Eclipse vs Jetta

I don't drive an eclipse, but a buddy of mine has a 1997 Elcipse GS 5 speed with the 140hp Chrysler Motor. He was driving the other day and his motor broke. The mechanic said something slipped in it and it's causing a clunking sound in the motor. The mechanic said that the motor is a "disposable" motor and that since it's still under warranty, it'll be replaced for free with a new motor. Anyways, the car was stock except for an intake, not a cool air intake, just a regular air intake. Another friend of mine has a 2001 Jetta 1.8 turbo automatic. They wanna race. The eclipse has 140hp, 130 torque, and the Jetta has 150hp, 155 torque. Does my friend's eclipse stand any chance whatsoever against the Jetta after he gets a new engine put in?

probably not because the jetta has about 180 hp and 174 torque not 150 hp and 155 torque

No, it's a 2001 VW Jetta, the first year that a turbo was an option on a Jetta.
In 2001 and 2002, it had 150hp and 155 lb/ft. torque. In 2003, they upped the
power to 180hp.

your right but in 2002 is when the upped the power. since the jetta is an automatic your friend will get him off the line and probably hold him off if he can drive it right

Thanks for the reply. I asked that question at a Honda site and they said that
there was no way a 5 speed 4 banger eclipse GS will even hang with a turbo 2001 Jetta....stock for stock, so I thought I'd ask some Eclipse owners what they thought.

The eclipse can take a jetta turbo automatic. And it won't be close either. If you ever ridden in a jetta turbo auto, audi a4 1.8t auto, or passat 1.8t auto.....they are *horrible* on take off and gear shifting. Despite all the low-end torque those engines produce, the automatics on those cars just aren't up to the engine. And i don't blame VW for that either since those auto tranny's are meant for the "non-performance" minded driver. A jetta 5 speed will take the eclipse, but the auto's aren't meant for drag racing at all. I'm serious, tell you friend to take you out on his jetta and do a run....you'll see how "economized" the tranny is.

Yo my buddy is a VW fanatic...1.8T has 175 to the fly...theres no way your buddy stands a chance in hell....come on..5-speed v.s auto to begin with...ur buddy needs a GST or a GSX...then he can blow his buddies dorrs off...By the way my '97 GST is for sale...lots of GReddy upgrades...

I wouldnt say he doesnt have a chance.. I have raced alot Jetta.. they aint that fast.. I usually beat them by 2 cars length.. I got a 01 Spyder GS...
My friend got a 90 Jetta Wolfberg Edition, I raced him 5 times. ad I always end up 1 car length ahead..

Well im no VW enthusiast...i hate the little damn german junkers...but your talking a '90 jetta...thats almost when they used to call them a "fox" i believe...that little 2.0 8-valve is pushing prolly like 110-115 h.p...id hope you would win...

why would the jetta having an auto make it so great. The power loss through an auto can be a big disadvantage against a 5 speed with a driver who knows how to shift. Mind you, knowing how to shift has little to do with moving the stick. Its all about knowing when to shift (below red line) and how to make accurate high speed shifts without damageing the car or loosing power through the shift.

Practice takeoffs with you 5 speed. find the right rpm to shift at... should be somewhere around 1 grand below red line. anything above that and you would be making more power in the next gear...

Hey guys, the Jetta is a 2001 with the 1.8 dohc turbo. It puts out 150hp and 155tq, it's the first year that the turbo came out for VW and it doesn't put 180hp to the fly b/c that's the 2002 and up models. I was in the Jetta when the guy was doing 0-60's. He somehow managed to pull a 6.5 second 0-60 with nothing but an exhaust system upgrade. Those things are only supposed to do like 9 or 8 secs. The eclipse is a 5 speed 140hp GS. My buddy in the eclipse shifts that thing like fast and the furious....redlining every gear. Both are quick...so I don't know. But thanks for the input guys.

whats the lb/hp ratio of the jetta?

