|
(originally posted by spiritturbo) I felt we needed this here, and apparently so did u guys (ahem, civicking) but here u go, i'm not taking credit as you can see, and thanks spiritturbo, and anyone who contributed to this
New guys, Welcome to the forums! Please read this FAQ and ask all the questions you want afterwards. Alot of the info contained herein will better equip you to help us answer your question, or may answer your question completely!
To our regs, if I misquoted or did not give credit where it was due PLEASE let me know.
"This Faq Thread should answer some of your questions. Since we have no power to create a sticky I went through the old faq thread and created this thread. The origional authors are credited. Feel free to add to this as you see fit." -Minus1et
Q: I have X dollars, and want to get a new car. What should I get?
A: You must first answer a few questions yourself. How much experience do you have with driving? How mechanically inclined are you? What are you going to be using this car for?
The first question is definitely the most important. It may not seem like it, but if you're just starting out driving, you should not go for the fastest car that you can afford. It's best to start off with something to learn on, something that can take the normal abuse that a person learning to drive can dish out, and something that is comfortable for you to learn in.
Once you've come to terms with your driving skills, you can get down to the details. If you have access to a well fetted shop, someone to hold your hand thru difficult repairs, and most of all, the patience (and intelligence) to fix things that go wrong (and they will go wrong), then you can safely consider a more mechanically 'needy' car. This may entail it either being in a higher state of tune, or in greater disrepair, depending on your financial situation.
Is this car going to be something that you eventually hope to take to a time attack, or enter into SCC Pro Rally? Or are you content just to go to the odd 'heads-up' drag racing at the local track? Do you really just want something that you can pick chicks up in and cruise around in, more concerned about going places in style rather than a hurry?
If you spend the few minutes that it takes to honestly answer these questions, you will find the people on these boards more than willing to make some very strong recommendations, as opposed to some vague suggestions that can occur when a vague question is asked.
Happy Hunting, and most of all, keep an open mind in both life and cars.
-Simkin
Q: I burned my tyres off last night, trying to take photos for SCC, and now I need a new set of rubber. What should I buy?
A: I commend your valiant efforts to resurface roads everywhere. Now, as to a new set of rolling stock... We must again ask that a few things be defined first. How much are you willing to spend, what do you plan on doing with your car (motorsports-wise), and are you willing to put up with the drawbacks of hi-po tyres: road noise, less tread life, possibly poorer wet weather handing?
The best way to sum it all up is:
If you're looking for a performance tyre, buy the best one that you can reasonably afford.
If you need something for winter, consider getting an additional set of rims/tyres for winter, rather than compromising on one set of A/S tyres.
<If you want some cheap and quiet tyres, with high treadwear ratings, YOU ARE ON THE WRONG BOARDS. You will need to go to the nearest DMV, where you are to get your eyesight checked out, because chances are, you are in your declining years anyhow.>
-Simkin
Q: I'm ready to tune my *insert car here* what should i do first.
A: what are your plans for the car? Do you want it to be a show king, a great auto cross performer, a drag car with E.Q. times as low as possible. Or just something you want to put a little more juice into because your car feels to lazy for your taste. Also, what type of experience with cars do you have.
-eSential1
Regarding The Infamous Nissan Skyline.
1. That deal on ebay motors that looks to good to be true IS!!
a. It has no vin #
b. It is out of the country
c. Asuming the deal is legit you will have to pay and wait to import it.
d. If and when it does arrive, you will not be able to legaly drive it on the street.
e. In order to get it legalized you will need alot of cash and the help of some one that knows what there doing.
f. Do yourself a favor save up a boat load of cash and go to http://skylinegtr.com/ and get every thing taken care of by someone who knows what their doing.
g. If your looking for a trailer queen or a track star and dont need it street legal, well, I hope you don't get scammed..
h. The newest version of the skyline is avalible in the us in the form of the G35 atessa and all.
-minus1et
What engine should I swap in my car?
How much money do you have? are you mechanically inclined(greatly), What are you building the car for?, Would make more sense and cheaper to build the stock engine?
-skinnye
-driving tequniques-
Don't tailgate people- riding people's asses isn't going to get you anywhere besides getting people angry, and possibly getting your feelings hurt.
