RSX-S Vs, Celica GT-S

sorry if this thread has been done before but me and a friend were having an arguement about a race between an RSX-S vs. a Celica GT-S (7thgen). who takes it in a drag and who would win in handling race. and please try not to be too biased. (BTW im expecting the rsx to take it.) o and also considering these are both stock and both 6-speed. or would it be drivers race.

driver's race. very comparable and the better driver will win and that's all there is to it between these 2. but all things being equal, i would suspect the RSX-s to win 7 times out of 10.

RSX-S anyday...it's not a half bad car...it's just FWD and not for me...

I dunno, the Celica has a sizable weight advantage. But I'd have to say it's a driver's race. On an un-related note, the RSX-S is infinitely more usable as a daily driver. Being in the cockpit of a Celica GT-S is like riding on top of a spacebound rocket.

Is the Celica that unbearable inside? On paper I believe the rsx is considerably faster...I've beaten GTS's before and to be honest im not exactly a fantastic manual tranny driver...Overall driving the rsx is pretty tame and comfortable...Id take it over a Celica

Is the Celica that unbearable inside? On paper I believe the rsx is considerably faster...I've beaten GTS's before and to be honest im not exactly a fantastic manual tranny driver...Overall driving the rsx is pretty tame and comfortable...Id take it over a Celica

I can live with it, but I'm just saying that it's really loud and bumpy. There's more wind and tire noise than the Lancer Evolution I've driven. Maybe it's just me.

there isnt much of a weight advantage for the celica roughly only about 250lbs right? but the rsx does over power the celica by alot right? 210 compared to the gts' 180. also the much lack of torque on the celica right.

Car and driver put these two to the test, along with a few others, a couple years back. The celica tied for second with the eclipse v6 while the rsx-s came out on top. The hyndia tiburon v6 and the turbo bug took the lastr two spots. does anyone else think that would be a fun comparison?

Well STock for STock the celica has better handling.As for drag race on paper type-s wins but its all depends on teh driver...

RSX would win allday long if the drivers were the same. but it depends alot on the driver ability

Heres a better question, if they were both RWD which would you prefer?

Heres a better question, if they were both RWD which would you prefer?

2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT or maybe Hyundai Tiburon GT. :tongue:

Funny thing is that the Celica GT-S is more rev happy with less torque, strange, I always thought that was a Honda. Don't get me wrong I like Hondas, anyway the RSX has more muscle thus making better straight line performance yet still enough handling capabilities to keep slightly ahead in a race, while the Celica GT-S is more race ready. It is like what someone said in another thread, if you want a good performing coupe that also makes a smooth daily driver when you want it to and if you want a car that you can modify while still maintaining all of that than go for the RSX. If you want a car that is purely a blast to drive, has great handling and is so light that you can feel every drop of added you would want to squeeze out of it then get the GT-S (or what I should say is that if you want a Lotus Elise like experience to a sort experience at the fraction of the cost but with the harshish ride, but still not as bumpy as an Elise, than go for the Celica GT-S. This is one of many reasons, as well as Toyota was pushing for it, the reasons why Celica made and still makes amongst more individual derived race events pretty good racecar. If there is anything I said that sounded a bit inaccurate or over the top let me know.

Heres a better question, if they were both RWD which would you prefer?

If I could make a FWD car RWD...it would be the following ones...

1)ITR...I know this is blasphemy since it is the best FWD handling car but I would love it in RWD...it doest look bad, has a LSD, and has great performance off the bat...

2)Mini Cooper S...light, nimble, go-kart like handling, and w/the Cooper Werks setup...200hp...sweet.

3)Mazdaspeed Protegé...very good at handling, nimble, and turbo...

Vador, have you ever been in an rsx-s? :wink: its not the smooth driver car you think...The suspension is very stiff, which is to be expected. But I have only been in the last generation celicas and their feels softer then the rsx

and both cars can be normal daily driver, just keep below 5000rpm, and you have a friggin economy car

dont talk too loudly about rear drive mini's. The original Mini Cooper was front wheel drive. The guys who dig the classics could get very offended by such talk. Those Brits and their tempers.

But back to the question at hand: forget rear drive stuff like that. A lot of the fun in these cars is because the front wheels are the ones moving, besides, at their horse power levels it really doesnt make much difference where the ponies are going, just so long as they get to the ground.

If there is anything I said that sounded a bit inaccurate or over the top let me know.

Calling the Celica a Lotus Elise'ish driving experience is a bit over the top...

Vador, have you ever been in an rsx-s? :wink: its not the smooth driver car you think...The suspension is very stiff, which is to be expected. But I have only been in the last generation celicas and their feels softer then the rsx

and both cars can be normal daily driver, just keep below 5000rpm, and you have a friggin economy car

Calling the Celica a Lotus Elise'ish driving experience is a bit over the top...

Like I said, I wasn't completely sure and was guestimated on the fact that the Lotus uses a highly tuned Celica engine and with the RSX being an Acura in the states in all, not to mention being a bit larger. I guess I shouldn't going into assumptions, the fact is the RSX is designed to be a sporty sprightly sports coupe that is like the Civic Type R of the states. I also assumed that the Celica had stiffer suspension, since it seems possessed almost everything else that makes it a very easily race ready, and seeing it as the car of choice in FWD GT racing events, or at least that is what I saw from instances on the Speed channel, not to mention when it was Speedvision and showed more racing events than just NASCAR.

i was test driving both cars, and i liked the rsx type s more

more power, and less of a harsh ride, i hated driving the celica, the engine was also really loud for a brand new car in comparison to the quiet rsx engine

Yeah, I test-drove both of these a while back, and the Celica GT-S was just too harsh for me. It wasn't so much the road noise and harsh ride that got to me; it was the complete lack of low-end torque and the pain-in-the-ass shifter that turned me away.

