FTO & attention

[eldoce]

Been driving me FTO for over 10 years now & had owned both GPX & GR. One thing I've noticed abt the FTO though is that it is a mighty magnet for the wrong attention from other drivers esp at the stop lights. My memories include the numerous times the FTO got left in the dust of 3l+ V6/V8 Ford/Holden bogan revheads, motorbikes, super riceboy imports (Supras, Skylines) & once even a bloody 1982 911T Porsche driven by an old geezer.

The FTO looks way faster than it goes and just riles other drivers into breaking the speed limit to race you for some reason. Anybody else accustomed to this phenomenon.

[vipfto]

Yip had mine for many years now when it was is NZ no-one really batted an eyelid as they knew what it was but over here in OZ where they dont know what it is seems every set of lights if its a holden/ford or riced up car they are off in a hurry I dont bother with it my licence is too important to me

[Bennoz]

Know it all to well... especially having a red one with a whopping great VS wing on the back

Only now I've got more horsepower than rednecks in their fuly sik VN's

[I8A4RE]

Know it all to well... especially having a red one with a whopping great VS wing on the back

Only now I've got more horsepower than rednecks in their fuly sik VN's

Yup, thats why i slapped a turbo on mine....not that I street race of course.

[koolio1234]

After a while you just learn to not pay attention, just blast the music really loud and make it out like you don't notice them there

[Tippin]

The car does draw a lot of attention but i dont think it looks faster than it is ...

Not to say its a 10 second machine or anything but it matches up well against a lot of cars on the street including a fair few factory turbo cars. Everyone has their own opinions about it but personally i think the FTO is great. Ive never been left embarrased by it, much more times than not im cheering

This topic has come up a zillion times ....

[BorepYano]

i like my fto because young girls think it's hot.

the other week, had a couple of red P plater girls pay me some attention, I like to think it's because of my athletic build and well defined face... unfortunately I'm a 70kg, 5'9" guy with a beer belly + I haven't slept well for ages so I'd look somewhat like a panda with the bags under my eyes.

and a couple of days ago, came out from the movies, noticed 3 girls very close to my car, one of them "I'll drive" and pretended to get into my car. so I unlocked it for her from around the corner, then walked up, got into the passenger seat. she was stunt. ...you'd think this was a story with a "happy ending", unfortunately it is not. shortly after I found out she "was meant to go get her learners last week but didn't go" - which translates to: I'm 16. I promptly left her alone and tried to start a fight with a guy walking past trying to impress his boyfriends by saying "that's an FTO, it's a chick's supra", replying with "thanks mate... I bet the ride your daddy paid for would be more likely to get you into their pants" (gesturing towards his male friends) is apparently a sign of aggression. pfft.

sorry, I've had my rant now. lol

[BorepYano]

back on topic,

one thing I have noticed is that it depends a lot on you as well.

when I first got the car, I noticed everyone was trying to size me up, you get the odd lancers or skylines, sometimes even rx7s speeding up to catch up to you, then try to get u to race them etc. And I couldn't understand why the hell these dickheads keep finding me.

that was yrs ago, thinking back, I realised I was much younger then and much more excited about the car, I had a relatively heavy foot, not saying that I sped much (I'm also a fast learner, after losing my license a couple of times I've learnt lol), I just keep taking corners fast and accelerating up to the speed limit fast. So that's probably why I drew so much attention.

Where as now that I'm more calm (still give her a bit at times, but am more careful about when and where), I've noticed a lot less unwanted attention from bogans and ricers.

[I8A4RE]

Seriously i have never had any unwanted attention (except cops) but in saying that i never just hang out places on a fri/sat night like maccas or the broadie carpark.

[J]

Where as now that I'm more calm (still give her a bit at times, but am more careful about when and where), I've noticed a lot less unwanted attention from bogans and ricers.

could not agree more.

i always think to myself, the fto is a trouble magnet, but really it hasnt caused me allot of grief from others. i get pulled over allot but cops seem to know what the fto is capable of and take it as a nice cruiser instead of the drop your nuts racer, so ive had no problems there.


i'll get the occasional red p plater (in his mirage/lancer) who will stare at me from across the lane then give it a rev. Every single time, i have a nice tune through the speakers, a cigarette in the left hand.... im relaxed and chill so really..... why should i care

[eldoce]

i'll get the occasional red p plater (in his mirage/lancer) who will stare at me from across the lane then give it a rev. Every single time, i have a nice tune through the speakers, a cigarette in the left hand.... im relaxed and chill so really..... why should i care

Aye, glad I am right in my rather, as a mate quoted, "docile" reaction to being "challenged" then. Lets face it, the key to longevity in FTO drivers, is to not pick stop-light races we can't win & have a great stereo for the "distraction" so as to pretend not to see open challenges. A DVD player & sound system were what I quickly obtained after realising that FTO's looks is heaps ahead of its "grand" touring performance, or lack of it. When I got mine back in '99, the car was still bloody rare but a major attraction at stoplights and carparks with the mandatory keying incidents a couple of times a year, even in the many "wealthier" Vic burbs.

TBH the FTO GR pickup is quite bad. Faster than a Toyota Camry but not by much.
The GPX was a tad better, grunty & all, but like all FTOs consistently attracting the attention of way more powerful cars and then eating their dust. I swear, IQ pts get dropped whenever the FTO shows up becoz it seems suddenly such bogan arseholes don't seem to understand that 3.5l, V6/V8s, turbo are heaps more powerful & faster than a V6, 2.0l, non-turbo pretty car.

[mosti]

i'll get the occasional red p plater (in his mirage/lancer) who will stare at me from across the lane then give it a rev. Every single time, i have a nice tune through the speakers, a cigarette in the left hand.... im relaxed and chill so really..... why should i care

Aye, glad I am right in my rather, as a mate quoted, "docile" reaction to being "challenged" then. Lets face it, the key to longevity in FTO drivers, is to not pick stop-light races we can't win & have a great stereo for the "distraction" so as to pretend not to see open challenges. A DVD player & sound system were what I quickly obtained after realising that FTO's looks is heaps ahead of its "grand" touring performance, or lack of it. When I got mine back in '99, the car was still bloody rare but a major attraction at stoplights and carparks with the mandatory keying incidents a couple of times a year, even in the many "wealthier" Vic burbs.

TBH the FTO GR pickup is quite bad. Faster than a Toyota Camry but not by much.
The GPX was a tad better, grunty & all, but like all FTOs consistently attracting the attention of way more powerful cars and then eating their dust. I swear, IQ pts get dropped whenever the FTO shows up becoz it seems suddenly such bogan arseholes don't seem to understand that 3.5l, V6/V8s, turbo are heaps more powerful & faster than a V6, 2.0l, non-turbo pretty car.

Mate if I wanted to f****** sail around I'd buy boat. Bogan's drive their 1990's commodore boats around.A 3.5L v6 is indeed a bigger engine but a bogan commodore weighs more and handles like a boat. Oh and also, the 2.0L V6 mivec pulls in more kW
I'm quite sure most FTO's would leave 1990's model commodores for dead.

[J]

i'll get the occasional red p plater (in his mirage/lancer) who will stare at me from across the lane then give it a rev. Every single time, i have a nice tune through the speakers, a cigarette in the left hand.... im relaxed and chill so really..... why should i care

Aye, glad I am right in my rather, as a mate quoted, "docile" reaction to being "challenged" then. Lets face it, the key to longevity in FTO drivers, is to not pick stop-light races we can't win & have a great stereo for the "distraction" so as to pretend not to see open challenges. A DVD player & sound system were what I quickly obtained after realising that FTO's looks is heaps ahead of its "grand" touring performance, or lack of it. When I got mine back in '99, the car was still bloody rare but a major attraction at stoplights and carparks with the mandatory keying incidents a couple of times a year, even in the many "wealthier" Vic burbs.

