Think of all the corvette competitors japan has tried;

3000gt
supra tt
rx7 tt
NSX

All were more expensive
All are gone but the NSX
All suffered from typical fatal japanese design defects; some effort to make power with a crappy little motor, among each of their various flaws.

The 3000 gt had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and was a slow ugly huge outside tiny inside piece of soon to be off the roads forever piece of crap.

The rx7 was a sleek and beautiful design, the right size and weight, with great handling and lots of good qualities, but was an engine fire waiting to happen, unreliable, underpowered and underengineered (in some respects) POS when it came down to it.

The supra is the only japanese car ever built that was designed sufficiently to stand up to any abuse at all. It IS a good car, but it is overweight, overpriced, over - lagged as a result of design defect displacement, and it is GONE.

The NSX is W A Y overpriced, W A Y underpowered, overstressed, and will literally bend going over a pothole. THe NSX guys always stick to themselves and avoid mingling at track events with other marques because they hate exposure and embarrassment. Not a bad car, but as cheaply as they are built, it would be a great $30-k car, but is an embarrassment at 80k.


I am not brand loyal to corvette, but I recognize a superior drivetrain and chassis when I race one. The car is sound. Moreso than ANY of the *** cars have EVER been.

I personally think it is way too big, and wastes too much interior space. I would like the regular hatch on the z06, and I think the tail is ugly, though my EB color hides it very well. As always, I would like more power, though for autocross it can already light em up anywhere on course if you want. I could use a little better stereo, and would prefer 17" wheels all the way around, and a little wider.

So, even the z06 is not perfect, but it is so far ahead of the competition it is not even funny.

 

Its a nice car, but its not in Z06 territory.

 

Well mine's not a Z, but Im your huckleberry :D :reddevil :D :cheers:

 

Interesting. I know Blu was running the air filter with the top removed, but he got better times with the vararam.

And the 01's have a more restrictive air filter box than the 02's.

I have my 2000 air filter assembly in the garage. I'm thinking about using a hole saw to cut two ~3 inch holes and insert a couple of "nozzles" and run ducting to the screens below.

CHEAP CAI...

It is also interesting that someone with 5 posts here knows about my vararam debates!!! :)

 

My in-laws just moved down there right off that road 4 months ago. We visited in September. A lot of new construction in the area.

 

It's correct for the normally aspirated, they seem to always be weak :yesnod: When the Turbo comes it will have over 300 BHP. It won't compete with Vette until you do upgrades :yesnod:

 

once in my 84 Prelude (my first car, what a poopie box) i reved at a Z06, just for fun, sweet jebus i swear that guy was going 100KPH (62 or so for you :flag 's) before i even got into 2nd gear, sweet cars, need me a vette at some point :cheers:

 

Corvette is KING OF THE WORRRLLLDDD!!!!! :flag

 

The Altima offers good bang for the buck. The 350Z has gone the way of the Eclipse,Marauder & Impala. The owner should have done research before listening to a salesman.

DEC Car&Driver - look at the performance data. A Mach Mustang handed the 350Z it's @ss, turn a few pages & the Neon SRT will blow it away. :D

 

Until the C5's, Japanese cars were better than the Corvettes. Supras and RX-7's were better in terms of handling and power. The RX-7 was leagues ahead of anything in terms of handling. It took Chevy a decade to catch up with the Z06. Even today the ten year old RX-7 still competes in the same class as the Z06. If you took good care of the RX-7, its engine wouldn't pop. The people with problems are the ones who didn't mod them properly, i.e. adding intake and exhaust and increasing boost without a new ECU.

The Japanese sports cars died because of the SUV craze and emissions controls. In a few years, when the new Supras, RX-7's, and turbo 350z's arrive they will once again be competitive.

 

I came VERY close to buying an RX-7 in 1992. It is a SLICk looking car, but it is not as fast as an LT-1 six-speed 92 Corvette. And while it might very well handle better, I had pretty much made my decision to go with the Corvette before some job changes came along that made me spend less on that round of car-buying.

I had chosen the Corvette for several reasons:

1. Even though the vette stickered near 40k, you could easily get them for ~32k. The RX-7's were being gouged at the time for this price or more.

2. I wore both cars out on the test drives, and I don't think the RX-7 STOCK was going to hang with the vette in a straight line.

3. The RX-7 got a lot of its handling from being SMALL. I decided that even being a single guy with very little storage needs, the RX-7 had almost NO storage - and if you got that monster stereo - you had ZERO storage space.

As for Chevy taking a decade to catch up - hardly. I'd say they caught completely up in 1997. It doesn't take a Z06 to eat up a stock RX-7. And once you start modding, the sky is the limit. There are 10 second C5's on the forum that are streetable. And LOT's of 11 second cars.

Well, my story is only one of thousands - but in 1992 I was ready to buy either an RX-7 or a Corvette. I chose the Corvette - not an SUV. And the Corvette is still around... I think the Japanese sports cars died because they always seemed to be "almost" what a lot of people were looking for - but not quite.

And I know there are a lot of people here who wouldn't even consider Japanese sports cars, but I am not one of them. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I am a "driver for hire" with no allegiances to any company. I'm looking for the car that I think will be THE MOST FUN TO DRIVE. That's the "impossible to measure or quantify, but you'll know it when you see it" part that the Japanese cars didn't have.

In my opinion...


