Celicas?....slow? Options

[rzanology]

This is something that’s been in the back of my mind every time I take my car our for a spirited drive. I keep remembering people saying "those cars are slow" or "our cars are slow." I'm have a veeery hard time understanding where they are coming from. Back when I had the 7a in my car...I could see that point to a certain extent. But even against other 1.8...the 7a still fairs very well. Now 3 weeks after my 5s swap....I find my car is ridiculously fast. It doesn’t make sense how fast this car is. I've had everything from 2000 maximas...GSRs and even civic with b18 swaps trying to catch up. And this is with a slipping clutch. The car gets to 100 every time with out a problem. When compared to other cars in its class like the eclipse or even the 240....the specs are pretty much even. Not to mention the celica is way lighter than both. My question is....why do people keep saying stock celicas are slow?

If people knew what strong performers these cars were and the type of potential they have...they'd be a lot more popular.

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

I can live with my 5SFE. Its definately not a fast motor, but it does have nice acceleration under normal driving due to nice low-midrange torque and short gearing. On the highway it accelerates very nicely I think, theres no need to downshift if you need to pass, especially if the revs are above about 3500 rpms. If anybody thinks that its fast though, then I must suggest you drive something with a turbocharger or at least a strong N/A motor.

At the moment I'm not too concerned because my 5SFE with high mileage is running amazingly well. Occasionally I have a little bit of belt chatter at idle, but that can be fixed easily enough. I just changed my oil today though, and I can't believe how smooth and quiet it likes to run with synthetic.