...you should have watched the History channel last night....

[url=http://store.aetv.com/html/catalog/vp01.jhtml;jsessionid=MWRS5BAELNW4GQOXHDECCA0B022MOIY4?id=42861]The Bataan Death March[/url]

I know, you will say thats a long time ago. I know you will say that was a different world. I know you will say this and that.

I dont know why I feel like this, but I have issues driving Japanese cars, as much as I have issues driving any car that 1) Isnt made in America & 2) The profits dont go to American companies.

I was talking to an older fella a couple days ago, a WWII vet. He was surprised that I felt like this, and said to me, " I kinda have a funny feeling in my heart when I see these little Mitsubishis running around. The worst part is these American kids nodays dont know and dont care the same company that is building these, built the Zeros that probably killed somebody in their own family."

I must be a recent reincarnate or something, I relate to his sentiment with no reservations.

Isn't Nissan owned by France these days??

i w/ ya again CavVet, dont like em...dont drive em.  my fiance drives a honda..and i have been steadily been tryiing to get her to trade it in.  i myself drive a hopped up GMC..and LOVE blowing those ricers off the street. youre right about these kids too....they have no clue..and i always hear "my 4 cylinder will blah blah blah"  okay...put it up against a 4 second top fuel dragster "but thats a dragster"  what the hell do you think a 9 second honda is...a street car?  NOPE.  theres no replacement for displacement! BUY AMERICAN!

Toyota Camry is the most American Made Car on the road today. Go figure that one, how is the big three contributing for America?

I'm only 22, but I still think about that stuff. It doesn't bother me so much to see people my own age driving them, I may even own one myself some day, but what really seems strange to me is when I see [i]old people[/i] driving them. They probably lived through it and apparantly still don't care. As for the fact that the cars are built here, well, the profits are still going over there, are they not? So they employ some low-wage, democrat-voting workers on our shore. Not the same as being an American based company. What do the big three do for the U.S.? Income tax, I would imagine. The Japanese companies don't have to pay nearly as much of that over here, do they? (BTW, by big three I really mean big 2, since Chrysler is now effectively German, IIUC.)

My grandfather fought against the Japanese in China.  He saw his buddies killed and came very close to being captured.

He's been driving Japanese cars as long as I can remember.

I drive a car made in Germany.  I wouldn't trade it for the world either.

How many of your "Buy American" trucks were assembled in America?

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Couldn't tell ya, but my "Buy American" Ford Thunderbird says that it was made in Ohio, USA.

Ah, I've never understood the appeal of retro designs.  If I were going to get a Thunderbird, I'd get one that the new one is modeled after.  They had one at an auto auction a couple of years ago.  Had a custom stitched interior, carpet, and an aluminum dash.  Very slick.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

The Honda I used to own was made in the US.

The Ford I now drive was mostly done out of the US (can't remember where at the moment).

I am currently looking at the Mazda RX8 because it's stylin'.  :)

Yes sir, I would love to have a '57-'59 T-Bird. However, I think that the new one is a pretty car as well, I wouldn't mind having one of them either. They're probably A LOT more comfortable than the originals. As it stands, I have a '95.

My Honda was made in the US

I'll enjoy driving my jap car, while you're in the dealer getting your Ford/GM/Crystler repaired.  We've never owned a reliable American car or have known someone who has.  When the big three get their heads out of their asses, I'll be interested.  They still believe that their competition are the other American manufacturers, while the bigger competition are the jap car makers and their reliability record.

Here are some of the jap car perks: more reliable, more efficient, better interiors, nicer exterior styling, reliability, quicker per engine displacement size, better warranties and finally, they're more reliable.  And all for a couple bucks more?  I'll take it!

Why would you post that pic?  Did the guy swinging that sword build my wifes Honda?

I used to be a quality engineer for Toyota products at an automotive supplier.  There was many a day I wished my product line was Ford or GM.  My job would have been so much easier.

We shipped our Toyota products to Kentucky, Tennessee, and California to be assembled into most of the Toyota products you see on the road.  Yes, some are still made in Japan.  But a huge number are made in America by Americans.  By workers in nicer plants than any Ford or GM plant I've been in.

