Test drove it, but it really was not fun for me, I can see why some might like it, but it had same problem I have had with every FWD, I try to get out of the corner and understeer, when I'm excepting oversteer, somehow I just could not get my brain to realize that throttle works opposite way in FWD turning. Give me -74 Opel any time over Focus RS, might not be fast, safe or even sporty, however I like such more, for me such is more fun.
It's a rolling platform for magical electronics and differentials that manipulate zero point energy to make you not really connected to the car. Not good for driving pleasure I think. I love the 90s.
Electronic crap can suck the fun out of anything, On a completely unrelated note, my buddy got his Elco together, give it a stare.
383 stroker with a 4 speed. The 383 is actually one that I put together probably 3 years ago for a derby car, ran it twice, and then got pulled out and stuck under a bench, where it sat until Elco friend stuck it in his car. It's hardly a built engine, but it's plenty healthy.
Went on a trip to Seattle over the weekend and happened to see some really cool japaneses imports at a used car dealership. Sadly I didn't think to take pictures. 1st was a diesel 70 series land cruiser that looked pretty cool. Similar to this one but grey not yellow. The second was really cool. Apparently Mitsubishi at one point licensed the Jeep name and made jeeps. Based on a quick google search the one we looked at had a 2.7L turbo diesel, a dana 30 front and dana 44 rear axle. I really wish I had the money to buy it right on the spot but driving it all the way back home would have been tiring. There were some other import cars that some of you might have found cool but I was too busy drooling over japanese diesel offroaders.
The 70 series Landcruisers are the only thing I've ever actually sat down and though long and hard about importing, but the cost involved is just too much. However, in the 80's Toyota did sell a few 70 series Landcruisers in Canada, and those can obviously be brought into the US much, much cheaper. But all they were all 2 door, 3B diesel, 5 speeds. Heres an original Canadian 85. I found one for sale locally not too long ago, it was an 83 Right hand drive 2 door diesel, that was in "alright" shape, a little bit of rust, rough interior, and 260,000 miles. It had been imported from Japan just a few years ago, and they were asking $37,000 for it, and I think they got it, as the ad didn't last very long. What I'd really want would be either one of the pickups or the troop carrier, but fat chance of finding one of those here.
$37,000? That's insane. I could get one in that condition here for almost a quarter that price including the cost of importing. Not sure what services are available in the where you are, but I'm guessing it's more difficult.
They have to be imported first, so that adds a considerable amount to the price. Otherwise, they've barely been legal here so I don't think there's an average price range that can easily be found. When Doug DeMuro had his R32 GT-R it sold on BringATrailer for $21,000, so I would imagine that a non GT-R Skyline and a 4 door Skyline would go for less than that. Japanese Classics, the dealer that Doug bought his GT-R from has several non GT-R Skylines for sale as well, the average price seems to be around $12,000
Companies like JapaneseClassics, and fairly recently, JDMAutoImports sell them at a fairly reasonable price, as mentioned above, but if you request a certain car, I think it costs more, along with the timing of when the next shipment comes. Though 37k for a Land Cruiser, with that much miles, and in "alright" condition, just spells scam, but I digress.
They are apparently going up in value over here probably because of you guys importing them. Now imagine the crazy spike in prices when r34s start becoming legal. I mean r34 gtrs are allready insanely expensive if they ever come up that is as they only made 12,175 and i'm guessing a few have been crashed and written off by now
least technical Driven all 3 layout It's funny that it has every problem fwd has. You are American correct? Meaning you can only have driven the mk3. It's awd not fwd. In sport it's even sending more power rearwards than forwards. Look guys. 1 of you is fighting fwd sorority tooth and nail. At least 3 of you are complaining that he is and then being frankly hypocrites, rude and insulting ones at that, often proving a lack of practical knowledge on the layout in the process. @Peterbilt seems to be the only reasonable anti fwd'er here. Only one yet to be out and out rude or state something completely untrue. If fwd is objectively worse though. How come fwd was king of the hill climb and rally for many years versus rwd. I'd even argue the more wrestling you do to get performance from a car as you admittedly have to in a fwd is more involving and therefore more fun as involvement is to me fun. My rwd experience is most limited of the 3 layouts though and the only rwd cars I've driven, well most were SUVs and not gonna be quick and the other was a 3 series BMW which was the number one most on rails car I've ever driven. A mk1 focus is on rails as cars go, but it does break, it does oversteer without tapping the brake, it does understeer, it does scream it's protests. Chuck it into a twisty at 80mph and you can feel the car fighting the entire way through. Through my wrx in, the heavier car has less turn in response and it feeling so much more composed through the bend (purely from more rubber and not rolling as much, both rectifiable in the focus) is less fun, followed by "oh my god"as you just scream boost out of it. The BMW, was just kinda in out meh. No layout is best. You can fight fwd tooth and nail. You can fight rwd tooth and nail. But there is no right and 3 of you in particular are outright insulting while being hypocrite's over fighting so hard tooth and nail.
I haven't been able to make my Focus understeer yet. I've been able to make my Grand Marquis do it in a roundabout. Just increase speed until you can hear the tires start to protest. I tried it with the Focus and it kept biting even with the $50 Walmart tires. I've thrown it around parking lots at night and still nothing. You keep the weight over the front end and it will bite forever. Must be all the weight from drivetrain. The low speed technical stuff is where FWD really excels. I've never taken my Focus to it's limits above like 25mph. I'm afraid of how it would react really... I swerved to avoid a blown tire tread on the highway at night at around 70mph in my Grand Marquis. I felt the rear end rotate at 70mph. Breeches were shat.
Holy shit this is cool @amarks240 this is a must watch https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1894508774120017 Basically an Opel hatchback with skinny tyres, shitty roley poley suspension and most likely a roll cage and weight reduction. To those guys who says FWD is slow, think again.
