Yet another SVX rant

[Weebitob]

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...27/ai_10747226

While surfing around the net I ran into what seems to be an article written in 1991 about then arival of the SVX and what it would possibly bring.

A 4-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission was fitted to the SVX auto-show car, but a 5-speed manual gearbox is expected to be added to the production-car lineup.

Don't get me wrong that automatic transmission that comes with the SVX is not bad, but I am just saying what you are expecting can vastly different from what you get. The cool thing is I found out that it was not until the early 1990s that Subaru developed the electronic around the time that the SVX was developed but did not come on the SVX at fist but rather the 4EAT Legacy, perhaps for Japan the release went in a different order. But it seems interesting that the author inquired that the SVX would come with a manual transmission being the first of its kind to have one in a Subaru car with electronic AWD. Then again the SVX was marketed as a luxo coupe, so there is some justifacation there.

Although pricing has not been fixed, a U.S. spokesman hints at an entry-level price of around $25,000, which slightly undercuts rivals such as Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s naturally aspirated 300ZX. The spokesman also claims that the SVX will out-accelerate the non-boosted 300ZX.

Funny part is, in relation to what I typed above, is that the SVX's stock automatic is an extensively modified version of the same transmission used in the Nissan 300ZX. Also, about the estimated $25,000 with all the features that are in mine, when I read the MSRP on mine and it was $34,000 when new. Perhaps it is because mine is a 25th anniversary edition I don't know, then again it was a hint and you know how things can drastically turn around, at least they use auto makers seemed to learn a bit since then, a bit.

Which brings me to another thing. When I read a Road & Track at the time they did a comparison of the SVX with the Lexus SC300, BMW 330si and Ford Thunderbird for the best luxury. They made a flattering comment at the beginning stating that every vehicle in that article was a winning in their own right. But then only for the grace of the their seemingly import biased attitude at the time did the SVX score in third, they said the basic "imperfection of domestics" that put the Thunderbird in fourth. When covering the SVX they of course went through the whole $30,000 on a Subaru and the lack of a manual transmission. But the slight understeer and oversteer combined with some body rolled hinted to me that this car was placed in the wrong roll, am I the only one who thinks this? It seems quite even dent to me that with what Road & Track mentioned not to mention the overheating 4EAT issue shows that the SVX was held back from being a sports car that could race with even the likes of the Nissan 300zx turbo and Supra single turbo models, if not exceed.

Take a look at the 1/4 mile times here and compare the 1992 SVX with the 1991 300ZX (auto) turbo. If you see they are about evenly matched with the SVX beating it out by milliseconds. Of course you have to take into consideration that the 1/4 numbers are higher for the SVX in real life, but the same goes for the auto 300zx turbo as well. So take into consideration that the SVX weighs a bit more then the 300zx turbo, has about 20 less hp at the crank not mention it has no forced induction; even though it was never designed for that however even if you do put in lower compression pistons that would drop the hp, the torque would still not go down too dramatically.

I hope this instills in some people, including pep talk for myself, to search or create bolt on mods for the SVX, since I don't like the idea of slicing, dicing and drilling the block, cams or some of the more sensitive my ride in order to unlock some of its power. That does not mean I don't like other who do it, in fact I commend and even like what people do in the name of modifying their SVX. I admit I am also a bit hypocritical when it comes to this matter since I am for and even express a bit of interest in the aspect of stroking the SVX (as in increasing the lift of the pistons kind). I have talked to people that said this is pretty dangerous and some who have said not to do it at all. But it seems the best way to get more power before you start applying forced induction and from what I read so far it doesn't require (at least not to much) messing with the block that much. I have to admit the policy of not messing with it too much seems to stem off of my dad saying that I should keep the SVX as a collector. And from then on I sort of worked it into my own policy of not cutting the block too much, no moving around of the internals and no cutting the resonator, I would like to modify it instead. This does not mean I do not like my SVX, in fact that is far from it. I love it, so I guess you can say this is a sort of positive criticism indirectly aimed towards nothing or indirectly to Subaru to keep some of their promises on their up coming models, the B9x and B11S come to mind.

Ok I think I have ranted enough. I think it takes you being in this state of sort of fatigue and at this time to have the right state of mind to want to type all this. I wouldn't be surprised if most of you don't or just lack the patience to read all of it.

[SilverSpear]

they didn't mention anything about a turbo... I am wondering. if they were to compete the naturally aspirated cars like 3000 GT (non turbo) and 300 ZX (non turbo), weren't they planning that one day they would make the turbo SVX just to compete with those turbo version cars ?

[Landshark]

cliff's notes?