Which 80's Japanese Muscle Car

Somebody on this forum has a pretty sweet Z31 with Starion wheels, I think. Maybe he'll chime in soon! If I recall he has some basic mods too and is making pretty good power.

Oh, and +1 on the Shiro Edition Z31 too...definitely the best version! Good luck finding one though!

The answer is simple. Shop all of them and buy the first minty one for the right price that comes along. Then, go play!

sethmeister4 wrote: Somebody on this forum has a pretty sweet Z31 with Starion wheels, I think. Maybe he'll chime in soon! If I recall he has some basic mods too and is making pretty good power. Oh, and +1 on the Shiro Edition Z31 too...definitely the best version! Good luck finding one though!

I thought Shiro editions were nothing special? Always thought they were just a appearance package, what do they come with?

Conquest: Too rare and fragile. Great looking though.

Most of the fragile part of that car are things that have to do with it's age that would apply to the other cars, other than the head cracking issue. There is a company that does new castings for less than $1000, you can use a caravan head i heard, or acquire a foreign head.

Also parts are not hard to find, there are multiple websites that specialize in this car.

RX-7: Turbo II has great stock performance, and tons of potential and support. OK, its a rotary, but people know how to make them work.

TBH this car would be worse than the Starion in terms of fragility.

300ZX: Boulevard cruiser. Pass

Why? It's probably the 2nd lightest car there with the 2nd most or the most power potential on it's stock engine. I see them at autocross and track days all the time around here. It may also be the most reliable of the bunch.

If you want to keep stock turbo for Autocross purposes get an 87 or earlier. 87 is my favorite year: facelift car, upgraded ecu, t3 turbo, lsd.

The Starion fuel injection sucks and parts are hard to find.

people keep saying this...... http://www.racetep.com/dod_mit.html http://competitionclutch.com/store/ - clutchs, obviously http://www.2kracing.com/Model/Mitsubishi/Starion.html www.kdmperformance.com/

I mean what part is really hard to find for this car? One of those sites even builds you a completely new performance engine for $4300 for this. Two of them have large dedicated sections to the car. The racetep site has a system you can buy that replaces the tbi if it's that much of a problem though I bet putting some kind of aftermarket engine management probably would resolve a lot of issues.

Finding parts for a Starion and finding performance parts for a 300zx are probably just as difficult. People said the same E36 M3 about the 300zx but with a quick google search I found several sites that offer performance parts for them as well.

In reply to kanaric:

Yeah the Shiro had the same power as a standard turbo model, just was optioned like a base model, analog gauges, base stereo, they speculate it's about 100lbs lighter. It also had a viscious LSD instead of the clutch type.

I was really more talking about replacement parts for stuff like interior trim, weather stripping, body parts, etc.. Thing to keep the car looking mint and factory fresh. I know Courtesy Nissan had a decent selection still of factory trim parts, I can't say I know of anything like that for the Mitsu.

And what are these fuel injection issues on the Starion that are mentioned?

Plus the Shiro's have those awesome Recaros and look dead sexy in all white!

Easily Supra Turbo. Solidly built. Other then the head gasket bulletproof. Fairly quick. Comfortable. Easy to work on. It will tow camping gear, a set of wheel and a Spitfire motor and transmission from the Challenge after competing in comfort.

I am sorry but the Z31 just sucks. It isn't that fun to drive. The motor should be in a truck and it sucks to work on.

Starion isn't the most reliable thing in the world. It does look awesome though but I don't think I would DD.

I would consider the FC RX7 but IMHO the FB is way better.

93EXCivic wrote: I am sorry but the Z31 just sucks. It isn't that fun to drive. The motor should be in a truck and it sucks to work on.

What makes it a pain to work on?

4cylndrfury wrote: ............... easy to work on, relatively simple to maintain.........

LIES

I vote Starquest. With an RB25 swap.

beans wrote:

4cylndrfury wrote: ............... easy to work on, relatively simple to maintain.........

LIES I vote Starquest. With an RB25 swap.

Your the second one to say that. What makes it a pain to work on?

t25torx wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: I am sorry but the Z31 just sucks. It isn't that fun to drive. The motor should be in a truck and it sucks to work on.

What makes it a pain to work on?

There is not much room in the engine bay and getting to anything sucks. The oil filter is in an absolutely stupid place. It isn't as terrible to work on as a MINI but it isn't nearly fun enough for me to want to put up with the pain.

They aren't that bad.... It's time consuming, but not HARD, per se.

