depends on your idea of fast...toyota supra fast...no...modified honda fast....yes...modified truck fast...yes.

it all depends on what you are looking for.

 

What in your perception is fast to you? Faster than what you can run? Fast as a modern Turbo'd performance vehicle? Super Car non road worthy speeds? A Jet?

You can in fact make the Tiburon a fast vehicle. But to make any vehicle fast you need 3 things. Money, money and more money. Haha I kid, that's only mostly true. Solid knowledge of the vehicle and its mechanics are also very important. However the Tiburon may require more money, time and research than other platforms. Nonetheless Forged internals, regrinded cams, forced induction and all the supporting mods, you name it the Tiburon can have if you really want it to happen. But why all that effort for a little Hyundai when you can straight out buy a turbo'd Skyline or mean V8 which will ultimately cost you less and can gain you more for your money. Hence you don't see many fast Tiburons.

Fools like myself, devote such resources in their Tiburon

 

My perception of fast is lots of fun to drive and be able to beat the average mustang v6 Maybe a stock v8 mustang.... my dad does drag racing and has a 12 second 280 z... he's doing 120 130 down the track nd has drove many true fast cars. I'm not thinking that fast.. aftermarket exhaust cold air intake stage 0 s/c or possibly a turbo. But nothing thats 12 seconds. He is just letting my dream down of just having a nice and "fast" fun car in general. So I'm just kinda cerious on what other say bout having a "fast" tiburon.

 

See, it depends on what YOU want, also how deep are your pockets/talent to do your own work.

Couldn't agree more. For the price and compared to other cars in its class, it's adequately fast.

It can keep up with/beat Integras, Civics, RSXs, Celicas, Eclipses, etc.

Fast enough to get speeding tickets.......

you got it, Chris. waaay back in late 60's the " I'm gonna do" to a car smoke was blown over lunch with co-workers and not on any internet forum. One time a bunch of us gearheads with our 289's, 327's, 440's and 427's were "air building" our dream cars when a much older (and wiser) gentleman spoke up. looking over the top rim of his glasses, he said in a calm voice " a well tuned 6 has all the power you will ever need." Of course our response was "awww go blow it out your ass!!" it took a good number of years for me and probably the others to realize he was 110 % correct. I've been driving 4 cylinder vehicles since the late 80's and never thought i was lacking any power. Hell, my 83 Toyota Supra 6 cyl only had 5 HP more than my 4cyl Tib. A couple months back I test drove a 1.6L Veloster. There were some things I didn't like about it, namely the annoying electronics all over the dashboard and that extra door on one side, but that thing had some balls when I put pedal to the metal.

For me, "Fast" means I don't slow much (if at all) when cornering in pretty much any weather.
I do like a "reasonable" 0-60 run though, but not 1/8 or 1/4 mile.
Building a "quick" straight line car is easier than a decent cornering car.
Building a "truly fast" straight line car can get expensive. Both in money upfront as well as maintenance down the road.

Stock, my '98 Legacy 2.5L was ~165HP, my modded engine (+ exhaust, etc.) was ~225HP NA.
But, with either engine I have a car that runs quickly through corners in the dry, wet and even snow. It's also a wagon so I can carry skis inside it as well as lots of other stuff or 5 people.
It's comfortable on long trips (did NJ to SLC Utah round trip in ~1 week solo driver) and can pull trailers.
It's not real fast off the line (modded engine was ~6.25 seconds 0-60 or so) but pulls mid '9 G's in a decent corner with brakes to match.
>

Keep in mind, when modding you have 3 choices.......
Cheap
Fast
Reliable
--You can only pick 2 at a time.:nerd2:
"Speed is money, how fast do you want to go?"

 

People knock on the Tib because it isn't fast. But when you compare it to other cars of the time when i twas manufactured it was adequately powerful. Personally I don't see the huge knock on Tibs not being fast. Most affordable stock entry level "sports coupes" aren't, some more powerful than the Tib yes but non are what so many of these people consider "fast". Sure there is a lot more resources and availability to make a fast Civic Si but again that's after you put several thousands of dollars into it. Is the Tib gonna ever be a 12 second car? Probably not unless you put your life savings into it and like Chezza said at that point may be better buying something else. But IMO I find it a fun car to drive, not the best no, but it also has strengths other more fun or fast cars don't such as beautiful body lines, much better equipped and furnished interiors etc.

Point is the Tib can be "fast enough" if you put some money into some performance mods such as what you've mentioned in I/H/E and a Sniper Stage 0. Now you won't be mowing down Mustang GTs with that set up but it would be a significant step up over stock and be more than able to compete with some of the newer sport coupes out there like the BRZ/ FR-S, SI, Focus ST, 2.0T Genesis, Turbo Velosters. The Tib when modified will be able to compete with other cars in its class, not higher tier sports cars like a V8 Mustang etc*SIDE NOTE* People usually get bent outta shape when you say a supercharged Tib will keep up with other Forced Induction cars because they say you had to put "All that money" into it but don't realize just how slow all these other cars would be minus their turbos

Really if you want some comparisons, look around on youtube etc for Tiburon race comparisons and here for 1/4 mile time slips and dyno and also understand how fast something is especially down a 1/4 mile is a lot to do with the driver.

