O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

The trick is to know how much better the VVti is. It's much more driveable and expandable.

murf

I see.. I'll read up on it.

As for this particular car, here's the link to the ad: http://www.craigslist.org/eby/car/117231724.html

What do you think?

duckworth

please don't go with an s2000.......they have issues, the FRM sleeves suck, and they're overrated when you take into account their cost........fun? yes, but overrated........a stock one will net you anywhere from high 13's in the 1/4 to low 15's until you replace the clutch, the oem clutch gets hot and slips like hell after a couple of hard launches.......the f20c was a prelude to the k series engines and a lot of the problems that pop up with new designs were present

for $15K you could have a hell of an FD (93-95 rx7)..........and contrary to popular belief, with 3 simple mods these are as reliable as anything else that will see 13's in the 1/4 other than a crotch rocket.........mine ran 12's for right at 100K miles before i had to sell it due to the need of a back seat........had to do routine maintenance........

can't go wrong with a c4 or c5 vette though..........

if you want fast then i'd not go with an sc.........a car with this type of aftermarket can get annoying unless you like the challenge.........i just got mine and i love it though, a lot.......never was into "nice" cars, just cars that were made to go fast without all the bells and whistles......but i'm an old 25 year old, i like bells and whistles now

murf

Hmm.. I see almost nothing but good things about S2000's on s2ki.com..

FD's are nice, but even with mods to improve reliability, I don't see myself buying one.

Would buying a near 100k mile older SC and turboing it be a bad idea? Say, if I can find one for around $10,000 with a 5-speed and then turbo it, it would be quite a bit less than buying one for $15,000 and turboing it, obviously, but would an older motor/car give me more problems? Normall, "yes" would be the answer, but these are pretty reliable cars, so I'm wondering if 100k miles is considered high mileage on these...

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

I wish a car were just an engine and tranny, but bushings, regulators, steering systems, suspension, mounts, rear ends, ................ well you understand. Buy as new as you can always.

prjctSC300

iTrader: (1)

why dont you just buy a older model sc and use the left over money to mod it. unless you can afford to buy a newer sc300 and mod it at the same time. mod'ing these cars arent cheap thats for sure. and these cars are known to have 200k+ miles without any issues

duckworth

1) you never know what the previous owner did........they're always highway miles and it was always "maintained properly".......people lie sometimes.....

2) it's s2ki.com, they're not usually gonna put it down.........the f20c (s2000 engine) was a good engine but it did have it's bugs.......the engine is gutless below 6000rpm.....it really feels slow unless you're taching up where most cars can't even tach to start with........the knock sensor, like most honda knock sensors, retards your timing for no reason sometimes.....they're overactive and they're designed to work until around 5500 rpm, when they quit monitoring.....so high rpm detonation will still get you....on my 200 hp h22a, it cost me 20 hp.....that's 10% for no reason at all...........there are electrical gremlins associated with sensors and obd2 electronics.......i think most of these things are worked out on the f22c (the newer 2.2 liter s2000) but it's still a motorcycle engine in a car that needs much more torque.........and if you ever wanna mod it, you'll have to keep in mind that the sleeves are FRM so forged pistons are out of the question and wiseco's pistons (designed to work with the frm honda sleeves supposedly) don't work either......so you're stuck with compression too high for a real nice FI build.......and even when they put down 200whp, they still feel slow in the low/mid rpm.......

they handle great, no complaints there.......

i was trying to decide between a much older rx7 and one of these cars and ended up going with the FD.........more than likely the FD won't last as long as the s2000, but the s2000 is nowhere near the car the FD is............a local shop also sells FD's with LS-1 swaps.....the kit is bulletproof, weight is about the same, and these are some mean setups......he does a high quality job and anyone who likes the looks of the FD but not the headaches that a rotary can give you, this is the route......i've seen them first hand and they're awesome.....with bolt ons, you can get 24mpg and run low 12's and those engines are tough

all that being said, when i'm running 90mph on the interstate, it's 22 degrees outside but my seat is nice and warm (seat warmer) and the inside's temp is 78 degrees and i have my hot chocolate/coffee in my oh-so-convenient cup holder, i'm as happy as i can possibly be when going to work.........so smooth, so convenient, so functional........i love my sc

YZFR1

Not to rain on your parade............But basically the S2k was designed this way. I agree more useable torque would be great to have lower in the RPM range for daily driving purposes, but the S2k is not meant to be good there. Where it excels is exactly where it's supposed to.

