Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Bitter]

Textured hard plastic, I've never heard of them cracking either.

[narly_charley]

Textured hard plastic, I've never heard of them cracking either.

Yeah, never seen one crack. Also, I've only seen one 2003+ in person up close haha! They do look much better than the lame gray. Painting the headliner also makes the interior 100% better.

[ClevelandGaint]

So much room for activities! nice addition

Built a work bench for the new toolbox and put up old cabinets for storage yesterday.

[Box]

Probably because Toyota was smart and used something like ABS if I had to take a guess. It's not like you touch the dash all the time anyway so I really don't care so long as it doesn't crack. Also looking around seems you can stuff 9" wide rims under the 7th gen, though finding suitable tires is a whole other story entirely. Really 8" would be plenty for such a light car, and good 205/45-17 are cheap and plentiful. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of the 7th gen GT-S. Also seems you can still get the Tein Super Street coil-overs for it: https://www.octanemotorsports.com/2000-2006...BCABEgI4E_D_BwE

[ClevelandGaint]

I have owned all the cars that you have listed. Im sure down where you live they arent all hacked together with bubble gum and coat hangers. But some opinions from some one who owned them before. Ill start with the my old 00 integra gsr. For what its worth its peppy, if you like redline its perfect. I honestly dont. The interior isnt as cheap as the 7gen celica but still a budget friendly vehicle. You can run on $20 for 2 weeks lol. Its honestly like a lawn mower doesnt use much gas. Anything after 4k rpm it comes alive. Aftermarket support is amazing for them. If you can dream it you can buy it. I owned that as my beater for work, only 74k mies. Then I traded it for 2003 rsx type s, the engine was amazing. It does feel torque-y. Interior is best out of the 3. Aftermarket is great for support. And the engines are can be built to be monsters. Honestly dont feel how heavy they are. Then again i love my land yachts so everything is lighter than those Gearing is great. Gas mileage is amazing. I would upgrade the sway bars for better handling, cheap fix. Now to the 7th gen celica. I had 00 and 03 gts. Both were dreadful red. The early model gts feels cheap because of the grey plastics, the body styling is cool depending on your mood, you can crack jokes that the gtr looks like it. It does have power, feels torque-y after 4500 rpm, once lift engages its a whole different car. Rust on those are hard to find since they never rust. Gas mileage is ok. If it were me i would go with the rsx or teg. Now the reason why i dont own any of those now is becuase the cities next me, they are stolen left and right and the next day you can see your wheels on someone elses car. Also if you get a honda product, please install a kill switch. They are easy to still, just go through the driver side wheel well and you can yank on the hood release and bam, your good to go. But comparing your rwd firebird to them is hard to do. RWD,V8, AMERICAN and decent gas mileage is hard to complain about. Just personal preference.

Because pros and cons lists help everything:

Pros of Firebird:
V8
POWER EVERYWHERE
Gains speed up hills when churning 1,200 rpm and the A/C on
Magical V8 sounds from the intake and exhaust
Granny shift out at 2,500 rpm and still get up to speed quickly
Phenomenal efficiency/power ratio; 300 hp and 30 mpg highway with A/C never going off
Comfortable and useful
RWD
LSD

Cons of Firebird:
Rear suspension from a truck
Aftermarket suspension is kinda expensive
Kinda big and ungainly feeling
Can't see a damn thing that's in front of you
People want to know why I haven't swapped in a LS yet, or didn't buy a LS to begin with

And since the Integra, Celica, and RSX mostly represent the same things they'll be henceforth collectively referred to as RIC.

Pros of RIC:
Good and affordable aftermarket suspension support(though the Celica lags behind somewhat)
Comfortable? and useful
Small and light; with the Celica being lightest and the RSX being the heaviest but still sorta light
Rear suspension not from a truck
Quickest cars for their class for the time
Best handling cars for their time

Cons of RIC:
Meh power/efficiency ratio
Where's the torque?
FWD
Open differential
Have to rev to the moon to go down the street
Sounds like angry bees
Somehow I bet A/C use has a notable impact on performance

Ah ok, The superstrut isn't much better than the standard suspension in actual practice, tires make more of a difference.

Indeed. I'd like to see a redo of that race but with a TRD Celica Sports M in there instead, I think it'd put up a better showing.

This post has been edited by ClevelandGaint: Aug 8, 2017 - 9:03 AM

[Box]

I'm not sure if around here the Integra and RSX getting stolen is as big of an issue, but it would be of concern given it's a national problem. After looking around I was leaning towards the Celica since it's a lot easier to find a clean/stock(ish) example, and for less money especially compared to the RSX. For the money saved between it and the RSX anyway that'd go a long ways towards suspension improvements. The GS-R and GT-S are closer in price, but seems most GS-R are hacked together. Yeah there's really not much comparing them and the Firebird outside of the fact they're all two door sporty cars, but still. If the Firebird was about 300 pounds lighter, 2 feet shorter, half a foot narrower, and I could actually see out of it I'd like it a lot more. At times I think the discomfort of size and visibility is more of a hindrance than the solid axle.