YOUR NOT A PROFESSIONAL DRIFTER- quit trying to do your best Initial D imitation on public roads, especialy ones in subdivided neighborhoods.
Quit with the hazard light/flashing light bullsh*t- This ain't no fuking Tokyo Extreme Racer. I do find it polite and courtious when someone flashes their lights at me to warn of a speed trap/cop up ahead. Most people appreciate that kind of thing.
Be a courtious driver- go ahead and let that guy go ahead of you that's trying to pull out. Wave "thanks" to those who let you.
Don't cut people off- pretty self explanitory.
TURN OFF THAT MUTHAFU*KING CELL PHONE!- Jesus, if I see another idiot driving around like a moron talking on his/her fuking phone, I'm going to ram them off the *** road!
Your sh*tty, ratty ass system sound's like sh*t- no one wants to hear your license plate rattling pile of crap "system".
-DRSLT1
Efficiency and reliability
How to save gas... slow down. You dont have to drive fast every where you go. You dont have to be the first one out at every stop light. Keep your car at a lower RPM. Redlining is not required to shift into the next gear and contrary to popular belief, there is such thing as half or 25% throttle. Floring it is not requierd at all times.
-eSential1
Road Etiquette
Quit with the hazard light/flashing light bullsh*t- This ain't no fuking Tokyo Extreme Racer. I do find it polite and courtious when someone flashes their lights at me to warn of a speed trap/cop up ahead. Most people appreciate that kind of thing.
What the hell is this all about? I've had a couple people think they're all cool and go by me when I'm not even going fast and they pull this crap. If they'd want to race straight up, I'd kill them. This is perhaps the stupidest thing I've seen yet.
-2GNTEclipse
WALK SOFTLY: You don't have to announce to the world that your car is fast by flying everywhere. Drive normal when you aren't racing or in crowded traffic. If you drive wide open people will get used to seeing that, and when it comes race time they will know what to expect. Driving normal, those who are watching you will have no idea what it can really do.
RESPECT OTHERS: Since your passion is driving, driving should be the thing you do best, better than the average driver. That means safe respectful driving, as well as precision and race driving. You, being the better driver, are called to a higher standard when you drive. That means you have to drive with respect to the road conditions and amount of other drivers.
-spiritturbo
ouch... anyways.. RESPECT THE MOTORCYCLES and be aware we use the right hand side of the lane... Do not pass us with speed as it causes turbolence and could knock us down if were not prepared... Dont cut us off.... be aware of us guys.. seriously alot of motorcylcists get killed for doing something stupied or getting hit by a car cause they didnt see us..... So plz be careful and curtious
-jerzydudek
Forum Etiquette/Posting questions
Most importantly, though the internet has it's own language or slang, it helps to try to use correct grammer, spelling, and punctuation.
Turn the CAPS LOCK OFF. Using all capital letters dosn't make people respond to your thread quicker, it just makes you look slow....
nAmEs tHaT aRe tYpEd LiKe tHiS are stupid..... try not to use them, your not 12 years old anymore. If you are, you don't drive, get off of this board.
Trolls, keep out of these forums. Import Tuner and Super Street message boards have already been plauged by idiots who make stupid names like "I like dogs I have a Honda" and make 3 retarted flamebait posts. Do us all a favor, take your computer and return it.
-DRSLT1
***The following is a post from Toeside that illustrates a good example of such issues, sic***
Q: my frends cuzins gonna swap me this 89 berrttta for my dads station wagon when I turn 16.its arelly good car excpt itwont start but it has 3 wheels. wht mods shoudl I start with. iwant to do sumthimg diffrent not be rice and all. Thx- jason.
A: Jason, we would like to welcome you to the boards, but its hard to do because even if we were able to reply with an intelligent answer, we will, in all likelihood, never see your sorry butt again. You won't do any of what we recommend because you don't have the patience or resources to follow through. You won't ever post anything useful or interesting to the rest of us, so please go back to looking at pictures in Import Tooner.
For new visitors who don't want to come off as a vacuous simpleton like yourself, may we suggest the following:
- Spend a few minutes browsing and searching what has already been posted! Not only will you prove to the rest of us that you can actually read, you will phrase a question from an informed point-of-view that will be ten times as likely to get a decent answer.
