There is one of these next to my office (I live in Osaka). 600 series Mercedes and large BMWs are common users. There's a guy who regularly parks his Ferrari in it too. (I know it's regular cause I can always hear him come down the street.)
www.storagereview.com gets a lot of their test units from www.HyperMicro.com.
Yes, they do review drives from manufacturers as well, but they ALWAYS state where the drive came from (Hyper Micro, manufacturer, somewhere else), and they always mention general availability (or lack thereof).
SR is the only place to go to get consistently good hard drive reviews.
You're comparing a stock WRX with a Civic that has been tuned for a specific type of racing and saying that the Civic is faster. If it wasn't faster you'd have a serious problem...
You take any stock Civic you like and put it against a stock WRX in any situation you want, you lose.
Take a new Civic and a new WRX, spend the same amount customizing each, then go again... You lose.
When Honda starts winning in the WRC come back and we'll talk. Hell, come back and talk when Honda even starts ENTERING cars in the WRC.
So? Lots and lots of people do ridiculous things all the time. Hell, half the US population voted for... Hmm, let's not go there...;)
Anyway, in theory you can get 300HP by slapping a huge turbo on a 1.6 litre 4-banger. But the power/torque curves will look like the Matterhorn -- very steep climb, pointy peak, and an abrupt drop-off.
Add to this a FWD chassis that was designed for 140HP (max), clapped out tranny, poor brakes...
Not pretty.
And (to be blunt...) you'll never be considered anything but another boneheaded ricer.
If you want a fast 4-cyl car, buy a WRX. AWD, well designed boxer engine with oodles of torque, fantastic chassis/drivetrain, real brakes... All the things that a hopped up Civic will never achieve. Add some STi performance parts and you'll soon be turing 0-60mph in under 5 seconds.
Ian
Re:Magnusson Moss Warranty Act
on
Hack Your Car
·
· Score: 1
The 180km/hr limiter is for Japanese cars sold to the domestic market. 280hp is also the Japanese makers' agreed limit for domestically sold cars. Interestingly they didn't set a limit on torque though.
The S2000 is limited at 250km/hr outside Japan, so that's as fast as it would have gone.
Ian
Re:Magnusson Moss Warranty Act
on
Hack Your Car
·
· Score: 1
Correction...
The car is designed for 600hp, and it needs no internal engine modifications to achieve this. But chipping it alone will give something over 400hp.
Ian
Re:Magnusson Moss Warranty Act
on
Hack Your Car
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
No, tweaking in this way does not improve your brakes, tires, or overall handling.
But it can remove artificial limits.
Here are my current car's specs:
280hp
254ft/lbs torque
All Wheel Drive
FB: 16" 2-pot Ventilated Discs (ABS)
RB: 15" Ventilated Discs (ABS)
Tires: 215/45 ZR-17 (ZR=Sustained 240+km/hr)
Nothing has been changed on the car to improve these specs.
Said manufacturer also chose to limit the top speed to 180km/hr as agreed among all Japanese makers for domestically sold cars. The car does 160km/hr in 3rd gear!!
So what is the cars real top speed? 260km/hr.
Weirder still, you can buy, directly from the manufacturer's performance-parts section, a replacement 260km/hr speedo.
Some cars are meant to be chipped.
An even better example is the Nissan Skyline GT-R. Many people (especially non-car nuts) outside of Japan have never heard of "the GT-R", but this is without doubt the highest performance Japanese car made. (See skylinegtr.com for detailed information.)
In short though, the Skyline GT-R is limited to the same 280hp as my car. But Nissan has designed the entire car as a 600hp car, and chipping the car very quickly gives you nearly 600hp. SIX HUNDRED!
Oils lose their viscosity as the engine temperature (and therefore oil temperature) increase. This is why multi-weight oils were invented.
5W-50 for example. 5W when it is cold (very low viscosity), but 50W when hot (high viscosity).
Also, as oils are exposed to high temperatures over time they lose their viscosity. This is why engines that make a lot of heat (ie turbos) need oil changes more often than regular engines.
