Blkexcoupe

iTrader: (8)

Most people don't understand how much it truly cost to build a reliable high hp car with all supporting mods unless they've done it before.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

^^ Very much this.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

I guess time will tell. If I end up taking out the built drive / power trains from the MKIVs then they have to go somewhere

It just makes sense now that the MKIVS be sold stock since I will get more out of them by keeping the aftermarket stuff.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

I would agree to this but how many times have we seen people wanting a fast car but try to cheapout just to find them redoing things all over again ? Is it because they don't know ? I have friends who don't listen just to tell me after a while I should have listened to you because of the double cost they had to incur for redoing things. Same with many here you see while reading build threads. People think they can get away with it then you see them saying things that high hp cars are not reliable. I have seen a lot of build threads in which people will spend thousands of dollars in fancy wheels but buy unreliable performance parts.

Let's face it. Aside from liking the SCs, many go with them because of its affinity with the supra mkiv. They are cheap to start with. Even with stock very good condition it is very hard to sell them for a good price. We have seen this in our classifieds. And this has nothing to do with not knowing costs of modding a car. I have so many people offering me $2500 and below or trade a 1997 civic or 1994 legend or 1992 prelude for a 1997 sc300 5 speed . Is it basically because they see tons of SC being sold for nothing ?

the culprit in my opinion is the car itself doesn't command a good price so installing performance parts on it doesn't really sway people to pay a lot for it.

take the MKIVs...damn NA are selling $20-25k ...for a car that has exactly the same drivetrain and powertrain with that of our sc300....only difference is the body shape. In fact the features of the sc300 are even more luxurious.

The thing is the SC in general do not have a good market value much more when modified properly . People just associate it as being a cheap car so whatever mods you put ...not gonna pay for it. I can name lots of forum members here whose modified cars have been parted out to the last body part like fenders , hood and trunk just to recoup a bit more. In fact I have never seen a well modified SC , done by the best shops sell at a price that will at least pay for the costs put into it . Each one have been parted out.

CatManD3W

iTrader: (18)

An SC to build is not intended to a financial investment, I dont intend to sell mine as I would never get the value back out of it.

IMO surpa are way overrated and most people who own them rarely drive them because they see it as an investment. i.e financial value, which is just stupid.

I actually prefer the SC over supra. Longer wheelbase, etc.

Very few SC's are built properly, most are just $1000 car and they slap some wheels and cheap coils on it.

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

All performance cars for that matter , not only SC, one would be lucky to get back their investments. There are a few cars though that do not belong to the same category e.g. Supra MKIVs , Acura NSX and others.

It is easier said than done that "one says will never sell their performance car". Tons of people have said that but it never happened, one day the car has to go for whatever reason so they had to sell the car. I even heard someone say I will get a divorce first before that car will go, lol. We all do not know what the future holds for each and every one of us. So far , every person I know who said that they will never sell , have sold their car.


I and many people who started with SCs and now have Supra MKIVs have said those exact words . I can name a number of members here. But owning a Supra MKIV is totally different. I guess one who had really owned one for at least three months are in a better position to say how it feels to own one. So far I haven't heard anybody with a Supra MKIV and a Lexus SC say he prefers his SC ... all things considered . On the contrary most of them either sold their Lexus SC or just stopped modifying them. I always told myself I prefer the SC better than the Supra when I didn't own one. But once I started owning one (not just driving one), my perspective changed. It is just a different experience owning one, driving and cruising with one around town. It doesn't even have to be a turbocharged one. Don't get me wrong , I love the SC for the purpose of how I love my fast cars , as sleepers. But it is for me a totally different experience when you are driving down the lane or cruising a busy downtown street on a Supra MKIV. That feeling and pride of driving one of the most coveted car and there is no day in which you drive it and every damn car enthusiast on the road cannot help but pay attention to what you are driving and praise your car.

I wouldn't exactly call it stupid if some supra owners have bought their cars for $10 - $15k years back and now costs +$40k and stops using it. Or even buying one NOW as investment as long as their prices are still going up . It is for me actually a smart decision just to keep it going up in price and make them as investment. Why ? Let go of it when it reaches its top in terms of selling price then get back all the money you invested and whatever extra you made , you can build a fast car which is now all free . You don't have to have a Supra to have a fast car. That is actually in my opinion a smart idea ... having a fast car ALL FOR FREE with what you made from the appreciation of the Supra.


My wife was always on my tail when I was buying Supra MKIVs left and right , frowning at my decisions flying to different states to pickup Supra MKIVs. Local friends call me crazy for having a good number of them . Now , they say I am a lucky dude , lmaol. I have $110k on my 4 x Supra MKIV 6 speeds now. But a lot of that money came from the other 5 I have sold in the past . And at this point , based on appraised values , I can get $320k on the 4 MKIVs I currently have. Buying MKIVs because I loved them and partly as investments wasn't exactly a stupid decision seeing what they are worth now. At that time , all I have in mind is I knew I will be able to get back my money after having enjoyed these toys. Apparently , more than that now. There is a lot of luck with it of course. The demand on these cars had risen and the number available decreased so their prices skyrocketed. It is just the same with whatever commodity that goes through same environment... "prices go higher whenever the demand is there and the supply is low ".

And now stock original 6 speeds are gaining in value especially hard tops. So taking out the build power / drive trains will get me in a position in which I get the $$$ I want for them and at the same time have free built drive / power trains and aftermarket stuff.