AUTO to 5-speed matters big time...Not many kids know how to race, half of them say they do, but they don't know the first thing about racing. And if you say you know how to race, you should know that any good racer uses an automatic car. Not many people win drag championships using manual cars...and especially since your more at risk to blow your motor by missing a shift, which increases the possibility of bending a valve.

BTW, are you talking 0-60mph or 0-60 feet? I can understand the 0-60feet being 6.5 seconds(altough that is relatively slow for many modern cars), but 0-60mph is gonna be more than 7 seconds definitely. That little audi 1.8t can rev, but the auto will shift before it has time to make any good power. I like the 1.8t cars, the qauttro's remind me of the old DSM days, factory turbo and AWD. I'd say VW or Audi should revamp the platform to compete with the Evo or STI, but then again, they own Porsche so they could probably care less(the Carrera GT is frickin cool!).

Well, technically GreddyGST, you are right. Most racers use a form of an automatic. However it's closer to a clutchless manual shift transmission than a fully automatic transmission. Pro-racers such as funnycar guys and nitro cars use the clutchless shift tranny since the manual design can hold more power and torque than the automatic design can. The way they shift is somewhat like a straight down pattern as opposed to an H pattern. The downside to this type of tranny is that it's pretty much scrap metal after a few runs. Now, since there are few full blown race teams around, the nominal racers like Buschur or some of his contemporaries use the ever popular Powerglide tranny. It's newest version is essentially a 2 gear automatic tranny. These racers can attest to 7 second 1/4miles and traps speeds over 170mph. However, this transmission is pretty much a "race only" tranny; unless the engine is somewhere relevant in it's powerband, then the car's not going anywhere. But to point out, Shepard still uses a modified dsm Manual Transmission, many of the big time Supra racers use the getrag Manual trannys that came stock in the mkiv's. All these guys can produce sub-11 second 1/4 mile times and they still use the manual transmission. Yeah, there are a few odd balls out there that use a factory automatic for racing, but it's not generally the norm.

all i know is that the eclipse should be able to take the jetta..... my buddy has a 02 VW golf gti (v6, carbon hood, intake, exahust, manual 6 speed) and my *little 4 banger* can hang with him about half way thru 3rd gear before he really starts to pull on me, i drove it, trust me its friggin fast........... and he does know how to drive, he owned a gs and a gst before he got the gti, only got rid of the eclipse cause he blew the motor..........

everone uses manual tranny. Dude in 90% of your drag cars they have manual. Nascar manual. evan F1 they have manual.

i thought F1 used a clutchless manual, the steering wheel pedal shifter isnt it, with the electronic clutch??????

In funny car races and any other cars that have over 1,000hp, they have
to use an automatic tranny cause a person couldn't possibly shift that fast.
You'd be shifting gears every half a second. They do the quarter mile faster
than EVO 8's can do 0-60mph. And yes, the Jetta some how managed a 0-60mph
time of about 6.5 seconds. He started the car and put it in Drive 1 and shifted up to
Drive 2 and then into Overdrive...that helped him rev up higher or something. That
Jetta might be an automatic, but as soon as the turbo spools up, it isn't afraid of
hitting the redline. I don't think it has a choice actually, cause when that boost comes
in, it flys. By the way, are these 4 cylinder Eclipse motors not suppossed to last to 100,000 miles? Cause my friend's spun a bearing at 91,000 and the mechanic said that
Eclipses had disposable motors in them. What does that mean?

if the auto is redlining then it isnt set up right. you actually loose power close to redline. and dragsters dont have automatics persay. they have ratchet shifters. clutchless sequential. basically they just pul the lever back and it clicks to the next gear. push back forward and repeat. this is the kind of transmission that most racers put in their cars. kind of a half breed.

you see this option on many of todays luxery sports cars. ie cadilac lexus bmw. put the auto back in a slot and it immitates this setup.

as to the engines... mine has 135K. but they had some design issues that would cause the crankshafts to walk and spin bearings. rebuilds of the 2g engines generally put the 1g oil squirters in and remove the clutch start condition to alleviate the problem. so if a mechanic doesnt know that much about the 4g63... then he might say that.