For example: They had pool and ping pong tables on the production floor for use during breaks and lunches.  They had on premisis medical, child care, and work-out facilities.  They empowered their employees to make basic quality desicions (much to my dismay [:)]).  Over all, I'ld rather be a line worker at a Toyata plant than a GM plant.

Your logic says we shouldn't be friends with Britian since they weren't nice to us 227 years ago.  I can understand if you harbor a grudge if you actually participated in the conflict, but get over it if you haven't.

Kent

I can appreciate the thoughts of survivors of WWII and their immediate relatives, but to hold a grudge like that after we did in fact win the war (over 50 years ago) seems a bit much.  I still visit friends across the Mason-Dixon line, I drive a British car (and a German one), but I live here in the good 'ole US of A.  

I've owned one each of the big three, One Chrysler, one Ford and 2 GM's. Three cars (C,F,GM) and one truck (GMC). Shit. Every last one of them.

I like the fact that all Japanese cars do is run, with a minimum of bullshit repairs, and I'll tell ya, I cherish the look on the faces of dudes in the Big assed domestic trucks and cars when my bone-stock Maxima leaves 'em like they're sitting still off the line. ESPECIALLY the little snotnose fuckers in the Camaros and Mustangs...

Besides,  displacement does you little good siting in the service bay at the dealership.

RF

I've owned one each of the big three, One Chrysler, one Ford and 2 GM's. Three cars (C,F,GM) and one truck (GMC). Shit. Every last one of them.

I like the fact that all Japanese cars do is run, with a minimum of bullshit repairs, and I'll tell ya, I cherish the look on the faces of dudes in the Big assed domestic trucks and cars when my bone-stock Maxima leaves 'em like they're sitting still off the line. ESPECIALLY the little snotnose fuckers in the Camaros and Mustangs...

Besides,  displacement does you little good siting in the service bay at the dealership.

RF

As I have been told a few times from one post, I will forever think of you much different than I did before.

Have you ever discussed this with your very blessed Grandfather?

What was the actual survival figures? 2,000 out of 12,000 Americans? How many out of 68,000 Philipinos?

So which is more American? My Nissan made in Tennessee, or my Dodge made in Mexico?

These days it really doesn't matter nearly as much who's name is on the car, but more that you're buying cars. Follow along, Even if the car isn't made here its: unloaded by a US dock worker who, loads it on a US truck, where it goes to a US port of entry, then to a US dealer, who finances it through a US bank. All along the way there are US workers making a living off the sale, transport, and opereration of the vehicle. Most of the car companies are so intertwined anymore it's really hard to say who you're really buying from ( Toyota sells the chevy cavalier in Japan with it's badge on it ).

When GM, and Delco moves most of it's fabrication, assembly, and other associated lost industries back to Flint, I'll THINK about buying a new "American" made car.

Til then, I'm driving a Toyota.

Meplat-

First, a street car, any brand against a top fueler is a joke and I don't know what your point was in making that comparison.

Won't buy American, every American car I have owned has been junk.

Bring your 'hopped up GMC' on down and see how good it does against my 'ricer' (a ridiculous, ignorant term), a 300HP daily driver, RX7 Turbo with 1.3 liters, 80 cubic inches.  No subsitute for cubic inches, my ass.  Another outdated cliche.

Why would I send my money to a foreign company in another country? [brick]

Although now, most Japanese cars are made in the US, the profits still leave this country to headquarters in Japan. [noclue]

No matter how you look at it you're helping a foreign government in a big way that may or may not have our best interests at heart. Think about that the next time you go hop in your Mercedes or BMW.

Dirk

NO FAIR LARRYG!!!!  Comparing too much of anything to the marvel that is the RX-7 with it's X2 rotary engine isn't fair[:P].  Don't even think about comparing anything to the RX-8 with it's X3 rotary engine!!  Now LarryG, play nice and compare his GMC to say, a VW Beetle[:)]!

