240Z = #14

[exodus1500]

I was at the store and a Sport Compact Car mag grabbed my eye because of the sweet flat black STI on the cover....

 

any how, i was thumbing through it to find more pictures and they had the top 100 sport compact cars of all time, and the 240 got rated #14 stating: "the car that proved japanese sport cars could be dynamically better than english ones. Fewer electrical glitches, better protection against rust, and the lack of oil leaks were just bonuses."

 

the 350z got #11

[zguy95135]

Cool, gotta check that out. Too bad the subsribers always seem to get the magazines last

[Guest zfan]

I just looked at the same mag yesterday. #14 my butt Top ten all the way.

 

Mike

[Z-TARD]

Saw that one today too. Probably one of the few times in my life that my blood pressure has spiked to dangerous levels Not so much for the Z only rating #14, but because the Honda Civic was rated above it at #2 I wonder if I could sue them if I had an embolism over that....

 

Mike

[Guest bastaad525]

Just got that issue in the mail yesterday, and yes subscribers do get them after newsstands, it's like that with every mag I've ever subscribed to.

 

 

I didn't agree with a lot of their rankings either. For one, why do they include all the different versions of a given car, like three different skylines (R32, 33, and 34) instead of just saying the Skyline overall... okay I know they are all different but ... that's kinda overdoing it. And the fact that a civic got placed #2... Also I think it a waste that they put so many cars on the list that have never been sold in the US. Really they had kinda screwy priorities on that list but I'm glad they did place the Z so high, and don't disagree with their #1 car (Mitsu Evo).

 

 

I REALLY dug that article on Project STi... taking a brand new car and painting it primer black... WOW... and removing the wing... reminded me why I subscribed to SCC in the first place. I almost came home with 20 cans of Krylon primer today

[Dead Roman]

my lil bro and i tore all the crap of is CRX(yeah he's a ricer) yesterday and are preppeing to sand it all down tomorrow. Ive got the krylon industrial flat black on order from a loca harware store. 50 cans, cause the same thing is gonna happen to my z

 

PS. Of course that is untill i get my custom mix from HOC

[Savage42]

Sheez, I sold both my 510s and got a Z.......so I actually traded down according to that list. DOH!

[Drax240z]

How the 350z can rate higher than the 240z is sooooo far beyond me.

[JMortensen]

It's Ricer Compact Car folks. Whaddya expect???

[exodus1500]

is is squid becoming the new name for ricers, because it it is, it needs to stop....

 

That title is held soley for idiot sportbike riders.... you know the ones that make me look bad, and raise my insurance....

[JMortensen]

Ah, forget it...

[Guest Aaron]

The 240Z was so low because it is Sport Compact Car magazine, and the Z is really a Sports Car. (BTW, it was number 10 on Road & Track's top 10 most important Sports Cars back in about 1990. It was also the newest model, and I think the only Japanese car on the list.)

[Guest steveo]

I can't complain about its rating

 

The cars ahead of it are really great cars (well the 510 for rally) , not sure i agree with the civic (although it did pave the way for great cars)

 

maybe it should have been the 100 most important cars instead of best.

[Guest bastaad525]

How the 350z can rate higher than the 240z is sooooo far beyond me.

 

 

AGREED!!! "was back and better than ever" please... hell for that matter how is the 350z even better than the Z32 TT???

[pparaska]

It's Ricer Compact Car folks. Whaddya expect???

 

Oh so right!

 

And to think twenty years ago us old guys looked at the Civic as a "puddle jumper" or "commuter appliance". How wrong we were! (NOT!)

 

When will the majority of the current generation of US young people realize that the Civic is just that - an economy car? Even the kids in Japan know that! Give me a Prelude any day over a Civic. The only Civic I ever thought was cool was the original CRX. Not a bad little roller skate that is driven by the WRONG WHEELS.

 

Do I care that a magazine that caters mainly to the Civic crowd and the crowd that thinks anything JDM is untouchable rated the 240Z at #14? NO. That's their little reality, not mine.

 

Truth be known, the Civic is a hot rod because that's what young people were given by mom and dad and that's what they hotrodded. THAT's where it all started. Some of them actually made them faster. Unfortunately, most of them pulled the pro-street thing and make them LOOK fast, but no performance to back it up. I have alot more respect for the guys that go after the performance FWD cars like the GTI, etc.

