Domestic vs Import Cars
Domestic Vs Import Car Performance
This topic of discussion has frustrated many car enthusiasts over the years as the market for automobiles becomes even more cluttered with dozens of different makers. The general categories are that of domestic automobiles, which are those made by companies owned and operated by the USA, and imports, which is broken up into Japanese, Korean, and European cars.
Many people ask the question of which nationality makes the more quality car, but this discussion is different. The main position of this paper is that of overall performance, which is better: Imports or Domestics? For comparison sake, European cars will not be closely compared because of the extreme price differences. I will be going over the aspects of power, modifications, track ability, and of course, price. Each section will be explained and a winner will be chosen for each subject.
What constitutes power in a car? Power can easily be summed up with one term: horsepower. One horsepower is an approximation of the average horse being able to do 33,000 foot pounds of work every minute. In less technical terms, theoretically the more horsepower a car makes, the faster it gets from point a to b. V8 engines, more often then not, make significantly more power than 6 cylinder setups, and 6 cylinders usually make more than 4 cylinders. Although a horsepower rating is a good indication of how fast a car is, other factors such as drive train also come into play.
Drive train is broken up into front, rear, and all wheel drive vehicles. Traditionally,
American sports cars are rear wheel drive while most Japanese imports are either front or all wheel drive. Rear wheel drive allows the wheels to push the car rather than pull, which in turn allows the car to get moving faster on dry surfaces. Cars with high horsepower ratings and front wheel drive experience a term known as “wheel-hop”. This means that the front wheels do not feel the entire weight of the vehicle
This topic of discussion has frustrated many car enthusiasts over the years as the market for automobiles becomes even more cluttered with dozens of different makers. The general categories are that of domestic automobiles, which are those made by companies owned and operated by the USA, and imports, which is broken up into Japanese, Korean, and European cars.
Many people ask the question of which nationality makes the more quality car, but this discussion is different. The main position of this paper is that of overall performance, which is better: Imports or Domestics? For comparison sake, European cars will not be closely compared because of the extreme price differences. I will be going over the aspects of power, modifications, track ability, and of course, price. Each section will be explained and a winner will be chosen for each subject.
What constitutes power in a car? Power can easily be summed up with one term: horsepower. One horsepower is an approximation of the average horse being able to do 33,000 foot pounds of work every minute. In less technical terms, theoretically the more horsepower a car makes, the faster it gets from point a to b. V8 engines, more often then not, make significantly more power than 6 cylinder setups, and 6 cylinders usually make more than 4 cylinders. Although a horsepower rating is a good indication of how fast a car is, other factors such as drive train also come into play.
Drive train is broken up into front, rear, and all wheel drive vehicles. Traditionally,
American sports cars are rear wheel drive while most Japanese imports are either front or all wheel drive. Rear wheel drive allows the wheels to push the car rather than pull, which in turn allows the car to get moving faster on dry surfaces. Cars with high horsepower ratings and front wheel drive experience a term known as “wheel-hop”. This means that the front wheels do not feel the entire weight of the vehicle