Never argued that the CL-S wasn't a powerful car, or just how different the S from the standard coupe are (the differences you mentioned aren't that more than what a tuner could do to the max, just you get the Type-S from the factory that way) It's some good marketing on their part.
You're arguing that a stock CL-S can't be beaten by a modded max. I'm saying that it's a close enough race with a NA max to warrent that a modded Max can win. If your brother has honestly been putting mods on Max's for 5 years, he should know that too, or maybe he hasn't put much on them.
As for the trannies... the I30's tranny holds up better than the standard Max tranny. Everything has it's treshold. Maybe the CL-S, with 260HP was made to take a level more abuse than the Max's, after all, the crank does put out 70 more HP.
Huge difference in performance is right. The CL was designed as a sporty coupe, the Max is a sporty sedan. The CL has an extra .2 liters to work with and Vtec. It is a higher output engine.
I'm sure he can tune a CL-S to put out 300+ HP, but that's not the discussion. If you wanna talk about who's car is ultimately faster than who's due to mods... it'll be a long conversation about nothing. There's always someone faster. There are 4 cylinder's out there that would woop on your beloved CL-S. But then again, it all comes down to how much money you've got.
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Ultimately, it's all about taste in cars to begin with. I like the CL. It's a nice car, with great power.
But I preffer my Max.
Don't forget to ask your buddy about the drive-train loss.
After all, it doesn't matter what your crank churns out, it's what the pavement gets.
Not trying to flame you, nor start a flame war, but I believe that you're overstating the stock performance of the CL-S.
eace: