ok. solo racing. why is it that the old ass hondas are so much faster with fwd? really. a guy in an old 1988 honda prelude posted far better times than most people in any class. other than driving skills, and i'm not belittling that huge factor, why do most of the hondas/acuras have the edge on auto-xing? 1. i have a turbo lag in 2nd. anyone have some insight? milo made me think when he simply said, "hondas are set-up better for auto-xing". ready, set go!
I think you hit it on the head with the driving factor. Beyond that, Honda used to have an excellent contingency program in Solo2. Many of the best drivers in the sport were in Hondas, and consequently there was a ton of development done on their setup. With about 30 minutes of research you can find "the" autocross setup for most Hondas. This knowledge is simply not available for most cars, including our own.
Hondas are dirt cheap also, which is why I got mine, and choose to make it my autocross vehicle over the evo. I can abuse the car without worrying. I bought it already fairly well setup, with koni SA shocks and hoosiers for 1500. -- Brian
your car is made to run through the woods at 70mph off the showroom floor, theirs is made to cruise through the grocery parking lot at 50mph and steal your space quickly. Therefore the turn-in response is much greater and transfers to the auto-x circuit...sadly you were at a disadvantage from the start
hahaha, thats' just funny. so weight is the main factor. i guess i've never looked at the weights of the hondas. i do need to look into getting my car upto the maximum allowance of tuning. front sway and cat back exhaust. M-Chan high recommends pro-alienment and Gotsol is pushing me tward a heavy sway-bar. i'm going to run the D stock class for the whole year. i doubt i'll have the opportunity to up-grade anything that'll bump me out of stock, and i'm cool with that. is there anything else i should look into? i guess i can get a better panel filter. will removing the silencer bump me out of stock? at the local level that is. i'd like to hear my revs better.
You can upgrade your brake pads too. I'm pretty sure the silencer removal is illegal in D Stock. Oh yeah, look what I found at the ATL solo forum:
The B series Honda's have a pretty decent power to weight ratio, and believe it or not it's pretty easy to get them to kick out the tail, if you know what you're doing.
Unfortunately the WRX isn't the best car for DS, nor is the STi for AS. Personally I don't care what other people are saying about what car is good for what class, I don't think I'll ever be competitive nationally with my STi. I'm just out their to improve, have fun, and not to be last at a divisional event. If you are really serious about DS, i think the most important things are tires, konis and front sway. All of these things cost a good amount, which sometimes it's better to have a dedicated autox car. However the WRX is really competitive in STX, which requries (correct me if i'm wrong) about the same amount of money to get set up for. I really didn't go crazy with autox mods until last september when I purchased my first set of autox tires. I had about 8 events, 1 test and tune and 2 novices schools at that point and thought I was ready for the next level and the costs. I guess my point is you don't have to go crazy with maxing out your car's class in your first season. I think money spent on the upcoming novice school would give you the best improvement in your times than any modifications. Just my 2 cents. Oh and don't get discouraged by old civics, everyone gets beat by old civics!
no, no discouragement going on here. i just always have a ton of questions after i start to figure things out. i like to hear all the different points of views from the hugely different personalities on our site. what's funny, is that going in to an auto-x with a WRX, you think your king shit. then you get schooled by old ass hondas in lower classes. it's a humbling event. i'd still rather loose to an old ass hondas and drive my WRX, that'll never change. i'm with you meredith, just don't be last all i have to do is beat Rich, thetCguy, and i'm happy. even if i don't, it's all about fun for me. and now that we have the little WRXalt challenge, i/we can see how just who has the driver's edge. look out gotsol, i got my eyes on you... i plan on keeping my car for a long long time. there's plenty of time upgrade in the future.
I love my ghetto 1986 honda. Here is a pic from the last event: STi: (images copyright MeanMrBean.com) -- Brian
Randy, the way I've been driving it won't take much to beat me this year :-/ dude, you're having fun with your car that is all that counts
It was some guy at the last BMW CCA autox, acually that's Jay Parcon driving brian's CRX and Mark Davis driving my STi.
more pictures: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?storefront?b=1&c=0HSI (taken by the MeanMrBean.com guy) I didn't get to run my car, because they BMWCCA changed their sound policy from 95dB at 50ft to 95dB at 25ft... which is a big difference. I let Jay run my car in his earlier run group, and that is when they deemed it too loud... pansys... Mere driving: -- Brian