AutoCross Poll

[Thomas L. Parker]

On any given day, anything can beat anything. If you lay out a real tire eater of a course, the Miata cleans up. If you move the slalom cones out to 60 feet the F-body really starts to turn on. Go to a local corvette autocross and I guarantee you will have a lot of fun - more than the Miata's will be having!

I've autocrossed three generations of Camaro's. Been highly successful. I have one FTD with my 69 Z-28 over a field of 75 cars! It can be done.

In the back of my mind lurks a Pontiac Fiero with an LT1 and five speed with huge rubber at all four corners as my next autocross machine.

Tom

[Christopherrr]

it's been said that the new MR2 Spyder is even more balanced than the Miata...plus tons of TRD parts.

but if I had money to waste...Lotus Elise all the way...

Back to the topic...I'll take the C4

[zwrangler]

Originally posted by Jay 02 TA ws6
Honestly, the best auto-cross machine is going to be neither one of those...

I agree with this. I've seen too many auto x events where sadly big v8s like 600hp corvettes and souped up camaros and even a ferrari 360 couldn't keep up with a modded civic type r. You'd think with the engineering perfection and price of a stock ferrari that it would keep up but it actually couldn't hold its ground at all. I think f-bodies really aren't meant for tight cornering like in auto x events so ..... I'd get something smaller and easier to get around those tight corners if i was in your shoes.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

As far as F-bodies go, I read an article about 3 years ago. They were using a 99 3.8 Camaro on an autocross course as well as a Z-28. The 3.8 was going through the course faster than the Z everytime!

[Mirroredshades]

Well the Miata/CRX ideas have merit b/c my budget is going to be seriously low. I have a couple of buddies that do BMW club events and I'd like to be competitive with them. I don't want to use my daily driver b/c I want to thrash whatever I build.

I could buy a CRX for dirt but I don't know a hill of beans about their motors. How much would I have to spend to get a CRX's engine competitive?

I'm assuming the suspension mods would be about the same in cost as any other machine.

[zwrangler]

Originally posted by Mirroredshades
Well the Miata/CRX ideas have merit b/c my budget is going to be seriously low. I have a couple of buddies that do BMW club events and I'd like to be competitive with them. I don't want to use my daily driver b/c I want to thrash whatever I build.

I could buy a CRX for dirt but I don't know a hill of beans about their motors. How much would I have to spend to get a CRX's engine competitive?

I'm assuming the suspension mods would be about the same in cost as any other machine.

I got you covered on the crx dude. A good friend of mine just got his crx from the shop this week. Its a 1989 crx and he's built it specially for auto x. He's put in a b18c5 type r engine out of a honda integra which pushes around 220hp with the headers and exhaust on. This is one seriously fast car man, it spins the wheels on every single gear change right from 1st to 5th. He's also fitted adjustable coilovers and light weight racing rims. Oh, he also had to replace the rear axle to handle the extra power. Thats all hes done so far and the car is stunning as a performer. Its got super lightweight and good performance and stability thanks to the new engine and suspension. I'd definitely recommend a crx or a civic as auto x cars. .... if yuo got the cash, s2000's are also pretty damn quick around the tracks. hope i've helped.

[casey02ws6]

Fiero GT? Cheap. Mid-engine - small and light.

[CorollaRacer]

Originally posted by Mirroredshades
Well the Miata/CRX ideas have merit b/c my budget is going to be seriously low. I have a couple of buddies that do BMW club events and I'd like to be competitive with them. I don't want to use my daily driver b/c I want to thrash whatever I build.

I could buy a CRX for dirt but I don't know a hill of beans about their motors. How much would I have to spend to get a CRX's engine competitive?

I'm assuming the suspension mods would be about the same in cost as any other machine.

Don't worry about the motor. It has 125 hp, that's enough. Suspension is 30x more important.

[Mirroredshades]

Thanx Corolla! Seriously good news and a slight bummer. Good news is that I know I can get a CRX for dirt. Slight bummer is that a REALLY nice Miata went for dirt last week at the auction I was at, I almost got it.

Cool.

How hard is it to stick an Acura motor into one of those things?

[CorollaRacer]

Originally posted by Mirroredshades
Thanx Corolla! Seriously good news and a slight bummer. Good news is that I know I can get a CRX for dirt. Slight bummer is that a REALLY nice Miata went for dirt last week at the auction I was at, I almost got it.

Cool.

How hard is it to stick an Acura motor into one of those things?

Not at all.

The CRX is built on the civic platform, which in turn underpinned the Acura Integra. All you need is engine mounts and maybe an ECU.

[CorollaRacer]

Here's an article on it. Click on the link to the pdf to view the whole artice.

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/te...scc_swapguide/

[Thomas L. Parker]

Okay. We are comparing apples and oranges and bananas here. A very tight parking lot course favors very small cars. They run a shorter course than we do and that's a fact. We have classes of cars to address this problem.

Lay out a corvette type course and you will hear the little cars ing because the course now favors the high horse machines.

Now, start thinking about this fellow F-body types - electric! EV1 would out accelerate a Miata. Instant torque. Get rid of the high weight battery pack and you have the makings for real neck snapping performance. It's coming and not as far away as we would like to think!

Tom

[CorollaRacer]

Originally posted by Thomas L. Parker
Okay. We are comparing apples and oranges and bananas here. A very tight parking lot course favors very small cars. They run a shorter course than we do and that's a fact. We have classes of cars to address this problem.

Lay out a corvette type course and you will hear the little cars ing because the course now favors the high horse machines.

Now, start thinking about this fellow F-body types - electric! EV1 would out accelerate a Miata. Instant torque. Get rid of the high weight battery pack and you have the makings for real neck snapping performance. It's coming and not as far away as we would like to think!

Tom

Not a terrible idea, but by the same token, EV1s are very hard to acquire these days. As for the "Layout" suggestion, that doesn't work very often, as most autocross circuits, at the local or regional level, are set up in tight cones. There's the SCCA and NASA courses, but those can get pricey quickly. The C4 isn't a terrible idea, but the 4th gen F-body just doesn't have the transitional speed to deal with the switchbacks at the speed the CRXs can.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Only problem with the EV-1 is in the link below:

http://ev1-club.power.net/



You see, they were all on lease. GM is ending the program and is sending the cars to the wrecker. The only good news is that 80% of the batteries and 100% of the body/panels/frame are recycleable.

I believe GM did say they could do 0-30 in 3 sec.. Also they had a drag coefficient of .19. Compare that to a Honda Insight (.25) and Toyota Prius (.29). Jap advantage my buttox!!

[Mirroredshades]

Are you geeks really talking about electric cars on my autocross thread? If I took the blade off my riding mower I could probably cut the cones as well as a prius.