American Steel, or Rice Mobile??

[JoLLyRoGer]

I can't decide which side of the fence to fall on. I hear arguments that "there's no replacement for displacement" and "some say there is and it comes in the form of boost".. Blah, Blah, Blah, yada, yada, yada,. I've seen impressive cars from both sides. I have a friend right now who owns a Civic Si that will cut 11's. Granted he's spent about 8,000 on the engine alone, on the other hand I remember this guy I went to high school with who stuffed a 400 small block into an old Chevy Monza, tubbed the rear end and had no issues pulling the front tires off the ground. I've heard that you can't build the same torque which is ultimately what you need to move mass, out of a 4 cyl. On the other hand, you don't need as much power with a lighter vehicle.

So, here it is: If you were going to build a street/strip racer, what would it be?? Please state your reasons.

 

[monckywrench]

The poll is flawed because it didn't include an "All the above" option. Why limit yourself?

 

[ViperMagic]

American all the way

 

[Paulson]

Truck all the way

 

[LordJezo]

Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

 

[Desturel]

You forgot Germans and Italians.

 

[FrustratedUser]

The big V8 for me.
It's just cool.

 

[Colt45]

one of these years i'll get working on that vega i have.

got a really narrow rear end, so i can put on fatties in the back. stick in a 350, etc.

heck, i even have most of the parts kickin around, come to think of it

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

If you want to buy an American truck, buy a Toyota Tundra. Only Full-Size truck assembled in the US (Indianapolis, IIRC).
Ford, GM, and Dodge outsource labor to Mexico and Canada. :|

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

If you want to buy an American truck, buy a Toyota Tundra. Only Full-Size truck assembled in the US (Indianapolis, IIRC).
Ford, GM, and Dodge outsource labor to Mexico and Canada. :|

dog bless america.

 

[Spac3d]

I voted Japanese Engineering because I would go with an RX7 or even a 2nd gen Supra, or even a GS430 Why not use a Japanese V8?

Spac3d

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Doh.. I didn't read the post before voting.
I'd rather have a Japanese car in general, but for racing, a musclecar would be cheaper and easier.

 

[Kelvrick]

I'd get something like an F-150 or 250 or a Tundra. Doesn't even need to be a truck, just a car with some power to tow and get a 6k bike. You got the bike to have fun, and the truck/car to do stuff in. That was what I was planning on doing until the GF came along and my money decided to dump me.

<== broke monkey dance

 

[EndGame]

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

If you want to buy an American truck, buy a Toyota Tundra. Only Full-Size truck assembled in the US (Indianapolis, IIRC).
Ford, GM, and Dodge outsource labor to Mexico and Canada. :|

Really? How strange that is since there is a Daimler - Chrysler Dodge Trck assembly plant in Fenton Missouri and my 2002 F150 was assembled in Richmond Virginia. I will agree though that a LOT of Toyotas are assembled here in the US and even use a lot of US made parts.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
I'd get something like an F-150 or 250 or a Tundra. Doesn't even need to be a truck, just a car with some power to tow and get a 6k bike. You got the bike to have fun, and the truck/car to do stuff in. That was what I was planning on doing until the GF came along and my money decided to dump me.

<== broke monkey dance

Dump her and get the bike and truck.

 

[ROTC1983]

I own two American Steel cars...American muscle all the way

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer
Doh.. I didn't read the post before voting.
I'd rather have a Japanese car in general, but for racing, a musclecar would be cheaper and easier.

I did the same :/

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

If you want to buy an American truck, buy a Toyota Tundra. Only Full-Size truck assembled in the US (Indianapolis, IIRC).
Ford, GM, and Dodge outsource labor to Mexico and Canada. :|

canada should count as american (for cars obviously)
when you think of american cars it's the big 3.. well we assemble tons of the big 3 in canada.. including the crown victoria (20 mins from where i live) which is like MOST cop cars in north america.

 

[flavio]

I think Japanese cars are still made better and will last longer. Although the situations not nearly as bad as it used to be.

The only American cars I would be interested in putting any money into would be classic muscle-cars from the 50's-70's.

 

[yakko]

I prefer German.

 

[monckywrench]

The "Buy American" ideology only works if the specific vehicle model passes a "origin check", by parts count and assembly location. Vehicle companies are so internationalised that a "German" or "Japanese" car may be more "American" than a USian brand. Shareholding between major car companies makes it even more confusing, and the practice of US companies of sourcing manufacturing across the border to kill unions and close US plants (gotta love NAFTA!) makes the whole deal even more murky. OTOH German and Japanese makers are building plants here and hiring US workers because the tariff and worker productivity balance works in their favor.
There IS an easy solution if ya want a US-built vehicle from mostly US parts. It's called a Harley. Of course when they retooled they bought Japanese machine tools instead of good old Cincinnati Milacron, so I guess nobody is pure.

 

[notfred]

I won't beleive the 11 second civic until I see pictures and timeslips or a video of it running.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: EndGame

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

If you want to buy an American truck, buy a Toyota Tundra. Only Full-Size truck assembled in the US (Indianapolis, IIRC).
Ford, GM, and Dodge outsource labor to Mexico and Canada. :|

Really? How strange that is since there is a Daimler - Chrysler Dodge Trck assembly plant in Fenton Missouri and my 2002 F150 was assembled in Richmond Virginia. I will agree though that a LOT of Toyotas are assembled here in the US and even use a lot of US made parts.

Slightly OT but in the same vein as these two posts: don't Ford Rangers and Mazda B-series trucks roll off the same US assembly line somewhere in the North East? I could have sworn I read/heard that somewhere.

Nate

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
The big V8 for me.
It's just cool.

For the drag strip, there is nothing like a large cubic inch supercharged V8.
But it you want to drive on a road with curves...
There is nothing like a midengine large cubic V8 car with 4 wheel independent suspension like the 427 ci GT 40 Mark IV. Even the midengine turbocharged flat 12 Porsche 917 will do the job nicely...

 

[flavio]

Originally posted by: monckywrench
The "Buy American" ideology only works if the specific vehicle model passes a "origin check", by parts count and assembly location. Vehicle companies are so internationalised that a "German" or "Japanese" car may be more "American" than a USian brand. Shareholding between major car companies makes it even more confusing, and the practice of US companies of sourcing manufacturing across the border to kill unions and close US plants (gotta love NAFTA!) makes the whole deal even more murky. OTOH German and Japanese makers are building plants here and hiring US workers because the tariff and worker productivity balance works in their favor.
There IS an easy solution if ya want a US-built vehicle from mostly US parts. It's called a Harley. Of course when they retooled they bought Japanese machine tools instead of good old Cincinnati Milacron, so I guess nobody is pure.

True.