All I really want to do is build an SL that can take out a crew here in my hometown which is called NiceRice and runs all fugly Hondas. Also I kind of want to make my SL more like the old school GTO. I believe they were more of a muscle car? I see a lot of pictures of them dragging.  

i dont think youd have much trouble taking out a crew of hondas called "nice rice" in pretty much anything lol..  

Only advantage those hondas have on us is about.. 1100lb =D. lol. But you wont have any problems beating them.. No worrys  

Alt depends on what you all want to do!

Yeah FWD arnt the best race cars. But depends on what you are racing.
10 FWD cars bult close ot the same on a track runnig turns is racing. You are all trying to be the first oen to finish.
If all the cars are the saME then its bringin it back to driver skill.
Reember not all racing is 1/4 mile or drivt. or light ot light@1
WE have a FWD Ford Escort Gt. Was runngi second place all season in a touring class. N/A 129hp tot he wheels. With podium finishes. What is runngi in third place all year. BMW. and these were endourance racing with pits.
It ran 12 hours and only team ot beat this privately own company was a factory backed honda team. Bmw finished third with the hondas team mate in 4th. and the rest of the feild. and its ran turbo in the 12 hour race. Stock MAzda JDM motor.
Ran a race with a few hundred cars in a small time attack weekedn. Only car ot run better than it was a 700 hp EVo in a feild of subies, hondas, mitsus and all sorts of cars.

Weeekend auto x a cheap FWD car will be fun.

and yes stock turbo cars are great. but you can build a N/A car to handle more than a stock turbo car can.

Just in reallity Buy what you like. BUt you dont always need the top end car.
YEah depending on what you want to do if you want ot race drift (racing designed by tire companies)> then yes RWD.
so N/a built cars can take turbos in a 1/4 mile. The turbo need ot spool. soem NA will have a better power badn and pull power sooner.

HEck my car is Turbo FWD. and keeps getitgn put in a class with AWD car for testing. and beating some. and getitgn good reviews. BUt i love the way the car feels and looks. (and price) and its mine so thats what makes it fun.

Darn i forgot where i was goign here.
Not arguing with anyone just my 3.5 cents. BUt either way for me i dont belive in rice. I belive ther eis stupidity in how things are done but remeber your car your money!  

NA cars are not built to withstand more than a stock turbo car can. My stock turbo car, uses a motor that has won in 4 WRC's and 8 JGTC's. Winners of WRC and JGTC NEVER use NA cars, so its easy to say that my motor is built stronger. Few NA 4cylinders with 2.0 displacement can handle 450whp on stock bottom end. My motor has made as much as 540whp on stock bottom end with a worked head, and 440whp with stock long block with bolt ons.

If your trying to make easy power, turbo/supercharged 4/6cylinders or a V8 is the only way to go.  

I'm COMPLETELY new to this whole tuning thing. I'm getting into it because vehicle knowledge is something good to know no matter how into the hobby you get.... think about how much per year you can save on maintenance when you can do it  all yourself.
I want to buy a cheap little coupe to do a few mods that will really only be for my own entertainment, and to show off a little bit. I realize that most tuners/racers are stick shifts, but is it completely unheard of to have an auto transmission in a little tuner? Reason I ask is that while I'm comfortable driving a stick, I prefer an auto in  heavier traffic, and where I live, there is a lit of traffic. Not to mention it's a college town, so there's a lot of crazy drivers around as well.
Also, I'm on a serious budget. I make $6.50 an hour, 5 hours a night on weekdays, and more than that on weekends. I have to pay for my own gas, so I know I'll be getting a little 4 cylinder  lightweight coupe or something along those lines. Considering my budget and what I need, what might be a good car for my specific situation? I know I'm limited by my preference to automatic transmissions, but I've kinda debated whether or not to really worry about that. For teh time being though, I'd prefer to stick with auto because of the abundance of traffic and insane drivers around where I live. Looking forward to what you have to say... and if my transmission question is as ridiculous as I thought it was, let me down easy... lol  

this is very good stuff. if i may ask how would a 1989 supra turbo go in this topic because thats what i am lookin to buy and build?  

