So what cars back in the states are fast?
I was thinking about 90's and up stock and lightly moded imports.
What's if any thing is fast?
Over here in japan turbo RX7's and skylines move right along.

 

I don't know about J-spec cars there, but theres quite a few american cars that are as fast and faster than japanese.
Heres a few:
Corvette Z06 2001- present 385-405 HP, 12 second cars
F-body LT-1/LS-1- 275-325 HP low 14-low 13 second cars
Mustang Cobra 2003- 390 HP, 12 second car
Neon SRT-4 215HP (underrated): 14 second car, pretty fast for a neon


Skylines are quick from what I heard, but I don't know too much about them. RX-7's, atleast in America were just ok.

 

Mitsu 3000GT(Mitsu GTO in Japan) is 300ish hp and AWD, little heavy.
Acura NSX, not a drag car but 13-14 second and nice in the twisties.
Toyota Supra, just ungodly fast, haven't people gottne 800 hp on stock motor?
300Zx, few cheap mods to make it fast
Subaru WRX(not really a 90's, but newer car) can run 13s with some bolt ons.

 

I'm driving down to OC this weekend to look at this guy's Supra I might get. He wants my Si and some cash for it...

I'm sure I'll have enough chances to test her out on the way back up.

I've seen some pretty fast 300ZXs lately.

 

are you kidding? maybe RX-7s are "just OK" in your area. considering there were only 3 years of them here there's a HUGE aftermarket. they mod well and put out. i know 2 RX-7s and their owners personally and they're more than "just OK". try 330hp for one and 390hp for the other. at the wheels.

 

and the rx7 is also a very light car

 

RX-7's had I believe around 270ish HP out of a turboed motor. That is just ok. Also rotary engines, although have high output per cubic inch, are also harder to work on and require mechanics knowing what they're doing to work on them. Yes, RX-7's are good I suppose, but since they were only here such a short time, and the demand is high for them, their price is jacked up here. So bang for your buck, there's better options. The RX series just doesn't impress me.

 

those hp figures are on stock internals, just exhaust work, stronger turbos and bigger intercoolers.

as far as cost, anytime you're goint to take a car and get big numbers out of it you're going to pay. ask the 300zx guys. and i'm not knocking them, i like those too. but you put a stock 300zx turbo and a stock rx-7 turbo (if those specimens still exist) and they're going to be neck and neck. you're only looking at the hp. the 300zx is some 450-500 lb heavier than rx-7. so even with 30 less hp its still as quick if not quicker because its lighter.

if you go internal and NA, neither the 300zx nore the rx-7 are "good" in the bang-for-the-buck category.