I am not too proud of the fact that I keep an Excel spreadsheet of all the track events I do. I include the date, organization, track, run group and any lap times I may have been rumored to have turned. I just added them up.

I just completed track event #22 in my SE-R. In addition to 2 hard years (working on #3) of autocross.

-the car does not rattle
-I get 32 mpg on the highway
-the A/C still blows cold
-it uses no oil
-the engine has never been opened up
-the clutch is still the one that came on it in 1992.
-it's last drag strip pass (4/5/02) was 14.7@93 mph...on Uniroyal Tigerpaws

I think this might have been one of the best cars Nissan ever made. Just turned a 1:26.XXX in the time trial @ VIR-south on old, busted Kumhos.

 

Since this is the official "SE-Rz are the bomb, dudez!!" thread:

In addition to nearly 2 years of autocross, 30,000 miles of daily driving, and 3 track events, my SE-R:

-does not rattle, except for the f@#$ing trunk torsion bars
-does get 30 mpg on the highway
-the A/C is still frigid
-use oil in spurts... (6 months, no oil, 1 month, half a quart... *scratches head*)
-130,000 mile engine never opened up
-original clutch replaced at 125,000 with 25% life left
-dynoed at 124 whp at 125,000 with stock exhaust, stock air filter, stock everything...
-has a MUCH better stereo than either of the other SE-Rs on the board...

But it's still a three-wheeled tin box.

 

OK, but this IS a Honda board, so I have to throw mine in there...

'94 GSR - Motor rebuilt last year, but before it gave up the farm...

Raced in Solo I, Solo II, and HPDEs since '95. Approximately 60 track events and god knows how many autocrosses. At one time held the DSP track record at every Solo I venue in the southeast along with a couple of ITS records for the hell of it. Shellacked the DSP grid of 6 entrants at a CMP time trial last year while enduring 2 drivers and burning 2 quarts of oil each day.

There will never be another car as good as mine. It could probably have kept going without the rebuild as long as I continuously fed it oil, but I felt I needed to show it some mercy.
It paid me back by picking up 25 horses on the dyno. I love that car.

 

That's totally bad-*** that the car, ANY car, holds up so well.

 

Okay, if we're going to share war stories, it's time for a domestic to show up....

1996 Camaro Z28 1LE, no rebuilds, no blue smoke

After the initial "break-in" period of 1500 miles, it's been autocrossed relentlessly, made many trips to the drag strip, time trials and HPDEs. Tim Aro and I put about 35 autocrosses on it in one year's time in '98. I've had a co-driver at virtually every event I've taken it to, so technically double the hundreds of events I've been to.

It just turned 219,000 miles yesterday (4/14). Most recently, it took me to a 4th place (and trophy!) at the Ft. Myers ProSolo on Kumho tires and with a ratty old diff.

I my car.

Karen

 

How many miles on your SE-R Matt?

 

Wow! I'm glad none of you own a saturn.....

lessee here... i picked up my 95 SC2 with 68K on the clock end of last April and a new engine (dealer installed after previous owner traded it in).

In 14K since i've had it i've:

Broken it in gently with oil changes at 500/1500/2500 miles, Mobl1 after that
Driven the speed limit on the highway wherever i travel to
Autocrossed it every damn weekend from May till September, an evolution school, a few events in October and November, a few more this spring (20 events maybe?)

And in that 14K the car has repaid me by:

The plugs, wires and coils took a dump and it wouldnt run much of anywhere
Burning Oil
Smokes on startup
Motor Mount Broke - taking with it motor mount studs, cam cover, and valve cover all broken to **** leaving the engine to puke oil everywhere out the side
Shifter Cables Broke (bitch to replace)
Shifter fork doesnt always engage reverse and makes horrible grinding noises when you release the clutch (replaced with cables)
Generated a weird squeeking noise that for the life of me i cant track down
Sunroof sticks when i open it (i have to push it up before it will slide back sometimes)

I also discovered that the dealer fouled up the brake pad re-install on one side, causing them to bind up. I ended up replacing the pads.

This is a 95. Build quality is even worse for the newer cars.

My 92SC with 140,000 miles saw much more abuse than this and had far fewer issues.

Good thing the car is now sold. BMW on the way.

 

84,000ish

 

OH that's a baby!!! You shouldn't have needed to even change brake pads yet!

 

Re: Camaro Z28. Apparently you got a "good one." My '95 Z28 was the most unreliable car I ever owned. In 5 years I spent $4000 on repairs (it would have been $8000 but the ABS unit was warranteed.) As for the autocross, in 10 runs I wore down a set of tires by 50%.... which translates to $500 wear. If that's what it takes to make a 3400-some-odd pound thing handle, I give up. I never ran the car again.

My domestic experience.
Camaro: great engine, great xmission, great suspension, BAD BAD reliability.
Mustang: Okay engine, lousy notchy xmission, lousy suspension, VERY reliable.

Driving a Toyota now, and I'll post if it ever breaks...


[Modified by kb58, 2:44 AM 4/16/2002]

 

Neatly putting to rest horror stories about Camaro reliability.

98 Teg RS, had it since July of last year. Picked it up with 34k, currently up to 52k. Averages 30-32 mpg in mostly highway driving, lower in the winter though. No trouble yet (I would hope!), I should probably adjust the valve clearances soon. No official racing, though I hope to some autocrossing eventually. I just have to find a place to race in this godforsaken state.


Oh, and for the Sentras. The Saturn surprises me, tho.

 

My SE-R just went over 164,000 miles, and it sounds like ***. I don't think it has been getting good mileage either. It also rattles a lot.

