I just bought a 98 sc4 last month and I have fallen in love with the SC again. ***** fast for me( not trying to race you modded knuckleheads). The pre 98 sc 4's are MUCH slower than 98+ sc4's. I have driven both. The previous dude is not really helping you with his comparisons b/c he is comparing a modded 97 sc 4 to a stock 98 sc 4, that is not the info you are requesting, you want stock vs stock. Get the 98+ sc 4 , you will be very happy you did.

 

my homie has a 99 sc4 and its a big difference

 

Which part of this in his 1st post ( Last line ) did you miss ???

" Let me here your personal reviews and experiences! "

 

I guess the japanese company that built the darn thing had their figures wrong when they rated the horse power on the 98+ sc's...who would have figured they were off by 60-70 hp I mean they put all their genius minds into building a great v8 vvt-i engines but yet be off by 60-70 hp on their tests. I guess you should smack'em and call them stupid

 

Guess you've become a expert from the date you joined club CL Huh ?

 

any plans for a LSD and a TC ??

 

If you are asking me, and I think you are the answer is no. I would always rather pulled the gearing with TQ and HP than change it.

The TC is not something I am not interested in because I have another route I want to try and take. The SC retards the engine between gear shifts, thats one reason it has such smooth shifts between gears. I going to try and take out the program that retards with a Unchip.

 

you guys are aruging which high 14-second car is faster lol

 

Welcome to CL, it helps if you read the whole thread Before you post.
" Reading is Fundamental "

 

I bought my 98 SC400 back in November.

It took a bit to "rebreak" in the engine. It's 9 years old and only 67k miles. My last car was 98k miles at 5 years old. There were vibrations and other weird things from what i'd imagine as sitting around alot.

Now that it's been almost 3 months i would say i love this car. It's fast on the get up and go, has smooth shifts, corners great and rides smooth. THere's not much more you can ask out of a "Luxury" car. Racing is for supra's not SC's.

At 290 HP i rarely ever need to exceed 3k RPM meaning wonderful gas milage. I have the pwoer to pass without pounding the gas. Peeling out is still possible at 20mph on dry road. you can still spin the tires at 50 on a wet road (dangerous).

Handling in snow is fine as long as you switch to "snow mode. " I've had the rear swing out on me a few times because i goosed the gas too much. Regaining control is easy, just let off the gas. We (thankfully) havent had our normal dose of snow, so i cant give a clear word on what blizzard conditions are like. My 2k celica was a dream in heavy snow.

In all i would say the 98 with VVT tech is great. Although it's a spiteful engine, adjusting to the mods you add, it's a really nice low maintenance engine if you show it the right love.

I hear the rods are weaker so turbo is a tad more expensive. But sticking to NA it's a work of art even to this modern day with high powered family cars (WTF).

 

lol i was referring to the guys arguing about the new max. vs the SC, not SC vs. SC sorry i should have quoted.....

 

I think drivetrain loss is greater through a rwd drivetrain vs. a fwd drivetrain-- AND the Max's tranny doesn't smooth the shifts out near as much as the SC does--

The Max's trans shifts quickly and firmly, and I wish it were the same with the SC-- This makes a large difference -- and I also bet the Max's TC is a bit higher stall than the SC's, though the power output is very close to the same, as well as the torque curve, since the VQ uses variable length intake runners, which fatten up the lowend considerably--

Nissan and Lexus have very different philosiphie's considering engineering, and I'm sure the trans. in the Max is not near as robust as the one in the Lex either, meaning a lower rotating mass compared to the lex trans--

There's a lot of factors at play yet to be proven/highlighted-- Not to mention the Max weighs about 3450 lbs, vs the SC's 3750~ish fat a$$ --

 

I don't post on here too much, but thought I'd weigh in on this topic being that I have driven both cars:
I own the SC (MY 2000) and rented a brand spankin' new 07 Maxima (had 12 miles on it from Nissan dealer to Enterprise office ) for 1.5 months while completing a training course in CA. My SC has a bunch of work done to it, but when it was stock it was pretty similar to the 07 Maxima in terms of get up and go.
By this I mean they both took off and achieved approximately the same times and speeds; it all depended on how you launched each car. Like someone else mentioned, the tranny shifts on the Max are a little crisper and definitely more noticeable than on the SC.
With my SC in its current state I know I'd stomp on the Max and a lot of other cars out there, but that of course is not a topic for this post. For the record I am a very agressive driver and am RWD biased; I hated how the Max with all that power going to the front wheels behaved sometimes

 

Was it possibly a 2006? I believe the only transmission for 2007 is the CVT which has NO shifts.

 

Note of interest: the 98+ VVTi 1UZFE engine in our cars actually has a variable length runner intake manifold. Inside the plenum under the runners is a row of butterfly valves that open at high RPM to shorten the runners and improve high RPM power. At low RPM the valves are closed for longer runners that make better mid and low RPM power/torque.