"Which is better? 240sx or _______?"
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C-Kwik
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justjuiceit wrote:Well, zombieman, for normal day to day driving; torque rules! I used to have a Nissan Sentra SE, sure the Honda Civic SI had more horsepower 160 vs. 140, however I never lost a race to one on the street, since I have more torque than they have. While I raced several at the track too, there is one at the track that got me by 0.1 seconds, he had a more stripped out interior than me! lol I usually don't go more than 5-10 mph over the speed limit, so on the street; torque rules! Keep in mind that they did a test with the S2000 where they dropped the clutch at 5500 rpms and shifted at 5500 rpms which resulted in a 0-60 time of 13 SECONDS! Most S2000 owners will not drop there clutch near redline for normal day to day driving, even when racing, so an average S13/S14 driver would have a good chance beating an average S2000 to say 45 mph. Having more horsepower at a very high rpm is useless unless you can get to that rev range! It takes a very skilled (or abusive) driver to get the most out an S2000. I have great satisfaction that my S13 gets better gas mileage, has a better torque curve, is quicker around town, cost less (for the car!) than what it would cost to insure the S2000 for a year, and for less than $500 faster than an S2000!! Oh yeah, my brother has an S2000 and he has got it stolen once and the seats stolen and top slashed too! Theft magnet!
The s2000's reved to 9000 RPM. The 240 revs to about 6500 RPM usably(in some gears). This means if two cars were designed to shift each gear at the same speeds, the S2000 would use an overall gear ratio that is about 38% shorter than the 240sx. That means the torque is multiplied by 38% more at the wheels. The 240 would need to make 211 lb-ft of torque to match what the S2000 is putting down to the wheels. This is how high revving motors make so much power. F1 cars rev to some 18,000-20,000 RPM. Their displacement is limited to 2.6L(I think) yet they put out over 700 HP. At 18,000 RPM, 700 HP is 204 lb-ft of torque.
The S2000 wasn't really designed around the 1/4 mile. They are more of a road race car. There are very few times, if ever, you really need to drop the RPM's below 5500 RPM in the S2000 in a road race.
And as far as the chassis, the S2000 is actually quite stiff. The S13 I had before had plenty of chassis flex. My S14 is much stiffer, but still not the stiffest car I've been in. Honda took great care in making sure the S2000 had a rigid chassis. It has to do with what the media seems to be reverring to as the backbone that goes down the transmission tunnel. The new RX-8 is using similar technology as well.