How're Everyone's Cars Coming Along?

The RSX is too heavy... It's like a Celica GT-S, with more torque and more weight. I couldn't get my GT-S to hook up, and the best autox RSX I've seen topped out with a 3rd place at the 2003 Atwater tour (Mark Lin, now in an 89 Si for STS...) I drove his RSX 2 weeks after the tour trophy, and it handles very well, but had some serious wheel spin issues. Oh, and I beat Mark, so I was banished from the car forever ;)

I think a Celica GT is the closet STS killer that no one has built yet... MAYBE a mini Cooper, although they are pretty heavy for their power...
 
i've heard that stiffening up the back of the RSX helps a ton, and 225s fit easily. *shrug*

i know that merely adding 205 Azenis and an MSP rear bar effectively ended wheelspin on my ES, which was worse (even w/ V700s) than on the stock-tired RSX i used to own. i don't know of anyone who has seriously prepped an RSX (or a GT-S) for STS. apparently Lin's car had frame damage and serious alignment issues (according to the discussions on sccaforums).

i know it's lighter than an MSP stock...2500 lbs in STS trim is not out of the question.

i think either one could be successful, but so far have been too expensive for anyone to jump off the 89 Si bandwagon. they also could be very course dependent (bad on small local courses, good on long, open Nats courses)
 
I was able to "steal" STS this year, when Bradford showed up for our last event on bald Falkens. Not only did I beat him (rare), but so did another guy, which left me and Bradford tied in points for the year. I entered one event more than him this year, so the tie goes to me. Bradford is kicking himself, cause he did the same thing last year in the SFR series, and ended up getting 2nd in the championship by trying to finish the season on sh*t tires. I am retiring the 2002 DX since it has over 150K miles on it already, and will be co-drivinga 1991 Acura Integra GSR next year in STS. It's not the best STS car, but with some changes I think it can beat Bradford's P5, although now he is talking about FSP and wanting to try the P5 with gummies on it. For now I guess we'll all go through "withdrawal" from auto-cross this winter. Re-hab anyone?
 
rustychops41 said:
I am retiring the 2002 DX since it has over 150K miles on it already
Click to expand...
wow. i'm at 43,000 on my '02. i thought i drove a lot. does your DX have a tach (i don't think they were standard equipment)? are you selling it?
 
Well my car is almost finished. And by finished I mean its being turned into a daily driver. I haven't autocrossed since early June and I'm pretty sure I still came in 2nd in STX locally... I'm not an SCCA member anymore and have no interest in racing again until the political bullcrap in my regions is cleared up.

My antimod list is almost complete -
No rear sway bar
OEM endlinks in the front
No Harness
Stock Springs with new bushings
Kumho daily driving tires on order (205/55/16 on my Slipstreams)
Boring as sin daily driving alignment
OEM motormounts

The only thing I'm retaining are my SS brake lines and Carbotech pads... because damn man that setup is awsome even for daily driving.

Coincidentally the new daily driving setup is also extremely condusive to rallycross... where nobody brings their micropolitical baggage and everyone gets dirty... and its over in 4 hours instead of 10.

Hope everyone does great next season. If I come back to autocross it will be in something slow and stock where the only thing I have to worry about is buying tires and driving well. I'm pining for HS... maybe a dirt slow black mini with 15" wheels or something awsomely slow like that.
 
Thanks for the harness, Tom! It's awesome, but I haven't been able to autox with it yet. I did take it to my local parkinglot and mess around some though. Have you rallycrossed the MSP yet? Got pics? Why not just autox in DS? Glad to see you're sticking around though.

~brian
 
No I'm not selling it, I need it for my daily 250 delivery route. It has no tach (dooohhh!!the only reason I regret getting a DX), but I did want the lightest model for racing. The main mods were/are RB/MP3 springs, Tokico HP's, modified AWR 19mm rear bar w/ endlinks, Injen CAI, MSP(Borla) axle-back, MSP/P5 strut tower brace, Kosei K1 TS wheels 15x7 (+38mm) and the 205/50-15 Azenis. The P5 my freind drives is much better prepped, with Ground Control coil-overs (350 lb FR, 400 lb RR), AWR's 21.5mm rear bar, MazdaSpeed 5-way adjustable struts (the green ones), and 16x7 Rota Slipstreams with the wider 215/45-16 Azenis, plus camber bolts that let him go much more radical on the alignment than I care to do for my many highway miles I drive.
 
brianmcd said:
Thanks for the harness, Tom! It's awesome, but I haven't been able to autox with it yet. I did take it to my local parkinglot and mess around some though. Have you rallycrossed the MSP yet? Got pics? Why not just autox in DS? Glad to see you're sticking around though.

~brian
Click to expand...
I was never allowed to rallycross it because my wife though I'd screw it up in some crazy mud filled accident. But now that the car is missing damn near all the things that made it good for autocross and the paint is all screwed up to hell and back anyways I think I'll get the green light to swing in the mud again. Hopefully I don't break my stereo playing old southern rock rallycrossing down by the river.