Let me ask you something. I have an 86 Honda Prelude 5 speed, and it has 165,000 miles on the clock. It has spun the main bearing and it's the 2nd time it's done this. I wanna put money into this car and fix it up into a solid daily driver. I know somebody who can put in the new main bearing kit($36) for cheap. Should I let him put in a new bearing or should I go the rebuild route? Since it's spun 2 bearings, I've been told it might do it again and should put in a new motor or rebuild it. How much would a rebuild be you think?

those are fun cars... Guy from school had one. Question is what is causing the bearing failure? look into that first. look at the old bearings look at the wear marks. see if they look like normal wear and tear or maybe something else is the cause. id suggest a rebuild... but thats only because it is less likely to fail. But money is always an issue.

Thanks for the reply wildwest....most people that don't like Hondas like
Preludes, cause they're always the nicest of the Hondas. I've heard someone say that a Prelude shouldn't be a Honda, cause it deserves better. LOL. I might do the rebuild thing, if I can afford it and my uncle who is a great mechanic says the new bearing won't work. Someone told me that it could be a bad oil pump, but the guy I got the car from said it was fine. I drove a friend of mine's 86 Prelude auto. (that's who gave me the car) It was rather peppy for a 110hp car, and could turn on a dime. The reason those older preludes have some zest in them is b/c they are so lightweight. They weight less than 2400 lbs. Since you've driven one, do you think it would be worth rebuilding the motor and keeping the car? I know Hondas are very reliable, so it might be worth it. Plus, the body is in super great conditon, it was pampered or something and it's a sharp looking car. One more question for ya. I got a 92 LeBaron GTC with a Mitsubishi V6 auto. The V6 has like 141hp and 171ft/lb torque. The Lude has 110hp and 114ft/lb torque. The LeBaron weighs 3010 lbs. and the Lude weighs about 2400lbs. This may be a really dumb question, but by looking at those numbers, do you think the prelude would stand a chance against my LeBaron as far as acceleration? The LeBaron is a torquey beast and does a burnout just from a standstill takeoff, but it's super heavy. Which would you think is faster?

the Lude would probly win in a 0-60ft. race because of the lighter weight, thats how the car was designed, but in a 1/4 the LeBaron would most likely outrun the Lude due to the higher amount of hp/tq, a buddy of mine had a 88 lude and he smoke me thru the first about 75-80 ft. then when i hit the powerband in third i just flew past him, my spdr has about the same amount of hp/little less tq than that v6, thats why i say the lebaron would most likely win...........

the prelude is quick but excels in handling... i raced the guy from school when he was getting her back from the dealership after blowing a cv joint. I had him from first gear on. But 100 hp makes a big diff... Id say the prelude though for a real short race, as long as you learn to launch it. and stay away from low profile tires. after 40mph i think the lebaron would catch back up.

the weight diff is just too great.

Mitsubishi knows how make a great V6 don't they? Those Honda V6's have lots of hp, but no torque. My 3.0 Mitsu V6 has like 141hp and 171lb/ft. of torque. That's actually more hp and torque than a V6 camaro of the same year, plus my car weighs less. My LeBaron's no 10 second car, or a VTEC killer, but it can straight up haul butt. Alot of people are surprised when i tell them my car has a 6 cylinder motor, but they're even more surprised when they see it's a Mitsubishi. It's cool the way mitsubishi and Chrysler joined forces. The only down side is that they started putting chrysler auto tranny's in the eclipses and that's just no good. Chrysler makes crap auto tranny's. Mine is about to give out on me. Yeah, I figured that the lude would have me off the line, just cause my car would be spinning tires for a sec, then it would catch back up when the 141hp comes into play. Thanks for the replys guys.