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Oh, and I'd like to add... If you are THAT worried about your car, you can't afford it.
Mercedes? HAH!
There is one of these next to my office (I live in Osaka). 600 series Mercedes and large BMWs are common users. There's a guy who regularly parks his Ferrari in it too. (I know it's regular cause I can always hear him come down the street.)
Luddite.
www.storagereview.com gets a lot of their test units from www.HyperMicro.com.
Yes, they do review drives from manufacturers as well, but they ALWAYS state where the drive came from (Hyper Micro, manufacturer, somewhere else), and they always mention general availability (or lack thereof).
SR is the only place to go to get consistently good hard drive reviews.
You're comparing a stock WRX with a Civic that has been tuned for a specific type of racing and saying that the Civic is faster. If it wasn't faster you'd have a serious problem...
You take any stock Civic you like and put it against a stock WRX in any situation you want, you lose.
Take a new Civic and a new WRX, spend the same amount customizing each, then go again... You lose.
When Honda starts winning in the WRC come back and we'll talk. Hell, come back and talk when Honda even starts ENTERING cars in the WRC.
"Lots and lots of people do this."
;)
So? Lots and lots of people do ridiculous things all the time. Hell, half the US population voted for... Hmm, let's not go there...
Anyway, in theory you can get 300HP by slapping a huge turbo on a 1.6 litre 4-banger. But the power/torque curves will look like the Matterhorn -- very steep climb, pointy peak, and an abrupt drop-off.
Add to this a FWD chassis that was designed for 140HP (max), clapped out tranny, poor brakes...
Not pretty.
And (to be blunt...) you'll never be considered anything but another boneheaded ricer.
If you want a fast 4-cyl car, buy a WRX. AWD, well designed boxer engine with oodles of torque, fantastic chassis/drivetrain, real brakes... All the things that a hopped up Civic will never achieve. Add some STi performance parts and you'll soon be turing 0-60mph in under 5 seconds.
Ian
The 180km/hr limiter is for Japanese cars sold to the domestic market. 280hp is also the Japanese makers' agreed limit for domestically sold cars. Interestingly they didn't set a limit on torque though. The S2000 is limited at 250km/hr outside Japan, so that's as fast as it would have gone. Ian
Correction...
The car is designed for 600hp, and it needs no internal engine modifications to achieve this. But chipping it alone will give something over 400hp.
Ian
No, tweaking in this way does not improve your brakes, tires, or overall handling.
But it can remove artificial limits.
Here are my current car's specs:
280hp
254ft/lbs torque
All Wheel Drive
FB: 16" 2-pot Ventilated Discs (ABS)
RB: 15" Ventilated Discs (ABS)
Tires: 215/45 ZR-17 (ZR=Sustained 240+km/hr)
Nothing has been changed on the car to improve these specs.
Said manufacturer also chose to limit the top speed to 180km/hr as agreed among all Japanese makers for domestically sold cars. The car does 160km/hr in 3rd gear!!
So what is the cars real top speed? 260km/hr.
Weirder still, you can buy, directly from the manufacturer's performance-parts section, a replacement 260km/hr speedo.
Some cars are meant to be chipped.
An even better example is the Nissan Skyline GT-R. Many people (especially non-car nuts) outside of Japan have never heard of "the GT-R", but this is without doubt the highest performance Japanese car made. (See skylinegtr.com for detailed information.)
In short though, the Skyline GT-R is limited to the same 280hp as my car. But Nissan has designed the entire car as a 600hp car, and chipping the car very quickly gives you nearly 600hp. SIX HUNDRED!
As I said, some cars are meant to be chipped.
Ian
Actually, that isn't totally right.
Oils lose their viscosity as the engine temperature (and therefore oil temperature) increase. This is why multi-weight oils were invented.
5W-50 for example. 5W when it is cold (very low viscosity), but 50W when hot (high viscosity).
Also, as oils are exposed to high temperatures over time they lose their viscosity. This is why engines that make a lot of heat (ie turbos) need oil changes more often than regular engines.