I think there should be an opening page which has info about the car in general, news, and products (e.g. is300.net, g35driver.com) because it would seemingly make the site more professional, and would allow for more sponsors on the opening page which would generate income to improve the site, yet be unobtrusive when actually browsing through forums.

this site has sponsors? i never noticed any ads or anything to indicate that this wasn't an indepently maintained site

BIG changes are coming ... what you're describing is a portal page. We will have one, and hopefully one that will tie rx8club.com and rx7club.com together logically.