Which would you guys rather get and why...

 

There is only one thing needed to decide which one. That is what you want to do with it. If it is going to be a race car - TII If it is going to be a car that you want gobs of power in - TII If it is something you want to be reliable - 89+ N/A

 

What about for a quick daily driver that can still kill a lot of cars?

 

I was wondering about this... is a '89 N/A really that much slower than a '87 TII? TII weighs more and only has about an additional 22 hp. Does it make a huge difference?
I would probably go with '89 N/A just because the look is much more modern and the engines are better.

 

Assuming both are in good condition, I would go with the pre-89 TII. You can squeeze so much more power out of a turbo with relatively little effort compared with the N/A. The only thing about the 89 and later cars that I think is a true benefit is the exterior styling improvements. As fasr as the mechanical improvements, I am not much interested. A lot of the parts for the 89s and later cost a lot more than the pre-89 parts (look up the OMP for example). So if something breaks, it is more expensive to fix. Plus another thing I dislike about 89s are the automatic seatbelts, I hate those things. I would rather have a turbo anyway. Thats my $.02

 

The 22 hp difference though does not tell the full story, the turbo engine puts out a much better better power curve than the n/a, especially in the midrange torque area, the peak horsepower of an engine only tells about 1/4 of the story when it comes to performance, dyno charts have to be looked at to truly see how long and where a motor makes most of its power.
I agree that the TII is probably the better performance car, if you do the similar mods the TII will pickup more overall hp and respond better, 10 % of 160 hp is 16, 10% of 186 is 18.6, the usual performance upgrades will net you better perfromance gains, on the n/a there is no such improvement like the TII has of turning up the boost a bit.
I have n/a's and a TII, there is really something missing from my na's after driving the TII, and its not HP, it's torque.Max

 

In stock trims, hell yes it is a huge difference. Even if you have 2 cars with the same HP rating at the flywheel, and one is turbo and one is N/A the turbo will be faster.

I have a friend with a 10thAE TII in pretty stock form (just a DP, K&N drop in filter, and RB mufflers) and another friend with an 89 GTUs (With a huge streetported 13B, headers, no cats, N1...etc) they are almost the same speeds/hp. The guy with the GTUs did a hell of alot more work to get his as fast as the pre-89 TII

 

....hehehehe, none '92 TII owns :p

 

So would a pre 89 TII with a full RB turbo back exhaust beet a stock 89+ TII?

 

I would assume so since the Full RB Exhaust system gives you ~58hp...

 

I think 58 wheel HP is a little much, the NA kit gives 28, isn't the turbo around 40 or something??
Keep in mind the +89 also has a 1000rpm higher redline...

 

I'm really glad this thread came up. I'm searching for my FC and I've had to go through the debate of 88 T2 or 89 and later T2. I think that you should not over look the benefit of that extra 1k of RPM at red line especially for the Turbos. True it will cost you more for the later RX-7's (probably 2- 3k more), but if you are planning on keeping the car for a while and making it into a street / race car. It's the only way to go. Now if your just screwing around and going to mod it a little go with the 88 T2 and save your self the money.
Oh and the other big reason to go with a T2 over the N/A is the transmission. I put 3 transmissions on my stock N/A when I owned it. The transmission is the weakest link on the N/A FC's.
Just my .02 cents.

 

The higher redline is only on the NA cars...

Brad

 

Ditto on the 2nd Gen NA's tranny being weakest link. Syncro's just don't last worth a damn.

TII tranny drivetrain through half shafts to wheels definitly in my Vert's Stage I future.

Stage II, well the Turbo engine of course! Especially if I can resource how to get an '89 or later version main harness electricals to map to my '88 set up.

Anyone out there been successful in maping the '89+ year TII main harness to an '88, especially if to a '88 Vert? If so, please share your wisdom.

Still irritated learning ALL Japanese Verts were Turbo'd.................

 

"ok people, I've been frozen for thirty years... I'm the boss Need the info"
Well ****.
I thought that all the 89 + cars had the higher redline. I'm slightly crushed now. Thanks for the info.

 

I have had many na's, and while they were good cars, they just couldn't come close to the speed & power you can easily get from a T2! Now that I have had 2 T@'s, I doubt I could ever own a NA again. I am BOOST addicted! LOVE IT!