Alright I'm the new guy here, just bought our first front drive car, after looking at tons of cars we needed a family sedan type car for the family and I refused to own/drive anything with less than 6 cylinders or an import with the low end torque of a door knob. My personal cars are an 88 Fiero GT 2.8 that I enjoy Auto crossing when I get the time and an 87 Fiero GT with a 4.9 Aluminum block fuel injected V8, 5spd and a bit of Nitrous to keep things interesting. Torque makes a world of difference in a driver. The GTP that we just bought last night, is a 2000 GTP, bone stock, dealer maintained owned by an older couple most its life. Hence the zero mods. We got it for what I feel is a steal, at $2250 all the other GTP's around here are 2-3 times that price, or were modded abused and 1/2 blown up. Being the fact that I am used to a 2600lb car with a V8 and a stick, I was not expecting this car to be as peppy as it is. I was downright shocked at the smoothness and quickness. Bang for your buck, it’s hard to beat what you get from a GTP. Current gas prices here are 6.75 a gallon for premium which kind of hurts considering the last 24hrs the car has been in boost more than it probably has in its entire life. So we have burned 1/2 a tank of fuel already. (not to mention the tire wear from the Z-Rated tires) I don't mind buying a lesser expensive car, just so that I can build it to do exactly what "I" want it to, and not what some bean counter in an office decided the car would sell best it, given a profit margin of XX. Things like ride quality, Zero to 60, fuel mileage, whatever. I have bought completely dead cars with exploded motors, just cause I knew what I wanted them to turn into.
There is something to say about the guy that drops 30G on a prebuilt car that he knows nothing about, vs. the guy that spends under $5000 for the car, drops $5000 into mods and in 1/3 the price knows his car 10x more, and can probably blow the doors off of that 30K car for 1/3 the cost.
My V8 Fiero, I paid $300 for the car with a blown motor, $3000 on a new motor, traded some labor on another Fiero for a nitrous system, computer tech work with another buddy for some wiring stuff and spent a lot of time tweaking the interior just the way I wanted it. Then built a new body for the car. All in, I'd say I've got $8000 into the car. I can't say I have raced an STI, but a very modded SRT4 got the embarrassment of his life and I didn't even have the nitrous.
I need to keep this GTP soft enough that my wife can use it as a daily driver to haul around out 3 year old daughter, and our soon be to born 2nd kid. However I want it fast enough that we can take it to the track and have some fun. (she is also into racing, drag racing mostly, but she giggles when she used to get her Fiero sideways in the rain making a turn through an intersection.
So is the GTP competitive to today’s cars, you put the Torque of the 3800S/C up against the HP of a Turbo 4cyl Import and I'd take the 3800S/C every day. Frankly bigger engines with broader power ranges are just better daily drivers. Will it smoke everything nope, not stock, but spend an afternoon and say maybe $1000 bucks and It'll sure give them a run for their money.
Driving stick, I think is something every guy should know how to do. End of Story. This may hurt a few feelings, but if you can't drive a stick, I can't believe you are a real car guy. I don't know who posted the 18 speed tractor, yes I have tried it, I am not licensed for running rigs, but he and I were on our way with a load of logs to Oregon, he said he was tired, climbed up out of his seat and got me to jump in behind the wheel. I ran it through the gears, showed me the splitter, jakes and away we went. The only thing I hated was the narrow power band.
Shifting without clutch is something that everyone should also know how to do for emergency purposes. Our GTP is an Auto, but my Fiero's are both 5spd Getrags. The Getrag has no issues at all being driven without a clutch providing you rev match it perfectly. I have taught several of our club guys how to do it. I know the Fiero's with 3800 S/C motors can and do run with the Getrags, what trans is used in the GTP with a 3800S/C motor?
Ok that’s enough from me, I am still the newb here so I hope I gave a bit of an outside perspective to this thread.
