like a scooby flat four burble :D

If it had to be something else, probably a Skyline GTR or a Supra 3.0 twin turbo.

The choice is Well screwed together jap or "chucked together" yank ? Got to be the jap every time.
A mate of ours hasimported a new mustang & can't get shut without bloeing his b---s on it. Oh dear. yes very dear! (well it looks like the little experiance is going to cost him £5-7k)

As far as "Rice Burners" go, I do like alot of them. The Mitsubishi GTO 3000 is one of my faves (is that the correct name for this excellent car i'm thinking of?)

I raced one of these Mitsubishi's on the Drag Strip with my Trans-Am, earlier this year and lost. To be honest though it got me at the start because of Traction problems my T/A suffers, compared to these newer Jap turbo machines. My T/A was getting stronger and stronger, but as the strip is only 1/4 of a mile, I ran out track :help:

Originally posted by Tintsexpert
The choice is Well screwed together jap or "chucked together" yank ? Got to be the jap every time.
A mate of ours hasimported a new mustang & can't get shut without bloeing his b---s on it. Oh dear. yes very dear! (well it looks like the little experiance is going to cost him £5-7k)

Thats intersting, I thought the new Stag may be better put together than earlier Yanks. I agree with you totally, the Yanks are thrown together, and its an ar*e keeping on top of things with them and expensive. But I do prefer their look and their sound, although there's been plenty of bum*ers in the last 25 or so years. The greatest era was 62-72 the so called Muscle era. The best of these cars was the 70-71 Plymouth Hemi Cuda, 69 Pontiac GTO Judge and 69 Dodge Charger IMO.

Guess what killed the muscle car off, yes the Oil Shocks of the early 70's. S*it I said I wouldn't bring Oil in to this thread :help: :thumbsup:

In the mid 70's toearly 80's my dad worked on the rigs, then he moved on shore on shetland. the car they had to "smoke" around in was a dodge charger. cokplete general lee look a like,
Would only do 90, but it did it up hill with a caravan on the back!

Originally posted by Tintsexpert
In the mid 70's toearly 80's my dad worked on the rigs, then he moved on shore on shetland. the car they had to "smoke" around in was a dodge charger. cokplete general lee look a like,
Would only do 90, but it did it up hill with a caravan on the back!

LOL, yes this was generally because they were geared for tork, rather than tob speeds. Although if you managed to get hold of either the 440R/T or 426Hemi then these would squeeze out 150 tops, they'd also do 13sec or less on the 1/4mile and around 5-8 MPG. Of course they were the rarer of of the Chargers and now fetch in excess of £30,000

I think you probably are calling it by the right name.

Mistubishi GTO also known as 3000GT. 3.0 twin turbo AWD and very quick!

AWD gives a lot of jap cars a distinct advantage on the 1/4. :)

Dissappointed to hear about the new Mustang like that, fancied one of them one day :(

Has anyone drove a Toyota Celica before?

Im thinking of getting one as a casual car for A-Z trips. Ive always liked the look of them, but have never tried one.