[Modified by Tom Steele, 5:46 PM 12/1/2002]

 

I went to the local Nissan dealer last week to check one out too. Kinda weird lookin' car, and not terribly fast. I spoke with a salesman who SEEMED to know what he was talking about, and he thinks Nissan is coming out with a S/C version next spring packaged with their new 'vert.

Oh well, back to my C5. :chevy

 

RX7 dominated Super stock class, in scca, for a very long time.

I also owned a 94 RX7 as well as a 91 300ZXTT. I ran 13.41 at 101 bone stock in my RX7 and this was the norm. Every stock LT1 vette I saw run was high 13. This was in the Dayton, Cini OH area.

Mr. Steele

The reason I saw your post about the Vararam is because I am about to buy a intake. This Saturday I ran my car at the Florida challenge and there was someone that change from vortex to vararam. He picked up MPH and ET. I might be sold on the Vararam even though I agree that the hole ram air thing is not happening.

Bud

 

I don't doubt that - it was light and the C4 was not as good in turns as the RX-7.

Interesting. The RX-7 was MAXIMIZING traction to get 13.40's at only 101mph. I am surprised there weren't C4's running low 13's at your track. I wasn't a big Corvette fan back then, but I do know that they new engine was in the Corvette by then, and that even Camaros in my neck of the woods were running better than 13.8s in many cases and at much higher speeds than 101.

When I test drove the RX-7, I scared the crap out of the salesman. I wrung it out and powershifted it hard all the way through 4th gear. I would have guessed it as a low 14- high 13 car - which judging from the mph you are saying it ran, is about right. Apparently the RX-7 was getting better e.t.s from a better launch.

Yeah, I don't even know what to make of the vararam anymore. You have some guys posting in this forum who are running 117-118 with the stock boxes. You have guys who are running faster with Vortex than vararam. You have people who swear by the vararam, for the wrong reasons - or they just don't know why it is working, but they seem to have measurements that say it is...

You have people who are getting better dyno numbers with a vararam (LOTS better) with the car sitting still on a dyno. You have folks who get NO gains from the dyno, but still like it...

It makes no sense to me, and I am sitting out for now. I may try to make my own CAI using my old 2000 coupe box and some piping... just for kicks.
[/QUOTE]

 

I am quite confused about the intake thing. I have just been thinking about buying the modded stock box from ecklers for 90 bucks and then adding the k&N. My fear is it will not work and I would be out 150 then buying the Vararam after that.

Bud

 

Here's where I sit right now. I have observed my (Intake Air Temps) IAT's with the stock box. They climb 20 degrees F pretty quick sitting still. But they also come back down to ambient pretty quick - but not in 12 seconds...

So, there is certainly an argument for the CAI at the drag strip - or street racing for that matter.

Keeping the IAT cooler does a couple of things.

First, it gives you denser air, and more hp.

Second, and perhaps equally or more important, it keeps the PCM from jumping in and pulling spark and any other things it does to try and keep the engine within safe operating parameters.

So... I see some advantages with a CAI.

Next, what to buy/do.

Vortex is by far the cheapest, and probably performs well. However, I am concerned that the design could allow hot air from the radiator to cause the IAT's to rise while sitting still.

Unfortunately, I did not test my 2000 coupe (which has a vortex on it) while I had the predator, so I don't know if that is true.

Next you have the Halltech which a LOT of guys run, and swear by. But, it is EXPENSIVE.

And there is the new favorite - the vararam.

It is down to around $400. Not a great price and the website is full of crap - but so was Breathless' last I checked.

So, for the lowest hassle/price, the vararam may win - although the Vortex is a lot cheaper if it does the same thing.

Then you could make one yourself. That is likely the cheapest way to go, but probably the most hassle - compared to calling RG and just placing a phone order and installing it when it comes in...

I'm still running the stocker right now.

 

Who?

 

;)

 

Aww, heck. We have sleet and freezing rain here, I have nothing better to do than get dragged into this.

I'd put you in the second half of that sentence Ross. I think you have measurements that say the vararam seems to improve your times. While there are other cars out there that run 117+ on the stock box, you seem to have improved your times and attribute it to the vararam.

But I have yet to see any evidence that you really know why the vararam is improving your times.

That's understandable, with the misleading mumbo-jumbo on the vararam webpage, it is hard to know WHERE to look for possible performance gains from the vararam. I lean towards the POSSIBLE answers in my post above.

As for the first half of the sentence, there are plenty of posts scattered throughout the various Corvette boards of people who still think they are ramming the air into their car with the vararam.


[Modified by Tom Steele, 11:32 AM 12/4/2002]

 

I have never, ever witnessed this at any Corvette Challenge event all season long. Trying to compare trap speeds from runs done at different tracks with different prep and weather conditions is an exercise in futility. The only way to see what is going on is to watch the cars run on your track on the same day that you are there. At the Challenge events we get about 75 Vettes, many of which are stock Z06 cars. I've seen plenty of them run from week to week and they were always trapping less than me after the VR install.


As I have stated before I definitely know why it is improving my performance and my knowledge is not based on their WWW site. It is based on dyno runs, Autotap data, and drag strip runs. I am not a product salesman or a VR technician so I do not need to convince you with the 'evidence'. I've made references to my findings in the past. Re-read my posts and then speak to the manufacturer to find out what he is trying to accomplish. You have stated numerous times that the system was just designed to fit into the car. I am still not sure where you got that information from. You assume to much about the design of the system.


[Modified by rbartick, 1:46 PM 12/4/2002]