Remember do your racing on the track not the streets.

 

People knock on the Tib because it isn't fast. But when you compare it to other cars of the time when i twas manufactured it was adequately powerful. Personally I don't see the huge knock on Tibs not being fast. Most affordable stock entry level "sports coupes" aren't, some more powerful than the Tib yes but non are what so many of these people consider "fast".

Couldn't agree more. For the price and compared to other cars in its class, it's adequately fast.

It can keep up with/beat Integras, Civics, RSXs, Celicas, Eclipses, etc.

 

See you guys understand... It doesn't need to be super fast, to be fast. If that makes sense...? I just don't see why people put down the idea of putting money into exhaust, headers, supercharger kit ect... obviously others know how well the tiburon's can preform and to have a nice sporty car for less than 10 20K. ... any other input from others would be great. It maybe motivational to some one else who is being told there tiburon will never be "fast".

 

the Tib is quite fast as designed by the Hyundai engineers. you get the "best bang for the buck" with regards to reliability, economy and performance. if one or more of those factors doesnt matter to you, then go spend the money to make more problems for yourself (all these "willfit" parts werent figured into the equation when the engineers designed the car. if you were doing that in an aircraft, it would be labelled "experimental" and cannot carry passengers as you are essentially a test pilot.) main reason people (me included as i have long done it) put down wasting money is because its gives a rather poor return on investment. many years ago i had a 73 Plymouth Duster with a built to the balls Eddie Hamburger engine that was on its last legs for a weekend toy. thru work i had a source for new surplus Mopar prepped 340's rated 375 HP that were built for some South American sports car. i had my pick of a warehouse full of them for $200 each. so for an investment of 200 bucks and 4 hours labor i drove home in a powerhouse all designed and built by Chrysler Motors. unfortunately things arent that simple and cheap today. seriously dude, spend all that money so you can screeech your tires going up a highway entrance ramp? wow, im impressed! besides that, why do you care if someone else says the car will never be fast? i sure as hell dont as thats not a reason i buy em in the first place.

 

^wow that's pretty impressive!

I just bought my 2006 Tuscani (SE in USA) with 74,000kms (40k miles) for $3,900 Canadian which I thought was a steal! Sold my 2003 A4 for $7,500 so I made out like a bandit. Just redid my exhaust, hids and winter wheels and tires which has brought my total up to $5,200 Canadian.

 

Straight line performance is one thing but don't forget to factor turns into the equation as well. And "driving experience" too. I've had a few fast cars over the years that felt like crap to drive. They shifted horribly (from the factory), tons of torque steer and were generally not all that fun to drive. The Tiburon has a nice "feel" to it as well. That might be of little consolation when lined up at a stop light with a Neon SRT in the other lane but the Tiburon wins on a number of fronts even if slightly slower than some of the newer cars out there. The poster above who had the Mazda made a good point. You really have to compare apples and apples when looking at which cars are faster or slower. Another angle is that if you buy a good pre-owned Tiburon for cheap then mod it up you could very well come out a winner in terms of total $$$ spent. An off the floor "fast car" might then be slower than the low-buck Tiburon build. And that means street cred in my book...LOL Anyone can buy fast but fewer can build fast.

 

IMO, firstly the Tiburons biggest appeal to me is the interior and seating design. I really like the cockpit feel and accompanied by the partial bucket seats it's a fun car to take corners in. I've been in a lot of "fast" factory cars and the interiors are nothing more than your typical boring setup. My roommate's SRT4 had the most cushioned/crap seats I've ever sat in on a performance vehicle. Imagine 350hp with seats that feel like pillows. Not really fun/exciting. I also recently rode in my buddy's new Subaru WRX (2011 sedan I think) and felt the same way about the interior. When people sit in my car there's a reason I get so many "whoa this feels sweet" type comments.

Secondly, I prefer the "built-not-bought" approach to cars. Lots of people like to go out and buy a car that's fast stock, but then what do you have to do with it besides make repairs/etc? I guess you can buy aftermarket parts, but usually aftermarket parts for a car that's already boosted = $$$. Upgrades for a little 4 cylinder like the Tiburon are somewhat affordable in comparison (if you can find the parts... but that's another story-).

