I wrote this up on import tuner forums but thought i would bring it over here and share it since some people dont venture over there.

Ok we have tons of posts on these forums asking "What should i get for my first car" etc etc. Im making this thread to kind of lay out a general basis for what vehicles should be considered and what all should be considered when looking for a vehicle.

1. Drivetrain- You have 3 options on drivetrains when your looking for a vehicle.

FWD- Front Wheel Drive. This is highly reccomended AGAINST being used as a "tuning" platform and heres why: When you start off in a race aka "Launch" the laws of inertia play a role on your vehicle. "Energy in motion stays in motion" thus meaning your car thats sitting still or even at a rolling start wants to stay just like it is. Thus when you mash the gas to start your vehicle accelerating the weight is moved to your rear tires and thus creating less traction on your front tires. This results in a slower start and it being much harder to keep traction through the race depending on your power output.

RWD- Rear Wheel drive. Probably the most recommended drivetrain in racing. Results in less of a power loss and doesnt have near as much stress put on it as the AWD system. Same laws apply. The weight will be pushed to the back of your car and thus onto your rear wheels which are the drive wheels. (Also there is a MRWD. Mid mounted engine instead of the front mounted engine.) Results in approx a 15% drivetrain loss from your BHP.

AWD- All wheel drive. Definately the best for sticking off the line and having a great launch. On the downside of this though is 1. It adds extra weight to your vehicle secondly much more stress is put on your drive components than that of the rear wheel drive which increases your chance of breaking something. Also there is more drivetrain loss with this (18-20%).

2. Engine type- Forced Induction and Naturally aspirated

Forced Induction- Also referred to as "FI". When you hear this were talking about a vehicle that comes stock with a Turbocharger or a Supercharger. These are the most recommended when looking for your new platform. Easiest engines to push power out of and also most vehicles that come stock with a force induced engine come with stronger suspension, better breaks etc...

Naturally Aspirated- "NA". This is often seen in your every day hondas, acuras etc. Unless your running a v8 this platform isnt suggested. For starters its harder to push power out of cheaply compared to that of the Force induced engine. You would look at spending $1500 for picking up the same ammount of horsepower you could pick up for $50 in a forced induction engine.

3. Weight- Your car is only as fast as it is light!

Most people think that its all about horsepower. This isnt true. Sirscr0tum1's mr2 can outrun my 3000gt vr4 stock vs stock. Hes putting out around 250RWHP and me 330AWHP. I have 80 horsepower more than him yes but your lookin at that my car weighs about 1000lb more than his does. I did the math one day and mathmatically around 700lb=50 hp. Also with a heavier vehicle you get worse gas mileage as well as go through tires much much faster and handle worse.

Just a term you may see used and not be too sure what it is "BHP". That stands for break horsepower. This is the horsepower your engine is putting out at the flywheel before you measure in your drivetrain loss. A RWD car has about a 15% Drivetrain loss. An AWD car has about a 18-20% horsepower loss.

Cars to look into-

Mazda rx-7 turbo: Lightweight, RWD, Stock turbocharged 1.3L rotary
Toyota supra turbo: RWD, Stock twin turbocharged
Mustang Cobra:  RWD,Supercharged v8
3000gt vr4: AWD Twin turbocharged but heavy.
Eclipse GSX: AWD Turbocharged
Eclipse GST: FWD turbocharged. FWD is a huge downside but it beats alot of stuff
Volkswagon GTI: FWD turbocharged
Trans Am: RWD,Supercharged v8
Z28 camaro: RWD, Supercharged v8
Skyline GTR: AWD, Twin turbo
Galant Vr4: AWD, Turbocharged
Subaru Wrx Sti: AWD Turbocharged
Lancer Evo: AWD Turbocharged
Nissan 240sx: With engine swap- RWD Turbocharged
Nissan Silvia: Swapped engine- RWD Turbocharged
Nissan 300zx TT: RWD Twin Turbocharged

There are other cars out there that arnt stock turbocharged/supercharged but many people do turbo conversions on them:
Honda S2000
Infiniti G35
Nissan 350z  


Now of course there are tons of cars out there with turbo conversions etc. Just make sure the work is done properly then go for it if your looking into the area of something that doesnt come with one stock. Hondas etc are good examples for that..

Also heres just another part added by another forum member Sirscr0tum1.

