Jap crap

Just out of curiosity what made people on here start buying jap cars as opposed to German, fords or whatever?

Was it the fast and furious films?   

Was having this convo with a cabbie the other night and we reckoned the above lol

It was the big powered jap bikes that got me into jap cars, prior to that I had always been mainly a ford man being an Essex boy and all  

Just curious as to what your true reasons were, if it was f+f then please be truthfull and say so

Don't know what got me started, just liked the look of them..  

It can't have been the f&f films because I've honestly never watched any of them... even tho me daughter has the whole set on DVD.  

German = slow & boring I hate german cars & the german car scene...

Ive always had turbo'd cars since passing my test & had mates with jap cars so there what I like & to be fair when a 300bhp GTiR sits on the back bumper of a 400bhp EVO 9 Then I know I made the right choice   

I saw one somewhere when I was 15 and thought it stood out among the other cars around at that time and after having a ride in one when I was 16 sealed the deal, I knew I had to own one. I didn't want a Scooby or evo as they were too common, I did nearly go for either a starlet turbo or integra type r. Funnily enough though I thought the pulsar would be a stepping stone to buying an R33/34 skyline but after 8 years ive still got it...

I was always a ford fan when i used to go to boy racer nights i had an xr3i rs lookalike  then natrually got a s2 rs turbo  then i got offered a nissan silvia  with the pop up headlights .... loved the car  but got offered a good deal sold that bought a civic to run about in ... then shortly after i got given some inheritance so thought i fancied a new car i had a saphy cossie in mind as ive always wanted one went to a car show looking  for one .... then stumbled across andys orange and black pulsar after chatting to him for a while  thought i wouldnt mind one  so next day i ended up going to view one and bought it totaly clueless  then the bloke took me out round the back lanes shit me right up in it .... but loved it and been skint ever since  

I was never into any certain make! Always bought what I wanted.
Then had kids and boring family cars took over.
Went with my brother to view a few pulsars and on the way from picking one up for him, he come out a side street on boost right behind me and I was hooked!
6 months later I had my first jap car my first pulsar gtir
F&f came out years after so wasn't anything to do with that lol
I still choose what I want but do like jap performance cars over other cars.

I first saw a Gtir when doing my paper round at about 12. I said to my mate at the time that I will own one when im older LOL. Tbh i didnt even know anything about it but just caught my eye and was the only one i had ever seen. I find german cars boring, and very over rated ie build quality etc....

90s Rally made me want a scooby. Bought one when I turned 21 and owned Jap, Ford and VW since.

I'd be happy to have a Fiesta RS as my daily and pulsar as a toy but stuck with the tdi as RS's are hard to come by these days for sensible money + the economy benefits of the diesesel are astronomical on a 30 mile windy road work hike.

My dad had a mk 2 scirocco from new and I absoloutley loved that car but he sold it after 15 years and 180,000 miles on the clock, at the time I was looking at a getting VW Corrado but as luck would have it I saw a black R in town and parked next to it was a standard sunny. By coincidence 2 years later I bought the same sunny from the same car park and knew that the next level would always be a Pulsar and so here I am. But if Id got the scirocco and tidied it up I would definatley of had a VR6 corrado by now if not 4 of them haha

I read about them in Car magazine in 1990 & thought how cool to make such a weapon out of the Sunny! I finally got one in 2002 after owning a R5 gt & 200 sx. Its starting to look like a Car for life now!?

I did an apprentship with an Austin Rover dealer in the early 1980's, Mini Metro's Allegro's ETC, the Triumph Acclaim was born of the Honda/Austin Rover partnership, ultra reliable compared to the Austin Junk, no tappets to adjust, no points and condenser to fit/adjust, that started me on the path of the Jap Stuff.
Still went through the Ford phase with Several Escorts and a Capri, now on my 5th Datsun/Nissan, although the GTI-R is just a toy never had any problems so hopefully it will stay that way.

Would of thought F&F would of put a lot of people off.
For me, I liked a lot of cars with rally heritage, bought a mazda 323 4x4 Turbo Lux & loved it's reliability, liking to be different the GTiR appealed to me so bought one about 15 years ago now. You got a lot for your money back then on fresh Jap imports, absolute real mint cars & less than 20,000miles on the clock.