[rentaspace]

Haven't done anything to my cars lately. Everything has been focused on the house. New taps, new TV unit, new sideboard, new games storage.
In the garage front I have just gotten a new rolling toolbox and a workbench and have replaced the roof fluro lights with LED replacements, but the garage is still far from complete lol.

[narly_charley]

Probably because Toyota was smart and used something like ABS if I had to take a guess. It's not like you touch the dash all the time anyway so I really don't care so long as it doesn't crack. Also looking around seems you can stuff 9" wide rims under the 7th gen, though finding suitable tires is a whole other story entirely. Really 8" would be plenty for such a light car, and good 205/45-17 are cheap and plentiful. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of the 7th gen GT-S. Also seems you can still get the Tein Super Street coil-overs for it: https://www.octanemotorsports.com/2000-2006...BCABEgI4E_D_BwE

I'm not the guy to give unbiased advice on the 7th gen (haha!), but you should buy one. c:

[Bitter]

But 03+ has drive by wire and air injection for emissions.

[Box]

Yeah I think I'd like a 7th gen GT-S a lot, since it should be everything I liked about my 6th gen but a lot quicker and even better handling.

Oooh yeah, drive by wire. I don't mind the grey interior, but the black does look a lot better. If the grey was more of a charcoal like the Firebird I'd actually prefer it.

Also thought about it earlier, it wasn't until here recently that the FlexZ coil-over showed up in the Tein product search for the 7th gen, and the FlexZ line didn't come out until late 2015 so perhaps they're in the process of coming out with them? Especially since if you search the part number the only results that come up are the Tein page. Hopefully it's something in the works. Anyhow just thinking about the possibilities with suspension upgrades, I'm weird and get more excited over suspension stuff than engine stuff.

[Bitter]

I haven't heard any complaints about the DBW system though, so it may not suck. There's always BC coil overs, the DR series are supposed to ride nicer than my BR series, and you don't have to get the EXTREME LOW drop, you can order them as standard drop and get Swift springs.

[Box]

Hmm would just have to test it since some are ok and some just suck horrendously, but none are ever as good as a throttle cable though. Yeah even with coil-overs I'd still have at least an inch between the top of the tire and the bottom of the wheel opening, and my wheels will be slightly tucked in too. Much to the dismay of many I'm sure. I'll go take a look at the DR series.

[Bitter]

I think you'll be a bit let down with the interior, I mean it's not bad, mine doesn't creak or groan or squeak or rattle except where I've done something and not put it back together correctly. It feels solid inside for the most part, the only issue I've had is the door pockets coming slightly loose from the door panel inside but some epoxy fixed that easily. The melted tabs of plastic pulled off on one, someone may have used it to pull the door shut at some point.

The headlights won't be as awesome as your current ones though, but the halogen units are good by todays standards and great by standards back then. relay harness and high output halogen H7 bulbs and they're great. The HID option headlights are great too but don't have the same hotspot intensity as the HID, the HID are twice as wide though. Gains and losses but overall the HID are better.

[Box]

I don't think the interior can be any worse than the Firebird, all in the name of weight reduction right?

Yeah that was one concern with any of the other cars, but I figured doing a relay harness then doing 100W H7 and 9011 on the Celica it'd be fairly good.

[Box]

I'm really liking this Spectra Blue:

Such a nice colour.

[Bitter]

I wouldn't do 100W, it's not that big a projector and you'll probably damage the bowl with that kind of heat.

[narly_charley]

I'm really liking this Spectra Blue:
Such a nice colour.

I used to ALWAYS get comments/compliments on the color of my 8M6 (spectra blue). It's a beautiful dark blue in the dark and a perfectly metallic bright blue in the sun.



Not a flattering shot, but it really shows how the sun lights up the blue.

[Box]

Aww, now I'm sad... The Carbon Blue looks fairly nice too, though it's really dark and looks black in all but the brightest of light:


It'd be nice to have a nice blue car for once, since purple and teal is so rare on cars blue is the best I can hope for.

[narly_charley]

Aww, now I'm sad... The Carbon Blue looks fairly nice too, though it's really dark and looks black in all but the brightest of light:

It'd be nice to have a nice blue car for once, since purple and teal is so rare on cars blue is the best I can hope for.

Never been a fan of the carbon blue. It's too purple in the sun (for me).

Zephyr Blue can be made to look REALLY sharp.

http://www.toyotareference.com/celica

[Box]

I wouldn't do 100W, it's not that big a projector and you'll probably damage the bowl with that kind of heat.

Hmm, spose 70W would work then though they're a lot harder to find for whatever reason.