Come on now.. put some effort into it. :chuckles:
Life is deeper than a bunch of one-line responses.
* What do you plan to do when the Integra no longer meets your needs?
* Why did you buy an Integra in the first place?
* What do you think of the domestic vs import "rivalry"?

 

My dad, at the age of 18, bought a 1972 trans am brand new off the show room floor... had it for 8 months, got a boatload of speeding tickets and eventually took it for not keeping up payments ;p But he had a blast and loved it. Thats how I feel about imports... just the way they look, drive, and handle. I was raised knowing the old domestics and the muscle cars... I'd go with my dad occasionally when he was working pitcrew for a stock-car series. Those engines roared and you couldn't even hear yourself think. Despite all of the domestics I was being introduced to, I still leaned toward imports when I hit my teens. Its just fascinating how much potential there is to import engines... a 4 block putting out horsepower ranging in the hundreds. I like the complexity, turbocharging an engine and seeing/hearing how much of a difference it makes. I knew when I was looking to buy a car that I was going to buy an import, and I was mainly looking only at hondas/acuras... My parents already owned a civic and a prelude, both were good, fun cars. And I found my integra and love it. But as everyone, there is always that urge for more power... even the domestics have it. There is a guy who lives in my town and has a 2003 Mustang Cobra SC GT... and as if that wasn't enough, hooked up nitrous to it. Which I believe most domestics frown upon... "nitrous is so riced." The way I see it, its cheap efficient power... but thats another rant all in itself. I love imports and I like alot of domestics, and I respect owners of both who actually know what they are talking about... I have no respect for the guys who put GTR stickers on their import or domestics(when its not a skyline of course)... and believe me, I've seen both owners do it. And thats my .02

 

Huh? Social status? Who is impressed by a $23,000 car (when new)?

If you are buying a car to try to impress your friends or a girl... Why are you trying to impress your friends? Are you in some sort of "competition" with them to see who has the best "things"? And you surely don't want to date a girl that is interested in what kind of car you drive.

I own both types of cars that you mentioned. I have a 2001 Acura Integra GS-R with the basic bolt ons (no coffee can exhaust, that's for sure). I plan on driving that car until the wheels fall off. And I have a highly modified 1995 Pontiac Firebird Formula that I bought brand new when I was 22 years old. I will never sell that car.

Granted... the Integra is a cool little car and is a blast to drive. I'm no ricer by any means and my car is far from riced out. That is the last thing I would ever do to it. When I drive my '01 Acura GS-R, some punk kid driving his LS1 Camaro SS wants to race me and hammers it off the line... always.

When I drive my 770 rwhp '95 Firebird Formula, I always get the standard "ricer fly by" by some punk kid wearing a visor upside downs and backwards.

I get a good laugh at both situations and I just go on my way. You have to enjoy your car for whatever your reasons are and you should not be bothered about what others may think. I have seem some riced out cars in my day... we all have. I wouldn't do those things to my car, but I can appreciate the fact that the owner enjoys his or her hobby and no matter if he has some big wing on his or her 4 door Accord... it's his or her car and not mine. Yeah... I'll laugh, but I don't get bothered by it.

 

To me it's performance first, looks followed closely second.
My motorcycle is an import made in the usa.
Wife's car is an import with a Ford engine.
Truck is all Chevy, maybe.
Boat was Mercruiser all the way.

The Integra was an import choice for reliability, looks, and the delusions of performance.

I think one of the most important aspect is to do as much of the work yourself as possible

 

There is replacement for displacement amongst us tuners, it called NOS or Turbo...LOL. Seriously though, when you compare v-8 to inline 4 your pitting a heavyweight against a lightweight. It's nothing to brag about believe me. There is different classes here. Domestic v-8's have the wrong idea when they sigh at an inline four that is tuned. They should be looking at cars in thier own class and sighing at that if needed. Cause I tell you what, when the Island Motorsport 4 door Integra spanked a Viper in the 1/4 mile that sets the tone for our market. There is horsepower to be made, having the brains to make it happen is the replacement for displacement.

 

How streetable is this 4 door Integra? I would highly doubt that car retains it's stock look or driveability. It is a big accomplishment to get a car like ours to go fast. But the Viper is fast right off of the showroom floor. You can't even begin to compare the two cars.

 

^ agreed. u cant make a serious comparision in something like that. granted there are many imports that walk all over domestics but 99.9 percent of them are highly modified as opposed to a domestic u can drive off the lot and spank alot of imports with. besides nitrous is only a temporary boost, thats not a replacement its a quick fix. u can only use it so many times at such short hits. and while turbo is extremely capable and amazing there still is a lag issue u have to wait for it to kick in. domestics generally dont have to worry about their power kickin in like that.

 

I still miss my Integra. Yea, the turbo MR2 is fun, but there is some void that the MR2 can't fill like the GSR did.

 

What do i mean by social status?

In the orginal starting post, i bought my car in the beggining for social status. Not to impress other tunners or neccasarily girls but overall presentation of who i am. Integra representing to me at the time someone young, able to afford a nice car, and good taste. What i'm saying is that there are people who buy cars simply based on what the car represents of oneself. That is what i mean by "social status," Not "Look at this bitch, vtek!"

I'm not sure if your directly asking me

If you are buying a car to try to impress your friends or a girl... Why are you trying to impress your friends? Are you in some sort of "competition" with them to see who has the best "things"? And you surely don't want to date a girl that is interested in what kind of car you drive."

But why am i trying to impress my friends and other people? Well i wouldn't call it "impress." Well.. of course your gonna care about what your friend's think of your car just like you hope that they care about your career choice. It's somthing you work hard for and hopefully others will acknowledge that.

As far as the catch phrase " do what YOU want to your car, it's your car, Don't worry about what others think." Well this is true to an extent i believe. Isn't everything that we do is to "impress" someone? The things we wear, our deodorent, or why we ask "what do you think of these rims?" Everything we do clothes, cars or the way we laugh is done in order to impress someone. Some mod their cars with lights to impress the showcar people and some mod their cars with the "clean" look in mind to impress another crowd. Who really mods a car just for their own enjoyment? You do to a certain extint, because i'm sure your very proud to show your car to family and friends? It's not only hardwork but modding your car is an expression of yourself. So when my car doesn't get respected (not meaning it gets complimented) I feel they aren't respecting me sort of speak. Of course i'm not anal about it but after a while it builds up.

*edit* i just don't like the fact that you would say "why do you so concerned about what others think." Your concerned with what others think is because you need to feel "apart" of somthing do you not? why are you here? if it were for purely info, you wouldn't post anything but questions. your here because we're all part of a group, and we want to be accepted in this group. I'm very fascinated by cars and love everything about them (for now). So i feel i am part of a car enthusiest group, but when i see other real car enthusiest not accept my car, i feel they don't accept me. But lets say i get 4-5 guys who appreciate my car and only 1 guy who doesn't show any respect to what i've done, then i'm fine. When vice versa, I tend to feel attacked, For i feel that my own "group" sort of speak just voted me off an island i didn't want to leave.

*rant rant.. i know i'm sure i could've edited more.

 

Don't worry about that guy he owns a domestic. You know, the same people who give you a hard time for driving a Honda. If you're feeling that hurt there's plenty of videos on the internet of Hondas/Acuras smoking domestics . ( Streetfire )That will cheer you up.