AF Introduction, some DSM buying questions

[blazingstar]

Hello,

I'm new to AF and thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself and get some advice on my next car purchase.

I'm 24 and I own a 1996 Eclipse GS, which I purchased five years ago. At the time, I was working as a salesman in a car audio store, and knew almost nothing about the performance aspect of cars. It was the first car I bought all by myself, and I had no idea I'd eventually come to find an interest in performance tuning.

That said, the non-turbo Eclipse is by no means a fast car. And it sucks because the GS Eclipse looks like a fast car. Whenever someone gets in, they expect to be swept into a tornado of speed and turbo thrills, and instead are left disappointed as I am at the Honda Accord-like acceleration.

However, my Eclipse is very pretty, with the stock sideskirts, moonroof, foglights, and the rare factory paint color Celtic Blue (looks light blue in the shade, shines sort of chameleon purple/ red in the light- yes it's 100% stock paint). But it is slow, sluggish, and understandably so with little more than the stock 140 horses. Not much fun compared to the fast-as-hell turbo DSM's I've worked on and ridden in. Over the years, I've hooked my ride up with aluminum 17" Enkei TBS-11 rims/ Falken 502 series 215-45-17 tires, full suspension with 2" drop (a mistake to learn from, only 1" next time), Koni air struts, Energy bushings, front/ rear strut tower bars, Ingalls camber kit, cat-back exhaust, cold air intake, headers, a $10k sound system, $1k Clifford alarm (AvantGuard IV), all-black all-around window tint, reverse indiglo gauges, clear front bumper lenses, xenon head/ foglamps, sidelamps etc. No bodykits, stickers, wack interior color chemes, or altezza lights or any APC crap like that, I didn't want to go too ricey (plus I love the look of the stock Eclipse body/ taillights).

So I've gotten many reliable miles and daily compliments on it's sleek beauty, but I've ridden in a few extremely fast turbo Eclipses and I'm ready for those kind of thrills. I'm serious, I've been in a Talon that could probably leave a Dodge Viper in the dust. Incredible.

My old GS is days away from being sold, and I have my eyes on a 97-99 GS-T or a GSX. Nothing could convince me there's a better performing and/ or a better looking car under $20k. My questions are for GS-T and GSX owners/ experts:

Which car is overall more pleasing to own? GST or GSX? I took a spin in a customer's '95 Talon TSi AWD (heavily modded, 470+ hp) and was absolutely blown away by the terror-inducing power off the line. 0-60 in a little more than 3 seconds, this unholy beast pushed me way back deep into the cushion and left my heart/ stomach pulsating in the back seat. Will a similarly modded GST launch with similar force? Also, are there significantly more maintenance requirements with a GSX? I want to eventually have that level of massive power, and I'm just wondering if a GST will be able to put it to the ground the same way (or close to) a GSX/ TSi AWD. One more thing- will a GSX have a lot more road-handling ability?

Thanks in advance,
blazingstar

If you're worried about traction and handling [and at that level I would be] get the AWD - people will witter on about transmission drag, but once u hit that kind of power you wont notice the loss so much.

a FWD will never launch as well as an AWD regardless of how much you mod it.

[blazingstar]

Originally Posted by Japmetal

If you're worried about traction and handling [and at that level I would be] get the AWD - people will witter on about transmission drag, but once u hit that kind of power you wont notice the loss so much.

a FWD will never launch as well as an AWD regardless of how much you mod it.

Ah, I see in your profile you have a Galant GTI AWD. Is this the same as our Galant VR-4 here in the States? (4G63-powered turbo AWD) Very cool car.