02 WRX vs 04 SRT-4 vs 05 MUSTANG

[lookin4wheels]

i thought the Mustang GT was 24 grand

[kman10587]

Nope, MSRP for a GT Deluxe is $24,995.

[SuperHighOutput]

Alright, my recommendation of the choices given is the SRT-4 for your needs. I personally think that you should go for an SVT Focus, unless you are only concerned with straight line performance. If you are going to street race the WRX is horrible from a dead stop unless you want to put a new clutch in every 6 weeks because you have to launch it at such high rpms. The SRT-4 is better than the WRX in a straight line, and the Mustang GT is better yet. If by racing you mean autoX or the like then the Mustang is ok, and really niether of the other cars are all that great in the handling department due to their front weight bias. So if all you want is straight line performance go with the Stang or SRT-4, if you want a great car for twisties or the track I would go with an SVT Focus.

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by SuperHighOutput

Alright, my recommendation of the choices given is the SRT-4 for your needs. I personally think that you should go for an SVT Focus, unless you are only concerned with straight line performance. If you are going to street race the WRX is horrible from a dead stop unless you want to put a new clutch in every 6 weeks because you have to launch it at such high rpms. The SRT-4 is better than the WRX in a straight line, and the Mustang GT is better yet. If by racing you mean autoX or the like then the Mustang is ok, and really niether of the other cars are all that great in the handling department due to their front weight bias. So if all you want is straight line performance go with the Stang or SRT-4, if you want a great car for twisties or the track I would go with an SVT Focus.

true stock for stock the SVT focus outhandles the SRT4 however that is just because they slaped on so-so suspension parts stock on the srt4. They did that probably to keep the price as low as posible plus to sell their mopar suspension kits.


And its far easier to swap a suspension than to raise power levels of the the svt focus to the srt4's level. Reliably that is.


Bottom line the srt4 proved itself on enough events that require serious handling to prove that the "srt4 is good only for straight lines" myth is just that a myth.

Some examples:

the srt4 won 8th overall in the one lap in 2003:
http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=6

it also demolished the group 5 scca Rally

[SuperHighOutput]

While I agree with most of what you said there are a couple of things I want to address. First, all you need to put the SVT Focus in SRT-4's league in power is the JR supercharger kit, although torque is probably still lower, and it will still be reliable. The SRT-4 you provided a link for is quite impressive and put up some awesome lap times, however the thing about that car is it is modified, and was driven by DC engineers. My biggest problem with owning the SRT-4 isn't the car itself it is a great little car, but for the most part the type of people who drive these cars think they are the fastest things on the road, and they act like immature brats. I would also venture to say that the SRT-4 will most likely be the least reliable of any of the mentioned cars.

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by SuperHighOutput

While I agree with most of what you said there are a couple of things I want to address. First, all you need to put the SVT Focus in SRT-4's league in power is the JR supercharger kit, although torque is probably still lower, and it will still be reliable. The SRT-4 you provided a link for is quite impressive and put up some awesome lap times, however the thing about that car is it is modified, and was driven by DC engineers. My biggest problem with owning the SRT-4 isn't the car itself it is a great little car, but for the most part the type of people who drive these cars think they are the fastest things on the road, and they act like immature brats. I would also venture to say that the SRT-4 will most likely be the least reliable of any of the mentioned cars.

It will not be as as reliable as the SRT4, if it were it would keep its factory warranty. Trust me I have plenty of experience with Zetec engines, i owned a car with one years and yes they have plenty of potential but most of them will not be even close in strength with the srt4 engine. There are out there srt4 running over 500 hp on stock internals.


And any car will have a-holes owners, than includes SVR focuses, evos, ferraris you name it. So its not the cars fault some drivers are stupid.

And if you going to call the srt4 unreliable post some proof. Fact is the drive train is simply bulletproof.

here take a look at the engine:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...0scc_projneon/

and that car in the one lap is very lightly modded:
the only things upgraded over an 04 or 05 model are shocks stage 1 ECI and a removed cat. That is by any definition a lightly modded car.

