What's in These Rice Burners?

[AMF]

Originally Posted by Joe Wicked

The true tuners and the true builders I respect. The ones that get me are the ones who put nos and a fart cannon on a stock civic and then think they are king ding-a-ling. I know one guy who has a 92 civic that is fast. It was not about the money, he did it because he was tired of everyone saying it could not be done. He wanted to prove it could be. The same guy has a 2000 Camaro SS as a daily driver and a 34 Chevy hot rod that he is building. He had the money to spend on it, and what he proved is the end result (when buying a used late model car) is the cost is really close to the same. The car was cheap, but cost more to get the same result as a more expensive car that costs less to go fast. In the end he spent about 55K. A 3-4 year old Mustang GT would cost about the same to go just as fast.

Give me $55k budget and I'll build a late model mustang that will run 8's (reliably). (or any late model muscle car)

You dump $55k into a rice burner and you'd be lucky to run into the 10's. Unless you just totally gut the thing and dump a new (larger) engine and transmission setup into it.

Any car can be made to go fast. Some just take more money than others.

I agree with you, that the number of guys out there with a fart can and some unpainted body kit are more than you could count. There are a FEW Honda and Mitsu and Toyota guys out there with really fast cars. There are THOUSANDS of hot rod guys out there with scorchers....mustangs, camaros, vettes, ....etc.

You can buy a notch mustang, throw $10k into (for a total of $15k) and run 10's all day long, twice on Sunday.

If straight line isn't your thing, you can still build a pretty quick road race car too, (although the weight and distribution becomes a serious issue).

I respect the dedication and the over the top nature of extreme modding, it just makes you shake your head when you think of what that money and effort could do with a better starting platform. To each his own though, some guys like V-8's.....some guys like their car to sound like a leaf blower