The Philosophy side of modifying cars.

[NosferatuDracon]

Originally Posted by AdamVR4

Wow... Yeah, the 3S is horribly shitty. That must be why my car was running 11.1's after a few ground total and some sweat (I was 18 years old at the time).

Your car never had a chance to succeed because you never put any miles on it. How many times did it go down the 1/4 mile? Yeah... Don't even try to insult the platform. It's not the car's fault you bought the wrong parts and had the wrong person build it.

~600 AWHP is nothing but fun on the street regardless of tires. Sorry, more power would be necessary to scare me or seem un-streetable. A little wheel spin in 1st is shit tons of fun.

I would do it all over again. No my car doesn't run, how many hours have I worked on it the past 12 months? Maybe 6... The engine is fine. She'll run more 10's before this old-ass engine gets rebuilt. Sell your car to someone who has a clue if you think the platform is so shitty.

I can guarantee you that Mike wasn't talking shit about the 3/S platform. He loves it more than a lot of people do. What he more than likely was referring to about the shitty platform he started with was the car he originally bought to work on which ended up giving him nothing but problems regardless of how much money he dumped into it.


That having been said: Eugene great write up. I agree with what everyone else has said thus far. My only other suggest is maybe try to get your article published in a local newspaper especially if racing and such is a problem around your. Could maybe reach some more people who need to hear this.

[Coal]

Great write up, I followed the same path, and only have tens of thousands in debt to show for it thus far.

[OzGTO]

russianvr4 that is a great bit of info and i can relate 110%, as ive done pretty much the same things as u mentioned.

i bought a nissan stagea and put a rb26 from my last car into it, it was making 345rwhp. 2 weeks into getting it running it cracked a ring land on a piston so i went to a local workshop and they said about a guy selling a complete 2.7L JUN stroker setup with the works, 1000cc inj, trust manifold, billet crank, big big cams and titanium retainers/springs, etc it cost me alot of money but i thought it wouldnt cost much more to get the setup complete, well boy was i wrong, i have spent around $65 000 on aftermarket parts on this car, done all labour myself, including the engine rebuild and its making 600hp on 22psi on a basic tune on pump fuel.

in the end this car is worth sooo much to me in time and money i cant bare leave it anywhere incase it gets stolen, so its basically a waste except to go on car cruises and occasional drag runs. All in all i wish i did a basic build and kept it streetable/cheap/comfortable to drive (not a twin plate clutch) and small responsive turbos.

so i just bought the vr4 14 months ago and i plan on some mods to beat these pesky ls1 boys around here who always wanna run, but i am damned if im spending heaps of bucks, and going for stupidly big turbos. A nice single gt35r is the plan as i think even 16gs will be too laggy as i love the current response of the car.

as said the internet makes 500hp seem like a regular ride, but u get on the street and i bet u only see 1 or 2 500hp cars in a month unless u go in the street races/cruises.

[calialx1]

this is so true, esp for alot of amature drivers out there like myself, Some people dont realise how much power som eof these cars can produce.. I have personaly had my shre of close calls with high hp rwd cars. Somtimes even somthing over 300 hp is dangerous. I really enjoyed reading this

[ZephTheChef]

Nice write up, I strongly agree. I got my lesson in HP early on...after the untimely demise of my first VR-4, I went out and bought a supercharged Camaro. Looking back on it, corners had been cut and it was clearly a budget race car, but at some 15lbs of boost it was probably in the neighborhood of 600-700hp. That car would happily get sideways when you mashed it from 70mph on the highway. Now for the rest of the story: the only time I took it to the track I spent more time off the gas then on it...it ran a 13.0 after SEVERE traction issues. My first VR-4 ran a 12.7 more or less BPU and never let me down as a daily (I didn't put 100 miles on that Camaro in over a year).

My 16Gs are on and I'm dropping the engine in here in the next couple of days so pretty soon I'll be able to comment on 500+AWHP...if it pulls as hard as the Camaro did minus all the wheelspin I'll be happy as can be.

[ZephTheChef]

Originally Posted by calialx1

Somtimes even somthing over 300 hp is dangerous. I really enjoyed reading this

Yeah, on that note even a stock LS1 camaro is simply dangerous if it's wet out.

[AudibleSilence]

Originally Posted by AdamVR4

Wow... Yeah, the 3S is horribly shitty. That must be why my car was running 11.1's after a few ground total and some sweat (I was 18 years old at the time).

Your car never had a chance to succeed because you never put any miles on it. How many times did it go down the 1/4 mile? Yeah... Don't even try to insult the platform. It's not the car's fault you bought the wrong parts and had the wrong person build it.

~600 AWHP is nothing but fun on the street regardless of tires. Sorry, more power would be necessary to scare me or seem un-streetable. A little wheel spin in 1st is shit tons of fun.

I would do it all over again. No my car doesn't run, how many hours have I worked on it the past 12 months? Maybe 6... The engine is fine. She'll run more 10's before this old-ass engine gets rebuilt. Sell your car to someone who has a clue if you think the platform is so shitty.

I was refering to my car as the shitty foundation...you know the one with the bent fucking frame that is sittiing stripped and dead in junk yard? If I had meant platform I'd have said platform and not foundation. My car was a turd, everyone could see it but me until I saw that frame damage and said enough was enough. Putting that much power through an untrue frame would have just been stupid, it was a shit foundation to build on.

As I stated I'd have read more and bought the right parts instead of buying shit because it sounded cool at the time. At the end of three years I wasted my money, time, and have to look forward to posts like yours about not finishing my project all the time. I will not be making these same mistakes with my new 97 VR4 I can guarandamntee you that.

I thought that is what the major beef you and your buddies had with me Adam. You know just throwing money and parts at a car expecting it to go fast or in my case, go period. Spending cash instead of reading up on how to do it properly is foolish right? Well I come to that realization, actually go about doing it correctly this time with a conservative mod list that will probably net me 500hp (13/19t's, supporting), and I still get shit for it? I'm building this car to enjoy it not have down time....I've had enough of that for both you and I.

Originally Posted by NosferatuDracon

I can guarantee you that Mike wasn't talking shit about the 3/S platform. He loves it more than a lot of people do. What he more than likely was referring to about the shitty platform he started with was the car he originally bought to work on which ended up giving him nothing but problems regardless of how much money he dumped into it.

FTW I figured the 7 cars in my sig would tell people that...I was wrong.

[Trevor]

Originally Posted by AdamVR4

~600 AWHP is nothing but fun on the street regardless of tires. Sorry, more power would be necessary to scare me or seem un-streetable. A little wheel spin in 1st is shit tons of fun.

Yeah...that was the only thing I didn't agree with. If it my car does spin it only does so in 1st and when it does happen it still goes straight. AWD on radials is the whole reason I chose a 3/S over many RWD cars with established aftermarkets and the reputation for making power with ease.

The rest of Eugene's post is pretty golden.

[atxvr4]

I know I'm not making 500 whp, *yet*, but I will say that my car is a BLAST to drive, and I've never been happier with it. I just need to get brakes now! I agree with Adam and Trevor - the traction loss I have experienced with my car, just adds to the fun factor - nothing that screams losing control.

[ray pampena]

Originally Posted by Trevor

Yeah...that was the only thing I didn't agree with. If it my car does spin it only does so in 1st and when it does happen it still goes straight. AWD on radials is the whole reason I chose a 3/S over many RWD cars with established aftermarkets and the reputation for making power with ease.

The rest of Eugene's post is pretty golden.

thats why the 3/S is still my favorite car of all time..and ive had alot of different cars. the streetabilty is awsome compared to anything else while running 10s