[kman10587]

The SRT-4 is a very versatile and reliable car. You can make either an 11-second-car or an autocross demon for about $30,000, including the cost of the car. That's pretty impressive.

[TeamFL1]

i saw this Mustang GT in hot rod, that has just some light weight compoments and its make 12 sec run, thats pretty impressive to me. im not a muscle car guy , but you gotta have respect for this kind of performence at this kind of price. but i rather go with WRX sti , if thats an option.

[SuperHighOutput]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

It will not be as as reliable as the SRT4, if it were it would keep its factory warranty. Trust me I have plenty of experience with Zetec engines, i owned a car with one years and yes they have plenty of potential but most of them will not be even close in strength with the srt4 engine. There are out there srt4 running over 500 hp on stock internals.


And any car will have a-holes owners, than includes SVR focuses, evos, ferraris you name it. So its not the cars fault some drivers are stupid.

And if you going to call the srt4 unreliable post some proof. Fact is the drive train is simply bulletproof.

here take a look at the engine:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...0scc_projneon/

and that car in the one lap is very lightly modded:
the only things upgraded over an 04 or 05 model are shocks stage 1 ECI and a removed cat. That is by any definition a lightly modded car.

Alright now I can see you know some things about cars and you seem to be pretty smart, but the SRT-4's drive train is far from bullet proof, it's a Chrysler product, and while I have much respect for things that were built by American workers, Chryslers drive trains are the worst of any US manufacturer by a long shot. I have a video that shows what happens when you run 500hp on the SRT-4's stock internals.
http://www.wrxfanatics.com/index.php...post&id=279526

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by SuperHighOutput

Alright now I can see you know some things about cars and you seem to be pretty smart, but the SRT-4's drive train is far from bullet proof, it's a Chrysler product, and while I have much respect for things that were built by American workers, Chryslers drive trains are the worst of any US manufacturer by a long shot. I have a video that shows what happens when you run 500hp on the SRT-4's stock internals.
http://www.wrxfanatics.com/index.php...post&id=279526

Yes that guy is a known member of the srt4 forums and he posted himself the vid a while ago. He did not blame the car for the blow out, he stated quite clearly that he raced the car at the track all the time and abused it quite often and with that power level its not surprising to have the car quit on you. But the fact is that car lasted for quite a long time at that power level taking quite a bit of abuse.

BTW if that video is the one making fun of the srt4, the video has been discredited already. The video has been edited to make the srt4 look bad. The race with the van for example, it hapened at my local track Roky Mountain and I know the van driver, he is also a mopar guy the van is very quick running on the famous 2.2 turbo II chrysler engine and the complete video still show the srt4 winning, he just gota very bad start. Secondly that video with the srt4 blowing up was also edited. The car still ran a 12.9 with the engine blowing about at third of the track. So you can only imagine how fast that srt4 was to run 2/3 of the track wilth a blown engine and still pull a 12.9.


Lets take another super strong engine the 4g63 from the EVO, do you think running a 500+ hp level and racing all the time will last forever...no. And that is a legendary engine.

Also the group 5 SRT4s rally cars are runing the stock drivetrain and so far they have been super reliable. And there are very few things harder on a car than rally. Actually during rallies they did find a slight weakness in the 03's half shafts so all the 04 were updated.

Bottom line there is ample evidence of how strong the srt4 drivetrain is and so far I have yet to se any evidence against except for that doctored video.

[kman10587]

To me, the SRT-4 isn't even a Neon anymore; it's a stripped-down, unapologetic, back-to-basics performance car that is designed to race hard and take it, and you can get it for just over twenty thousand. Sure, the interior is pretty crappy and the ride quality leaves a lot to be desired, but that's also why it's so cheap.