I did the usual Ford thing XR2, XR3i Mini's etc. Until one day I drove a 309 gti which was a world above the ford stuff. Not long after that I was destroyed (in a straight line) by 16v MK2 Astra GTE. So I just had to have one. I loved it spent money on it but it would not go round corners no matter what you did.

During that time I had seen a Pulsar in one of the Jap mags and just loved the aggressive look to the car. Also the power numbers back then were insane compared to the stuff I was used too ( at the time the Pulsar was making Cossie money so unattainable). So I turned my attention to turbo charging.

After getting used to the power in the Astra I became a bit bored with it and looked into a C20 LET conversion but was put off with the cost and the fact the Astra would have driven worse with more power.

The only thing I could find in my budget was some jap crap machine called a 200sx. I had never had a Jap car before and to be honest was never a fan of the sports car look (I always had loved hot hatches). A F reg 200sx S13 was sourced for a grand about 200 miles from me. I went to look at the car not really convinced it was what I wanted, but what happened on the test drive completely changed everything.

I was blown away by the cars performance and just had to have it. I had the 200sx for quite a long time and really cut my teeth on it in terms of modifying a turbo car. All the classics were done SAAB FMIC, turbo from the S14, brakes from the S14.

The best thing about it was all my mates, my older brother all loved it. They grew up on Cortinas etc and were much more used to the rear drive action.

Sadly after a while (2005) the rust started to beat the old girl and I had to sell it or brake it for bits. I did the later in the end and made back £1500 all the bits sold in a fortnight.

The search was on for something that could match the old 200sx for £1500. i spent the next few weeks trawling ebay looking out for anything that would be suitable. I hadn't ruled out any car but I would decide one day what I wanted and then in the evening change my mind again.

Then a amazing thing happened, I found a Pulsar on ebay (by accident) that only had a few hours left on the auction. It was black, looked in fairly good condition and had MOT and tax, the bad news was that it made a loud thumping noise from the front when driven.

I couldn't decide what to do, the car was 350 miles away from me! and had a serious mechanical problem. I gambled, I stuck on a bid with my £1500. I was outbid immediately. Racking my brain I decided I could scrape together another £250 but that was all. I put the bid on and was in the lead!

The next 2 hours were unbearable as I waited for the auction to count down. After what seemed like days the auction ended and I was the high bidder. I owned the car I thought was unattainable for me for a price I couldnt believe.

I spoke to the guy on the phone who seemed to not know anything about the car (I think he bought it really without knowing anything much about it) he was nice but was keen to stress the car was sold as seen.

I traveled to collect the car and was gutted. the car was really slow and the noise sounded like someone hitting the underside with a hammer and it was a rotational noise. However I was committed now and consoled my self that the car was worth the money in parts.

Armed with my AA card I set of home all 350 miles with the thumping noise. At a stop in the services I had another look round the car, things weren't so bad the engine was good, the wheels looked expensive, I had a receipt for a turbo rebuild and some TEIN HA coilovers. I was pretty sure I would recover my money but was distraught at the idea of braking another car that I loved.

In the end I made it home ok, and after some time spent fixing leaking/missing boost pipes the car was quite quick but still made a hideous noise. On the upside the noise hadn't got any worse. A friend and I tried to figure out what the nasty noise and concluded it must be gearbox. One day whilst doing some work on the car I noticed that the wheel nut studs were all chewed up and ordered a hub from Bob ( I didnt know you could change the studs so easily). It arrived prompt as usual and I fitted it. Driving out of the garage on my way home I nearly *hit my pants! the hideous noise had gone! It must have been the worst wheel bearing in the world, it made so much noise that I had ruled out anything like that.

Needless to say I was pleased and now nearly 10 years later I am rebuilding the same car (see my thread) that I took a very big gamble on all that time ago. I since have tried an Evo but there nothing like the old GTiR!

