Well everyone else was posting new subjects so why can’t i?? lol… i have a steady income right now YAY! and it will increase this summer so either a new car or mods for my baby… (00 red zx2)… i really wanna fast car… but at 150 a week plus like gas and a cell phone and ofcouse fooooood its kinda hard… oh well… i may just rice that bitch out… what ya think?
Cut costs. Eat in and have some spaghetti. Drop the Cell Phone. That will save you money. Rent movies, rather than go to see them. Seek out a 2nd job while school is out. And my personal favorite, sleep more. Can’t spend money if you’re not conscious.
Then you can put lots of mods on your car.
150 a week isn’t much, I make that in just over 1 day, and trying to save up for even a Hotshot intake would not be worth struggling to save for it. When you make at least another 100 a week, then I would suggest saving up for mods.
Well these are good cars, but if you want a FAST car, start with something fast and make it faster. A car that runs 15s-17s stock isn’t “fast” and it costs a lot to make them fast. I’m not dissing the ZX2, I love my ZX2 and I’ve been working on it and it’s much better than when I bought it. But ultimately I want something faster, which now that I’m on a new payroll, is why I’m stepping up to a WRX STi eventually.
I mean you can get these cars up and running, but even my Ninja 250 will smoke even a fairly well modded ZX2 stock and thats with 29hp… You have to do a lot to get these cars to break the 13-14 range on the quarter.
However, the upside is that these cars handle WONDERFULLY stock, so modify the suspension before you do anything, you’ll get the most bang for your buck out of your suspension on these cars and they will handle like a wonderful little zippy dream. In autocross they are all go, no show. My recommendation if you want to get some good mods, do the springs and some nice struts, bushings and some good brakes. You will be AMAZED at how the car will handle. But for speed, you have to spend quite a bit to get them going, a lot of the members that have the Zetec up there in power have spent a LOT of money getting them there. And the trannies on our cars are weak, so the more you go on an automatic and push it with more horsepower the more likely you will probably break something unless you are doing something to prevent that. For instance, roushzx2 has a level10 tranny, but that costs well over $1500 to redo a tranny like that in work just to hold up to the horsepower you are putting at it.
With any mods there is give and take… Ultimately unless you want to spend a LOT of money to make this car fast, you are probably better off buying something that is faster stock thus allowing you to do more mods that will hold up. Keep in mind these cars were built as economy cars with the potential to give cars like the civic a run for their money stock for stock. And by all means, they do, they’re wonderful cars. But things like weak trannies, shitty shifter setups stock, etc, there is a lot of things you need to fix first before you stick a lot of horsepower to a stock tranny, let alone an automatic.
Just my $.02
Or, you could go buy a motorcycle like a Ninja or a Gixxer and never worry about complaining about speed ever again for half the price of a car 
Is it a S/R ZX2? If so remove all Cats, If done right will sound real good and it gave me in my yellow S/R around 8hp to the wheels! Currently with just the header and straight pipe back and the factory mods I have about 165 to 170whp on 91octane gas. And I only make $245per week so it can be done. If you live in Arkansas come up to the dragstrip in Rogersville,MO some weekend I will be out there.
Is it a S/R ZX2? If so remove all Cats, If done right will sound real good and it gave me in my yellow S/R around 8hp to the wheels! Currently with just the header and straight pipe back and the factory mods I have about 165 to 170whp on 91octane gas. And I only make $245per week so it can be done. If you live in Arkansas come up to the dragstrip in Rogersville,MO some weekend I will be out there.
Not to piss on your parade 00zx2, but if your pulling 165 to 170WHP your either using your butt dyno or you have a realy good mechanic. 91 Octane gas shouldnt even be getting you up that high with a header and straight pipe. Given drive train loss that would mean you putting out between 190-210hp to the crank. If im wrong, lets see some dyno slips.
hey im not trying to piss in your wheaties or anything … ( and i am going to school to be a motorcycle mechanic and i have raced dirt bikes for over 12 years so i have a little exp in the subject) but almost every bike will beat any car due to gearing and weight so comparing a car to bike is like comparing the preverbial apples to oranges… gee a modified skyline is fast but a gsxr1000 is faster… a mustang with a v8 and blown and nitrous is fast on a straight but a busa is faster … car fast and bike fast iss two completely differnt things… and fast is differnt to differnt people … yes our cars tend to be faster around a corner then in a straight … so just cause it runs 15-17 1/4 doesnt mean its slow … just means its a differnt kind of fast … ohh and just on a side note i think im getting a honda f4i come spring … and im planning on adding vtec mmmmm the only good hondur has two wheels
Impossible to get those numbers with just header and straight pipe. Stock S/R’s dyno at about 120hp and torque stock. Adding a header and straight pipe will probably gain about 10hp at the most. So that will put you at 130 to the wheels. And 91 Octane if tuned with a chip will gain maybe another 8hp. So if you say you have 130ish whp then I’ll believe it.
Naw i know what you mean. I was simply making a comparison. It’s cool. I was just using it as an example.
i dunno anything about s/r blah blah… explain somewhat and maybe i can tell you then… remember im just a girl :oops:
S/R Is a sport package for the ZX2 which has suspension mods, iceman intake and I /think/ a dual friction plate clutch installed? Along with a few other misc things here and there. Not many made, you’d know if you had one.
then that would be a negative
hey…w/ ur budget…i say dont worry about performance mods…get what u can to make ur car look good…even if it’s rice…your time will come for performance…
just my advice
It’s stuff like that that makes the rest of us girls look bad!
But as for mods at 150 a week id say look at the for sale items on the fourums.
dont get me wrong… i know quite a bit about cars… just not alot about zx2… ive helped mod many cars here… eclipses and civics mostly… a trans am… and a couple nissan trucks… but ZX2’s just arent common… so excuse me if i made you look bad
Mmmmm not much to them really. I mean they can take a while to work on, for instance timing belt changes, maintainence things. But the concept is similar on most cars… underdrive pulleys, clutches, intake and exhaust, didn’t know that the concept was any different? lol.
But the ZX2 can be intimidating to work on at first because there is little to no hood space on these cars, even my sister’s car which is an old ass nissan sentra was easier to work on. Hondas have a good amount of hood space, I love working on the accords, my fiance’s grandpa has one and it had a good amount of hood space to work on so it wasn’t so bad…
My recommendation for you if you really want to do this yourself is to go buy a chilton’s manual for the “Escort, tracer, contour” at a napa store. They run like $20 and that would be a huge huge help for you. I’ve had things i’ve been under the hood for on the car and went “WTF, this is weird.” looked at my manual and went “Oh, well… duh…” and it will save you a lot of time and grief. It has good pictures, good guides, lots of info and will even give you all the info for torque specs on bolts (trust me, guessing that shit is a bad idea), info on fluids, info on maintainance and even the timing belt info and serpentine belt info for the routing charts.
I actually like how much room there is in the Zx2. I think there is tons of room as long as you aren’t replacing your oil filter. :lol:
The engine I have had to work on with the least amount of space is my Eagle Talon. There is like absolutely no room under the hood.
it isn’t bad, but it isn’t perfect… I mean on the old muscle cars like the mustangs and camaros and stuff you could have dinner with half your family under the hood while working on it and still have elbow room :lol: