Oh God, here we go again - ask a simple question, get a stupid reply that has nothing to do with the topic.
Matter of point I don't like the Eclipse that much, but it's another FWD car, and the parts for it are cheap and easy to find. And yes, I've heard Zx2's argument that "If you want to put cheap parts in your car..." etc, etc, but you know what? You have no room to talk when the Capri came with a damn Mazda engine, when Mazda is arguably the worst car company ever to come out of Japan (although I have much respect for the RX-7.)
First, I'll tackle that piece of crap B series Mazda engine. (Although I love the Capri)
My first car was a Mazda B2200 pickup - yes, a B series 2.2L engine - it was 9 years old when I got it in 1996 for $3200, and the engine in it blew 3 times in the year that I had it, no, I didn't race it, and the top speed of the truck was 80 mph. I ended up parking it, buying a motorcycle and selling the truck a year later for $200. But man, it looked nice.
I wanted a Capri from the first time I saw one, but it is NO lie for me to say that if I knew it had a Mazda engine in it, I wouldn't have touched it. Even though I love the '93 RX-7, I'm scared as hell to buy one because it's a Mazda. So excuse the hell out of me for wanting to put an engine with another 100 hp STOCK in a car that's destined to have parts troubles and even it's own manufacturer refuses to acknowledge that it exists. I don't WANT a f***ing Eclipse, I want a 300hp Capri for under 3k, and it's very possible with that engine.
I also don't want to spend $300 in shipping ALONE to bring a new bumper cover over from Australia because that's the only place that knows what a Capri is and cared enough to make 2 parts for it, when I can buy a whole set of Eclipse ground effects that will work for $400 at my local speed shop.
I've been a member of this board for about a month now, maybe a little longer, and so far, all I've seen is a bunch of people who write checks every time there's an oil leak. I don't mean to offend anyone here, but I can't afford to take my car to the shop and write a $300 check every time the door handle cracks off or the convertible top latch breaks. Since I actually know what I'm doing, and CAN work on the car myself, that works out, though.
I quit going to other sites because whenever someone would ask a question, they wouldn't get an intelligent answer, but they'd get something like "Why the hell would you want to do that?"
Well, you know what? I don't feel the NEED to explain myself to you. If you're content tooling around with 100 hp in your car, or 132 if you're lucky, and spending upwards of $3000 to get that extra 12 hp out of it so that you can have a marvelous 172 hp Capri after years of work and dozens of checks written to your local car mechanic who only knows it's a Mercury Capri because you haven't pulled the labels off the back yet, then more power to you. If you were half as smart as you think you are, you'd sit back and let the mechanically inclined people like myself experiment around with new combinations so that instead of spending $1200 on a body kit from Australia that looks JUST like a Capri, only an inch lower, you can buy one down the street for $400 that will make your car into something that'll actually turn heads instead of just make people shake them.
So, in closing, I don't care if you ARE the webmaster, if you're not going to stay on topic and say something useful then you can just read my glorious prose from your mahogany desk in your ivory tower behind your fat checkbook. If you're going to attack my views instead of offering some kind of constructive advice, then I don't care what you have to say. It sure doesn't take much to sit there and say "Why do that?" and "It can't be done" does it? It takes a lot more to get out there and try. I just hope the view down from your damn high horse doesn't scare you.
Josh C
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If opinions are like a$$holes, then you must be an opinion.
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PS, I like your spoiler, was that made for a Capri?