Underwhelmed by my new toy

[Krikkit]

s m said:

Krikkit said:

Export56 said:

Unpopular opinion, old cars are pants, drive a brand new tight amg45 or an GR and you see what I mean.

Great if you want minimal character, electronic nannies and controls with no feel.

I recommended a GR Yaris as well earlier as I think it’s the closest modern day thing to the Pulsar maybe…. Smallish, 4wd and fun to drive

The GR does many things well, and I completely agree that it's a modern-day GTiR, GC8 Impreza STI type affair, but... I wouldn't say it's better in some ways than the old cars.

The controls are pretty numb, being a modern car it's very good at eliminating NVH (and therefore less characterful) as well as having the speakers for noise control, and the electronic driving aids are deeply annoying.

As a "toy" car I think the GRY isn't all that, but as a fast fun daily it'd make a great companion.

[Domski86]

Dad had one back in the day. As fun as it was, in hindsight it was a bit compromised.

Fast in a straight line (especially against contemporary wrx) but understeer-y and from memory expensive to get much more than stock power. Front mount and forged internals eventually led to chasing gearbox issues.

Enjoy it for what it is, a low rent supermini with a silly body kit and big engine. Handling was never it's strong point. Better rubber, bigger brakes, and upgraded suspension would be as far as I'd want to take one. Good to hear of one still on the road. Watch for rust too!

[Networkgeek]

Hi OP

I had a similar situation when buying a BMW 330CI E46, I really didn't gel with it at first.

Everyone raved about the great chassis, RWD, straight 6 engine etc. But I found it slow, too quiet, heavy and the old bushes made it feel like crap.

Thankfully my intention was to make it into a track car, so I did the following mods -

- Stripped interior
- Bucket seat
- Bilstein suspension
- Polybushed
- DaveF intake
- Exhaust mods
- Closer ratio diff from a 1.8 E46

The modifications improved the car, but I still didn't think it was all that good. I ended up selling it and thankfully due to covid tax, I got all my money back (inc. money spent on mods).

I guess I'm trying to say, if the car isn't right for you initially, don't bother with modifying it. I'm now in an M2 and I frigging adore the car, I shouldn't have bothered with the E46 at all.

[s m]

Krikkit said:

s m said:

Krikkit said:

Export56 said:

Unpopular opinion, old cars are pants, drive a brand new tight amg45 or an GR and you see what I mean.

Great if you want minimal character, electronic nannies and controls with no feel.

I recommended a GR Yaris as well earlier as I think it’s the closest modern day thing to the Pulsar maybe…. Smallish, 4wd and fun to drive

The GR does many things well, and I completely agree that it's a modern-day GTiR, GC8 Impreza STI type affair, but... I wouldn't say it's better in some ways than the old cars.

The controls are pretty numb, being a modern car it's very good at eliminating NVH (and therefore less characterful) as well as having the speakers for noise control, and the electronic driving aids are deeply annoying.

As a "toy" car I think the GRY isn't all that, but as a fast fun daily it'd make a great companion.

I’m very much in agreement with you - the car I own that is most fun for me is from the Pulsar era and for me it’s great in a way modern stuff isn’t - it just seemed for the OP the converse might be true

[Krikkit]

s m said:

I’m very much in agreement with you - the car I own that is most fun for me is from the Pulsar era and for me it’s great in a way modern stuff isn’t - it just seemed for the OP the converse might be true

What's your fun machine?

[Shabaza]

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but some of the most fun I've had in a car was in a VW UP! GTI
Can absolutely thrash it everywhere, with the sensation of speed but without actual speed (relatively).
Gear changes were great, felt like a gokart for the road.

Would highly recommend for a fun car to thrash about in

[goldar]

Thanks for all the replies.

I really don't want to replace it with a modern car. I've driven the tits off of plenty of old cars and the majority have been fairly easy to drive.
I would have loved to buy a fd3s or Evo 3 but they're around a foot longer, and space is a constraint.

Ideally I need to try another one to see if there's a difference.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Sounds like you wanted all the aspects a new car would provide but bought an old one.

[BigMacDaddy]

I had one for a few years, made about 300bhp at 1 bar of boost. It was rapid, looked good (very subjective with the GTiR of course ) handled well enough, but it somehow wasn't as much fun to drive as the Astra GTE 16V I had before it (or the FTO I have now). Don't think it helped that the engine didn't have a particularly exhilarating noise, it was loud enough through a 5zigen exhaust but not what I'd call sonorous by any stretch of the imagination.

[LayZ]

All the bushes are probably shot. If its just that, replace everything and it'll probably transform how it rides and handles.

[samoht]

goldar said:

A few months ago I bought a minty low mileage pulsar gtir. Mainly because I wanted a hooligan car again and I'd been hankering after some old school jap for a while, but partly because it's small enough to fit onto my drive.

It's almost bone stock. A set of wheels, lowering springs, strut braces, and an exhaust.
I've upped the boost to 1 bar and upgraded the fuel pump. It flies now, but I'm not sure if it's hitting the spot for me. I wanted something that I can absolutely thrash on the road, but it takes effort to do so in this car, which ruins the experience. I imagine that I'd be quicker in a Prius just because it was easier to drive.

For example:
- The steering isn't as direct as I hoped it would be. More input is required to the steering to get round bends. This makes it slower.
- The uprated clutch is stiff and I have to push the pedal all the way to the end to get it to disengage. Again, this makes it slower.
- The gear selector can be quite notchy. It's not a smooth shift. I have to be slow and gentle, I can't bang gears like I can with almost any other car. Again, slow.
- The car doesn't feel very tight. 30 year old bushes and standard shocks. Easily fixable, but I don't want to turn this into a project.

So, opinions. Would I be making the wrong decision by getting rid of it?

The clutch sounds like something that isn't quite right and could be sorted. Gearbox maybe could be improved a bit, or might need a new box (I understand they aren't that robust).

If the lowering springs are also stiffer that may end up underdamped with standard dampers.

I've read quite a few people criticise these for excessive understeer as standard, I think it depends on what you like but some people really prefer them with mods to make them pointier, chiefly a stiffer rear ARB and perhaps some alignment changes.

Having said that, I think steering has generally become quicker on modern cars so some of that may be unavoidable. Personally I couldn't get on with A110 steering at all, and prefer the more progressive 90s stuff, but that may just be me becoming an old man.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

You say you don't want to turn it into a project, but it's a 30 year old car, I think it's overly optimistic to expect to be able to pick up a car that's precisely as it should be in every respect, it's part of owning older cars. And even if it's as per Nissan or the previous owner's preferred spec, it may not be to yours.


Personally I'd say since you wanted an older car and need something up to 4m long, you're probably best to invest a little more in trying to get the chassis and gearbox/clutch working to your liking, rather than giving up straight away. However if you don't want to take on this cost/hassle, you should probably sell the Pulsar and accept buying a newer car.

[Brett748]

People slate old jap cars but a leggy “Drive me” experience Supra manual TT has the most exciting engine I’ve ever driven. I daily a C63 but the 2JZ was immense, a little slow under 4k rpm but then whack the second turbo comes in and it flys! Plus the noise!

If I had 50k to splash on a toy it would be my first choice and after driving it I totally get old jap cars.

[cerb4.5lee]

Swap it for a S14a 200SX and tune that up a bit. I guarantee that you will have some fun/enjoy one of those.

I absolutely loved the GTI-R back in the day, I didn't own one, but I did enjoy having a bit of fun with them in the 200 back then though.