Pick up the current copy of Car & Driver if you have a chance. They have a test where all the 4-cylinder tuners were invited to send their best cars, a la their Supertuner Challenge last year with the big iron.

Bottom line: with very few exceptions, we're talking $40,000-45,000 Civics and RSXes that are doing 14 and 15 second quarter miles.

The top car was a $68,000 S2000 that was beat by a STOCK Z06 by more than 2 seconds in a road course--which Car & Driver rubbed in very nicely with a big photo on the last page of the test.

And yes, I know you can roll your own and save a bunch of money, and yes, I know it is personal preference, and yes, I know that some people need more than two seats . . . but come on, guys--we're talking a pack of cars costing up to $86,000 that would be wiped up by a $25,000 2002 Z28!

 

I'm sorry, I thought the title of this thread was an oxymoron.


Now, I'm not such an ignorant bastard, really. I'll pick up the article and perhaps I'll have something more contructive to input at that time.

Which makes this post somewhat pointless. But hey, it's a post, and that's all that counts.

 

I don't know how common at 13 second 1/4 is on RSX's with turbos, but today at the track a supercharged GSR ran 15.8. (and barely beat out my friends 305 IROC-Z). But it is a slow track so take that for what it is worth.

 

I never understood why someone would buy a small 4 cylinder FWD sub $20,000 car, then put another $20,000+ into it simply to run as fast as a $26,000 Z28 or Formula, get worse fuel economy, and get spanked by even Mustang GTs. Now you bring up an article that has a $52,000 Z06 beating $68-80,000 tuner cars!


Tuner cars look nice, and have all the cool high tech stuff, but really!

 

The last supertuner challenge removed all shadow of a doubt that those tests are worthless. Dyno proven 500 hp Supercharged C5s were getting beat stock Z06s, that just doesnt happen.

 

Wouldn't a handling course degrade it's power advantage somewhat?

 

I've ridden along at Sebring in a 450+ hp Viper, and stock Z06's on the factory F1's were beating on us a bit. The Z06 is just an animal.

 

Anybody got a link to this article?

It would have been a hoot to throw in a smartly modded F-car and watch it bludgeon the ricers to death with no mercy.

 

Pacer:

It wouldn't even have to be modded.

I don't have a link to the article--I have a subscription to Car and Drivel, so I guess I get the rag before the newsstands. You won't miss it-- the big "Fourgasm" on the cover (barf) is a dead giveaway.

 

I kinda figured the +$60,000 Honduh could give an SS or WS6 a hard time on a road course since Z06's will leave them panting in the dust.

So....

$26,000 F-car + 10,000 in mods = Buh-bye!

 

Check out the latest issue of sport compact car. A stock evo beat an M3 and an S4. With $4,000 in Vishnu's mods ,1/2 of which were suspension, it smoked a 911 Not bad for a 4-cyl.

total cost $34k-$35K

link

 

I think I'd rather have my eyeballs poked out, put on a spit, roasted over a mesquite fire and then fed to me with mayo slathered on them.

 

Mayo slathered eyeballs, Yummy!

 

Yep, got the mag this weekend, and found it pretty interesting (the comparo test between different levels of Vette suspension was damn cool, but I digress).

The first thing that struck me was that someone managed to mod an S2000 and actually made it faster than stock. This is a near-impossible task and someone deserves a medal for their effort. Of course, it took about 5 year's worth of house payments to do it.

The second thing that I noticed was the rather poor performance figures by most of these professional tuners. Pick on imports all you want, but show up at a strip or your local autocross event and you'll find some enthusiasts doing neat things in their garages and getting great results. I'd figure that the pros could do even better, but there were only a handful of cars with trap speeds over 100 MPH (ignore the ET, as this wasn't a prepped drag strip). I would have liked to see the usual handling numbers (skidpad and slalom) in addition to the track times, as it'd be nice to correlate all of the data in an attempt to determine why cars ranked how they did. The owners had the opportunity to drive their own cars; I wouldn't be surprised if this resulted in some sub-par performances by these vehicles (I've got a friend who can seriously kick my *** in my own car, but maybe some of these folks can't see past their own ego).

I guess I don't know why it surprises anyone that a $55K Vette beat a bunch of tuner cars of approximately the same price; a simple application of the principles of mass production would seem to make this the obvious conclusion.

 

Eric,

Yeah, I see your point.

I think I'll write a letter to C&D. Next year they oughta REALLY humiliate the ricers and load up some Mustangs and F-cars that are "garage-tuned" instead of a +$50,000 Z06.

One of the Chevy mags just had a feature where a vendor (Hotchkis?) invited all of the editors of a bunch of magazines to bring their cars out and flog them (braking, slalom, road course, quarter-mile) in a comparo. The Corvette in the bunch had problems so an M3 won the compare - BARELY beating out a mid-60's Chevelle.

That's right, a mid-60's Chevelle.