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Why 3S gets no respect...?

74K views 751 replies 115 participants last post by  AshyBone 
#1 ·
Okay, so this isn't really a very technical question.... it's more of a philosophical one. Why don't 3000GTs fit in with the "mad-tyte-JDM" crowd? :confused:

My car prior to the 1992 VR4 I got back in November was a 5-speed Lexus SC300. Everywhere I would go, I would get the knowing nod from guys in 350Zs, S2000s, STis, Evos, ect. People would ask me about the car... how hard was it to find a 5 speed SC, how do I like it, am I going to 2JZGTE swap it, blah blah blah. But now, the guys in their RSXs, G35s, JDM Hondas, RX7s, S-chassis, ect. all give me death glares and try to race me.

What the @#$%?! I mean it's not like I bought this car (or any car) to "fit in" with these losers who have their rich daddies buy them brand new 370Zs, but I just don't get why my car seems to be drawing so much unwanted attention. The only guys who seem to appreciate my car are the DSM guys. The sad thing is, my car is garnished the same way I had my SC300... lowered on coilovers, 18" XXR 522s (coming soon), a small bit of negative camber angle, single shot exhaust, Recaro seats, ect.

For the record (one again) I did not - nor did I ever intend - to buy this car to fit in with the guys in slammed Z cars who hang out at clubs, hold meets in parking structures, cruise around the mall to show off to girls, and wear clothing with I <3 JDM stamped on it somewhere. This question is about why the typical import guy doesn't like the 3S, and (more importantly) why I am getting so much crap for owning one. :ak47:

All I'm really asking for is your opinions :D. Are they mad that our cars are so much more awesome than theirs :mitsu::mitsu::mitsu:? Is it because there's a similar car with a Dodge logo on it (Stealth), and they therefore think our cars are "for muscle car guys"? I personally don't find the 3S a very hateable car (if that's even a word).

thanks!
-Felipe

P.S. I am 20 years old, right around their age :rolleyes: and my VR4 is clean and looks good (not riced)

(edit): sorry for the lengthy and somewhat pointless question, lol. All this just got me thinking... so I decided to ask some fellow 3S owners what they thought.
 
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#85 ·
I'm 16, and this is my first car (saved up for two years and bought it on my own). It is a 94 stealth turbo... At my school all the honda's and wrx's just stear my down beacuse none of them even know what my car is. i love it. Most of my teachers love my car... including my auto teacher haha. haven't raced any one yet, they'll be in for a suprise.. :)
 
#86 ·
Anger is easier to handle than envy. I'm one of the old guys. Bought my 92 Stealh TT new. It was my DD for 13 years, switched over to my '30 Ford coupe in AWD for my DD for 7 years and have recently rebuilt the TT with 3.1/ 16 Ts. Really mild but fast enough to hold it's own. Great to have it back looking good. After you do this for a while you get used to dealing with the clueless and the jealous. The only person my cars need to make smile is me.
 
#88 ·
^^ I took a lot of crap for my old eclipse, I had a 480 awhp GSX! and I drove it every where, yet people would comment and say stupid crap like "supras are faster" or my firebird would shit all over your car etc etc... needless to say I DD a 94 supra for 7 yrs, I love every car I have had (with one exception, I will never ever own a pontiac Grand AM, EVER!) it wasn't until 2008 when I was finally able to obtain a VR4, the car I dreamed of having all those years, and I don't care what these people say.

When I drive this car... no matter what kind of crap I'm going through, no matter how worthless I am being made to feel that day, no matter how many insults I had received that day or how many women tell me I'm ugly... no matter what, I feel good, it moves like stink, sounds like an evil menace and is totally black, it saved my worthless life.
 
#104 · (Edited)
This is actually how I felt about my Vr4 too. I think it was just yesterday that suddenly reminded me. While other kids at my school are out partying, I'm working two part time jobs AND going to a very tough 4 year university. I'm probably one of the most uptight 20 year olds on the planet. I have an amazing girlfriend, but she's been in Korea visiting family and won't be back for another week. So yeah... I'm pretty damn lonely/bored right now.

