This is the finale of my tribute to the NASCAR 2007 season. We have finally come to the Subaru, Nissan and Mitsubishi line of performance vehicles and they hold some nice choices for the import markets.

Subaru

photo from automobilemag.com

The infamous WRX- Looks like your grandpa’s family sedan with as many scoops, spoilers and wings as a 16 year-old teenager could duck tape onto it, yet runs like the devil after eating jalapeños for three days straight. The Subaru WRX is a no joke vehicle for the performance enthusiast. You won’t see any of these here wings and scoops blowing off at highway speeds as they cars are truly designed to be driven and driven hard. With 13.5 psi of turbo boost, the 2007 WRX 2.5 liter engine clears darn near 250 horsepower and this is coupled with all-wheel drive which means that not only will you be popular at the stoplights, but you will also be rather popular in heavy snow storms.

Nissan

photo from classicresto.com

Nissan has come a long way towards NASCAR type performance since its very early days. Not to say that the 280Z was any joke, but the 350Z is quite a step up from the old in my book.

photo from zcars.com

350Z- Nissan offers a performance tuned 350 Z that would make almost any NASCAR enthusiast grin during their daily commutes to and from work and then grin even wider while at the weekend track! So does a 350Z have 350 horsepower like the Shelby Mustang 500 has… well, 500 horses? No, not exactly, but its 306 horsepower can be translated into 350 without too much problem. In stock form you are looking at 0-60 in under 6 seconds and would have the capability of racking up one heck of a speeding ticket at 155 mph (and that’s with the limiter still intact).

Mitsubishi-

photo from theautochannel.com

Eclipse- The Mitsubishi Eclipse is just a beautiful car inside and out and thanks to an upgraded V6 engine, you are looking at a stout 260 horsepower rather than 200 as in the older GT’s. Add in a price tag under $25,000 and you have a world class laymen performance vehicle that not only performs well, but looks darn good while doing it!

photo from mobilewhack.com

Lancer Evolution- If 260 is just not enough to hold you over and you would rather listen to the high pitched whine of a turbo that the wine of your mate as you pull a corner at 80 mph, then the Lancer evolution might be your better bet. Not nearly as classically styled as the Eclipse in my books (we’re talking grandpa’s performance styled again), but it does have a mean intercooler hanging off the front and a functional hood scoop, so grandpa does have some class after all. The base engine has 286 horsepower, so you will be able to hold your own against just about any other laymen sports cars out there.

This concludes my tribute to NASCAR 2007 and all the awesome performance vehicles this year that are designed and priced for the laymen… Hallelujah!