I hadn't really intended on posting on this thread, but there's just too much stuff being thrown out for me to stay quiet. I realize this is a WRX site, so of course everyone will want to think the best of it (as well they should, it seems to be a great car, and I'm here because I think I'm getting one for my wife if she can agree on a color!), but try to be realistic.

I see these same arguments and statements on every site I go to. People have trouble with reality because they are swayed by things they've 'heard', or magazine times/numbers, or internet car fact sites. None of those things are accurate. You can't trust mag numbers in the least. I'm sure some of you WRX guys are pulling better times than quoted in some chump mag. I know I do in my car.

Where to start...the old muscle is great. I loved my 69 mustang vert V8. It was a blast, but it was heavy. The old muscle cars had high horsepower ratings, but their performance numbers, although good for the time period, do not hold up well in comparison to today's cars. If you can run a 14 sec 1/4, then you're right there (or better!) with the majority of what was out there then.

As for the cars like the late 80-mid 90 5.0 mustangs, I've had 7. 225HP and 300lbtq was fast back then, and could be modded infinately. They were the cars to beat for a while, but face it, just about everything has around 200hp now. The performance now days has surpassed most of the old stuff, as it should. It's simply amazing to see the HP numbers coming out of 1.8 and 2.0 liter engines! Don't put down the cars that started all the racing craze and horsepower wars just because their numbers don't hold up anymore, give them respect for being the founders of something we all love.

Don't count them out though, they didn't become legends for no reason. Just because you stomp a 15 sec 5.0 that was built in 1987 (realize 17 years ago!) that has 170,000 miles of RACING on it doesn't mean that you can walk off from one that's been modded and taken care of. It takes VERY little to get them in the 12's.

As for straight line racing, it's really the only way MOST of us can test our cars against others. Going to (or even finding one close by) a road course is just not feasible for most of us, and there's a chance to run in a straight line at every stoplight. You all like to slap down the "handling" card, but you have to keep in mind that although one car may handle better than another, you really won't see much difference on the street. There's just no place to be able to push the cars to their limits properly.

I drive a 2003 cobra with mods. It's pushing 460RWHP which comes out to somewhere around 540HP at the flywheel. The suspension is all stock, and I've only added $1000 worth of mods: CAI, Mufflers, Chip, and pulley. If any of you think that you're going to leave me in the dust on a mountain road, please feel free to try. It's not going to happen. You won't even be in front. I'm not trying to slam the WRX at all, if I was I wouldn't be buying one. I'm just asking for a little bit of intelligence to be sprinkled in with all this bragging. I think the WRX is a great car, and I look forward to 'tinkering' with it when the wife isn't looking, but please see it for what it is. It's not a car built for drag racing, was never meant to be.

 

owned

 

Amen brother.

 

car over 40k .... i got in to a kommpresser's *** today.
i talk to the guy after i found out there only 1.9 liter's i got him off the start.. i was in forth gear and he was slowly catching up.............. ha ha i felt good!

 

Hehe, I'd still be spinning at the starting line (or a few feet off it in a ditch!)by the time you finished the race!

 

lol....how bout HDM cars? like the skyline? how would it do agasint an R32? an R34?

 

lol..not HDM, my bad...ment JDM

 

but what about the R32? same deal?

 

I thought the skylines were around 280 underrated HP in stock form? I admit I don't know much about them, but that's the number that seems to stick in my mind. Is that an old estimate that no longer applies to the newer models?