LinuxRacr said:
Not always, but most of the time. Better suspension, and tires can definitely help.
Yes, they help, but they contribute far less to the performance of a vehicle than most people think. Get a professional or seasoned driver in a bone stock WRX on the stock crappy RE92 tires and soft suspension and he will more than likely beat the novice driver, even if the novice driver has a modified WRX with race tires and tuned suspension. This has been shown time and time again at all of the autocross, rallycross and track events I've shown up at.
However, tires and suspension contribute greatly when both drivers are of the same skill level or when comparing raw statistics. For example, the skid pad rating that was posted before. What kind of tires come stock on the MP3 and the MP5? The WRX comes with the crappy Bridgestone RE92s that break free extremely quickly under cornering. So, raw skid pad numbers will be skewed by tire and suspension choice. However, on the track, an experienced driver on stock tires can still beat a novice driver on race tires.
100% driver, 0% car. Case in point...Team O'Neil rallycross, a dude in a 3 banger Subaru Justy with less than a hundred horsepower ran stage times that were three seconds faster than everyone else and kicked the crap out of the WRXs, VWs, Audis and fully prepared ProRally cars. Again, Team O'Neil rallycross, a guy in a bone stock Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS on
street tires was running 10 seconds faster than everyone else...again including the same batch of Audis, WRXs and ProRally cars.
BMWCCA ice racing series...I pulled second place in AWD snow tire class for the season in my virtually stock Impreza 2.2 (only had intake, bigger brakes, swaybars and short shifter, all of which do nothing on ice) and beat out the guys in the AWD WRXs, AWD Porsches, AWD BMWs, AWD Audis, etc. The only guy in my class who was pulling consistently faster times than me was a professional ice racer who, after kicking my ass in his stock WRX, proceeded to go out and kick my ass in a RWD BMW as well.
On a side note, a guy in another class driving a Miata on all season tires (not even snow tires) pulled faster stage times than me on two or three stages even though my stage time were good for a class win. Again, 100% driver, 0% car.
One more thing, this is NOT a thread about my MP3 being better than anyone else's car, it is however me telling what I experienced one day. People need to read more carefully! Don't believe the hype!!!:mad:
Correct, your original post was not about your MP3 being better than the WRX, however some of the people who replied turned it into that by posting stats and autocross times of WRXs getting beaten by the MP3. I just figured I'd chime in.
So, on that note, I leave you with this:
Not a very good pic, but he showed up to the ice races this year and did quite well for his first season out on the ice.