I wouldn't get too worked up about the Japanese car companies. These days they all have part ownership interests in each other (GM is part owner of Toyota, Daewoo and Saab, Ford owns Jaguar, Chrysler owns Lamborghini, etc).

If you're claiming that buying a US assembled Japanese brand car (eg a Toyota) ultimately sends money to Japan, some of it is still coming back to the US through GM's part ownership of Toyota. I can't say who has their finger's in Honda, Mitsubishi or Suzuki these days, but I'd be very suprised if they're still entirely Japanese owned.

But how much power can you put without really workign the motor? How much money do you have to pu tinto it. Honestly I really want to know coz I have no clue.
I do know that you can get small block engines that can put 400 horses pretty easy. And Id say that you can find a platform to mount it in that wont weight much more than your RX7. Plus you can get MUCH more ponies from a small block for not alot of money.  You still need a motor to have some size if you want big power. Thats the reason top fuel uses big motors, they run big power

First, to which motor would you be referring, the windshield wiper motor, the fan motor..?  Now, as for the engine, all I did was put a Racing Beat exhaust and K&N air filter on it.  The factory version isn't making much less than that.  The engine does not work hard at all.  You say small block, you are still talking 300 to 350 cubic inches, not a small block in my opinion.  It is still 4 times larger than my engine and not making any more horsepower.  I could probably spend another $500-$600 on some electronics and get close to 400 hp and another $500 for a different turbo and get 450.

Oh, the platform will weigh a lot more than my RX7, with that cast iron block in it.

Why do y'all keep bringing up Top Fuel.  Hell, they are making 2000 hp, but they are spending major money to do it.  Besides, you don't drive a TF on the street, so what's your point?  I guess you are going to tell me that those engines aren't working hard, aren't you?  I could stack 2 more rotors for a total of 4, with a displacement still of only 2.6 liters and with all the stuff they use on a TF, make that kind of power.  

In GTP and GTO racing, the 4 rotors were making 700 hp with no turbos, as much as the 5.7 liter and bigger V8s in that form of race trim and the RX7 GTO cars kicked their asses.  To use your logic, why aren't the stock cars and American sports car racers making the kind of power that TF makes?

well the point is in top fuel is that you need something that big to get that power. If they can get that much power from stacking little motors then why arent they doing it? I sure dont know. But I figure they use em for a reason and it works. Probably coz they make a little more torque too.
And since im too lazy to look up specs right now. What is the curb weight of the RX7 vs something like a F-body Camero. Cant be too different.

How right you are, oh wise one!
That's why it's called enginesport, engine-vehicles, department of engine vehicles, enginecycle, engitel, engine home, enginist, etc etc...

Cav Vet,

I can't even beleve someone would bring this up. We exacted far far more than our pound of flesh from the Japanese in World War II. The exhortations of "kill a hundred of them for every American" actually happened. We easily killed a hundred Japanese for every American life lost during that war.

And we knew it at the time, that is why there was fairly little retribution against Japan after the war. Same thing with Germany. When our people could walk the streets and SEE the damage that we did. We could see that we CLEARLY fucked them over, that we had utterly ruined them as we had inteneded. There was no unfinished business.

To use Japanese war crimes to try to increase the sale of American goods is disgusting. It demeans OUR war dead to use them as a marketing tool.

Don't worry about the Jag, Ford bought 'em.

Small [i]block[/i] refers to just that, the physical [i]external[/i] dimension of the block, not the displacement. It is not too uncommon to have a small block displace 406 cubic inches and a big block displace 396 cubic inches.


Modern American V8 sports cars use aluminum, not iron. The only American sports car that I can think of with an iron block would be the Mustang Cobra. It makes ~390 horsepower.


I doubt adding two more rotors to your engine would put you anywere close to the 6,000 hp top fuel cars put out. I think that the original comparison was trying to point out that a 9 second ricer is about as streetable as a top fuel car. IE, [i]not very streetable.[/i]  


I could only guess that, unlike the TF cars and 9 second ricers, it is because the stock cars and American sports car racers are not using forced induction. IE, turbos and/or superchargers.