I was feeling miserable in the cold, Seattle rain... The usual, coffee doesn't make me feel any better, my family is being stressful with the Christmas season, and all my friends are somewhere BESIDES where I'm at. I'm lonely, cold, bored, and depressed. Then I get in my Vr4.... The engine fires to life with that lovely growl out the back in that reminds me of the way an Aston Martin V12 comes to life. The turbos spool, the AWD grips even in the rain, and its warm and cozy in there.... suddenly I was reminded why this platform is so special. It makes you feel special. All the snobby rich kids in their Audis and BMWs don't think I'm special because they fail to look past the silly piece of plastic glued to the back of cars. I, however, drive around with a rather smug mindset, knowing that they are all missing out. Badly.
 
#90 ·
Around here (central NJ) its a rare occasion for me to see someone who actually knows what my car is. Im not even bothered by civics or integras on the road, simply because like I said - they don't know what the f*** it is lol. Even when I meet someone who has an idea what it is, they will still ask their questions very carefully, and I can still hear the unsure-ness in their voice.... Im glad I have this car :)
 
#91 ·
man buddy i know how you feel lol, i live in virginia so all the navy guys in all their mustangs, hondas, and firebirds act like my car is a ford fiesta or something but they all really hate me when i blow thier doors off haha. but i can say is the cars are heavy as hell and it takes some money and work to get them to keep up with a honda that has 300hp to the wheels but when you do it is worth every penny (well thats from my experince my car was stock racing most of those guys check my sig or threads to see what my car has now :muahaha:). also its not a car that was wildly modified in japan so the majority of guys over here want to be "jdm" and rice out their hondas and think the car is better than all others.
 
#92 ·
I feel wiser people in their mid 20-s and up respect them more. I live in an area full of evo's, shitty mustangs, and stis. When I pull up mostly I get the look of "holy shit a VR4?!?!?!?". Most people just ask questions and seem to get along fine with them. To me the people around here that "hate" on 3SGTOs are the Vdub kids. I swear they are they dumbest group of people in the world. They think that they are cool because mommy and daddy bought them a car, and it happens to have a turbo. The Vdub kids look at it and go, "wow thats a POS, my vdub is the shit, I'm cool because I have a fitted hat and cool clothes, my VDub is slammed and I will own you". when all of that is entirely false.
 
#94 ·
On a similar but different note (Admin if you think this is too far off-thread, please feel free to split this up to a different thread), can anyone figure a reason why cars like the Honda / Acura NSX's and Skyline GTR's (R32/33/34, not counting the R35 as it's too new) have generally kept much higher used car values while our VR4's seem to be valued much lower even though the original prices when new were only slightly different for equivalent model years? Maybe this is one element that contributes to the respect issue.
 
#95 ·
Our production numbers.

If you look at those cars (well we don't have the older GTRs here in the states :( ) and add on the RX7, Supra etc. they all in general hold higher resale.

But when you look at the numbers you will find that all of those cars are more rare than the 3S.

Our cars, at least in the states, had the longest production life span along with a watered down base model. (The SOHC and all of the NA's being FWD) I fully believe that if all of the NAs were at least the DOHC and all of them were AWD we would have a higher resale.

I mean heck, keep the SOHC engine in the line up because you can't kill it, but give it AWD, it would be a great northern winter car.

But all in all, it comes down to there are more available 3S cars, supply and demand.

-John
 
#96 ·
My guess would be scarcity. I personally have never even seen an NSX or Skyline in person. They may also have larger markets for aftermarket parts, which would be similar to the case with Supras, which I believe also have a higher resale value point.
 
#98 ·
I got a good launch during my race but once he got going, he pulled on me in first and a little in second for him. But that is a stage 2 STI, which makes at least 300 horses. Short version, I think you would beat a stock WRX
 
#99 · (Edited)
Like some of the "older" guys here, Ive been driving over 35 years, and Ive driven a LOT of nice cars in my life. I think we have a different perspective from younger guys.
1- I agree with comments about carburator guys like myself have respect for this newer stuff. I'm forcing myself to learn the black box turbo ecu technology, and it's always good to learn new things, and I'm at least trying to keep up. Respect comes with that
2- I also agree that these cars are already older and many are na's or in poor condition. The nice TT cars are rarely seen and most people under 25 dont know much if anything about them. The platform was never a big seller, so knowledge about them is NOT mainstream. I know we can all agree to that.

Just keep in mind that its easy to misinterpret the looks on other peoples faces, or even their dumb comments, when they are simply ignorant about the car. No reason to impute that they hate the car...maybe they dont, maybe they do...in the end I dont care.