Iv Always had Italian motors, so don't really go for jap lol, wanted a lancia delta integrale evolution 2, and I will get one! But until then, pulsars are pretty much next best thing

Not the next best thing, they are actually better :-)

My mate came round in his gtir, I'd never even seen one but he took me a spin and I loved it. 3 yrs later I owned that car and I've looked at a lot of more expensive cars but nothing matches them for looks or thrill so I'll never sell this one, it's not the original one I bought! But even if it ends up sat in the garage for 10 years it's not for sale as I've known lots of people sell regret and buy again but each time the condition is subsiding so now I've got a mint standard car I'll keep it as I'm sure I'd be hard pressed to find another now let alone in 10yrs time

yeah that's the thing now if you find a mint car (very rare) its worth keeping as youll be hard pushed to ever find another

my dad was buying a pajero jeep to tow massive caravan from bebside up my way they had two fresh imports in next year he traded it in for another newer pajero this happened 3 times everytime I seen different fresh pulsars still making 10k once I nearly got him convinced to buy one when we got rid of caravan instead he bought a skyline. from then I knew I must have one soon as I could insure it I bought one now own three. I think a lot went from fast cars rs turbos etc to ice in a lot of cars then jap scene took off inc v tec etc

looks like your the only one converted by f&f bob   

Lol no Johnny as said it was the fast jap bikes which then got me into the jap cars.
Had a cossie and Astra track car first off but cossie was rwd and I kept getting black flagged through drifting and the mk2 Astra gte was a pure track only car which had won it's class in lma euro saloons so I bought it to race but the thing was that slow (after coming from fast bikes) I found it boring as he'll.

Then I looked into a mag where it had 0-60 times of all the top cars and that's when I noticed the gtir up till then I had never heard of the things but thought I need to get one, and that's where it all started with the madness   

Also I forgot about the 300zxtt that was my first fast jap car really but too small and low for a big fooker such as moi

think fast and furious influence would depend on age.i had my first jap car well before the film came out
originally i liked fords and had a few not performance ones but a few sierras 1st car was a 1.6 3 door sierra without doubt the worst car i ever owned if three drops of rain hit the wind screen soon as the fourth hit you knew it would break down
never really wanted a gtir was taken out for a spin in one from a technician from nissan he didnt know the roads but was the fastest id been driven around the roads we went on.
i always wanted a cosworth eventually got the money to get one but made the mistake of test driving a legacy turbo back to back with the sapphire cosworth i was going to buy and the legacy was in another class so ended up buying that

first seen a pulsar on gran turismo in the 2nd hand section and wanted one badly from the age of like 14, bought a peugeot 306 xsi, really liked pugs when they worked but guy offered a swap for a sunny gti so i jumped at the chance and loved it, guess trying a few cars and seeing alot of civics around my area which were damn quick got me into hondas, i always just bought what i liked wasnt concerned with the make but jap cars seemed to be the most reliable and fun cars ive owned

F+F actually pushed me towards the German scene (I fell in love with the jetta always wanted one but ended up with a golf gti)

I've got more German cars on the drive than jap cars at the minute.

I've had xr2s ect but I wanted to learn how to drift so I bought a 1.8 mx5 when I was 18  (it's what I could afford at the time) then I moved on to the mr2 that was a proper big boys toy just under 580bhp at the rear wheels at the ripe old age of 20, I couldn't use it for much an tbh it was insane so sold it to a mate that built it for drag strip.......

As for the pulsars I wasn't looking at getting one, a mate of mine spotted one for sale in hull an sorted a time an place to have a look at the car,

I had a look at it and it came with two engines an afew other goddies... And hand on hart this I the truth how I ended up with the R after the test drive I flipped a coin heads I buy it tails I walk away am sure you can guess what side that fucking coin landed.....

When I bought my first gtir I had actually gone to buy another Subaru but seen about 20 impreza's on the way to the garage so ended up buying the gtir

For me its always been jap rally cars.Im a big fan of all the japanese rally cars from the last 20/30 years.I love pulsars because only petrol heads know what the hell they are.

GTI-R US wrote:Just out of curiosity what made people on here start buying jap cars

In 1968 I bought a 1967 Prince Skyline GT2000b (S54B) - (2000cc straight six OHC with triple 45mm DCOE webers, mated to a 5 speed with LSD rear diff).

In Australia, it would run the pants off of just about anything around in those days.

So began the love affair.