I will 2nd that about the Z31...oil changes do kinda suck, and to replace the radiator the whole front end has to come off....definitely takes some patience to work on, but thankfully they're pretty durable cars. I would take the nicest one of the 4 that you find, though!

Swank Force One wrote: They aren't that bad.... It's time consuming, but not HARD, per se.

Well that is my point you have to spend a bunch of time trying to get to basically anything. Considering that you could get a FC or Supra for around the same price, I don't see why anyone would bother.

93EXCivic wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: They aren't that bad.... It's time consuming, but not HARD, per se.

Well that is my point you have to spend a bunch of time trying to get to basically anything. Considering that you could get a FC or Supra for around the same price, I don't see why anyone would bother.

Meh, it's just time. I don't mind things that take long as long as they're easy.

But then again, i'd love to have a Z31.

Would smash.

I would recommend the OP drive a good example of one of each. Cause as seen in this thread and the ones about exceeding expectations or underwhelming. Different strokes for different folks.

93EXCivic wrote: I would recommend the OP drive a good example of one of each. Cause as seen in this thread and the ones about exceeding expectations or underwhelming. Different strokes for different folks.

Yeah I'm working on finding some "good" examples. I drove a Supra turbo targa with an auto about 14 years ago, I need a refresher in a 5 speed car with out the targa top.

Well if it were me, I would snag the FC. I love them and want another. For you wanting a "muscle car" I vote Supra. You can make a lot of power reliably for not much $. Friend of mine has an '85 300zx. I don't like the seats, or the exhaust note, or the interior much.

FC more fragile than a starquest???? Easily the FC out of this group. I really prefer the FB, though.

Swank Force One wrote:

93EXCivic wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: They aren't that bad.... It's time consuming, but not HARD, per se.

Well that is my point you have to spend a bunch of time trying to get to basically anything. Considering that you could get a FC or Supra for around the same price, I don't see why anyone would bother.

Meh, it's just time. I don't mind things that take long as long as they're easy. But then again, i'd love to have a Z31. Would smash.

+1 to that car. It's pretty hot.

I just hated working on my friend's Z32 TT with him. Worked on a Z31 once, and it was a little easier, but still a pain. I'd rip the engine out of either of them just because it's probably easier to work on with it out.

Javelin wrote: In reply to oldeskewltoy: Really? I haven't seen a rust free Z31 or Supra in quite a few years, but I've never actually seen an FC with rust. Huh.

Hmmm, how many FC... or ANY rotary that last 200k regularly..... we can bash one or the other all day... but my first statement still holds water...

oldeskewltoy wrote: At this age.... the best one you find is likely the correct answer here...

Javelin wrote: In reply to oldeskewltoy: Really? I haven't seen a rust free Z31 or Supra in quite a few years, but I've never actually seen an FC with rust. Huh.

I have never seen a MKIII Supra with rust but I don't live in the rust belt at all (I haven't seen an FC with rust either honestly).

I agree. Just fidn the best of the bunch and pick it up.

Also, not that money grows on trees (according to every parent everywhere), but get the best you find, and if you don't like it, just sell it or trade it and move on to one of the other 3 listed. It's not like any are super rare (special editions notwithstanding) and can't be located in a quick craigslist search. You're not locked into any of them for life.

I'm sure a lot of of us bought something and flipped it for something else after not meeting the expectations. I feel like that's the fun part with these cars. Their values are cheap enough now that you actually could (over time, at least) have an ownership experience with each if you wanted.

As someone who has done pooploads of work on Z31s, I really don't know what the hell you guys are talking about when you say they're hard to work on? They're actually quite simple and I've done gazillions of oil changes and I don't see what the problem is?????

And yes it's true that all the turbos came with hideous options like t-tops, digital dashes, cheezy adjustable dampers, etc. But, it's easy peasy to do a turbo swap if you do it properly, and parts are dirt cheap and easy to find.

My '86 slicktop was originally a n/a car, but I lucked up and found a wrecked 82k mile '85 turbo and swapped everything over.

Behold the unheard of slicktop! Actually they're are a few out there, but you have to be patient [URL=http://s114.photobucket.com/user/hotrodhabit/media/1a1111hgfhgrfd111-1_zps6987fbae.jpg.html][/URL]

I guess I'm the only a-hole on the planet who never liked StarQuests...

Last week or so I spotted a really clean original looking late model for sale around the corner from my house. I wasn't even motivated to stop and check the price on the window. It's not on Craigslist. If anybody in the Connecticut area is looking for one, I can swing by tomorrow and see if it's still available.