 

Hey, if you are running ITS/PS1 in any of those SE-Rs, how about registering for the IT2 Jump Start championship? We have a Regional Administrator for NASA VA events and I am the contact if you want to earn points in WDC Region SCCA events. Either way, take a look at http://www.2litre.itgo.com for more information on what we are trying to do.

Kirk (fan of SE-Rs and anything else with 135+ hp, 2wd, and four real seats from the factory)

 

Those Uniroyal Tigerpaws must grip like M-T slicks.

 

Hey, it's not the original motor, either!

Kurt, sorry to hear about your Camaro. Most people I know with Camaros have decent reliability -- not necessarily as good as my experience, but definitely better than what you describe. I am very, very protective of my car, though, and I try to take extremely good care of it.

My car was a runner up for the January "car of the month" on the Mobil 1 website (http://www.mobil1.com). Check it out!

Karen

 

I forgot, mine rattles too. But it does have pimpy leather seats and the paint looks all sorts of tizzite... although the clearcoat is bubbling in one spot. Add that to the list, too.

 

Yeah. I only drive it on the weekends

Multiple 2.2 60 ft times that night. I'm thinking crappy, soft side-walled all season street tires aren't that bad at the strip. Best I could ever get on 15" AVS intermediates was 2.35.

 

Don't forget that the doors are useless... the ride sucks, the tires are pretty much bald and it's STILL slower than your truck.

 

Ya know...as much fun as people make of me for my car being always busted, I occasionally get frustrated with it. Then I realize just how durable it's been.

- It's been through 30 or so track weekends, probably more (I lost count)
- I autocrossed it for 4 years. LOTS of people have taken it on fun runs in it (many of them are on this board)
- I drove it to work, to the track, and on trips from when I bought it brand new in 1995 until December 2001.

Through all of that, I've had some things fail that weren't technically "wear items." The radiator, brake and clutch master cylinders, and the ignition system (ignitor and coil) all failed in the last two years...all "known issues" with the G3 Integra. I've replaced most of those on my Mom's Integra for chrissakes. Of course there have been wear items...stuff like the ball joints, tie rod ends, bearings and seals that let go seemingly all at once last year.

This past weekend at VIR the car consumed exactly zero oil. None. Nada, as in "nada damn drop." This with 8000RPM shifts all weekend. All this and it managed 3rd place overall in this past weekend's time trial at VIR, both days.

I've thought, from time to time, about selling it and getting an older 911 or a MR2 or whatever else I could afford. But I can't bring myself to do it. It's pretty damn durable and it goes like hell. I think I'll hang onto it for a while.

--Karl, who can no longer say his GS-R doesn't rattle...

 

Hey, watch the language, they were *FREE*

Seriously, I love stories like that about SE-R's in particular, and I have a few myself. I'll spare the details because they aren't much different from Matt's, except for higher mileage and slightly more regular "wear" items like halfshafts/bearings/etc. However, I reiterate by my statement that a 91-93 SE-R in decent condition is the best all-around car that ~$3000 can buy (keep in mind I'm talking daily driven commuter, weekend highway warrior, autoXer & opentracker)... hell you can even do mid-15's in 'em at the dragstrip when totally stock with 150k+ miles!

As for Karen's Camaro... 219k, damn that's amazing! I can say that over the years it has singlehandedly changed my opinion about GM performance reliability, after way too many Camaro and Corvette horror stories floating around. Of course, it's a 1LE (think of it as a "Z28 Type R" around here), so it's probably totally handbuilt in a secret side room at the factory in Canada or something.

At the end of the day, we all know that the way we drive shortens the useful life of many components on our cars. It's great to know that even with regular abuse, as long as maintenance occurs... there are still plenty of "reliable" cars available!

Jon
edit: i cnat spel so goood


[Modified by getfast, 12:18 AM 4/16/2002]

 

SER's
Domestic's

Purchased the hatchcrap in '01 with 170K on the ticker. Installed 2,900 mile B18 and drivetrain. Will trip 250K this month. ZERO problems. Poor car has been to the west coast, turbo'ed, raped at all tracks across the US, basically seen hell from me. Refer to below pics for proof that the loud peddle is usually on the floor.

Honda's





High mileage street/track cars rock, but Yugo's rock harder.

 

My track car, a 90 HB, has 160,000 on the clock. I had the original dx motor in it until 140,000 and it did well considering the abuse. (5 yrs. of autocross and 50-60 track events) I installed a probuilt Si D16 that runs like a mother. The wife has a 95 GSR with 150,000 and numerous track events on it from the previous owner. No problems at all. Karl if you bump your head and want to sell the GSR, I want it!!! I had the honor of driving Karl's car for a session at VIR this weekend. It is very well set up and sorted. I couldn't help just laughing out loud a couple of times in amazement of how fast this car is.

 

How many of you can say you've:
1) ever only owned one car
2) got it brand new with less than 5 miles on the odo
3) and driven it for 10 years and 145,000 miles with no accidents?

(well, there was that one incident with a curb...)

 

1990 Accord Lx bought new 12 miles. 1998: 149,000 mi., several track events, and no problems at all. Some no driving Bitch pulls out of an intersection doesn't look and hits me in the rear quarter totaling the car.

 

Well, I jinxed myself. Dammit!

Removing the Panther Pluses tonight revealed a thick brown grease on the control arm that wasn't there the week before (had it in the air at a tech day). Found a tear on the inner boot. But that's not the bad part. The axle has some play in it. I can move it in/out a few mm. The other side is nice and tight. It also makes a clunking noise (Karl, remember that clunk you commented about when driving my car?).

Fvck.