Views on tuner forums....

[MCFaisal]

Im putting this topic up because many childish wannabe tuners have said that our forum is "dead" and no one posts, and the usual bragging about their riced out honda civics. So feel free to express your views on tuner cars...

[Ynot]

Don't hate them but don't care too much about them either. Civics and other japanese imports are cheap to purchased and cheap to mod so it's perfect for someone who is young or someone who's on a budget.

SLK's full catback exhaust cost the same as a SC or TurboC for a civic and add some headers to the SLK and you can have the SC/TC installed for a japanese import, someone on a budget will not be able to afford modding benzes, so it rules out your wannabe tuners. Due to the cost of modding on german cars, it's not for anyone that's not serious about performance.

It's the ricers that got me into modding in the first place, I was one of the few that starting modding european car back in the early 90's here in Colorado, most were left completely stock. In a way, I was famous for starting a trend here. In all honestly, every ricer I know would love to own a german sports car if money isn't an issue, so be grateful you drive a benz and not a honda.

[V8SLK]

imho, most of the ricers that i have seen have earned their aka, "fart can".

[mtiede]

To each their own. Some mods look silly IMHO, but that is just me. As long as they are having fun with their car, what more could you ask?

[cyberdrakon]

speaking of comparisons...you can buy a scion for the price of the supercharger on our car...

[heezyo2o]

Originally Posted by MCFaisal

Im putting this topic up because many childish wannabe tuners have said that our forum is "dead" and no one posts,

Ugh, this seems true for the most part.

Just because a car is made in japan doesn't mean that it should be looked down upon. I'm not a fan of civics in the least, but there are many quality "import" cars out there.

There was mention that a "cheap" car is cheap to mod, but if you look at other makes like bmw and porsche, you will see that people on their forums are much more active in modifying their cars, whether it be exterior or engine mods.

[MCFaisal]

Hey, those tuners with those suped up japanese cars may be able to beat us in a race but, at the end of the day I will know my slk is better...

[MCFaisal]

Originally Posted by cyberdrakon

speaking of comparisons...you can buy a scion for the price of the supercharger on our car...

Haha thats funny but true!

[alroumi]

There are many Japanese Cars, I admire and such I would love to have in my fleet; 98 Turbo Toyota Supra and a 6Speed MR edition Mitsubishi evolution 8.

[Ynot]

Originally Posted by alroumi

There are many Japanese Cars, I admire and such I would love to have in my fleet; 98 Turbo Toyota Supra and a 6Speed MR edition Mitsubishi evolution 8.

I agree with you alroumi, I do like the older japanese cars, eg, acura nsx, supra's, but I would not mind owning any of the sports car coming in the near future. The supra is supposed to be 450hp, V8, with a hardtop, the Nissan GT-R going to have 450hp, AWD, and should have tons of mods by the time it makes it to the US.

[alroumi]

To me the Turbo Supra especially the one's without the rear wing looks like a Japanese Ferrari Maranello.

[N4PWJ]

funnily enough i had this conversation yesterday.
my mates who are into rice mobiles think im stupid for spending so much on my slk, when i could have bought a jap import for much cheaper and it's faster.
but have you seen the interior of a skyline? totally pants. plus german car is soo much better put together, more solid and plusher.
although i do love some jap cars, eg. nsx, evo8 fq400, subaru 22b i would much rather have my slk. if i want speed i have a caterham which is way more fun than a skyline or silvia s14a etc.
i was the same as Ynot. Everyone was modding jap cars, whilst i heavily modded an Audi A3 and became well known for it.
let the ricers have their say, but in the end it's down to personal taste, whether you like the jap sharp lines and loud high revving noise, or sophistiation and elegance (with underlying speed and handling) that comes with german cars.

[alroumi]

Originally Posted by N4PWJ

funnily enough i had this conversation yesterday.
my mates who are into rice mobiles think im stupid for spending so much on my slk, when i could have bought a jap import for much cheaper and it's faster.
but have you seen the interior of a skyline? totally pants. plus german car is soo much better put together, more solid and plusher.
although i do love some jap cars, eg. nsx, evo8 fq400, subaru 22b i would much rather have my slk. if i want speed i have a caterham which is way more fun than a skyline or silvia s14a etc.
i was the same as Ynot. Everyone was modding jap cars, whilst i heavily modded an Audi A3 and became well known for it.
let the ricers have their say, but in the end it's down to personal taste, whether you like the jap sharp lines and loud high revving noise, or sophistiation and elegance (with underlying speed and handling) that comes with german cars.

Catheram's are amazingly fast for a lightweight car , My true love is the TVR Sagaris or the Exige S

[F111F]

When a lot of my friends were modding Camaro's and Mustang's in high school, I got a '72 German built Mercury Capri. Made a few mod's and could out drive most of the V8's in the Texas Hill Country (lots of curves require good revving engine/transmission coordination), because I was lower to the ground and the 4 cyclinder OHC worked great. Then went to a '76 Toyota Celica and with a friend who modded his Toyota, we had a lot of fun. Easy to work on and modify. He went picked up a race ready Datsun 240Z which was faster than anything I had been in before.

Point being, I did modding, and wouldn't mind modding my SLK. I prefer to have my modding not seen (i.e. supercharger, etc.), so when that wannabe wants to race, I can blow him away.

[SLKman]

Well, I'm not too much into Ricers, but my son is.
He has a modded Honda Del Sol. Inside and out, it is tricked out. The only pic I have of it is when he first got it. It now sits about 2 inches off the ground. Low profile tires, Coil overs, etc.

He likes it.

We just dropped an GSR Integra motor with a Super Charger w/6lbs boost and RC 440c injectors. Racing headers/w 2 1/2 inch pipe all the way back.