I think I am different from a lot of people because I dont want any attention when I drive. In fact I hate it. Wish I were totally unnoticed, so I spend a lot of time trying hard to ignore any attention. I know it probably sounds weird, but when I drive my cuda, which I know gets a lot of attention and thumbs up all the time, passengers in my car always tell me how many people do double takes or wave or whatever. I really dont even notice. Just drive and look where I'm going.

I also really enjoy the tinkering almost more than driving it. I respect these cars, and I love the classic semi exotic look and stance. Thats all that matters to me.
 
#100 · (Edited)
I hate to say it but its true. Na's give the 3sgto a bad name.. Millions of people watch youtube videos so millions of people watch a base getting smoked by a station wagon. Although most of the other platforms have Na's or base models and it hasent seemed to hurt there rep.
 
#106 ·
The NA has its place in the world, I just don't think people should take it out and try to drag race with it unless they did a TT swap or have some serious mods. It's not really a car that was designed to be fast... more like comfortable, economical, and cool-looking. Trying to race in the FWD NA is fruitless and indeed gives this platform a bad name. Just my opinion though.
 
#101 ·
Over here in Singapore, the GTO VR4TT and the NA (we don't have any 2WD ones) are fairly rare with only 9 left that we know of in country, but NSX's are probably even rarer with only about 3-4 left but they command Ferrari 348 type prices on the second hand market. The R32-34 GTR's are more common than the NSX's and are cheaper but typically still are 1.5 (R32) to triple (R34) the price of the GTO. Maybe it's also because the GTO's were not kept in great condition (which we're correcting now.... :).
 
#108 ·
There heavy but not that redicously so when compaired to the supra/ 300zx the reason they are so hated on is because of all the NFS want tobes out there with sl's and bases tryiong to race people I have ran into people that tell me they stomped out a vr4 in there na civic when infact it was a SOHC BASE there are so many NA's out there it kills the TT rep. Im very glad that there are now so many 3.5's with big turbos out thre now (although I feel less special) but it really does help the platform gain some rep points. and raises our resale value....
 
#109 ·
I have seen people around here trying to pretend they have VR4s. One kid I've met a couple times told me his was a VR4. When I finally got him to race me, I absolutely killed him. I asked again if it was a VR4 and he said ya. I ask if he was sure it's a turbo and he finally admitted that it wasn't. NAs are still respectable, but they are no where near what a TT is capable of, and there really isn't much you can do to make a NA faster without some sort of power adder. The problem isn't that NAs are that slow, it's that people try to pretend they're faster than they are.
 
#112 ·
actualy because of how I drive (hint, not as an asswipe passing everything) I have been told my car is N/A... or worse, this kid with an integra with cut springs would rev up at me when I was coming home, he did it twice! even stopped in front of my house to come talk crap to me as I was getting out of my car!

Needless to say I did take the offer to race his "friend" (butt buddy I think) with a lexus IS350... oh the smiles were gone from their face when they heard that HKS SSQV3... I even let them catch up after I had spanked them, when it looked like they were gonna try to do a flyby I stomped them again by doing a third gear pull, I have never even heard them come by to say something nice about my car :mad:
 
#110 ·
^Exactly
 
#119 ·
True when I get to fixing the exterior of my car I plan of putting on 99 sail panels and no stickers. Maybe some custome 3000gt VR4 badges but their going to be in graffiti letters so everyone will think I'm a ricer that just stuck on custom badges :D
 
#121 ·
oh yeah I'm going full 1999 conversion one day. I wanna paint my car in Bentley Onyx, Sapphire, or Black Velvet (purple) because the 1999 pieces will likely be a different color than the rest of my car. Bentley has the best paint IMO. There's a shop near where I live that can do OEM paint even from exotic cars.
 
#122 ·
^^
Your car would be sick with the bently onyx. and yes for a half a million dollar car they better have some sick paint colors lol.
Shit I just forgot about my paint scheme where's that ricer moment thread at... What I have planed for my car is pretty much rice. First off full 99 conversion or the cinaci(sp?) full body kit. The paint though, A metalic blood ruby red with black tribals/pinstriping with a grey outline.... I like it but it can be seen as rice I know. But its my car so :p
 
#127 ·
My dad bought me an old ugly battered '91 SL when I turned 16 for dirt cheap. It broke down every god damn day it felt like. It came in this really faded ugly "champagne" beige color. I got it repainted stock blue.



