What is the best import for running....?

[Z_Bull]

I currently have a Dodge Stealth that runs mid to high 12sec 1/4's. I am looking to get a different car preferrably a import that I can get to run high 10's mabey mid 11's. I have $11,000 to buy the car and fix it up. So my question is, what would be the best car(import) for this situation?

ps. the stealth is just to heavy and bulky

[Luka3000gt]

There are many possibilities:

1-You buy a last gen. rx-7 for about 9000$, but then you don't have enough money to make it a street monster.:smoka:

2-You buy a second gen. civic (SI) for about 4.000$ and then you have 7.000$ to make it very bad.

3-You buy a second gen. eclipse for about 6.000$ and then you have enough money to buy a front and real bumper, an APC spoiler and a lot of engine modifications

[TerminalVelocity]

or spend some more into the stealth, and make it faster, maby get lightweight pannels, and I mean -light- lightweight.....ummmm, get a geo?

[tougestar]

Humm...
FC3S RX7,DSM ect..
Honestly if you want to drag and do it on the cheep get a 5.0 Mustang..

[CAptynCrunch]

hmmmm, how about a mix? get a first generation Rx-7 and drop in a small block V8. I mean with $11,000 you could probably buy, restore, swap engine and even have enough left for some good upgrades.

[Cbass]

Okay, we're talking about drag racing here, and nobody brings up the only import actually suitable to drag racing in it's stock form.

The Toyota Supra! Everything you need is right there, bulletproof engine, factory turbocharging, actual displacement! I know it's only 3 liters, but that's a lot for most imports.

There are stories going around of 600hp Supras on stock shortblocks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1871754502

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1871722152

[Z_Bull]

After some reserch I have decided an a 2nd gen. eclipse or a 2nd gen. mr2. Which one it the better bang for the buck(I am looking to make it a really quick car)??? I know mr2's are reliable, but I know little about eclipse's. So my second question is how do eclipse's hold up???

[TatII]

or you can get a S13 (89-93) nissan 240sx. and then swap in a SR20DET and with that you'll have extra money left over to make it into atleast 300hp on a car that weights no more then 2700lb. and that engine is strong enough to handle up to 450hp with no work done for re enforcements

[Cbass]

Well, bang for buck you're going to be about even with both. Both have 2.0 liter turbocharged 4 cylinders. The Toyota engine will probably give you an edge, because it's internal components will take more stress before they break. Also, the Eclipse has notorious reliability issues(I'm not sure what, but they are notorious).

The difference would be the Eclipse is front engined and AWD, and the MR2 is midengined and RWD. For a drag setup, the Eclipse would have an edge at lower speeds like 12 second 1/4s, and the MR2 would win at faster speeds, because of it's higher hp potential, and lighter weight.

[CrazyFukr]

Get like 89 Honda CRX because they are hella light.

You can import spoon engines (326 horsepower) from japan for $3500. The car itself would be $2000. Put a huge turbo on it. Remove the catalytic convertor, do 4-2 headers and have 3" piping from the end of the mufflers and back, put some really big mufflers on them because you want as little back pressure as possible when running turbos. Get a dry nitrous system (have to use dry with turbos). Do some other mods like intake, MSD ignition, adj cam gears, stage 4 racing clutch. You could run 9s.

[Z_Bull]

Where do I go to import a spoon engine??? I looked all over the web and can't find a site that has them. I will definatly consider a crx after hearing that.

[Marc-OS]

If you want a drag only import, get a 88-91 CRX, swap in an H22A (Prelude Engine, you can get 'em at http://www.hmotorsonline.com/ ) With the H22A you won't be able to turn all that well, but that's why it's a drag car right? So with the H22 you'll be running mid/high 13's and that swap will set you back around $4,000 (probably costs a lot less than that). So, $2,000 for the car and $4,000 for the swap and you've spent $6,000 so you have $5,000 to work with. With $5,000 you could buy a revhard stage 2 turbo kit, and some rods and pistons, you then can run around 8-10psi safely. Right there you'll be in the 12's easy maybe even high 11's.

[crunchymilk49]

id have to agree with the supra

although the import CRX deal sounds pretty sweet

[R1-rider]

The JZA80GTE engine is probably one of the most over-specced engines I have ever seen. Alot of the high HP japanese tuners still use the stock heads/pistons/cams/etc. However if you are looking to do a quick cheap 11 second car I would suggest a MkIII supra with about 8grand dropped into it will be making over 700rwhp. My personal choice would be a FD rx7 and do a 20b swap.

[Cbass]

I'd recommend an eighies RX7 with a Ford 5.0 swap, if I wanted to drag race, but thats just my twisted vision of going fast on a budget... it would handle as well as stock too.

Don't build a honda if you want to drag, unless you come across sweet deals like Hybridsol has. He's built a very good drag CRX.

If you really want to drag an import, go with the MK3 Supra. If you want to run 12s, it's the only thing you're going to get that won't involve swapping engines, or replacing the whole bottom end of an existing one.

I really don't see how you could object to domestic power in a light import. For some reason, this really offends a lot of import fans :-? The argument always seems to be that imports don't need as much power because they're lighter(some of the time ), but why not put a domestic V8 in a light import? Fast times, cheap parts, reliability, good build quality, aftermarket...

http://members.tripod.com/~grannys