i started off cheap. my first car was a 96 chevy tracker lsi rwd. i was pushin 155whp w/ 175tq. people would make fun of me until i smoked em in a drag. i would drift it all over town. its nice to be able to get the cars that everyone is talkin about but some of us dont have the money or cant find em when we do. i want a 91 240sx and do a sr20dett engine swap. the best choice for anybody startin off is to buy a cheap car and start from there. now i own a 03 eclipse and plan on gettin a 240 as my next car.most tuner go through at least three cars before they get what they want. ive already been through 5.  

Actually your chevy tracker makes 95 CRANK hp, whichi s more like 76 WHP, according to wikipedia.

It is called an "SR20DET" since it has ONE turbo, not two. If it had two turbos then it might be called an "SR20DETT" But there are very few twin turbo 4cylinders out there and most twin turbos are replaced with one turbo.

Make sure you get your facts straight b4 posting nexttime.  

i know how much my tracker had stock. did i say it was stock, no. and there is a sr20dett. its sittin in a junkyard and its $1000. they actually have three of those engines in a barn. the point of the fact is people need to start low. learn how to tune a pos, sell it and buy a better car.  

If there is such thing as an sr20dett, it had an aftermarket turbo added to it. Otherwise you would have the only ones on the face of the earth.

They are called SR20DET because there is only one turbo. The RB26DETT and RB25DETT have 2 turbos which is why they have 2 "t"'s in there name.

Two turbos is not preferred when tuning a 4cylinder, because it adds to complexity of the motor and does not offer much benefit as opposed to one turbo. The nonly stock twin turbo 4cylinders is the Legacy GT over in Japan, but not the SR20DET.

Also, if your tracker has made 155whp, please prove it with a dynograph. Otherwise its all lies and estimates at this point. I do not see any easy way to get %100 more power than what it came with from the factory, out of your tracker motor considering it has little ot no aftermarket support and is NA from the factory.

As an example, my car made 303whp with only a 50trim turbo added to its stock motor, but it is a motor built for racing from the factory, unlike a trackers.

 

i called and checked and it was the sr20det and there was a straight six tt next to it, i miss heard the guy. my tracker had an 02 s10 4 cyl in it, and there is plenty of market for that. so ya, i was pushin those numbers.  

All I hear is bs coming straight out yo mouf til I see that dynograph.

We get a lot more n00bs on here that make up false claims, than ones with the proof backing it up, and since your new here, your word is only as good as your dynograph. Ill bet your tracker couldnt even break 100whp.  

Dont worry Godfather.  Seems like sirs has nothing better to do all day except act like a pri*k to new people on the forum.  I tend to agree with a lot of stuff he says, but i'll say it more politely, "next time you're up to it go get a dyno with corrected numbers so we can see if a tracker really does have that sort of potential with the proper investments."  There you go Godfather.  Pricks on this site is why I only go on this forum when theres no new/active threads on the other forums i participate on.  

Im not being a prick at all, this guy is obviously spouting *** numbers, theres no f'n way in hell that his car would make %100 more power over stock AND be an NA 4cylinder, not to mention an unpopular motor for tuning at that.

Wheres all this extra air and fuel coming from? Certainly not a turbo, cuz its not turbocharged. Wut size injectors does it even have? This guy is completely clueless, and yet your still picking his side. The fastest tracker ever built, the 2001 Chevy LT tracker only had 155 crank hp, did 0-60 in 10 seconds and he doesnt even claim to own that1, its a 95hp 90's model, so I would like to see more proof than just a claim of 155whp. Either way, why he picks cars not meant to be raced at all for his racing platforms, is beyond me, other than he is absolutely clueless on what kind of car he needs to buy if he is at all serious about racing AND winning.

Not much of an insult coming from somebody who thinks his transmission in his Si civic is synchroless and therefore he needs to "double Clutch" it