[Guest bastaad525]

The guys at sport compact car dont' really favor rice though... look at their project cars. A bad ass 300ZX TT, a Mitsu Evo, Suby STi, Dodge SRT-4, 350Z, Nissan 240sx turned Silvia. Hell one of their favorite and most raved about cars is the Datsun 510... they've featured tons of them in their magazine. They really DON'T favor the Honda crowd, and only ever really feature hondas/acuras that do favor speed over looking good. And they are usually anti-bling... I mean come on they took a brand new STi and painted it flat black and removed the wing... that's about as anti-bling as it gets.

 

They put the Civic #2 for a pretty legitimate reason... because now with all it's popularity and aftermarket support, it is a very viable platform with tons of options to make a great performing car. I feel bad whenever anyone accuses SCC of being rice... considering every other magazine out there, excepting maybe Grassroots Motorsports, HAS gone over to the darkside, most of them aren't worth looking at any more, at least SCC has tried to stick to the stuff that interests guys like us, true, honest performance, in packages you might not expect to find it in.

[pparaska]

I know that they try to stay anti-rice, but the target market and advertisers make it hard to pick up that mag and take it seriously. They DO do alot of good tech articles. But look at the list of cars you put out - all but one is a Japanese brand. I know they do german stuff too (VW).

 

If you really want non-rice, pick up a popular hotrodding or car craft or GM high tech performance magazine.

[Drax240z]

My big problem with those mags pete is that their tech is REALLY basic for the most part. They are lagging 20 years behind SCC for their tech articles content IMHO.

 

Just buy Grassroots Motorsports and Racecar Engineering and be done with it.

[pparaska]

I have a GRM subscription and one to their sister publication Classic whaterver too.

 

Some of the tech in the Hot rod type magazines can be basic, but several of them try to go above the fray and have high tech articles by David Vizard, etc. - which can hardly be called 20 years behind the times. Granted their coverage of turbo tech is usually basic, but the general engine stuff is pretty up to date, hardly basic.

 

At least I can pick those mags up and not be inundated by bling at every page (speaking of the advertiers in SCC).

[Guest bastaad525]

pparaska - Um... they work on and feature mostly japanese cars because there aren't a lot of american cars out there that fall under the 'sport compact' category. And please don't mention cavalier's or sunfire's.... truth is once a REAL american made sport compact showed up on the market that had some guts they were ALL OVER IT (SRT-4... one of their most covered projects at the moment!). They also have a running project Ford Focus and have had nothing but good things to say about the Focus in general, especially the SVT. The Saturn Ion Redline has had some mention as well, though no one seems to be taking that car seriously, and I dont think it will get nearly as much coverage as the SRT. They have also written a couple articles covering the soon-to-come Chevy Cobalt and seem to think it may just give the Civic a run for it's money, and I'm sure they'll be all over that one as well as soon as it hits the market. Also look at their list of 'Eight Great Rides' that they put out every year... not a Civic on it (yet the SRT-4 was). They DO cover a lot of euro stuff as well, as well they often feature cars from overseas that are made by the likes of Ford and such, but never make it over here (turbo'ed focuses and they WORSHIP the performance bred euro Escorts). They are definatley not a "Japanese only" magazine.

 

The magazines you mention aren't anything at all about sport compacts, rather they are muscle car or hot rod magazines. Yeah, that's about as anti-rice as you can get... isn't that the point? They also don't really relate all that much to Z's... at least, not to MY (non V8) Z. I used to be all up on the muscle car scene, having owned a '68 mustang, an '81 Camaro, and a '68 Galaxie. I loved those cars for their simplicity and brute strength (and that awesome V8 sound), and hated them for their lack of reliability and horrible gas mileage, and their lazy handling and just the way they all felt so big and clumsy. The Z, for me, was the perfect antidote to everything I disliked about those cars. Now I prefer smaller, lighter, less conspicuous cars with witch to terrorize unsuspecting SUV's in, and that's the kind of car SCC covers. They are about as anti-rice as you can get for the kind of cars they feature... don't believe me? Pick up an issue of Super Street or Import Tuner, then go back to SCC, you might look at them a little differently. They are definately the most 'mature' of the sport compact mags.

 

I do pick up odd issues of Car Craft now and again as well, they have broadened their horizons a LOT, and now seem to almost be trying to convince their readers that technology is the way to go, always hyping 'carbeurator alternatives' and how great they can be. I've also seen them feature cars such as a 1000hp Eagle Talon (mitsu eclipse), and a comparison between a Mustang SVT Cobra and a Subaru STi in which they pretty much recommended the STi as the better car in most respects... they're much more open minded than I would have expected them to be, something which most rice magazines are not.

 

SCC is a good magazine, my favorite of all the car mags that I buy and I do buy a lot. They've declined in quality a bit recently, but they are still the greatest.