- Give the regulars here a break, and put some *detail* in your technical questions. If you say, "I'm looking for a turnkey sport sedan of European heritage from the late '80s. Front wheel drive is OK, and my budget is under $12K." *Then* we've got something to work with. Beats "wat car should I get? all my friends drive hondas".
- It's OK to use standard American English... or Canadian, or Australian, or Her Majesty's. Just try to avoid the undecipherable jibberish. Not one single person here will complain if you run your post through a spell checker or use complete sentences with a well-chosen verb or two. Perfection is not required. We just get annoyed at having to guess all the time.
-toeside
Newbs posting a question!
We have no problem answering questions for any who would ask. A problem we have experienced is that someone will ask a question, and then NEVER return to check for answers! Please remember that it takes time to answer these questions. It takes our PERSONAL time to do this, so show some respect! if you ask a question, please come back in a day or two and check for answers! If you have no intention of checking back or you MIGHT check back, then please don't waste our time.
And a thank you would be nice.
-spiritturbo
One final bit of advice (at least for the moment): if anyone is terribly bored by a lack of posts, or the inanity of other Primedia boards, consider using the 'Advanced Search' tool to look for any posts made by an ex-regular by the name of joegekko Make sure that you set the date field to 'Beginning of Time' because many of his posts were prior to 2004.
-Simkin
Advice on negotiating for a car purchase.
Ok well then If it is the R/T AND IT IS NOT a turbo (which doesn;t sound like it is) the it got the DOHC 24V V6 variant of the 3.0 engine. It is front wheel drive and does NOT have the 4 wheel steering option that is only available on the turbo (which, by the way engages at 30 mph, not 50 mph). If you are stuck on AWD, I would just wait and buy a car already equipped with it, but the R/T is also a fine car as it is.
Automatic tranny had problems throught out all the years, Drive it and check the fluid level. See if the owner ever had it serviced. Also be aware that if you DO find and AWD model, which is turbo only, there were problems with the transfer case leaking, and pricing MAY be out of your range.
For a '92 Stealth R/T in MINT condition with the basic stuff, Kelly Blue Book puts the value at just below $4,000. Remember this price is for a car that is absolutely perfect, with glistening paint, no dents, no cigarette burns inside, minimal carpet wear, just perfect, which this car is probably not. Given this car is probably average condition, it sounds like the owner wants to take you for a ride, BIGTIME. Buying the car is nothing but a negotiation between you and the seller. In this case, it sounds like the seller is highballing you, which means that his goal is actually lower, say $4,500, but he set the price at about $5,000 so that when he goes down in price, YOU will feel like you've beaten him in negotiations by lowering the price and buy the car. So he still makes money off of the sale and you drive home, thinking you got the best price, when maybe you could have done better.
$5,000 is simply WAY too much for this car. Remember that $4,000 is for a perfect car. If the paint is bad or it's got other issues, deduct a few hundred from the price of $4,000. Now this car can reach 250 horses with minimal mods, and there are many mods available for it. If you are STILL interested, have the car inspected by a good mechanic. Pay him for an hour of his time and STAY there while he does it and watch. Write down any problems with the car, they can be important later. If the owner will not let you drive the car or take it to a mechanic. FORGET IT!!! Walk away from it.
Now you estimate your price according to what the mechanic has told you. Let's say you set your price at $3,800. Approach the owner in high spirits. Offer $3,000 for the car (you are now LOWballing). The owner will no doubt himhaw and whine about how low your offer is, that it is too low. He may even laugh, or even get mad. The idea is to get him slightly emotional over the whole situation, and that will work. But YOU keep the straight face, don;t get emotional, and focus on the deal. Let him stew, then ask how far he is willing to come down and that $5,000 is just too much. He may say something about you coming up, but it doesn;t matter. Don;t come up on YOUR money twice in a row. He will know you can be suckered then, and play that to his advantage. He may give you another number that is closer to your number, but still not there yet. "Hmmm" you think. Now offer him $3,400 for the deal. Wow , you came up $400 bucks!!! Let him know that this will really strap you, but you want to make the deal. He may take it, but he may not. If he makes the deal, congratulations! IF HE DOES NOT TAKE THAT OFFER, get his number and leave for a few hours. Let him think about it for a bit. Then a few hours later call him and make your final offer of $3,800. Tell him, "look this is the best I can do. I have no more money, this is it." This MUST be your actual final offer.