Really? the 6-speed on the Celica is that bad? I had no idea... I learned driving manual on a Corolla and the clutch was very light, and short. and the shifter was accurate and the throws were short for an economy car

I didnt think the 6-speed would be worse...and the Low end torque problem plagues the Rsx as well, but what do you really expect from NA 1.8 and 2L engines? I could go a good two weeks driving every day before I had to fill my tank...poor low end torque was the price I paid

It's not bad for performance driving, but it's really stressful to use day-to-day. It's anything but light and accurate.

i was test driving both cars, and i liked the rsx type s more

more power, and less of a harsh ride, i hated driving the celica, the engine was also really loud for a brand new car in comparison to the quiet rsx engine

Well, most people would like a louder engine :uhoh: . The RSX had a quieter engine because it is a luxery car. Having a harder ride means it probably has better suspension, which means it will handle better, which is a good thing. But, back to the comparison. The RSX would win in a drag race, because the transmission in the Celica sucks, because it goes out of lift on second and third gear. But, the Celica would handle better, because it has better suspension and is lighter. The only reason I would take the Celica is because I think it looks better, and it is not a luxerious car. The Celica is more of a sporty car than the RSX.

i) the engine that lotus use is a standard toyota 1.8 190bhp engine with a 'little' work done to the intake/exhaust and the ecu mapping.
i.e it IS NOT highly tuned in the lotus.

ii) saying a car's drive is going to be lotus like because it happens to use the same engine is well, daft. is a mondeo like a noble because they share the same base engine? they aren't many things in the world that handle like a 800kg mid engined car and you can be sure that a 1200kg front drive, front engine car ISN'T one of them.

iii) i actually quite like the shift of the newer toyotas. like the other guy said, i thought they were nice and short and precise and you could change gear as fast as you could throw the lever, except it never seems to like going down into first from second and going down from third to first always required a firm shove. going up the gears is as fast as you like though.

iv) rear drive mini cooper s? no point. i seriously doubt that a rear drive version of that car would be faster than it is in its current state. i am a firm believer that adding things to some cars only takes something away.

Agreed on the Mini Cooper. Most FWD sports cars, such as the Integra Type R and Mini Cooper S, are designed to make the most use possible of FWD. Making them RWD would probably make them slower, if anything. Some cars I'd like to see made rear-wheel-drive? The VQ35DE-powered Nissan Altima and Nissan Maxima. Great cars, but 250+ horsepower in a midsize sedan is a bit too much for front-wheel-drive to be truly effective, IMO.

i) the engine that lotus use is a standard toyota 1.8 190bhp engine with a 'little' work done to the intake/exhaust and the ecu mapping.
i.e it IS NOT highly tuned in the lotus.

ii) saying a car's drive is going to be lotus like because it happens to use the same engine is well, daft. is a mondeo like a noble because they share the same base engine? they aren't many things in the world that handle like a 800kg mid engined car and you can be sure that a 1200kg front drive, front engine car ISN'T one of them.


Ok, I either didn't know or forgot, since I do recall reading an article on it, with the Lotus tuning to the Toyota engine was that mildly tuned. And yes I am aware that the handling and overall poise of a mid-engined RWD car is drastically different from an FWD one. What I was saying about relating the Celica to the Elise as in a pure sense of expression, in that both are nimble, fun to drive but yet rough around the edges, with of course the Lotus Elise excelling in all those categories. And I did not mean to belittle the RSX's performance and sportiness in any way, it is just that even though it is built upon much of the basics that the Civic Type R was founded on. Now that I actually look upon it more, the RSX-S and Celica GTS are allot alike with one doing a bit better in muscle and brutish performance whilst the other is a tad bit lighter and more nimble, not to be saying one is much more inferior than the other in handling.

like the other guy said.

The other guy? :eek7: thanks...Deuche :grinno:


and I see the point on the Altima and Maxima, except that their a lil more family oriented, and family's have this huge thing against non AWD cars, especially rwd...because you know, AWD really helps you when your coming to a stop in the snow (sarcasm), which is probably the most dangerous part of winter driving

the thing is tho is that the G35 is rwd, so its really not hard for them to convert either one to rwd...

word up on the nissans (did i just say word up?) Back in the day the maxima (810 in the 80's) was actually rear drive and it worked off the old z car engines. i think they need to do that again. 250 horses is the begining of the end for practicality in a front driver.

Well, high horsepower isn't necessarily bad for a FWD, it's just bad when you're going from a stop or low speed. If you floor it off the line in the Altima or Maxima, you're either going to go up in smoke, or torque steer into the guy next to you.

And yeah, amen to the dumbasses who think that AWD automatically makes them winterproof. If given a choice, I'd rather buy the same car in RWD and spent the money I saved on a really good set of snow tires. Giving your tires four times more traction makes more sense to me than giving twice as many tires a chance to get traction. It's simple math.

The RSX would win in a drag race, because the transmission in the Celica sucks, because it goes out of lift on second and third gear.

These are the people running mid-high 15's in their GT-S's not landing lift in 2nd and 3rd gears. Maybe you are talking about an auto GT-S?? I don't have any problem at all landing lift in 2nd and 3rd.

http://members.aol.com/vipmetal09/celishiftingvid.wmv