Mopar vs Rice

You really can't paint all import cars with the same brush... a Skyline GTR or 300ZX Twin Turbo are not rice IMHO. The lowered Civic with the neons and grapefruit-shooter exhaust tip is rice.

I happened upon a Japanese car show yesterday and while the majority of entrants were winged and blinged silly economy cars, there were some real nasty hot rods in the mix. It's huge business here in BC to import JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) cars and the streets are teeming with Skylines and Twin Turbo Fairlady Zs and Supras so these cars were out in force at this show. You can't turn your nose up at any street car making 500+hp regardless of where it's from, at least I can't.

Two cars caught my eye. One was a 1970 Datsun 510 2 door sedan that was running a 220hp 1.8L turbo engine from a JDM Nissan 180SX... doesn't sound like a ton of power but in that 1800lb box, it'd be a rocket. The other car was a little white Honda Civic hatchback from the early 1980's... under it's hood was hiding a modifed Acura Integra Type-R engine that would easily be making north of 200hp in stock form. Again, not a lot of oomph until you drop it into a stripped out 1500lb car and then hold on.

I love Mopar, don't get me wrong, but as the classic quote goes, keep your friends close and your ememies closer. If you go around blindly laughing at all imports because they're slow when stock, you'll probably get your doors handed to you at some point.

As for those Fast and Furious poseurs, keep laughing... I know I will!