Now, for your question.......... The SC is hard to beat when it comes to comfort, performance, user friendliness and so on. You can mod it relatively easily to the 400hp you want and there are tons of aftermarket or changeovers available and you still have an incredible base to start with. I say you cannot go wrong if you want a very well rounded car that you can make do many things extremely well as apposed to 1 thing well....


Dan

duckworth

i didn't say it was a design flaw, but most people will look at the peak hp and think it's fast, when in reality, it takes a good driver to drive it fast.....otherwise, it's running with the grand prix gt's and nissan maxima's of the world.......as far as the track, where most claim "it shines", well, a miata with I/H/E will usually show it up.....it was supposed to run with the big boys and simply isn't capable most of the time........that's why they upped the displacement to 2.2 liters recently.....they actually used this engine to research the potential for the k series in the real world...........it's nothing like any other f series to date.....they used it as a guinea pig and it worked, the k series is a very advanced design......people who bought s2000's didn't know that........

posterboi

First of all you have to really ask yourself do you want the best of 1 world or 2? If you get the Vette, you have unbelievable power and leave most cars in the dust. The problem with this is the interior in my opinion,....I have to be able to enjoy the cockpit of my vehicle w/ wonderful luxurious features as well as have decent power! So if you want a car with power and zero luxury on the inside...go w/ the Vette. If you want something that wont have you with back aches for being on long trips out of town and be just as appealing to the ladies....go Lexus SC series!!

Psionic

Bottom line: Go drive one. I made my decision pretty quickly after that.

murf

Thanks for the replies, fellas.. insightful stuff.

In a perfect world, I would just buy that one for $15,000, put $10,000 into it, and live happy for a while However, I don't have that much money (willing to spend maybe $20,000 total as of right now), so it's not as easy as "buying the newest one I can find" since my goals are NA-T as soon as possible. I just love the idea of luxury + overwhelming power.. can't beat that, IMHO.

I know that turbo setups run at different prices, but can someone please give me a ballpark estimate of what a good kit + install (on average) would cost, please? Just need a ballpark so I can gauge my abilities here. Also, is there a shop that knows what it's doing here in the Bay Area? I could not really picture doing the install myself - even if I could do that part with a friend (or at my dad's shop.. but no one there has done this type of stuff..) I would still need someone with good knowledge about tuning to tune it right. That's more $$$, so please give me an estimate on that as well.

Thanks all!

murf

Hmm.. this doesn't look too bad..

http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/car/115529053.html

JspecSC3

iTrader: (4)

1) Overall I think the SC is up there. Maybe even past the 99/00 Corvettes and definetly past S2000s. When that body style came out in 1992 that car was too advanced for its year. 1997 is when they stopped making the 5speed SC300s. So you not only have a rare car but a rare car with VVT-i.

2) With $4500 you can go for the GTE swap and have money left over. But if you would much rather keep the GE motor and turbo it there are a fine selection of kits out there that will meet your needs. The TOYOMOTO kit is a good one. BOOSTLOGIC is a nother one. Most will cost you under $4500. A basic turbo setup can run you up to 550hp. You can easily reach 400rwhp with a besic setup.

3) There are common problems with the SCs but I think most of them are with the earlier models. There is a great site, Intellexual.net, it has everything you need to know about the SC.

4) $14,800 sounds like a reasonable offer. $16,000 is not bad either.

5) Well, I think its pretty sporty YET soft and luxurious.

JspecSC3

iTrader: (4)

WHAT?!?! NO VVT-I?!?!? I'd start asking some questions. Im pretty sure it should have come with it. Unless that is not the original motor.