My suggestion for anyone looking into a Tiburon, sit in it and embrace the interior/exterior design, take some hard corners, and forget anything in the engine bay. You can't change much about the interior or exterior "feel" but can always add more power to the car. I keep my Tiburon because ~5 years down the road I can easily see myself swapping in a new Beta 2 engine that's boosted, because I have a chassis that I love being in and see worthwhile upgrading. Until then I'll enjoy seeing small performance increases one upgrade at a time.

 

^^^^Same way here. I rather buy something I like and customize it to what I want. Who cares about how fast it goes? You or other people? I drove a '11 GT Stang on my way to test drive the Tib, I ended up buying. Guess what? Stang was "faster", but, I don't like the look or the feel of the car. Test drove the Tib, done deal. Loved everything about it, including the "slowness" people rave about, why? cause it felt right to ME. I had the opportunity to buy something else (aka. faster) but I didn't. I've always like the Tibs look and now I am a proud owner of an 06 V6 SE and I love her.

By the way, coming back home from the dealer(off road), the Stang couldn't keep up, why???? Cause the owner can't drive for sh1t! And yes he was pissed cause a "slow Tib" beat him.

 

By the way, coming back home from the dealer(off road), the Stang couldn't keep up, why???? Cause the owner can't drive for sh1t! And yes he was pissed cause a "slow Tib" beat him.

This reminds me of a time I was headed home on the highway, a V6 mustang pulled up next to me and dropped into gear, I look over and him and his GF in the passenger seat are just staring at me. So I dropped to 3rd and caught him at the top of 4th with his front bumper at my door. I couldn't help but let out a visible laugh and he gave me a poor-sported middle finger. That was the day that I realized the Tiburon's potential... and a good day it was.

Nice looking Tib btw, orange ones are my favorite.

 

Here is again fun fact; Mazda MX-6 interior is actually equal quality, if not better; of course it's 10 years older; yet I would buy MX-6 again if I could find one in good shape

Also handling and other things are super compairable, but I don't know any other example of cars that would be so close to each other

 

@KelConquer and @BattleChaser, i too had a "similar" Stang experience, not as far as street racing tho cause i never made it to the street in the first place. last summer wife and i came across a 2004 anniversary edition stang at a price we could afford. not being a ford fan but bro in law having very good luck with ford trucks, we decided to at least go get a look see. thing was 10 tears old with about 22000K miles and plain as all hell inside and out. i asked the salesperson why so low mileage? he responded that people buy them for toys and dont use em much (modern day take on 426 emblems replaced with 383 emblems years ago and the claim "a little old lady owned the car!!"). i said thats odd as nothing was done to the car, just as it came from the factory. i pointed out the little Tib mods weve done and mentioned people play with toys too, ya know. the pedals were so far forward that i had to have the seat so close my knees were jammed up under the steering column. i started the thing up and it roared right up to 2500RPM and stayed there. i turned the car around in the lot to go out on the road but the car shook so bad and made so much noise i stopped and shut it off. no wonder the mileage was so low, you cant drive the damn thing. the worst thing of it all was i put a burned CD into the mega buck sound system and got the "cant read disc error!" thats TOTALLY unacceptable and worse than a timing belt in an engine. my opinion of stangs? overpriced, overhyped JUNK!! so what if its "fast."

 

@Jet A-1, a NEON? hahaha you couldnt GIVE me one! good point about "many can buy fast, few can build." doncha just love going to shows and seeing cars with trophies lined up for this that and the other thing standing in front of a massive sign listing all the places that did the work so the car could win in the first place?? seems to me the only "input" from the owners were writing checks.

 

#1 pain so far has been finding performance exhaust and manifolds for my turbo project. I am talking with a performance exhaust shop in Coquitlam to have a full cat-back with mandrel bends done but it isn't going to be as cheap as I had originally thought. Other than that almost everything going on will be done myself. Maybe have a shop mount my engine but I should hopefully be able to use my buddy's shop's pit on the weekend to get it done.

CELs will be an issue with the down pipe but I'm considering splitting it from manifold into two cats then feeding it back to the down flow sensors at one point to "trick" the system to have enough airflow but also enough filtration.

 

Battlechaser, love the tib.! And I got my tiburom for $1000 usd. Clutch was out and has a salvage title but was fixed except for air bags. But the people talking crap on the my tib didn't understand I don't want it to be crazy fast just fun. I tried telling them I want to BUILD it up like the rest are saying. Exhaust headers cold air intake ect. I want to do it nd feel as if it will be worth it but people with more expierence in mechanics says that it's not worth it all. Just wish more people realized the potential and nice the tiburon's are. ???

 

If you have the V6 Tiburon a CAI or SRI will definitely improve the sound of the car in higher revs. It actually sounds really awesome. If you're ever worried about Hydrolock I encourage to check out the Injen SRI. It's a rather long short ram which to me offers superior SRI performance in addition to the engine's security.