TBH the FTO GR pickup is quite bad. Faster than a Toyota Camry but not by much.
The GPX was a tad better, grunty & all, but like all FTOs consistently attracting the attention of way more powerful cars and then eating their dust. I swear, IQ pts get dropped whenever the FTO shows up becoz it seems suddenly such bogan arseholes don't seem to understand that 3.5l, V6/V8s, turbo are heaps more powerful & faster than a V6, 2.0l, non-turbo pretty car.

no mate, lets make somthing clear.

1. i do not have a ''great stereo system'' to ''distract'' me. im talking about the mentality of the driver behind the wheel.

like said in my post why should i care at all if the bloke next to me wants to race... what can come out of it? just to measure up who's got the biggest dick out on the road? sorry my ego isnt that big.

id rather not risk my safety (and others) just to prove my car goes as fast as it looks.


honestly if you need a whopping stereo to distract you from street racing your no good behind the wheel then a blind 90year old.

2. i could not give a flying fk about how my fto, wether it was a gr, gpx or gpvr, matches up to the next car. really... if it mattered that much too me, id be driving something else.

2L, v10, v8, twin turbo... so what, doesnt matter what it is. heck anybody with a 1.8L v4 can be a hoon on the road no matter how much power it has.

the longeviety of a driver is to NOT RACE AT ALL on public roads, wether you can win or loose.

i dont see why people compare one car to another, try to match them up and see which one is faster. just apreciate the fto for what it is, what limits it has and what it can do and you'll never be dissapointed

[nvr2low]

I race sh*t loads but only ever on the drag strip and round a race track

[eldoce]

like said in my post why should i care at all if the bloke next to me wants to race... what can come out of it? just to measure up who's got the biggest dick out on the road? sorry my ego isnt that big.

Actually the FTO's a "performance" looker so the FTO's an unwitting contestant in a dick-measuring contest, whether you like it or not, it seems.

id rather not risk my safety (and others) just to prove my car goes as fast as it looks.

Nobody's talking drag-racing, drifting or any nut-dropping streetrace here. Merely the pickup. No offense, but if getting a decent timing for a 0-60km/h automatically endangers other people's lives, then, it's time to get the car fixed, brush up on the driving or not drive at all.

honestly if you need a whopping stereo to distract you from street racing your no good behind the wheel then a blind 90year old.

Street-racing in an FTO?? Heavens no, the FTO couldn't do a half-assed street race even if you wanted it to.

So, most of the time I try to courteously yet nonchalantly turn down invitations, being the polite guy that I am and not wishing for beercans to be thrown my way because either way, the FTO normally ends up eating dirt whether or not I try to "race" them. I was merely discussing the various ingenious ways of avoiding such situations. Apart from acting as a deaf driver, the whopping stereo is just another face-saving measure that one could use to pretend not to notice challenging stares & cat-calls from the other cars. It's almost a tradition for most vanilla FTO drivers, it seems. I'm being real honest here - except against the occasional non-sup Camry, Starlet, Hyundai, Lancer "racers", I know the FTO ain't gonna to outpace anybody by a longshot unless those other cars were driven by blind 90 year olds with arthritis.

i dont see why people compare one car to another, try to match them up and see which one is faster. just apreciate the fto for what it is, what limits it has and what it can do and you'll never be dissapointed

Funny, I've had me car for over 10 years now & I still grimace each time I am invited to a race at the stoplight. Guess it's def the ego, after all, most drivers of performance lookers're egotistical in a way. If I had the dough, I'd love to mod the FTO performance up to the level of its good looks. IMO, that's the joy of a good-looking grand tourer. With anything else, I'm sure the Camry salesman's standing by to help.
Just saying.

[I8A4RE]

But at the end of the day, if you feel ashamed, embarressed, humiliated becuase you think you cant beat dick heads who try to race you at a intersection. Then get a different car that will make you feel more impowered...... But then what, when the next bogan comes up and wants to drag, will you? If you dont, that bogan will be thinking exactly the same thing as he drives off, if you were in the fto. So the only way to prove your manhood would be to drag him, in which case your idiot.

