Underrated cars with potential?

Raymond Lin · 13 Feb 2018 at 00:19

Acme said:
I had a shed of a Celica T-Sport (GT) for a while. Pushing aside the shittyness of my particular example, it was an incredible car to drive. It had an MR2 LSD in it and it just gripped and gripped and gripped, it was actually amazing. I've never driven so fast round corners in my life...

I forgot about that episode...

Akagi · 13 Feb 2018 at 00:25

Raymond Lin said:
I forgot about that episode...

It wasn't as bad as the MK1 Eunos episode

inflames · 13 Feb 2018 at 12:48

Toyota Aristo, bit of a sleeper if you don't anything about them, it basically a 2nd gen Lexus GS300 with a 2JZ and that engine alone has lots of potential.

Rackerz · 13 Feb 2018 at 13:08

Celica GT4, mostly overlooked for other cars from its era.

Clarkey · 13 Feb 2018 at 13:13

inflames said:
Toyota Aristo, bit of a sleeper if you don't anything about them, it basically a 2nd gen Lexus GS300 with a 2JZ and that engine alone has lots of potential.

There's a first gen one too you know. Not a huge potential though really, the a340e trans can't take much power.

Rackerz said:
Celica GT4, mostly overlooked for other cars from its era.

Overrated if anything, they are slow.

inflames · 13 Feb 2018 at 15:50

Clarkey said:
There's a first gen one too you know. Not a huge potential though really, the a340e trans can't take much power.

Yep, don't see many of them these days.

andy_mk3 · 13 Feb 2018 at 20:00

Acme said:
It would be ideal if the gearbox, clutch, suspension, brakes, cooling, etc could also cope with over 600HP

(Im sure some of those things are fine really)

Gearbox will take it no problems. Stock clutch will do 400+, but a paddle clutch will be best for 600+.. standard cooling system is fine, obviously need a bigger intercooler. And brakes/suspension etc will need upgrading, but that would be the same case for any car where you're tripling the power output lol.

fastwunz · 13 Feb 2018 at 20:40

DomBruv said:
306 dturbo

My mate had one of those in blue! Sent it to demon tweaks I think it was called for some mapping and engine management work and it came back feeling exactly the same

fastwunz · 13 Feb 2018 at 20:41

Toyota Starlet Glanza

fastwunz · 13 Feb 2018 at 20:42

Nissan Sunny GTiR

IC3 · 13 Feb 2018 at 20:49

Glanza? Mehh Pulsar though

adolf hamster · 13 Feb 2018 at 23:16

fastwunz said:
My mate had one of those in blue! Sent it to demon tweaks I think it was called for some mapping and engine management work and it came back feeling exactly the same

wait, you can map a d-turbo?

i thought it was common knowledge that the screw mod and an angle grinder on the springs are the only mods a d-turbo needs

lemonade · 14 Feb 2018 at 11:24

Suzuki Swift Sport. Brilliant fun car. On my list as a runaround and back road blaster.

IC3 · 14 Feb 2018 at 20:59

lemonade said:
Suzuki Swift Sport. Brilliant fun car. On my list as a runaround and back road blaster.

Which gen? I was looking at them at some point, but one thing for sure... they don't have any potential compared to what has been listed so far. They're slow...

Flack88 · 14 Feb 2018 at 21:32

fastwunz said:
Toyota Starlet Glanza

Love mine, easy to get up to 240 - 250 bhp with a TD04 on stock internals, in a car that weighs 950KG with everything still inside the car. With forged internals you can run up to and over 340bhp with a decent turbo. Do the 5e swap, forge that if you wanted to go utterly mad you can get over 400bhp.......In a car that weighs 950KG

Jumper118 · 14 Feb 2018 at 23:39

suzuki alto gl. very under rated and has lots of potential to go really slow while feeling like you are going 1000mph. just strip every out, keep standard drivers seat and drive round flat out with the windows open

Akagi · 14 Feb 2018 at 23:59

Jumper118 said:
suzuki alto gl. very under rated and has lots of potential to go really slow while feeling like you are going 1000mph. just strip every out, keep standard drivers seat and drive round flat out with the windows open

And when fully stripped out, its marginally faster than an 89HP Skoda with a suitcase in the boot and back seats piled up with bedding and camera equipment.

pigeonguyuk · 15 Feb 2018 at 09:22

Flack88 said:
Love mine, easy to get up to 240 - 250 bhp with a TD04 on stock internals, in a car that weighs 950KG with everything still inside the car. With forged internals you can run up to and over 340bhp with a decent turbo. Do the 5e swap, forge that if you wanted to go utterly mad you can get over 400bhp.......In a car that weighs 950KG

Guy I know of in Bangor back in the crazy car scene days was running a Glanza with 400+ BHP, it was a weapon beating skylines and even a few local tossers in their "supercars"

lemonade · 15 Feb 2018 at 10:28

IC3 said:
Which gen? I was looking at them at some point, but one thing for sure... they don't have any potential compared to what has been listed so far. They're slow...

1st and 2nd.

That is exactly why they are underrated. Most people assume power and 0-60 time = fun. When this isn't the case. You will have more fun in the SSS then in a 900bhp Mitsi Evo running on ridiculously stiff springs.

A fun car is one that is engaging to drive, you have to drive the car to have fun, be able to throw it around, and it provides excellent feedback. The SSS fulfills most of this criteria. But people overlook it because it doesn't have 400bhp and a 0-60 time of 0.1seconds to willy wave with.

They can actually do 200bhp reliably on stock internals with a turbocharger. Which for a car that only weighs around 1 tonne, is great power to weight ratio.

SC0TTRS · 15 Feb 2018 at 10:42

Clarkey said:
Overrated if anything, they are slow.

I did 161mph in my ST-185 back in the day (On a private road, of course

).

Wasn't standard, only a few point-ons.

Heavy car mind lol