I have both, and just bought another ic'ed car, but wouldn't have thought twice about buying another hot air if the price was right. Which is my guess for blueta (before he replys)
Really, what are the differances other than the induction, turbo and exhaust system? All the little pidly stuff doesn't amount to anything imo being its so easy to convert back and forth, like wheels, grill, etc. Its also fairly easy to do ecm, ignition, rad/fan, etc... conversions. I don't see why it'd be to hard to even switch to the single belt and acc setup on the hotair. Alky for hot airs is available, so is aftermarket turbos, headers, (selection might be small), but nevertheless... And, you can port the intake, throttlebody, etc. The only big hangup at this point in time I would think is a good aftermarket performance minded downpipe.
Everything else, interior, body, tranny (basically), rearend,... is the same, except for... price, right? A hot air and Ic'd car side by side in the same shape engine and body wise, and the hot air will be cheaper, right? Thats what I've noticed at least. I don't see why a hot air would be any lessdependable from a daily driver stand point. (Just maybe a little more of a pita if you need to do work on the pass side header)
I had a long talk with 6sense last night, and he had a really good point I think. Most hot air owners, like ic'd owners aren't really into the whole performance determination state of mind. How many of the turbobuicks ever actually make it to the track? A well maintained stock or slightly modified turbobuick, be it hot air or intercooled, can still have enough performance and kick to it to make the owner more than happy.
Lee Thompsons car was in the 10's. Holy Freak! that is scary fast. Even a 11 or 12 second car is really damn fast. To my understanding, alot of the hot air guys who used to frequent here that where really putting their minds to metal and coming up with some serious times at the track, have moved on, or moved out
Crap, here comes meboss, i'll finis later