If he takes $3,800, then congrats! You did well. If not, then walk away from it. Paying anymore than $3,800 is unacceptable if the car is less than mint (if it's beat to crap I would probably pass on it all together). Make sure that he has your number for if he changes his mind.
Keep us posted. Sorry this is so long, hope it helps.
Godspeed.
|
|
To further the faq: A blurb from "tjamz", at the Super Street website concerning the Skyline and the fate of MotoRex. I have also verified this info from one other source in Baltimore, though a few details were different, this is pretty much what I hear too.
"My buddy tony called the NHTSA and DOT to find out about legalized skylines in the USA. Here is what he found out:
Well I just had a 30min phone call with the NHTSA/DOT in Washington, DC. It was regarding importation of vehicles from Canada to the US and Skylines in general. We can not purchase a skyline through Canada and bring it to the states. The rule is 15yrs and older in Canada but it is 25 years in the US. The only way you can bring a Skyline into the states is through Motorex, which most of you know is in the shitter right now. They originally contracted with JK motors out of Baltimore, MD to do their modification work. Motorex had the cars crash tested through JK motors but had JK motors sign a contract to never compete with Motorex themselves. Once the modifications were known by Motorex, they asked for them to become a trade secret and no longer be public knowledge. This is where we are hung up. Motorex basically dried up and f*cked themselves over. They lied to our government in more than one way. They got really lazy and would send in the wrong pictures with different cars. When actually investigated by the government the cars were either not modified like they claimed, or they were released before they were actually approved by the government. Big no no. They lied to the NHTSA/DOT and the EPA...they pulled a double whammy. There are a ton of lawsuits against them right now. The government believes they will end up claiming bankruptcy, which will screw a ton of people and cause a mass chaos, even moreso than it already is. Motorex did offer up their trade secrets for the price of $100,000 which would be very hard to recover and still make money. Right now the government's lawyers are trying to decide what model to let into the US to be legalized by a registered importer. He could not tell me what it will be cause even he doesn't have the full info yet, but he thinks it will be the R32 since it is the easiest to modify. R33's need dual airbags after 96 and they did not have that. Originally, Motorex had the government believe that 90-99 were all the same body style. Bad idea. They pretty much screwed themselves in the end. If you want anymore info or have any questions let me know."
-tjamz
I have also attempted to contact MotoRex for the last 3 weeks to see if they were still importing. I have yet to receive a call. Whenever I call I get a personal voice mail which, for the last week, has been full. One could only conclude that MotoRex is history. More info as it becomes available.
Literature from GTFan018...
"Car Hacks and Mods for Dummies by Dave Vespremi is a good read if you're just getting into the tuning scene. For starters, Dave Vespremi is the car tech editor for Tech TV and owns a customized MR2 that has been seen in SCC numerous times (including the 2005 Ultimate Street Car Challenge), and the technical editor is Per Schroeder, who writes for Grassroots Motorsports magazine, so you know the content is trustworthy and accurate. The book includes easy-to-understand instructions and details on everything from brakes, "black boxes," and struts to turbos, detailing, and amateur racing organizations. It also emphasises a bunch of topics we here advocate such as tasteful exterior mods and taking time to set up your car instead of dropping in the biggest engine right away and wrapping yourself around a tree in the process.
The Drift Bible is a DVD put out by Best Motoring. It is from Japan and includes Keiichi Tsuchiya, the Drift King, as the host and demonstrator of various drifting techniques. It also includes tips on how to modify your car for drifting and how to drift cars with neutral, understeering, or oversttering handling or low power.
Just make sure that when you practice this stuff, you are NOT on a public road. Find a drift school or drifting session at a local racetrack to practice your drifting. Too often drifter-wannabes end up totaled because they tried to drift their car and couldn't recover... and possibly took an innocent bystander with them."
-GTFan018
|