my 88 gxl doesn't have leather seats

 

wierd, wonder if the leather ones were worn and someone found good cloth and swapped them...

 

I don't think so cause when i bought it it had 80K on it, course now at 101K water seal broke

I guess anything is possible with the seats though, i have a love/hate relationship with the maroon interior

 

i have had 2 gxls neither had leather
one s4 and one s5

 

doesn't matter, i've seen cars with 40k on them that the seats were demolished on and some 300k miles cars that the seats looked new on. it actually depends on how large someone is and/or how annoyingly someone gets in and out of their car.

but the S4 GXL didn't just come with leather seats, it was an option.

 

regardless thats a nice car, the cheap bros on this site say they would not pay that for it because they like crap pails.
Its worth the money if everything checks out. Interior work, paint, everything looks really good it would cost you a lot of time and money to try to restore one to that level

 

IMO? The S4 4-lug base without the sunroof is more desirable than the S4 GXL. But I'm biased towards road racing and autocross. The 4-lug base is the the lightest FC ever made. How much lighter? About 110lbs lighter than a S4 GXL. Remove the backseat, remove the AC, install a lightweight exhaust, get a lightweight battery and the car will be around 2380 lbs. IE: Better power to weight than a Miata.

Everyone hates on the 4-lug brakes and its a general assumption that the 5-lug brakes are an "upgrade"... but where's the proof? With equal grade pads and equally sized tires, a 4-lug car will stop better than a 5-lug car unless you're talking extended track abuse. The 4-lug setup is lighter, period. The 5-lug has larger rotors that can take more heat before they fade.

Just throwing this out there as food for thought.

 

Patterned velour was standard thus leather was optional (info found in the sticky under 88 GXL).

 

My '91 coupe had black leather seats.

 

My FC started out as an 86 Luxury. That meant it was a 4 lug base car with a sunroof, power mirrors and a base cloth interior. It did not even have bins. AC was added but it has manual steering. Mine would have been the 2nd lightest FC you could buy aside from the 86 base/sport model.

The original owner who I bought it from put in a LSD and Turbo 5 lug brakes from an '88 GTU. if you have stock levels of power the 4 lug stuff is ok. Beyond that you'll want the Turbo brakes. At 400 WHP I found the limit of the Turbo brakes on the track.

 

come to a stop from a buck twenty or so and tell me how great those old little brakes feel lol

 

Try getting to a buck twenty in an NA FC....

 

It took me 2 days.

 

Thats where mine stops and i need to hit 5th, then its like i turned the cruise on lol

 

When I first got my NA FC I worked very early in the morning and had a ~5mile straight all to myself every morning.

128mph indicated with headlights down/123mph indicated with headlights up.


I guess my point was-
If you have a long enough straight to get an NA FC up to 120mph you probably have room to brake down from speed.

Its not like a turbo RX-7 where you can get to 120mph squirting between corners on a country road or 120mph from a stop in the 1/4mile.

My auto RX-8 struggles to get to 110mph and I love it- so not making a judgement agains NA FCs. NA FCs are well balanced cars in my opinion.

 

^agreed. As SE on phone dials was my 1st FC. The one that really started the obsession.

Driving a slower car at the limit is sometimes more fun that doing 120 between corners and lighting up the brakes every 15 seconds. That's why the Miata was so damn popular when it came out. It's a barrel of monkeys to toss around

 

you can...
Just look between the seats!..!
Your change falls out of your pocket every time you get in it so it adds up quick!

 

ok ok stop from 80

i wont mention the speed I had to slow down from thats when I said I really should update these brakes. That doesnt always just mean going big and expensive, just means overhauling what you have especially if a lot of it is original on a low mileage car

 

Wow a stock S4 must really struggle to hit 120. I could hit 120 without much problem even on my old motor with the stock port. Even hit 140 once. I did have a full exhaust though. Maybe the 4.3 rear helps as well but I had a buddy with a S5 vert with a similar engine setup but with 6port sleeves removed and with about 200lbs took out of the car said he hit 140 before(in 4th started loosing speed when he went to 5th). I guess some extra power and 1k more rpm make all the difference.

 

140 in 4th? I call BS, at 120 my s4 is buzzing at me to shift, there can't be THAT huge of a difference in gearing between a s4 and s5 NA trans

 

BS, technically yes I guess, but I guess you could say no. I saw 140 on the speedometer, but going by the below formula on Racing Beat's site I was probably going 137.8mph. Rounded up that's 140 . This is with a 4.3 rear end.

Speed (mph) =
(TC x RPM) ÷ (1056 x AR x TR)
TC: The outside rear tire circumference measured in inches.
AR: Rear axle ratio (Ring & Pinion).
TR: Transmission gear ratio in any gear you want to use.
RPM: Engine RPM.

There is no gearing difference between the S4 and S5 4th gear. Both are a tranny ratio of 1.0 with a rear end of 4.1 except the GTUs that has a rear end of 4.3. It's all in that extra 1krpm. S5 n/a doesn't redline till 8k. Using the 205/55/16( TC = 78.23) from my car the speeds are below:
S4 4th gear @ 7000rpm = 126.4mph
S5 4th gear @ 8000rpm = 144.5mph
S5 W/4.3 rear 4th gear @ 8000 = 137.8mph

Tire Rack gives the overall diameter in the tire specs on their site so one can look up their tire size convert to circumference and see what speed they are going at any rpm in any gear. Pretty neat.

Rotary Tech Tips: Flywheels, Ring & Pinions, Driveshafts

 

ok, I see now, you had two things against me, I still have the stock GXL 15s, and the 4.1 rear end, so yes, I can see 20 mile difference with those two factors, I thought we were still talking bone stock, and not a GTUs, that changes everything

 

Yeah I'd say it's mostly the extra 1000rpm and not being stock. Looking at tire rack the S4 205/60/15 is less than an inch smaller in circumference. In theory if you could rev to 8k it would come up to 143.2mph.

 

well......I COULD rev to 8K........

 

That thing is clean. I would pay the asking price.