I thought the rear end of GTOs are the worst bit about them (amongst other bad bits..)
I don't rate the 300ZX up high for styling either, just looks quite outdated.
this is probably one of the better looking GTOs out there:
their sheer weight lets them down though, they are just too heavy for their own good. Engine bays are just as cramped as a 300ZX, and the engine is pointing in the wrong direction!
I have a short wheel base TT manual 300zx and I have to say they are neat cars. They can be very fast and handle very well. They can look great. The VG30DETT will make big power with minimal work. Just a chip from a guy on the nz 300zx forum and some more boost will get you around 300rwkw reliably.
From my experience parts are not hard to get at all. There is a lot of aftermarket support, specially in the USA and there are a lot of these things being pulled to pieces (largely due to the fact that they are hard to work on when something goes wrong with them). This gets me to my next point. I have pulled the engine on mine twice. If you blow a head gasket you pull the engine, if you need to replace a turbo you pull the engine, etc.
It's a good idea to replace all the engine bay hoses as they suffer after 20 years of heat. I had a radiator hose explode which led to my first engine pull. The wiring also suffers, thus far I have replaced all the injector plugs. If I end up pulling the engine out again I will replace the entire EFI loom with a new one.
Turbo manual cars are harder to find and you pay more for them but I wouldn't go with anything else.
In conclusion, they are awesome cars but you need to be prepared to spend some money on maintenance, and or be comfortable working on a complex car for which the service manual often reads 'Step 1: Remove Engine’.
GTO's were supposed to be a japanese ferrari werent they?
look too much like shapeless mid 90s american junk to me
i dont mind the 300ZX's so much, they do seem to attract a few chrome wheel n neon specials, but i guess plenty of cars suffer from that. have driven a few auto ones that felt decently rapid, and one manual one that was insanely quick but had big dollars spent on it. probably the loosest car i have ever been in.
not a fan of the interiors on ZX's, looks seriously dated but i guess a couple of recliners and a nice wheel or something would fix that pretty fast.
Haha. The GTO was designed and developed by the American arm of Mitsubishi, you can tell cause the brake master cylinder and booster remains on the passenger side of the car and they've just adapted it for RHD like most other LHD American cars (think Toyota Cavalier).
They were released as a Dodge too, as the Stealth R/T which had different body lines and minus the active aero and active exhaust
pjay wrote:I would take a GTO over a 300ZX to be honest.
you're bordering on mental
Did you ever drive or go in Edhouse's old mans GTO? They actually go quite well and considering how much of a whale they are, quite nimble on their feet. Back when they first came out they were the R32 GTR's only competition in Japan.
the yanks absolutely love their GTOs (3000GTs over there), there's plenty in the 10s and one or two in the 9s, but for every one success story there's always half a dozen or so complete failures. The engines are strong enough but have one fatal weak point - their oiling system. Later model engines fixed this. Early models run the same 5 speed box as VR-4s/Evos etc which are strong for the 4cyl but not so much for the V6. Later model models ran a 6 speed Getrag box but they had a habit of stripping the transfer case spline.
I just wish they put the engine around the right way to begin with, none of this transverse crap. Would make my conversion a whole lot easier:
Love it! Thats pretty handy that the pajero mounts work for the v6 in a completely different car. Don't think the japanese mitsi fella's ever thought that would happen
Yeah it was dumb luck that the mounts were in the same location. The Pajero has a mid sump and had two smaller crossmembers running either side with the mounts attaching to the body while mine has the main big crossmember which the mounts attached to it.
I don't think the body flexes a great deal, it shares the same platform with the Starion which is proven to be a strong chassis. I can jack up a front corner and the rear will quickly follow whilst jacking it up, and the doors still open and shut freely, at 1300kgs in stock trim she's one solid car haha.