Re: Pros and Cons

[Alexei M Voloshin <Alexei.M.Voloshin-1@tc.umn.edu>]

Ok,
how many times have you driven on the autobahn or carved the road along 
the shoreline of Cicillia? If you have, you'll know what I mean! How many 
Supras, VR4s, or even Accord, or Civics have you seen? Not many at all. 
Maybe five in a day all in the right lane. Why? Because all of them can 
not sustain long time at full throttle. I was puzzled too first, but 
after I asked some mechanics down there, they say that most often problem 
is that Japanese cars overheat after 1-2 hours of full throttle run. 
Where as 540i driven by my dad easily went over 160 MPH (the German 
Version). How is that for Japanese performance. Surely you can clock the 
car running around the track for about 10-15 minutes, so what? In real 
life they are just not up to Germans in terms of extreme situation 
performance. A friend of mine from Japan runs his AWD 190 HP Accord EX-R 
about 
100-115 MPH in Twin Cities (we're on the COPs' most wanted list here), 
but that speed is only maintained for 5-6 min max before his 
scanner-detector sees a patrol vehicle around. He is a huge expert at 
cars both here and in Japan both selling them and testing them, and the 
only Japanese cars that can compete with Germans are the varients sold 
only in Japan. But even then, cops there uses 959s and 911s.

His EX-R is also very interesting machine: it is a '90 EX-R with AWD and 
self locking center differential. 0-60 in about 6.7 sec with 6-speed wide 
ratio box. The 190HP eingine is the older variation of the engine used on 
todays Prelude VTEC. Very nice piece of machinery, but he still prefers 
the accuracy of my '86 CSTQ steering and suspension response. 
Oh by the way, my '86 is the German version with electronic suspension 
and a different Turbocharger. 

So I hope that sheds some light on why I say things that I do.

Good luck, Alex.