Now concerning a rotary engine: It's not unfair to compart a rotary engine to a piston engine, but it [i]is[/i] unfair to compare them based on internal displacement. It would be much more fair to compare them based on power per the amount of fuel used while making that power, the reason being, the rotary pumps more air and fuel through itself with each combustion cycle than a piston engine of a comparable size. Sorta like comparing a 2-cycle engine to a 4-cycle engine.

FYI small displacement motors can make TONS of HP. Motorcycle engines, often around 1 liter, make up to 140 hp.

It's not HP that causes rapid acceleration, it torque.

Usually high revs=hp, displacement=torque

I hear ya. They are probably driving to the gun shop to get Wolf ammo for their Norinco AK, anyway................

my mothers 100% german, am I supposed to disown her because of her heritage? The past is the past, we're living on Native American land, and you texans/californians etc on Mexican land.

Buy what works...if USA companies want me to buy their products, prove that they're worthy.

I see why you are a Lbrl.

First, if we did kill a 100 of theirs for one of ours, they drew first blood (ala WTC). We were not in the War, we were [s]bitch slapped[/s] drug into it. They started it, we finished it.

Next, we "clearly fucked them over" by parking our battleships under their bombs in our Pearl Harbor? WTF? You seem to have issues, Im just not sure they are with me.



Well, I couldnt find a breakdown of our oil sources. I found we import 53%. I would blame a major part of it on the Demonrats (SURPRISE![:D]) Anwar has all our answers to domestic production.[:D] Iraqi oil is domestic, we took it, its ours.

Honestly, we dont produce enough oil to provide our needs. We have autos that sit on the showroom floor, factory workers at home,  but people [s]hate America[/s] love imports so much, they make all kinds of excuses to buy them.

For proof of my supposition I offer up Seattle.
As you know, there is no bigger cesspool of kommunists, that hate America, hate everything America stands for, love Bill Clitoris and China, [b]they all drive imports![/b] No self respecting lie-beral piece of yuppie shitstain drives a domestic auto. Is that enough to at least get you ready to rethink your pro-import position yet?

As for the 'forget it its a long time ago crew', I try that with the confederate flag and get no rhythym, so you gets none there either![:D]

confederate flag= all participants are dead, bataan death march, survivors alive today. If you wanna scream heritage, there is really a case for it with survivors still breathing.

My Pa just bought a new Toyota Camry. Man is it slick.

Thank you and good day

I must've gotten the two that the janitors built on Saturday... My '97 Chevy truck has only been in the shop maybe four times for small stuff, and my '95 Cougar has NEVER been in the shop for anything. It has never left me stranded, or failed to start. The only work that I've had to do is routine maintinence, except for when I split the oil filter adapter where the pressure sensor screws in last week... Not to mention it's safe... Being in a Vol. Fire Dept, I have see my share of accidents... with the exception of a few of the really high end cars, the Japaneese cars are built like $hit. The only one I have seen hold up fairly well was a large Lexus. I have seen more fatal accidents where the fatality was in the ricer, than those from the big 3 (or 2). I, for one, feel that saftey is far more important. I would rather have a well built, safe vehicle that gets 20Mpg, and occasionally needs to go into the shop, than a little POS ricer that gets 40-50Mpg, never needs to go into the shop and will crumple like a piece of paper in an accident.

Just my $.02

I happen to consider my purchase and ownership of Jap vehicles to be a patriotic act. Face it, the ONLY reason that the 'Big Three' have raised their quality UP to the level of 'crap' is because the Jap's and Germans made people realize they didn't have to put up with what was coming out of Detroit. When GM/FORD/Dodge started losing market share they made a real effort to improve their quality. And they HAVE. Now, instead of what they were turning out in the 70's and 80's (anyone remember the Old's Diesel?), you can actually find domestic owners who HAVEN'T had problems.

