Hello,
I'm a general car freak but my tastes run to European luxury and sports cars. Of course I like anything that's fast. I build hot rods, choppers, and customs both for myself and for others. My tastes in cars is pretty broad but I have to admit ignorance in the Japanese performance area. I make my living as a mechanic so I spend most of my waking hours around cars. Over the past few years I have noticed that the trend is going away from American performance cars and is shifting towards Japanese makes. This actually surprised me, mainly because I'm in rural Texas. So I would like to put the question to those that are most into it. What is the cause of the shift to Japanese cars? I myself went European because of quality, more power per liter of displacement and style. Are your reasons paralelling mine? I buy used. Things like Porsches (a decent 911 can be had for around $10K) old Alfa Romeos (tons of character), big Mercedes Benz sedans from the 50's(room to stretch out and a real looker), Jaguar sports cars, MG convertibles, BMW M cars, etc. What were your reasons for going to Japanese performance cars? What is it that you get out of them? Lastly are there any cruise ins or shows I can go to to get in on the action? Reason I ask is I really really like the look Acura NSX and they're coming down to the high 20's in some parts of the country. Can anybody give me a idea of what the performance is like in this car?

 

I can't tell you first hand about an NSX, but I can tell you why I bought Japanese...

first off, the CL was built in Ohio for Japanese company...so I only consider it half Japanese. I wanted a 'luxury' type car first, with speed the second priority. I couldn't think of an American car that fit the bill. I wanted used with low miles still under warranty, so older cars were out. I couldn't really find any domestic with features and price that matched Acura. I love mustangs, and I traded in my GT for the Acura, but I really needed something a little more refined than a new mustang. I needed something a little nicer... The only American cars I really would have liked were Cadillacs, but they were more than I wanted to spend for a 2001 or newer with under 30k. Same with European cars...I needed it to be a newer model with low miles and warranty, and dollar for dollar I thought Acura's were better than Audi, BMW etc.

Oh yeah and insurance too....a front wheel drive V6 (CL-S) is a lot cheaper for me to insure than a rear wheel V8 like a stang.

 

Bang for the buck
Quailty
Resale(not so much so now though)
Reliabilty
More aftermarket support

Most american cars lack alot of that, & the public is responding to the trends

 

Where do you get speed parts from? I use Summit for my American stuff, Tweeks for my Porsche, etc. Is there a strong aftermarket or is a lot of the stuff hand fabricated by the owner?

 

The import scene is huge. There are so many vendors/places to buy products to fix up our cars. There are many local shops that carry products but the internet has become a huge resource for aftermarket products for our cars.

For me the trend towards imprt cars is purely preference. There are those that love the roar of a V8 while some poeple love the quiet yet assertive engines of japanese engines.

 

I'm like you, I grew up in the domestic market had hot rods and fast v8's around me my whole life. The import thing was just a different scenery. The aftermarket right now is unbelievably huge, in the last 2 years it's has become what it took the domestic scene to develop in 20 years. It's unbelievable.

 

Like I said I like anything that goes fast. Another question, how do you guys do these mods on front drive cars? I've had to pull power steering pumps and alternators to change sparkplugs and plug wires on front drive V-6's. Seems to me you guys are at a disadvantage spacewise. How do components hold up being so close together in a hot underhood enviornment? Also how do you counteract the weight transfer on hard launches? I'm not good at this physics stuff and the only front driver I ever owned was a VW Golf diesel so it wasn't much of a issue. I really appreciate ya'll sharing the knowledge. If you have any questions on Euro or American stuff please don't hesitate to ask. Bob

 

Comptech makes most of the go fast stuff for the Acuras. Places like summit, or Jegs don't carry alot of import stuff. Their geared more towards big american V8's. In fact that's why there's little aftermarkets for american cars. Most of the aftermarket is geared towards the big V8 cars(mustang, camaro, etc) Try to get something as simple as springs for a v6 pontiac, or an aftermarket intake for a 4 banger chrysler.