Its either that or escape from the MSP into a better daily driver.
 
dmitrik4 said:
i've heard that stiffening up the back of the RSX helps a ton, and 225s fit easily. *shrug*

i know that merely adding 205 Azenis and an MSP rear bar effectively ended wheelspin on my ES, which was worse (even w/ V700s) than on the stock-tired RSX i used to own. i don't know of anyone who has seriously prepped an RSX (or a GT-S) for STS. apparently Lin's car had frame damage and serious alignment issues (according to the discussions on sccaforums).

i know it's lighter than an MSP stock...2500 lbs in STS trim is not out of the question.

i think either one could be successful, but so far have been too expensive for anyone to jump off the 89 Si bandwagon. they also could be very course dependent (bad on small local courses, good on long, open Nats courses)
Click to expand...
I find 2500 for an RSX highly unlikely... they are about 200 lbs heavier than a Celica, and I don't think I could get a GT-S much below 2450... although it IS lighter than the MSP, I agree there...

When I drove Mark's car, the handling was very nice, as was the power, but it just didn't have the immediate 'edge' for lack of a better word that my Celica had... maybe it was just me, since I hate WRXs as well when it comes to autox, even a well prepped STX version...

I hadn't heard anything about issues with Mark's car... hmm...
 
i based the 2500 guess on:

stock RSX-S weight: 2770
stock 89 Civic SI: ~2200
STS civic: ~2000

i figure that if an old-tech, no-airbag, lil'-stock-wheel-having civic can drop 200 lbs, an RSX-S w/ huge leather-covered airbag seats and heavy stock wheels could find an extra 50-70 lbs. maybe not. *shrug*

of course, it also involves making a ~$20,000 car basically non-streetable, but...

the car i remember being discussed may not have been that car, but that name sounded familiar. in any case, i can see what you're saying- it almost feels like my Protege has a litle more of that "edge" than my RSX-S did...i just attributed it to the old shoe rubber honda calls "tires."

i hear you about the WRXs. nice power, but i'd like to turn NOW, please.
 
Does the RSX have side airbags in the seats? If so, then I don't think they can be removed for ST.

Hmmm.... the weight estimates DO make sense, but I still have trouble believing you could get that much weight out... I could, of course, be wrong...
 
yes, it does.

there was some dicussion a few months back about disallowing removal of airbag seats (to match the ban against removing airbag steering wheels), but it was pretty unpopular. personally, i'd never remove airbag seats from a street-driven vehicle...but at this point, i'm not good enough that that weight is going to make the difference. by the time i am good enough, maybe i'll be able to afford another DD. :)

at first, i disputed the ability of an ST car to drop 100 (let alone 200) pounds, but several people have shown me otherwise. i didn't realize how quickly that weight adds up. i actually think the GT-S could be a killer STX car, w/ an LSD to tame the wheelspin and an ECU upgrade to beef up the midrange.

my only trepidation is that i've geard the GT-S engine is less than reliable under sustained high-rpm use (i think Lotus fixed that for the Elise by redesigning the oil system).
 
Most of the unreliability I know of with the GT-S is driver error, made worse by a poor shifter design. It's VERY easy to catch 2nd by mistake or try and find reverse instead of 2nd.

The Lotus has an AWESOME shifter setup... In fact, if the Celica had the same feel as the Lotus, I might still own my Celica instead of the MSP...
 
i remember hearing about the overrevving problem w/ the shifters. some people had the same problem w/ the RSX-S, mostly in the vein of, "so i wuz cruzin on t3h highway and this dude in a ____ comes flyin upand my girl started laughing at me then i went to drop it into 4th buti must have shifted into 2nd becaus my engine went up to like 15000 rpms and then it shut off will the dealer to fix it under warrantee?!?!?!?!?!??"

(cool)

which, considering how good the acura's shifter is, is quite a trick.
 
Alas, the Celica's shifter had no problem allowing that... I did it....

In the Lotus, the shifter is slightly notchy, but you know EXACTLY where you are putting it, there is a 2nd gear lock out and there is a reverse plunger so you can't find the reverse channel trying to go 1-2 (my biggest problem... I had 5 missed shifts on 6 runs at the 2002 Atwater ProSOLO on one side...)
 
The Celica GT-S I drove at an autox test and tune day had a shift pattern slightly canted to the right, so when you went to shift 2-3 you could, possibly, miss 3 and get 1. Then, when you let out the clutch it would overrev and pop the engine internals. I never did it, but the owner was quite nervous about it so I backed off and didn't speed shift. Nice handling car, light and it liked to rotate.
 
scapamouche said:
Alas, the Celica's shifter had no problem allowing that... I did it....

I had 5 missed shifts on 6 runs at the 2002 Atwater ProSOLO on one side...)
Click to expand...
:( that sucks. i would like to try out a GT-S sometime...i've heard they're great to drive.

so reverse in the celica is on the left side of the pattern (next to 1st)? the acura's is next to 6th.
 
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