scathing

Why would they think that they're Michael Schumacher? Schmacher doesn't drag race.

A mate had them on his S14 for a while. They had a pretty hard life, and he never had issues with them. They're not that light, but they're not that expensive and they seem strong enough. They also look pretty cool.

We could have posted this instead.

Have a look at this month's Fast Fours. OVRLRD has a SR20VET in it, and it makes a shedload of power. We can only hope an S16 would have that kind of donk. Chances are with the Renault connection, though, if we did get another Silvia it'd have the Renault turbo I4. Which isn't that bad, considering how quick the Megane R26.R is.

Is it the same weight? The SR is all-alloy too, but it is a physically smaller unit. As a total package, a 2.0L engine is going to need less cooling than a 3.0L one so I'd have thought the weight would have tipped in the SR's favour. I'd imagine that an all-alloy VQ would weigh less than a cast iron RB though. If people think the RB is a valid replacement despite the weight penalty, the VQ should definitely be considered. The shorter block gives more room for cooling in front, and the VQ is a pretty nice motor in terms of how it delivers power.

There would also probably be no life either. If solid water was denser than liquid, the whole body of water would eventually completely freeze solid. The microorganisms that started life can survive in cold liquid, but not in a solid.

That's only true for water.

Big wheels are heavier. While replacing a cast 17" wheel with an 18" forged wheel might work out lighter, if you compare apples to apples and compare your forged 18" wheel with a forged 17" wheel (which will clear the same brakes as your stock cast wheels, and are therefore a valid choice) the 17" forged wheels are still lighter. The extra mass increases unsprung weight, which is proportionally far worse for handling than sprung weight. Your forged 17" wheel will allow your suspension to perform better. Bigger diameters shifts the mass further away from the rotational centre of the wheel. That increases rotational inertia. There's a performance hit in terms of acceleration and braking as a result. The extra energy required to spin them, due to that inertia, incurs a fuel economy hit. The extra energy required to slow them chews through pads faster, which means more heat is generated by your braking hardware, more brake pad dust is committed into the atmosphere, and your car consumes more pads (which need to be manufactured) over a given period than it did prior. Wider wheels increase drag. There's an acceleration and fuel economy hit as a result. Tyres generally have more of an effect on handling than the wheels. The main reason to go to a bigger wheel is to reduce sidewall flex, but a tyre with a reinforced sidewall and appropriate pressure get around that issue. If you have a look at most top-tier race cars (SuperGT and F1 come to mind), their tyres have a fair amount of sidewall. For most racers, the rims end up being as small as possible while fitting over the brakes. In Europe, the cost for rego on cars is based on its emissions these days. If it was possible to increase performance and decrease emissions, while meeting their reliability targets, the OEMs would do it. I'm pretty sure a lot of the performance / economy restrictors serve some other purpose. Cars for the European market tend to run a tad rich in the top end to preserve and cool the engine, especially if we're talking about long-distance high speed and high RPM situations. They do have to ensure the car runs in all kinds of weather conditions as well. I don't plan on driving my car to Alice Springs, so I'm less fussed about ensuring that the engine won't overheat in 50°C+ ambient temps. I don't mind my ECU running a little leaner, which has bumped up the water temp a few degrees as a result. If you're willing to sacrifice drive-anywhere reliability for performance and emissions, that's fine...but should your car break down its inability to move then makes it slower than a pedestrian. The parts you've broken end up in landfill, which has an environmental impact. On a NA car, most powertrain mods increase power only in the top end, where you have more combustion cycles per unit of time and therefore you use more fuel when taking advantage of it. On mods that sacrifice low end torque for top end power, it means you need to drive higher in the rev range even when commuting. The parts you throw away also have an environmental impact. It comes back to that Prius issue I mentioned earlier. The OEM has fitted a certain part on your car. If you've had someone manufacture you another part, then that's something else that a miner has dug out of the ground. A factory somewhere has used energy, maybe coal-fired or nuclear, to create an exhaust. Someone else has burned fuel to transport it to your location. Your stock item doesn't just convert the exhaust gases from transportation and manufacture back into petrol, deconstruct itself back into its raw material, bury both back into the ground, move all the dirt back in to its location, and then re-plant the prior oxygen-generating and climate-stabilising vegetation back on top. As the person who buys the product, you are responsible for a fair amount of environmental pollution by requesting the creation of that second part. You should add the environmental impact from creating the perfectly functional first part you've discarded from the car you purchased to your tally. The difference is that I wasn't claiming to give a crap about how my cars affect the environment. I've got no issues with people decatting their weekender cars. As long as they're not sitting there in peak hour traffic breathing in, and forcing others to breathe in, the poisonous gases that come out of the exhaust I'm pretty indifferent. If your car gets used for daily driver purposes, leave your cats on and stop trying to kill people. Removing the cats might not bring massive gains, but then hardly any NA mod does. Whether the mod is worth the risk (environmentally, medically, or legally) isn't that clear cut for me, and boils down to personal choice.