I'm not sure if you had the chance to check our the thread "How to get the most out of your NA Tib" but that's a great thread to look at. Get all the I/H/E going and if you're really dedicated try get a second hand NGM strage 4 upper Manifold (or take yours to get worked on) with a slightly larger throttlebody and you will notice a massive difference. The end sound and performance are great and you will absolutely feel the difference.

 

Sorry about spelling in last post it wont let me edit it. But I've been a member here for 4 5 months now and have looked through most of that stuff. I've talked to 2 or 3 different people on here with turbod v6 tiburon's and have learned a lot. Currently working towards either obx exhaust or borla... borla is a little more expensive so Im leaning towards obx. My dads a mechanic nd has been for years. Like I said earlier he has 280 z 12 seconds 1/4 mile 200 shot of NOS. Rediculous. And so he can help me weld craft what ever I need. I have looked into SRI and have decided to get the injen one. Ive read a lot nd they have ( to me) the best sound and reveiws. But my dad isn't really wanting to do anything and degrading my ideas of working on my tiburon. And just bout every other person I talk to except the ones on here... but I love the post from every one.!!! Stories and motivation from people help out.

 

My biggest gripes on the Tiburon is poor clutch design, it's hard to make a lot of power with this awkward pull style clutch. It's also geared very short due to being under powered.

 

5-speed FTW

 

Super chager stage 4 is a pretty penny tho. And a lot more power than a stage 0. And maybe I should show up to the shop with parts and he'll help me. But I'm going to upgrade my tiburon. I've done a lot of thinking and research on it... and I don't see out there any other car I would possibly want besides a wrx and well. If I don't have money to upgrade my tiburon with a borla exhaust I definitely don't have money for a wrx.?

 

Do you eventually want to drive on tracks or drag strips? The one big downfall I foresee investing in the Tiburon's performance is the fact it's a front wheel drive. At least as far as power vs handling is concerned. Of course, various mods can improve the Tibby's handling but it will never reach the levels a rear wheel or all wheel can offer.

I'm not a big fan of Japanese sport vehicles, primarily for their looks. However my friend managed to get his hands on a 90s NA Mitsubishi GTO all wheel drive (which were never sold in Australia and extremely rare here) and I f#*%ing fell in love with it. It handles like it defies gravity, it's wide, low and sleek like an Asian exotic but it just lacks in power which there are plenty of options for it anyway.

 

Do you eventually want to drive on tacks or drag strips? The one big downfall I foresee investing in the Tiburon's performance is the fact it's a front wheel drive. At least as far as power vs handling is concerned. Of course, various mods can improve the Tibby's handling but it will never reach the levels a rear wheel or all wheel can offer.

I'm not a big fan of Japanese sport vehicles, primarily for their looks. However my friend managed to get his hands on a 90s NA Mitsubishi GTO all wheel drive (which were never sold in Australia and extremely rare here) and I f#*%ing fell in love with it. It handles like it defies gravity, it's wide, low and sleek like an Asian exotic but it just lacks in power which there are plenty of options for it anyway.

^ Truth. You can always increase power and such but how you put it in the ground is critical and alas the Tiburon does suffer inherently from being FWD. Sure you can add a rear sway bar, strut and chassis reinforcements to tighten the thing up but Chezza is right it will never whip around corner tail out screaming F*** you I won't do what you tell me the way a RWD will or hug a corner the way AWD can, And this really is the biggest downfall of it that you really are limited in your ability to improve it.

 

back in 1969 an old girlfriend had a FWD Simca that she would take to Raceway Park and
"raced" it a couple times. funny as all hell watching her burn rubber from the front wheels. probably a more common sight nowadays but still funny! just kinda seems "back asswards" so to speak.

 

I stepped up to a V6 six-speed from my I4 five-speed RD and even though I loved my RD I really like the torque of the V6 Tiburon. As for performance I feel it does relaitvely well in comparison to other similarly priced vehicles. My only mark against it is how the power drops off after you reach ~5K rpm - although I did alleviate that a bit by obtaining ported upper and lower intakes and PP throtle body.

 

since we are doing earlier car comparisons. how about a 93 or 94 Pontiac Sunbird V6? body style was decent but quality wasnt the best as it sold for under 13K but came nicely equipped for its time, even having hidden headlights and that V6 had some balls.

 

I love my Tib already. I love the feel of the sitting in the car knowing you have something all your friends don't. (They all have civics.) I get bashed on all the time for having a sluggish heavy car but god damn I love the looks of the car. Love the exterior and interior. To me the Tib is super unique.

They keep telling me to get a civic. Better gas mileage and easier to fix. I keep telling them no because it's like wearing the same clothes as everyone else or sleeping with the same person everyone else slept with. They say Civics are faster but I keep beating their EX's and DX's. Though them SI's are pretty scary sometimes.

All in all fast is what you make it. To me fast means beating most of the people who say my ride looks like crap and is slow.