But some of ya'll are right, the Honda's and Yodas don't often have the cubic inches that can be souped up and made into a racing vehicle so you can drag race through heavy traffic, they just have enough inches to last a quarter of a million miles with minimal maintanence. BTDT...Guess what? I DON'T CARE! I can't afford a pretend vehicle...pretend in the sense that when I have to take off work to spend time in the dealership I pretend that I don't mind, pretend that I actually take pride in driving something that has more squeaks and rattles off the showroom than a Jap car does after 100K, pretend that I don't hate argueing with a service manager over a warrenty claim.

When I needed a truck to replace my Accord that'd racked up 196,000 miles, I went with Toyota, it doesn't spit sparkplugs like a Ford 5.4 F150, doesn't trash trannies like a Dodge, and doesn't rattle like a Diesal when the engine's cold (GM)...Oh yeah, it also hauls everything I need it too and gets 20mpg on the highway doing it (V8 Tundra), as opposed to 15mpg from the big 3 (when you can actually keep them running long enough to count).

You want to hold a grudge, fair enough, your choice. Don't belittle those of us who won't tolerate being screwed over by a domestic car/truck maker who will themselves buy a cheap import part over a domestic part just because it costs 1 penny less. Sorry for the rant, but ya pushed my button on this topic.

FWIW..There is a rice burner car plant around here.(SIA)  The road that they are on is known as the Bataan Memorial Highway and they had the nerve to ask the city to change the name of the road in order to get them to build here.  Most of the local vets told them to get F#%$ed.  They built anyway.  I personally have no problem with their cars adn know several people who work there. Just my $.02

No way.  Get outta here with that revisionist history...Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California are all States of the Union, fought and won as the spoils of victory.  Its called the Treaty of Guadelupe Hildago.  Just because the previous government of Mexico was the signing authority does not invalidate the treaty.

Take that Aztlan crap elsewhere.  And Native Americans?  Sorry again.  Yes they were here before but they didn't risk ocean crossing.  Survival of the fittest which is ironic seeing how they gave the white men tobacco which has been killing whites for 400 years.

Back to topic, take a visual survey of the "import" cars you see by noting a very simple method of determination of the country of origin.  The VIN (vehicle identification number) shows this in the first digit.  If its "1", the car was assembled here.  "2" is Canada.  "3" is Mexico.  The rest are an exercise in study.

Yeah, 600 pounds is inconsequential, right?  Want to bet which one will corner, accelerate and brake better? [rolleyes]  The japs build em efficient, we build em big.  We're losing the global race.

RX7 R1 - 2800 pounds - [url]http://www.nutsandvolts.com/rx7/specs.asp[/url]

Camaro Z28 - 3390 pounds - [url]http://starrworld.com/CamaroSS/F-Body%20Specs/[/url]

I own a Honda that I was "told" was built in Ohio, I'll verify the VIN though, a 4Runner probly built in Nihon, and a 66 Dodge Coronet Convertible Built in Michigan. I will never own a Mitsubishi or a new Chrysler because of the Zero. I will never own a BMW or VW or Audi or Porsche for all of the Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians etc. that were worked to death in their factories during the war. Also VW still owes the German people an assload of money on the bugs they sold to raise money for they war effort but never delivered. I would rather buy a Jap car made here by an American worker, than an "American" car made in Canada or Mexico. Screw the suits, I care whether the blue collar guy gets paid. And the Honda currently has 273,000 mi on it. Try that in a GM or Furd. AND it was given to me. Got the 4Runner because it had the combination of features I was looking for in a 4wd. Solid front axle, 5spd, EFI, under $500, and Toyota 4wd are the toughest in the world.(ok the FJ40 &FJ55 are the toughest but the 4Runner has the same heritage)Plus I was born in a Toyota so :P.
I think it is at least interesting that people won't buy foreign made cars, but thay'll buy a Browning shotgun made in Japan no problem. I guess ya picks yer battles.
I see the Mitsubishi company as a symbol of the evil that was the Japanese Empire of WWII. I think Chrysler turned traitor when they got into bed with them, and I'm a MoPar guy for christ sakes.
I don't hate Japan or the Japanese people. But when I see the old guys wearing the uniform of the Impirial Navy "honoring the war dead" I still see those guys as my enemy, because I know in their hearts, they see me as theirs.