The cars I've listed are only "exotic" because they're thin on the ground in Australia. In Europe, the corollary is true. They hardly get any Japanese cars over there, so for them an RX-7 or GT-R would be an "exotic". BMW 3 Series are dimes a dozen the world over, and in Germany they use 5 Series as taxis and cop cars. If a BMW is "exotic" because its rare for us, then so is a Holden because its rare for them. Half my car enthusiast colleagues in the UK drive Porsches, Lotuses, BMWs or the like. And they're not exactly upper management. I'm still voting for Europe on this one. I'd still class the Elise as a sports car, and the only Japanese roadster on the market (the MX-5) doesn't even compare. Nor does the MX-5 do that well against the Boxster or Z4. I'd take any of those Euros over an S2000 as well. I'd take a BMW 335i over a V36 370GT, let alone a M3. I'd take a VW Scirocco over the FN2 Civic Type-R hatch. Europe gets a buttload of hot hatches based on the Golf platform, and the Seat Cupra RR is a lot cheaper than the Golf GTi it shares most of its parts with. I don't think I could buy a Mazda3 MPS over them. As I said earlier, personal preference has me choosing a Polo GTi over a RalliArt Colt. Japan might make sports cars we can afford more easily, but overall it's hard to say they're "better" from a technical perspective. If you're referring to Clarkson's video on TG, then you should be fully aware that Clarkson loves to ham things up on a regular basis. Secondly, that Evo wasn't the stock vehicle that came out of Japan. It is tuned by Mitsubishi UK, and its service intervals got halved. It's a tuner car in how it behaves, and how finicky it is to maintain. I wouldn't consider it an OEM vehicle, aside from the warranty.

I didn't mean to have it sound quite so personal. I'm just over the holier-than-thou mentality of Prius fans who think their NiMH batteried, aluminium, cars are somehow going to save the planet because they happen to sip a little less fuel around town...and I guess it bubbles over sometimes.

Really? When I think the "best sports cars" the names that first come into my head are Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus and, to a lesser extent, BMW. FYI the EP3 Type-R Civic, while a Honda, is actually designed and manufactured in the UK.

FYI I don't believe that daily driven cars should be de-catted (or even HFC'ed, since almost every aftermarket cat will fail a modern emissions test), but only because of the "poisoning yourself and everyone around you" aspect and not some "effects on climate change" issue.

There's a reason for almost everything on the car. If having an environmental reason is why you shouldn't do a mod, you pretty much shouldn't touch any mechanical part of your car. Running big wheels is bad for handling as well as being bad for fuel efficiency. You also shouldn't drive like this - hard acceleration is very fuel inefficient, and your car spewing out all that extra exhaust gas is bad for the environment. Tyres are made from crude oil as well, and so wearing them quickly by hard cornering will also contribute to the damage to our planet. You should have also bought an old, locally delivered, car if this stuff truly matters to you. Shipping a car overseas goes through a lot of fuel, and it's not as if there weren't other 4 door auto cars available in Australia when you bought your car. It's very bad for the environment, and our local economy, to buy a modern low-volume import in terms of total footprint. While a early 90's Falcodore may not be as fuel efficient as a V35 in itself, when you tally up the total fuel use with the ocean freighter that brought your Skyline here then the scales tip in favour of the local product.

The EK VTEC Civics have a B16 if I remember correctly. 1.6L, with the old-school VTEC cutover. The EP3 has a 2.0L K20A, the same engine as the locally delivered DC5 Integra Type-R. The K20A still revs cleanly all the way to its very high limit, but it also has a lot of bottom end torque. When VTEC kicks in its not as noticable from the seat of the pants, but you do pick up a nice induction note. In terms of civility, the K series is miles ahead of the B series (as you'd expect from a generation-newer engine). The power curve is almost dead straight and it'll happily pootle along from 2000RPM. Which, for a daily, is important. The latter is more "fun" since there's a noticable kick in power when the big cam comes on, you have to wring its neck to get it to move, and it feels more raw. But from a technical standpoint the K series is better, and around town the B series will not be as comfortable to drive. There's a reason why Honda boys are shoehorning the K series into everything they can make it fit into, and why Rover-engined Elise owners are opting for that motor rather than the Toyota engine Lotus uses in the current Elises if they look at replacing their boat anchors. In terms of the chassis, the EP3 is meant to be a gem (better than the FN that Honda Australia is currently selling). The EK is pretty long in the tooth. British reviewers found the EP3R to be the best hot hatch available in its day in a region where the hot hatch is the only affordable sports car available. Not yet but quite a few friends have them. I've ridden in one with a few mods (not much is available off the shelf for the car, powertrain-wise). The chassis isn't bad, but I just don't like the idea of a 1.5L engine (turbo or not). The Recaro seats are really, really, nice though. He gave it a hit for me, and if you want to talk about straight line oomph it has nothing on a Polo GTi with the ECU reflashed.

