Dark Blue Mark

Just thinking of all the big turbo monster stuff which is no longer produced, and been replaced with much less tasty stuff...

Toyota Supra / GT4 / MR2 Turbo etc, serious power esp the 320bhp Supra. Not aware that they do anything that would peel the skin off a rice pudding? The nw MR2 does 0-60 in about ten seconds! WTF

Mazda RX7 twin turbo RWD monster. Now we have the puny N/A RX8.

Nissan Skyline with all sorts of toys, twin turbo's and a massive tuning potential. Now get the big heavy N/A 350Z which although nice, is hardly an animal.

Seems only Subaru and Mitsubishi are striving for massive power / fun?

Any thoughts as to what's driving them this way? Guess its getting harder for them to get through all the emissions and other restrictions etc, and with general fuel prices, taxes and insurance going up?

MB

clarence

Remember that all those cars u mentioned were designed in the late 80's, where the Japanese economy then was booming. The recession that started in the early 90's meant that the domestic market for those cars collapsed completely. Coupled with financial troubles of the various manufacturers, it meant that R&D resources are spent on products which are vital for survival. That's the reason y cars such as the RX7, Supra, NSX etc had such a long life cycle in Japanese terms, as they simply don't have new models to replace them.
I don't think Japanese cars are getting soft, I think the opposite is happening & the 280ps limited has already been lifted. As the Japanese economy recovers, together with their manufacturers, more exciting products are expected.

MarkCSC

Nissan are producing a new GTR, which should be rather nice.
Mazda are talking about high performance version of the RX8 (maybe a turbo) plus they are developing the Mazda 6 turbo.
Toyota have the MR2 and err .....nothing.

So I would say that only Toyota have gone soft.

scooby_si

+ there's talk of RX7 for 2007 as i recall but thats ages away & wont have flip up lights but guess it may become reality with success of RX8 at least....we'll see. You can get turbo kits for 8's as i recall but yeah tiz true about not many big bhp blower powered monsters ATM i suppose....
Si

Hanslow

Mark, when they release the turbo kit for the new MR2 (very soon!) it will not be quite as soft as it currently is. Toyota approved warranty on it too

They reckon 0-60 (pub times) of around 5.9s. Specs are around 200 bhp and 190 lb/ft which ain't bad for a car that weighs under a ton (or is that tonne???).

Without the turbo, the 0-60 is quoted as 7.9 but people have had it faster (including EVO).

Some details on it here

Shame they reckon it'll be about 4k

micared

Er, don't think the celica 190 is THAT soft. ...or have they stopped making it now?

MarkCSC

Sorry girlie FWD so it doesn't count

scooby_si

we want 300+bhp sub5sex 0-60 beasties lol
Si

Dark Blue Mark

Ta Clarence, seems like you could be right, I just think the market demands some big power stuff right now, in the UK at least.

Celica 190?! I hope you're joking, its a boat and a slow one at that Look at the old GT4 turbo 4WD Carlos Sienz etc... Nothing like that around now.

MR2 Turbo sounds good I like the look of the new top spec ones, but they're soooo underpowered.

The GTR is just going to be Jap spec is it not? I hear they're not allowed to import any R34's any more either Not that I can afford one right now

MB

micared

"Girlie fwd" in the right hands still runs rings around a lot of supposedly superior tackle..... "Celica 190's a boat, and a slow one at that"....maybe on paper, think it'd surprise you on the road.
Evo don't give out 5 stars to fwd stuff like Accord type R, Integra type R and Corrado VR6 because they don't handle.....bump into one on a twisty road, driven by someone who knows what they're doing, and you'll likely go home humbled if you're an average driver in a standard Impreza. Big difference between handling and grip/traction.
GT4 Celica, even the Carlos Sainz, was too heavy as a road car to make proper use of its horsepower, although the later, post '94 240 bhp model was a different proposition...if you check the figures, I doubt the earlier GT4, Carlos Sainz model is any quicker than the current 190 model......certainly wasn't hailed as anything special when it was current.

scoobytravis

Yes agree with comment regards Celica GT4 Carlos Sainz - had one myself for 3yrs+ (totally standard and remained that way). It was reasonably quick, good handling, but not compared to even a standard UK Impreza Turbo (own UK MY99 currently). If I remember correctly it was 205bhp, but quite heavy, 0-60 was around 6.9s mark.
Still kept it for over 3ys though, so it wasn`t that bad, but then tried an Impreza!!!!

Graham

Dark Blue Mark

Mica, I think you have to remember that the Sainz Celica is over 10 years old now, so I should hope the newer one is a better / quicker car I know which one has more tuning potential too.

BTW, I drive an Integra Type R

MB

ScoobyJawa

No, its going to be Jap and Yank and Aussie etc as Nissan have already registered the trademark "Infinity GTR" in Australia. (Infinity being their luxury brand in the states).

Yes they can import R34's, there has been, or currently is a Model Report being done for them. So they will be allowed in. The only prob, and this effects all cars under 10 years old now is that the ESVA will allow no mods WHATSOEVER This means the cars have to be completely and utterly standard when SVA'd. The importers now have to take the car in, strip the mods and return to standard, get it SVA'd and then put them all back on

Fecking pisstake

Dark Blue Mark

Hmmm, makes for some iffy cars coming in if mods are being removed and put back on. I can imagine all sorts of errors made in that process...

MB

Dark Blue Mark

"There will be changes ahead with the Vosa rules regarding imports especially the model report rule change and the loophole in legislation which we all use at present to get the late model cars certificated and tested prior to registration as a UK car will cease in the very near future. This will effectively stop all importation of R34's into the UK and Europe and make them even more sought after as demand will be much higher than supply. This ruling affects all cars where manufacturers model reports are unavailable for vehicles first registered in country of origin after January 1997."

MB