Raptor75

Very true, the other cars mentioned are very low rent on the inside. I do understand the gas situation. Look at the Legacy GT much better interior and 0-60 in 5.1 sec.

silver_8

WOW....i didnt know i was writing an essay...but thanx....??

Krankor

"Their's"??? What the hell is "their's"??? It's "theirs". You have a lot of chutzpah going around correcting people and having your corrections wrong.

typej

Do you still have stock Potenza RE40? That tire is horrible! I recently purchased new tires (SPT) and Car feels totally different now! I didn't know how much difference tires can make until I got rid of OEM tires.

At times, I considered trading in my 8 too (it even had blown engine too) but I feel like 8 will last just as long as other reliable brands (like toyota) based on the way it drives now. MPG still sucks but car rides so much smoother and I don't think I want to give up the look and feel of finely tuned sports car with the practicality of 4 door sedan to any other car on the road (yet).

silver_8

Yah im thinkin bout keeping the ****...i really slammed on it today....man..i cant leave the Rotary feeling....i got the stock dunlops..their cool...just ware out quick...

Ill be getting new tires when I get rims. I hope the stocks last till then!

Ike

Sweet, how do you think the climate control in the RX-8 compares to the climate control in the STI?

Ike

Were your "extreme performance machines" hot hatches like the Evo and STI?

Johnny5

260bhp Evo, 240bhp GT4, 200bhp Rover 200 (Surprisingly fast actually) and M3.
Do bear in mind there are faster cars nowadays, but in ntheir day these were good 'uns! (I live in the UK, so we don't have the straight roads or useless American cars like you guys)
All slow compared to my Hayabusa, which I sold before death or jail became a reality

The disappointing thing was how little faster these cars were compared to normal 'just fast' cars when on the road.

Ike

I just find it odd that you've owned all these cars yet don't seem to know what a hot hatch is...

sti_eric

No contest. STi climate controls > RX-8 climate controls. Any other questions?

RichardK

Hey, Ike, did you spot some whilst riding on the Short Bus?

The Evo comes with a variant offering 390bhp. The Impreza offers 280 or 300, IIRC. Neither have hatchbacks.

A "hot hatch" is something like a Golf GTI or Ford Focus ZX3/ST/whatever. There are some "hot hatches" that offer very impressive performance, like the Golf R32, but basically they offer around 200bhp in flawed, FWD, practical bodies.

The Evo and WRX are sedans (the hottest Impreza isn't, I believe, available in 5dr wagon form), with AWD transmissions and specifications/price well in excess of the typical hot hatch.

Still, if you intend to demonstrate your knowledge of cars to insult people, you have done quite adequately here

sti_eric

I think he was pretty much making fun of Johnny5 for calling the WRX and Evo hot hatches in post #22.

Edit: fixed

RichardK

Johnny, before you want to slag off 'useless American cars', try driving some in context instead of listening to Jeremy Clarkson. The Chrysler 300M will kick an Audi (A6) Quattro's **** around the slalom, and unlike our crappy European cars, a US car will withstand being driven over some potholes without needing new suspension arms and realignment.

I used to drive, amongst other things, a Cadillac Eldorado 4100HTi. Widely considered to be the worst of the Eldorados (maybe, the 8-6-4 variable displacement models of 1981 were held in lower regard), the 4100 engine was poor on paper but torquey and returned 27mpg on the highway - despite being old and knackered. The '82 E-body Eldos got independent rear suspension, rear discs, ABS, and mine had the Touring Suspension Package. As a result, this 18ft+, 5,000lb+ 18 year old coupe would cruise at "Somewhere over 85 (the digital dash wouldn't show higher speeds, in line with US practise at the time)" the car was utterly stable and composed.

This wasn't some restored show-winner, it was a $300 wreck from a Chevy dealer with ripped up seats, depressurised A/C and a cracked dash.

I drove that car 1,100+ miles in 10 days, running around Oklahoma, on dirt roads, highway and in town. It never gave any cause to suspect the chassis was anything but competent and well designed.

As for "faster on the road" - I've chased a bunch of chavs down the A68, them in a "BMW M3" (Sure, yeah, right - but ANY E36 is going to have a better engine than what I was chasing them in) and me in a VW Beetle 1.6 Cabrio, at 100+ around a lot of the bends - they were holding me up, and between us, we wouldn't have held anyone up. I've driven an Impreza, and found it understeered like a bitch - maybe the sportier models are better, but that chassis is seriously flawed IMO, compared to the Legacy. The Evo and WRX undoubtedly rely upon technology and power to get around a poor chassis design; the RX8/MX5 is inherently good, and driven correctly, will prove to be devastatingly quick.