So either way i see it, getting another car is just as a loose/loose situation as being in the fto to start with.

[nathan]

IMO, the fto goes really well for what it is, at the strip ive put down my older brothers 5 Speed Manual BA XR6 falcon,

was a good effort out of a manual GR

and if you are being beaten by a 90sumthin model commodore, so thing is wrong lol

and personally i LOVE the way my fto looks, chicks supra or not, ive had women talk to me over my friend dwayne in his 1996 white supra

[eldoce]

If you dont, that bogan will be thinking exactly the same thing as he drives off, if you were in the fto. So the only way to prove your manhood would be to drag him, in which case your idiot.

Your advice'd be great for newbie owners, mate.
I bought my car with an idea of what it could and could not do - just didn't think it'd garner that much attention from bikies, bogan & riceboy racers. The FTO could look bloody great (++ for kits) & could provide a tad more exciting ride than a Camry. However, it COULD NOT provide any credible street-racing. Of course street racing in an FTO is a lose-lose situation. Firstly, the FTO would be outpowered by most cars commonly used for street racing or even drifting. Secondly, to accept the challenge, is to "openly" lose & potentially run the risk of copper's attention. That's why it's always great to meet challenges from other drivers with "distraction" from the "whopping" stereo when playing the deaf driver gets boring & it does, after 5 years of doing it, everyday on the road.

and if you are being beaten by a 90sumthin model commodore, so thing is wrong lol

lol actually, I've been out accelerated by Magnas, vanilla 90s Commodores and marginally by Holden/Ford taxis in my GR and pretty much anything with a greater than 2 litre engine & trust me, it's nothing to do with my driving skills or problems in the FTO.

Unlike the GPX, the poor GR sounded like a strangled chicken when doing high-revs. Apparently, that's quite normal I'm told. But yea, vanilla version lancers (not GSRs) & hyundais definitely don't stand a chance.

and personally i LOVE the way my fto looks, chicks supra or not, ive had women talk to me over my friend dwayne in his 1996 white supra

I guess that's why I still hang on to the FTO. Girls just love the "cute" look whereas Supras do look a bit on the "pudgy" side, which is prolly why they're not as popular. You know how cars're like gals & nobody likes a fat chick.

Still, for the price of the FTO (& it's bloody expensive for just good looks) & its known mechanical deficiencies, it ought to have a zippier engine. Maybe, like the GSRs? How cool would that be? So, my only gripe is that for the money I am paying for a pretty grand tourer, I would prefer to be able to outaccelerate more than just Camrys, Hyundais & Lancers, when the mood strikes me. Just saying you know. Still, am a FTO aficonado, so don't flame me hey?

[mosti]

lol actually, I've been out accelerated by Magnas, vanilla 90s Commodores and marginally by Holden/Ford taxis in my GR and pretty much anything with a greater than 2 litre engine & trust me, it's nothing to do with my driving skills or problems in the FTO.

Unlike the GPX, the poor GR sounded like a strangled chicken when doing high-revs. Apparently, that's quite normal I'm told. But yea, vanilla version lancers (not GSRs) & hyundais definitely don't stand a chance.

Well let me some it up for you mate. You either have something wedged behind the accelerator restricting you from planting your foot all the way down or your car is SERIOUSLY FU****.

[FknTopOne]

Dare I say it, because it's been said on many threads before, but there's probably a few reasons why we choose to drive FTO's.

It's beyond most of us to own the fastest thing on the road, so there's always going to be something that is faster.

I've owned mine for about 9 years, and I have hardly noticed any unwanted attention at all. Probably 'cause im not twisting my head around to see who's looking at me everytime I pull up at the lights. I usually keep my focus on the road and traffic and I really just plain and simple enjoy driving.

The bonus for owning an FTO for me is that (fingers crossed) it's reliable, it's a decent driving experience, and generally most other people that I have met who drive them are switched on, non d*ckhead types.

I have not met a girl yet, who has not had a positive thing to say about my ride, but actually I do find it a bit embarrassing, after all it's just a car and it's not the be all and end all of my personality.