I wanted to mention that any Naturally aspirated car that requires premium gas from the factory, will pretty much require a costly engine rebuild for forced induction if you plan on running more than 6-8psi, as lower compression engines are better built for boosting, which is why great boosting engines like the 4g63 and 3sgte come with 8.5:1 CR (depending on year of motor) and would run perfectly fine on regular gas w/o the turbo.

But cars that come with high compression stock, like your 350z's, any Honda DOHC vtec, or most NA car's with a high hp/liter ratio do not make good boosting motors as they often have 10.5:1 or more compression ratios. A miata though, with its 9.0:1 CR (Its either 9.0 or 9.5) makes a halfway decent car to boost from the factory, although aluminum blocked, since it runs on regular in stock form, you can easily add a turbo and then upgrade to premium gas to help prevent detonation as you turn up the boost. Always put in a good Intercooler on a turbo car, intercooling is cheap compared to ecu/fuel system upgrades and turbo upgrades and allows for you to get the most hp out of each psi.

Turbo I6's and v6's generally weigh in the 3400lb+ range, and therefore generally get around 16mpg city. Consider that you will be paying a lot more to drive this vehicle as a daily driver, when a turbo 4cylinder that weighs less than 3100lbs, will get 18-23mpg depending on its weight, which is not only a lot more economically/environmentally friendly, but just as fast as the big turbo 6cylinders or v8's due to not having to push near as much weight around.

Your math on the hp/weight ratio math was a bit confusing. Let me put it in simpler terms, if you start off with a lighter car, its easier to make fast, a motor is only as fast as its chassis is light. if you remove 100lbs from a 2500lb car, your taking %4 of weight off its curbweight, it will feel similar to a %4 increase in hp. If you take the same 100lbs off a 3300lb turbo I6, your only taking %3 of weight off the car, and it would feel similar to a %3 increase in hp on that car. Not to mention less weight makes for less wear and tear on components, tires, better gas mileage. Im always down for being more environmentally friendly and reducing my carbon footprint. The car will be more nimble too, as it will get off the line faster, and corner better as well.  

Great write-up!

This should get stickied but most likely won't.  

wow this is PERFECT. It should be put in the next issue....in fact the next issue could be completely for beginners like New year theme newbie theme....... idk probably a useless idea but w/e  

^Ha ha ha. Especially because none of the editors or anyone important from Superstreet ever visits these forums.  

Haha you would be surprised actually. Im not sure of SS is like IT but weve had a topic from our forums over there put into the magazine "Would hilary duff ever be a model in import tuner" or something of that sort. So they are out there! Dunno who the moderator on here is though.  

Btw the issue for the new guys really would be a great idea. There are so many people out there today that have no idea where to start, what to get, what some phrases or abbreviations mean etc.  

yea.....when i was new it took me forever to learn what s13,s14,s15 sr20, and h22 were, i kept asking people and they just called me noob  

"Bolt ons" "BPU" etc.. Had people ask me those two quite often.  

This is a great post for all the newbies like me. It should be stickied...  

_________________________
My Subaru Ball Joint needs to be replace as soon as possible.  

The moderator here used to be John, but he recently got moved around at the company. Aside from myself, there are a few others who look over the forum and wade through the posts to ensure no spamming or unethical behavior occurs. The current admin on the forums doesn't post. She does alot of behind-the-scenes work.

Anyways, maybe you should consider doing a write-up on abbreviations and the such. We toss around the terms K20, LSD, SR20, etc. all the time and many people don't really know what it means.  

haha  

i agree with the rest of you in that its in great detail, easy to understand and a lot of it is factual. however, i'll have to disagree with the part about FWD cars simply because while a RWD car would be better in most cases, its usually the FWD cars that handle better through turns. so if your thinking about a 1/4 mile car then by all means, RWD, V8 heavy mo fo all the way. on a side note, i'm confused about the part where it would take 50$ for the FI engine VS the 1.5k for the other engine... wouldn't it ultimately cost the same, i mean, the price for the FI would probably cost the same as a regular engine after the same work has been done to it, right..?  

With a turbocharged engine all you really need to do is turn up the boost a couple pounds for a gain. With the NA you dont have that option. Its a turbo/supercharged rebuild before you can do that.  

bump  

did you hear that miamoto...? i'm now 0 for 2 but, since i'm here, i might as well throw this out there... i was rereading your initial post (lot of free time) and i noticed that you were basing your explanation around drag racing, am i wrong?  just needed to clarify