OK my last post in this crazy thread:
Now do you mean $1000 alltogether including car? Or in mods alone? And yeah just about mid to low 13’s is what Id realistically expect given a tight budget, I think it would come down more to the Autocross. Or maybe keeping it N/A would throw in a intresting challange.
I mean we could do this build off, but it would have to be cheap, I dont have thousands extra ya know? I thought about what you are gonna do figuring it has to be FWD, I got nothing… but If I wanst all into saturns Id probably do a older nissan se-r, that be a good budget builder Id think.
but anyways we all need to keep in mind this is the kids daily driver. I know someone mentioned a DSM. Come on, I love those cars, I even owned a 91 AWD TSI, but cheap and reliable, they are far from. I think we all know that to some extent. A affordable honda, like a civic I cant argue with too much but it lacks the originallity (sp*) some seek and it will basically need a motor swap for decent power. I mean thats down time and depending on the route taken, possibily expensive.
A saturn is no super car by anymeans. But a 91-96 SC2 (short wheel base) 1.9L 16 valve DOHC that makes 124 hp + 122 tq, (about 107 whp), pulls a .85 on the skip pad, weighs about 2300 lbs, gets about 30 mpg w/ a pretty close ratio 5 sp., stock, isnt such a bad platform to start with. They are also amazingly easy to work on and are cheap to buy. Replacment parts are cheap, and the aftermarket is small but still decent and suprisingly still growing, one thing helps is the motor is basically the same from 91-98 and mildy changed in 99-02 and all the parts basically are interchangable if combined correctly. One thing that does hold the saturns down is lack of R+D. By this I mean aftermarket intake manifolds, headers, fresh blank or billet cams, direct tuning software, etc, etc… Things that a small business has a hard time presenting to the public. Regardless even with out these we do pretty damn good. These cars arent expensive to mod, just wise decisions have to be made. Anyways, I just hate how saturns are given zero respect but a comprable or similar car is help high up.
Some mentioned a saturn being a bad chassis or platform suspension wise, why and how do you figure this? Just for an example, this seems pretty good to me : http://www.spswebpage.com/spsracing/articles.php?articleID=thundersports_2003_01
Another good site is : http://www.differentracing.com/
And I understand about the investing money into a “lesser” car. But when looked at realistically these cars arent horribly “lesser”. If not a daily driver, these are great easy to work on cheap project cars.
My point to all this. Nothing. Just think twice before hating so fast please.