The value of a car is only as good as someone is willing to pay for. I don't have to have a MKIV to have a fast car so cashing in on them will be the best move . In fact I will have faster cars than most of the MKIVs once I am done with my Ultimate 6 speed and Auto SC Sleepers. All for free and thanks to the Supra MKIVs. They were wise investments after all. So I really can't call that a stupid move.

Truth to be said .. many SC owners are more for the looks. Nothing wrong with it cause we all have our wants or the way we build our cars. What makes me cringe is seeing cars built for performance and inferior parts being used then hearing same people scream that high hp cars are not reliable.

irondonkey

wow it's been a long time since i've came into this thread.

hope life has been doing well. glad to see your're still messing with these cars haha. too much to catch up on but i've been looking at the pictures

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

^^^ where you at now buddy ? Still in Cali ? I guess you are enjoying life there. You are very young so make the most out of it !

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Looks like Photobucket had blocked the older embed fix for Chrome to enable us to see pictures hosted on their site again .

New fix is install the following extension to Google Chrome https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...eidknhlf?hl=en

If you still can't see the images after instlaling, try hard-reloading to clear the cache by going to the page with the images and hit CTRL+SHIFT+R on Windows / Linux or CMD+SHIFT+R on macOS

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Reality had been hitting me lately. It is really very hard to sell an SC. As many know , I am cutting down on the number of 2jzGTE SC toys I have to two or three. I am really surprised no one was willing to offer a fair deal on the 1997 SC300 5 speed I have . All I get are tire kickers wanting to trade an early 90s civic or legend . If anyone serious , talk to me , you just might be surprised how low I am willing to let go of the running 1997 SC300 5 speed with 117k miles and the 1997 SC300 5 speed bare shell. But you have to be serious and not curious. I would be able to tell.

I need to let those two cars go. Within the next 12 months, as soon as my 4 6speed MKIVs are sold , I will get another house in the outer skirts of the city with a lot bigger lot area and without HOA so I can build a 6 bay garage / work place at the backyard with an AWD Dyno. Am planning to do that (buy a house with a garage / AWD dyno) out of my MKIV proceeds so I can make some money tuning cars on the side on my free time whenever I am up there , North of Atlanta. A bigger lot without surrounding neighbors will prevent any noise complaints coming from the dyno. I will just sell my current house up North Atlanta eventually and add those funds to my retirement savings for future needs. So my previous MKIV investments will be at work . Local buddies tell me that I will miss my Supras. Well, I will still have two or three fast SCs anyway. At this point, I don't need to have MKIVs to have fast cars. Too much money sitting around on those cars.

You all have seen the pictures of the running 117k miles 5speed (seen at the classifed section or a couple of pages before this) and below you will see the current state of the bare shell. This car hit a jeep and had sustained front damage and I have replaced all the damaged front area. Just need some minor work . The accident wasn't even reported at carfax or autocheck by the former owner that is why no records of that accident. So F it will be refinished properly , you won't even know it was in an accident since I replaced every front part and not just straightened things out.

BTW , I don't need cash for the aforementioned two SC300s , if you have anything to trade that I might be interested , you might get a deal. If I know you or I see how serious you are and I don't see any future problems , I am even willing to finance them and let them go in installments as I offered some guys around but were never really serious as I realized. So talk to me if anyone wants to own a running low mileage 1997 SC300 5 speed OR a 1997 SC300 5 speed bare shell (no interior).

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

The work on the Ultimate SC Sleeper had began this weekend, a stroker 3.4L 2jzGTE VVTi 6 speed SC . I always wanted a stroker on an SC. Finally it is gonna happen. Why VVTi ? We spend most of our time driving on the lower RPMs. The VVTi gives you more torque and power on the lower RPMs and the cherry on top would be it actually saves gas .

I was debating in the past two weeks if I will use the Titan MotorSports 1800hp capable Inter-Cooler or just sell it since I am only trying to get into the 1300-1500rwhp . It is so massive that its core is 4" longer than my 6" ETS inter-cooler . Finally this weekend , after having a good talk with people who knew more than I do , I decided to just use it.

Installed it and added a double loop NX-ntercooler to cool the charged air . This car will have an NX Direct Port Nitrous so I will use the NX-ntercooler as the purge solenoid too. You usually have to use the right size of inter cooler on your force induction engine so there won't be lag. But with nitrous , lag can easily be a thing of the past

JoeBlob

Man that is a thing of beauty

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

I like it so far, Gerry! This is going to get good!

Are those water spray or C02 spray loops you're hooking up to your intercoolers?

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

thanks

Craig - I will prefer nitrous to cool down that inter-cooler. I can use CO2 too . But the reason I am using nitrous is .....that setup will serve as my nitrous purge system too. So instead of throwing away nitrous uselessly into the atmosphere when purging the direct port nitrous system of air , I might as well direct it to the inter-cooler and cool the charged air . So it is dual purpose ...as needed basis .

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

^^ I like that approach a lot. Very efficient

I've been reading some more on simple IC water spray systems versus CO2 (and now I will have to add nitrous alongside CO2) and the compressed gas seems to be more preferred now or at least gets better consistent results in testing. I have seen water spray systems used on many 80's and 90's rally cars but maybe they were restricted from using anything other than pure water for external cooling as per class rules.

Looking forward to what comes next for this one.