[SuperHighOutput]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

Yes that guy is a known member of the srt4 forums and he posted himself the vid a while ago. He did not blame the car for the blow out, he stated quite clearly that he raced the car at the track all the time and abused it quite often and with that power level its not surprising to have the car quit on you. But the fact is that car lasted for quite a long time at that power level taking quite a bit of abuse.

BTW if that video is the one making fun of the srt4, the video has been discredited already. The video has been edited to make the srt4 look bad. The race with the van for example, it hapened at my local track Roky Mountain and I know the van driver, he is also a mopar guy the van is very quick running on the famous 2.2 turbo II chrysler engine and the complete video still show the srt4 winning, he just gota very bad start. Secondly that video with the srt4 blowing up was also edited. The car still ran a 12.9 with the engine blowing about at third of the track. So you can only imagine how fast that srt4 was to run 2/3 of the track wilth a blown engine and still pull a 12.9.


Lets take another super strong engine the 4g63 from the EVO, do you think running a 500+ hp level and racing all the time will last forever...no. And that is a legendary engine.

Also the group 5 SRT4s rally cars are runing the stock drivetrain and so far they have been super reliable. And there are very few things harder on a car than rally. Actually during rallies they did find a slight weakness in the 03's half shafts so all the 04 were updated.

Bottom line there is ample evidence of how strong the srt4 drivetrain is and so far I have yet to se any evidence against except for that doctored video.

Quite honestly at this point it is too early to tell how reliable the drive train in the SRT-4 is being that the car is no more than two years old right now, it may be strong but as you should know a 500hp SRT-4 is not going to be any more reliable than any other 500hp 4cyl simply because the only way to achieve those type of numbers is with lots of boost, or nitrous.

[skateordie]

Originally Posted by SuperHighOutput

Quite honestly at this point it is too early to tell how reliable the drive train in the SRT-4 is being that the car is no more than two years old right now, it may be strong but as you should know a 500hp SRT-4 is not going to be any more reliable than any other 500hp 4cyl simply because the only way to achieve those type of numbers is with lots of boost, or nitrous.

alright im still confused.. we got all this talk about the srt4 being shitty... but it seems theres not really enough proff to say its not reliable as far as we know so far they are f**king reliable right? anyway what about the wrx? i believe thats the car id rather have out of the 2.. but I dont how long its gonna last either.. Ive heard shitty stories about both being unreliable but in reality I think both are very reliabe cars? I know (superhighoutput and Neutorio or whatever) know their car shit. Just interested on your outputs of the wrx... i know (neut) perfers the srt-4 over the wrx.. just trying to keep this topic alive and find out more about the wrx.. Ive been searching all around the net and the automotive forums and it seems the 2002 wrx trannies seem to be made of poor quality (edmunds.com) car reviews.. Thats what the owners of the wrx's have been complaining about.. Not really sure about the srt-4 problems doesn't seem like there is as many.. but i got myself convinced on a wrx. Just want to know what everyone elses feelins are on this subject.. Id hate to buy it and it break down on my before i even pay it off.. then id be f**ked.

[kman10587]

The 02 WRX had a lot of minor problems, but the 04-05 are pretty rock solid. Imprezas have a very good reliability record, and the customer service is top-notch. I doubt it could take 400 HP on stock internals and last for 30,000 miles with no problems like I've seen the SRT-4 do, but it certainly won't be breaking down constantly.

[Neutrino]

skateordie i do prefer the srt4 over the WRX but I do not think the WRX is a bad car in any way. Actually I like them quite a lot and their AWD drivetrain might fit your weather better.

Also Subaru is very we'ln known for their reliability, however I do not have any info on gearbox issues they might have had. Nasioc might be the best place to ask that particular question.

Powerwise as kman pointed out the srt4 is the better choice if you want to make serious upgrades. The WRX and even the STIs use opendeck aluminium blocks which are great for handling due to low inertia but are not the best for power. On the other hand the srt4 engine is built like a tank.