He uses a computer to tune as he drives. It Dyno'd at 196whp.

He has spanked a few Mustangs that I know of.

I have driven it 1 time and that was enough for me. Way too much speed for me! Guess I'm getting old.

BUT when we are together My SLK gets ALL the attention!!!!


So for the Ricers visiting the forum... WELCOME.

and here is what I have found to be true...

If you want to impress your buddies...build a speed machine...

If you want to impress the Ladies...Get an SLK!!!!!

SLKman

[cyberdrakon]

I like japanese cars, but there are just so few of them that will be a classic. furthermore, there designs get outdated way too quickly, and always seem to have an awkward look.

[gknight8]

I think there are two different issues here, you have the "Tuners" and the "Ricers" the tuners are into increasing performance, and the ricers are, well what can I say making their cars look as stupid as they can, and the worse it is the better they like it. BTW I saw a scion with 2 JATO rockets mounted on the roof! The bottom line is if it keeps the kids out of trouble, more power to them I always say "Keep them so busy they can't get in trouble"

[HwoALanG]

k ~~ i was also into tune cars ~
that's because i own RSX...(Civic)
so i know for fact that~ ricers ( Tuner ) all they care about is their engine with how much they can put down on the wheel...and goes on... plus their parts are cheaper our car...

and most of them are freaking High School kids or some over 21 idiot who doesn't have life....and common thing is they like to talk S*** about each others and other cars... why? i don't know~ they just want to be cool and kill everyone on the road...^^

for the last~thing~ if there is a car that it's fast... and they don't want to race you.... they will say something like this "i have friend that can beat your car"
FOO HAHA ~DUDES GET A LIFE AND LEAVE THE POOR 4banger ENGINE ALONE !!!!

maybe i haven't meet nice ricer~ but oh wellz ~ that's my opinion...

[Twisted]

I think if its done tastefully then all well and good.

BUT

I know a guy, he's gone through so many cars, bought and sold wanting to have a quick 1/4 mile time and a fast 0-100... I guess he's got petrol in his veins.

Just recently he bought an OPC (Yes an opel) and modified it and a few months later (bearing in mind this was a new car) the engine blew up while he was driving... Months later its all fixed and he's still modifying and i heard he's going to sell this one and buy another vehicle.

I worked it out and for all what he spent modding and tuning his last two vehicles he could have bought a new SLK55 AMG by now.

I always say, its not all about speed, its about style. Without sounding pretentious you can buy many things but you can't by class, good taste and style

[linuxpro]

When I was in high school, I was surrounded by Asian tuner kids, all of whom drove CRXs, Supras, Civics, etc. In actuality, it is much cheaper and simpler to mod a Mustang than any import, and will give vastly superior performance. My very first car was a Mustang, fox-body notchback, which I did the following mods on:

stock 5.0L V8 swapped for a 383 stroker (bored and stroked to 383CI from a stock 351W block), vortec supercharger, alumimum heads, forged pistons/rods/etc, performance long-travel cam, intake/exhaust on heads ported/polished and matched to custom headers (fabbed by dad and I), MSD ignition, coil on plugs, ECU upgraded to aftermarket allowing custom tune, underdrive pulleys, AC removed and replaced with idler pulley, ~400lph walbro fuel pump, stainless steel fuel and brake lines, 14" rotors front and rear with brembro 6-bolt calipers, subframe connectors, coilovers, straight headers (no cats, mufflers, etc - exhaust routed direct from headers to pipes out behind the front wheels), interior ripped out including the rear-seat delete, the list goes on...

My favorite mod of all: driving around with grease pencil markings on the windshield. s in California will write on the windshield of an abandoned car with grease pencil when it is impounded. I also spray-pained the car this ugly rust color, and dented it the body panels by kicking it. It was the ultimate sleeper, and a total beast. Sounded like a fully-automatic shotgun when you drove it, due to the straight headers.

When the car was dyno'd, it was producing well over 500rwhp (horsepower at the rear wheels, vs at the crank/flywheel), and an absurd amount of torque. With the suspension setup, it could corner like it was on rails and handled awesome. Needless to say, I had a great deal of fun racing the asian kids with their hilariously lame ricers, and made a pretty significant chunk of change racing for slips/cash. I'm still amazed that they were all stupid enough to race a RWD american V8 with actual power. Those ricers are a joke. Never seen a single japanese sports car that was ever competitive with a built Mustang, and I built mine for less than what it would cost for a complete exhaust system on the Mercedes and a bodykit (I think our total costs on that car were around 10-12k, and that was a full race setup that is now being raced on drag strips semi-pro in san diego).

the aftermarket on the mustangs is actually the best aftermarket out there for tuning. tons of parts, all of them cheap and easily available. i have no idea why children flock to the crappy civics and jap-cars, considering they are a massive joke compared to mustangs, especially when you are looking for brute power. you just can't beat a supercharged/turbo'd Ford big-block when you want to blast off into outer-space.

My buddy Eric still regularly races his Mustang for slips in the import/export showdowns in SoCal. Hasn't lost a race yet, but has been stuck with quite a few Acuras, Hondas, and other japanese garbage, including a 800hp Supra that he completely smoked and then sold for like $20k. Heh heh. Mustangs own the drag strip. America is still king when it comes to just straight-up brutal 1/4-mile dominance (although that kind of racing just bores me to death now)

Oh.. and best 1/4-mile time I ever had in that old beater was in the low 10's, just in case you're curious. I could have done better using octane booster, putting larger slicks on it, and some other mods, I got bored of strip racing and sold it. It also got me in a lot of trouble for a little while and I had to cool it. Police in California do NOT like cars with no cats. Heh heh.