I ended up selling it for an '08 Lancer GTS.




However, the second I signed the title over, my heart sank and I felt bad about it. I vowed that I would one day make enough money to afford a VR4.

Last week, I finally found one in almost mint condition. Probably needs to get the front strut mount replaced, but everything else on it works. Active Aero, Active Exhaust, AWS, Electronic Suspension, etc! Only has 80k original miles on it

Can't decide to leave it with the stock 1st gen body, get the 1st gen projectors at $800, or '99 conversion. I won't be driving it much, still prefer the Lancer for daily driving.


92 VR4 by YoshiBishi, on Flickr
 
#129 · (Edited)
this is a very interesting thread. i have some input for it as I've had both a NA 3000gt and a TT stealth...
my current car is a sohc 98 3000gt. i get the same reactions with it as a did with the TT in parking lots, gas stations etc etc... "hey nice car, i always wanted one" etc etc but when i am behind the wheel its two different ball games...
when i was in the TT it was very rare to have someone pull up next to me and mash the throttle or rev at me, but in the base it happens every day and anoy's the hell out of me. I know i drive a turd (that looks good lol) so i just continue on my way and leave them guessing "is it a vr4!?!?!?!"

i do have one cool story when i had the TT. i was on my way to the mall cruising on the highway when a srt4 pulled up next to me, he started doing the throttle mashes etc so i decided to play his game... dropped down the 3rd and just pulled... got to about 80-90 (cant remember exactly) and slowed down till he got next to me again... when he did he looked and pointed to my door panels and gave me the thumps up.... put a smile on my face for the rest of the day...

man i need another TT!!! can't wait till spring time when a nice low mileage one will be in my parking spot yet again!
 
#131 ·
Man I got lucky with the '92, speaking of low mileage. my car has 97k ORIGINAL miles :cool: still smells like leather inside and the original paint still shines. Been in a garage its whole life. I'll be taking good care of her :D

Yesterday I was finishing my Christmas shopping and a guy in a BMW M6 was like, "Hey is that you car? Man, that thing is beautiful. Take good care of it for me." I mean, this guy owns a $100k car and he's calling my $10k car beautiful. I felt warm inside :D

Hey AshyBone, I couldn't help but notice you named you car, lol. So did I... I named my car Sagaba and she's a girl :muahaha:. It might take forever to explain what that means, but it comes from this song: <- I love to cruise to that :bigthumb:. He talks about how she's been mistreated by guys, so I thought of the 3000GT and how it doesn't get the love that its competitors (300ZX, Supra, Skyline) get. Anyway.... my Lexus was named Jasmine :D
 
#130 ·
That Mustang story is hilarious.... a lot of VW, Mustang, and Honda guys love to do that. One kid at my high school told a bunch of people he got 350 whp out of an NA B18B... AKA non VTEC 1.8L Integra LS motor. What a fucking clown. He had like CAI, headers, exhaust, and some Rotas. Oh and it was lowered. Yeah, 350 NA. I bet.

My first car was a hand-me-down 2004 VW Passat 2.8 I got from my mom when she bought a Benz E350 4matic. It was 5 speed so it was somewhat cool, and I beat that kid with the Civic (excuses were flowing). It was also black on black leather so I thought it was pretty badass. But.... it broke down constantly :(. I think it's electrical systems were made by an ape, not a man.

Then I bought (with my OWN money that I saved up, no mommmy and daddy help) an arrest-me-red 1998 Lexus SC300 with a 5 speed and black interior, and that car was just sweet. Got that car my junior year of high school and drove it for about 3 or 4 years. Super reliable, super sexy, MPG wasn't half bad, and all the JDM guys wanted to talk to me about me car. I had these stupid bride seats in it that made me look like my car could smack a Ferrari around Silverstone and some $$$$ Work Emotion Kai. It was fun while it lasted, but the VR4 has always been my dream car and I would honestly take one over any car in the universe. When I traded my Lexus in, it was worth almost double what the VR4 was worth so I had some extra cash in the pocket for some modz :D I am honestly in love with the 3000GT. It is not only the best car I've ever owned, but the best car my family has ever put in our garage. My dad actually thinks it's more exciting than his M3.... :eek:
 
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