In my experience, if you strap people into a powerful car and they go "WOW! LOL! WTF! IT'S SO VERY FAST", they can't bloody drive. They can press the right pedal and belt down the straight, brake hard for the corner, fail to anticipate road conditions and future input required, and should be restricted to driving Aygos on the public road before they kill someone. If you strap them into a 200bhp Rover and they think that, they should also be jailed by the taste police, unless it's actually a very detuned Rover V8/MG ZT

(I used to have great fun upsetting local boy racers in a 150-174bhp Rover (depends on what you've read/what compression/fuel you're running as to what it produced) 3500S manual. 1975. 4 speed. DeDion rear axle and lever arm front. One of the Boy Racers had an XR4i with a slipper on it, and thought it would be fun to race my old man car. I wasn't into his approach on the single track roads with poor visibility, so he thought I was well behind, until we got into a stretch where I could see the road was clear and could anticipate the layout by the hedges. No-one raced my 3500 again after that :/ - I never got any fun, they wouldn't touch me when I had a piffling little 1.5 X1/9 either).

RichardK

Those are examples of 'chavved up' But, I don't think I posted that.

sti_eric

Oh, whoops I get you Brits mixed up
I guess he was making fun of Johnny5, not you

PS: We are Americans, so we have no idea what 'chavved up' means.

RichardK

Hmm.

Okay. You know how you get wannabe gangstas?

Well, Chavs are bascially white, wannabe gangsters, usually living on welfare (very famously this week, a young chav in Wales was done for benefit fraud, claiming housing and other welfare payments whilst modifying his own car to the tune of £12,000+, and working on 'mate's' cars - the stupid pillock got himself into a car magazine bragging about what he'd spent on it). They worship bling and burberry, are usually borderline retarded, and drive crap small cars like Suzuki Swifts (better known as the Geo Metro - yes, the 3 cylinder one is common), Vauxhall Novas, Ford Fiestas, worth about a buck, but loaded with crap stick on tat designed to mimic rally cars, race cars or whatever.

The ultimate chavmobile is a Lincoln Navigator, as modelled by football 'celebrity' David Beckham.

The more unpleasant ones of the species are the ones that steal good cars, or bits of good cars, usually to sell parts from to get more bling, and unlike the traditional American Dream, where EVERYONE has a chance of success and can be applauded for getting somewhere, they adopt the UK whine, which goes along the lines of "E's got it, why 'avven't I got it? I should 'ave it!", followed by either spoiling/breaking/stealing what the other person has, or demanding that the tax payer provides it via benefits.

Hence, all the welfare kids are running about in $100 Nike trainers, have countless toys and gadgets, and the poverty line has been comically described as "only having one Playstation 2".

Sorry. I hate Britain. I especially hate Chavs

Ike

Hey Einstein, maybe next time actually read a thread before spouting off. FYI, the variant Evo you speak of is 405bhp and it's called the FQ-400. The Impreza has many offerings than a 280 and 300hp model, especially in the UK where you have the UK300, S202, 203, Type RA, Spec C, WR1. Many of those cars are also offered with various Prodrive packages.

I am fully aware of what a hot hatch is, Johnny5 is not in case you still haven't figured that out.

Thanks for telling me what a WRX and Evo is

P.S. The STI and the Evo have been available in wagon/5 door form, just not in all markets.

RichardK

Care to define which Evo?

Ike

Huh, care to define which part of what I just said you're talking about?

jmaluso

I beg to differ. I have the new Griffin iTripAuto. It works very well. I am debating not getting an AuxMod because it works much better than i thought. I have it tuned to 87.9 (one of the least used stations anywhere) and it sounds great.



Joe

zoom44

and thanks for not sending those useless British cars over here

Ike

There are hardly any true British cars left since they don't even own their own car companies anymore.

RichardK

That's because, obviously, there is an antenna on the car. It's on the back window. As such, the iTrip solutions work better than they do in cars with antennas. Since - cars need antennas outside because they are fundamentally shielded, cars with external antennas get a poor signal.

Er, anyway, those things are useless in the UK due to the proliferation of stations and interference. And technically illegal.

Ike

The Evo IX GSR. Would you like to know anything else about cars?

Johnny5

I used to sell Rovers in the early 80's, and the old P6 3500 was OK, but wasn't a handler, even by 70's standards. Still OK though...I enjoyed a couple of them, but no way were they as fast as the XR4 2.8 which would nudge 130mph.

The X1/9 was horrid, and totally outclassed by the MR2. After 25 years in the motor trade I had most cars I had any vague interest in, which was a nice perk...

The Rover I referred to was the 400 Turbo, a 2 litre Honda based saloon, which in 1993 would nudge a real 150mph and sub 6 second 0-60. Say what you will, but that was bloody quick in 1993!

When you referred to giving a fast car a hard time in a Beetle, albeit a Golf based one as opposed to an 'Incinerator' I agree.

In a slower car, one can brake later, and they are normally more chuckable within the confines of normal peoples abilities on public roads.

I appreciate your pedantic comments about Hot hatches, you are right of course, but in essence these are still normal everyday cars, just horrifically expensive uprated versions of them, rather than custom designed models such as the RX.

The RX at least looks like £20,000 (UK) while a Scooby does not look like £38,000. That is the point I was making...

By the way, the Chrysler 300...