I hardly think 20 grand equates to minor modding. Buy a car that is fast out of the box! For that 30 grand you want to spend on your econobox racer you could get a mint '03 Cobra or an older Z-R1 Vette and wipe the pavement with your puny Eclipse.
OK all of you who are saying that dsm's are slow and suck are wrong, I'm not a big fan, but a friend of mine has a 1991 talon ($1,500) TSI and has spent $2,700 in mods and $500 in fixing (Transfer case) did work himself and it runs 11.4 int the 1/4 mile and the car is a daily driver. I'm not trying to diss or deny people here, but am just saying it's a great car for the money and can do some great things! PS he has had it for 2 years now and it still runs great.
Corvette's are not untouchable by any means. My friend who's in Iraq now has an Eagle Talon TSI/AWD with just a turbo upgrade (16g) and of course exhaust, fuel and management upgrades. He spent less than 10g total on the car including the purchase and he can easily make a LT1 Trans Am look like a helpless little go cart. All on a stock bottom end and over 120k on the motor. Not that it's the same car, but another guy I know has an 04' Tiburon GT with an Alpine stage III supercharger and the usual supporting mods and I have watched him beat Corvettes at the street races. You Don't need a $50-60,000 car to go fast. Don't forget GS X's have ALL WHEEL DRIVE and Corvettes have rear wheel.
My uncle owns a 2003 corvette and he got out ran on the interstate by his friend driving a 1998 gsx the guy has nos, but didn't use it along with several other mods, but nothing over 10 thousand dollars so yes it is very possible.
I, myself, am partial to domestics, but I must say that I've been impressed with what car owners have been able to do with these little engines. But some owners are relegating cars such as the corvette, porsche, viper and mustang to being "annihilated" as if they were going backwards in a race. They are contributing this to dumping insane amounts of money into modding. But what if you dump the same amount of money into one of these "annihilated" cars? So you see, we can just keep going with this. And I know you could use the argument that, "you still have less money in your car than these other guys." But does that really matter during a race?!
The GSX I suppose could beat a Corvette or Mustang, but only with thousands of dollars worth of after-market parts. And the people that say a lightly modded GSX can beat a Corvette mean that they passed one when they were out driving one time. You could also modify a Corvette or Mustang and be faster than a heavily modified GSX. but for the PRICE, the GSX would be better.
That is true DSMs can beat a stock vette, but put 2k on the vette and the DSM won't have a chance. My friend has a GSX, 10-sec. way over 350WHP and he struggles with Z06s -- they are beast cars with beast engines, DSMs have a nice 2.0L, and STIs have a 4-cyl too so that wouldn't impress me for a gsx to beat a sti (both are AWD, just the better driver and better mods win)
I have seen people take the AWD DSMs and all they did was home made: exhaust, exhaust manifold got coated (not himself), ported the turbo, boost controller, cone intake, and ported the MAF. He did this all for less than $400. Then he took it to the track and ran a 12.7 with all the interior and AC, oh yeah and stock tires. honestly not bad, 12.7 is a lot faster than most stuff out there, even a lot of stock vettes.
How much would you pay for a stock mint conditon 1995 eclipse gsx with 74000 original miles garage kept
PERFECT.
I don't know about any of you, but I'd sure as heck would rather be driving a Corvette then any cheap import with a fart can, not to bash the Mitsubishi's, but if you can afford it definitely get the Corvette, it seems kind of dumb to buy a cheapo foreign car and spend 20k+ to make it fast, when you can get a real American muscle car that actually stands out.
Hey forget it guys, the fact of the matter is that a bone stock gsx is a super fast car for the buck, and the same goes for vettes, vipers and 911s. You get what you pay for. Racing 2 types of cars in completely different classes is fun if you got the dollars to waste. I've owned 4cyls and 6 clys, and driven 8's and 12's. Fact of the matter is, no matter what anyone says, the more cyls and valves you got the more POWERFULL the drive feels. Personally I love FEELING the horse than timing it. All in all, I love my 290hp gsx, but love the torque in my fathers diablo.
It all depends on the driver. An 18 year old teen who just got his vette buy hid daddy and is just learning manual is no match for a seasoned veteran driver in a eclipse gsx. Then again, the rookie does get lucky sometimes, but chances are the kid will stall first and the gsx just spool up and whisk away.
My dad recently bought a g35 and it easily out performs a new sr8 charger on corners, but then again in a straight line drag he gets smoked by the hemi in it of course.
...Honestly though, it all depends on the driver so fighting about whether which car is better is useless.
Hey I got a 95 mitsu gsx, yeah I hear people talking about these high price cars and putting a lot of money into them. I bought my car for 3000 grand and ran a 11.6 with only like 2000 grand in mods. so you take a 40 grand car and still can't run a good time for the price of upgrades it not worth it. i'am sticking to my dsm. all wheel drive dog.
Hey I agree that the gsx is a fast car, but so is the vett I have a 99 gst I love imports, but don't get me wrong any car you can make fast so fighting over it is stupid I'm sure there are eclipses that can beat a lot of cars out there, but there are also station wagons that can do the same. just get a car you like and make it fast if you want to stop fighting over opinion.
OK: well, I own a gsx and i've got exhaust, turbo, manifold and some other appearance stuff. I paid 1500 for my car and I will easily smoke sum of those mustangs. However, we have to compare to Honda (which are in our class); not 'Vettes and 911's, because honestly Honda spanks Eclipse all day in a long strip.