New Favorite Car?

Well, after seeing the HPA Motorsports R32 in the Car and Driver Supercar shootout, I may have changed my mind about it being one of my favorite cars. Somehow the price now is $82,000 (!!!), and the numbers C&D got were 0-60 in 3.6 seconds; 1/4 mile in 11.7 seconds at 119 mph. You'll recall that Motor Trend got 3.2 seconds, and 11.49 seconds at 120 mph. Also in Motor Trend, the quoted price was $59k; then if you look at HPA's website, it was $65k (see Post below); and now the as-tested price in Car and Driver is $82,000 (!!!). Furthermore, on the website, HPA is claiming 452 wheel horsepower and 495 wheel lb-ft of torque; however, in the Car and Driver article, they are only claiming 450 hp and 475 lb-ft BOTH numbers at the FLYWHEEL. Needless to say, this reduces the value/performance ratio a great deal. The actual performance numbers are a little disconcerting, but given track and weather variables, I can see the differences. However, the horsepower and torque numbers require some sort of explanation, of which I have none. The most disturbing thing for me is the price discrepancy. From $60,000 in the Motor Trend article, to $82,000 in the Car and Driver, is inexplicable. That is a 39% (!!!) increase in price. Furthermore, the dollar/horsepower ratio goes from $108/hp (in Motor Trend) to $182/hp in the Car and Driver article. That is a huge increase, and to me, unforgivable.

So, I may have changed over to a (tuned) Evo for my (relatively) reasonable supercar. Here are the numbers from the same C&D article for a (Vishnu) tuned Evo. That is looking closer to the HPA R32 I had in mind when I first heard about it.

$57,000
3217 lbs
475 (claimed) hp
450 (claimed) lb-ft of torque
power to weight ratio of 6.8
0-60: 3.4 seconds
1/4 mile: 11.6 seconds at 120 mph

However, here are some mods that can be done to an Evo, that it is reported should raise the performance significantly:

2005 Evo MR: $35,600
2005 Evo MR (with options/accessories I would like): $37,000

Mods:
AEM EMS (with UEGO): $2,235
HKS Blow-off Valve: $350
Greddy Cat-back exhaust (Titanium (10 lbs)): $885
B&B downpipe (3"): $330
AEM short ram: $210
Toda stroker engine kit (2.3L): $3100
HKS EVC Ver 2 (boost controller): $575
HKS turbo timer (Type-0): $90

With just the EMS, turbo-back exhaust, and boost controller, Easytrix Racing has seen around 320 whp. This translates to around 390 horsepower at the flywheel. I think with the intake and Toda kit we could easily see around 450 at the flywheel, not to mention a TON more torque because of the extra 326 cc's of displacement (an increase of over 17%). Furthermore, with the boost controller it would hold the boost at 19 psi all the way to redline (right now it drops off to 16 psi at the upper rpm range). I think that one could probably raise the boost controller and EMS to allow as much as 1.5 bars of boost (~22 psi), and furthermore to allow for 92 octane gas (as opposed to the 91 crap that is sold in California), and that would probably raise the horsepower to around 500 at the flywheel. This would also reduce the power to weight ratio to 6.4, which would be pretty impressive. As far as the turbo timer and BOV, those components would be more for safety and longevity than for power. After these mods, obviously the next step would be a larger intercooler and at that point in time, the stock turbo would probably be pretty much maxed out, so we would need to look at upgrading that. Then, the next logical step would be a set of cams. But for around $47,500 (with stock intercooler and stock turbo), you could have a 500 hp, all-wheel drive, 6-speed manual, great handling car that can seat three of your friends pretty comfortably. This would be around $106/hp.

Some other mods that I would probably want to do would be to get 17" SSR Competitions, a rear anti-roll bar (Hotchkis Tuning), a lightweight aluminum flywheel, and Exedy dual plate clutch. Furthermore, the $37,000 price quoted above includes front and rear strut tower braces. With these mods, it would turn a great car into a car that could run with supercars, both in terms of straightline acceleration, as well as handling on a road course. Not to mention, that the 4G63 engine is damn near indestructible, as well as having almost limitless tuning potential (in the last couple months I have seen two articles featuring Evos with 900+ WHEEL horsepower and 700+ WHEEL horsepower (on the bottle). It would be a pretty great little car for not TOO exorbitant a price, that would run with (literally) almost anything on the road. This may have replaced my HPA R32 as a favorite, "attainable" car. I haven't decided for sure, but I am leaning towards the Evo.