I thought you wanted torque in "not so high RPM"? Why would you opt for something that has a Honda B series engine if low-end torque was one of your requirements? The last 2 requirements rule out any French car, so you can drop the 206 as well. FYI - RenaultSport Clio is better than 206 GTi if you do decide to get a physically small money pit. If you're willing to go grey import then, as the ferrous cook says, if you can find an EP3 Type-R then your search is pretty much over. Personally I'd still get a Polo GTi as a "reliable, not to be modded" daily driver if I could afford either (due to local manufacturer support with a not-assholeish dealer network, VW's legendary reliability, and the extra low-end torque from the turbo strapped to a decently-sized engine, and the ECU reflash option) but otherwise it'd be hard to beat the EP3R based on your listed requirements. Choosing between an EP3R and a RalliArt Colt, on the other hand, would be a harder choice.

If the car will be parked in a garage near a power point, plan C is to buy a trickle charger and leave it plugged in to mains. Your car will still be secured with an active immobiliser, you won't lose your clock and radio presets, and you don't have to worry about breaking glass. With some of them, the leads are long enough for you to be able to run the wires out the grille so you can leave the bonnet latched as well. I've left my Z33 unattended for 3 weeks with the battery disconnected, and the car started up first go when I plugged it back in.

Actually, running no cats creates NO2. As a poisonous gas, it is a very bad thing. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a toxic pollutant generated by unleaded petrol engines during combustion. The catalytic converter helps speed a chemical reaction to break it back down to nitrogen and oxygen, the two most common molecules in air. Happy gas is N2O. If I ever go nitrous oxide, I plan on making it a full stealth setup. Delete the spare tyre and put all the infrastructure under the carpet. Have the purge fully stealth, venting in a very diffuse manner under the car. Run black plumbing under the bonnet, so hopefully no-one notices. If the cops ever pull me over and ask to pop the bonnet, I'll hit a switch to purge the entire tank. By the time they notice the nitrous plumbing (if they notice it at all) and ask to see the tank, it will hopefully be empty (and therefore legal). Losing a couple of bucks worth of gas is better than the fine I'd cop for having it "loaded". Hopefully breathing in all the happy gas will put them in a better mood for any other illegalities in the car.

Lamborghini = Raging Bull Ferrari = My Little Pony Man up.

VW 9N Polo GTi + ECU reflash + rear sway bar = finished No external mechanical mods means the cops will not be able to find anything to defect you for (and being un-Japanese you won't get as much cop attention in the first place). The thing pulls across most of its rev range and makes really good power for the weight with that reflash. Even when the car's serviced, they might not notice. There's a mode to set the ECU back to stock anyway. The rear sway bar will dial out a lot of the "OEM safety" understeer, while not making it scarily taily.

Which is ironic considering Ferraris are more of a driver's car than the "shouty" Lamborghini. I'd get the Lambo. Relatively speaking Fazzas are a dime a dozen on the roads. Since you're not going to be driving either car at its limits (unless you're planning on tracking them) I'd get the shoutier car.

VSport is where I source most of my braking gear from.

The OP said he wants more response and more acceleration. Good tyres aren't going to help with the former, and they're not going to help with the latter unless his current tyres can't contain the power his engine is making. Which is unlikely, since he drives a NA Skyline. Maybe my physics isn't the best, but when did "corner speed" start to mean "acceleration"? The only way to improve handling, throttle response and acceleration all at the same time is to reduce weight. Reducing inertia brings benefits to all axes of a vehicle's travel.

I would love to see a photo of these DVDs (packaging and the print on the discs), for the Seasons 1-10 release. As far as I'm aware Top Gear wasn't able to sell these seasons on DVD.

225 is going to be very stretched on a 9.5" wide wheel. 275 is usually the widest tyre most tyre manufacturers recommend on a 9.5" wide wheel, but that varies from tyre to tyre.

That won't look stock though. With a heat shield obscuring vision, a cop looking under the bonnet will not be able to tell its not stock.