The Racing discussion Thread!

[twigert]

Hah, after the other thread getting out of hand, I've decided to make a thread dedicated to the world of racing. Anyone wanna start? Lol. I cant really think of a topic in racing to talk about, but ehh, as long as we enjoy cars and don't act too cocky to each other about our cars(typical human competitiveness), this should be a fun thread. As for me, I enjoy many different types of racing... either it be by track, drag, indy/champ car. Not much of a fan of nascar though. Its just hasn't really hooked me into oval racing. Well, there you go.

[Thraxz]

I used to really be into go cart racing for a year or so. Nothing competative but I got pretty good.

 

A local driver (who was farmed for becoming a NASCAR driver) Spencer holds the track lap record of 25.10s ... my best was 25.26s. In other words, I was pretty damn good. I can't wait until I have enough money to put together a REAL go cart instead of these little 6hp ones I drive.

 

Anyone go cart race?

[CPDMF]

I'll start.

 

Been into cars all my life, racing them since I had a license. Always been a little on the crazy side, and like my cars to be tempermental.

 

Started out on dirt ovals in sprints, had a few crashes and a decent alcohol fire, and that sent my Mom for a loop, so I gave it up. I had a pretty quick street car at the time so I just started drag racing my butt off. Things progressed until my street car made it into the low 9's and I was driving it back and forth to work once or twice a week. Figured it was about time to move into a dedicated race car and 4 years ago I picked up the chassis and built the ride in my sig. Picture's a little outdated, it runs 7.70's these days on an alcohol injected 385ci small block chevy.

 

My favorite form of racing is street racing for money. Not the leave from stoplight in traffic kind of street racing. We always plan it out and get outside of the populated areas to a road that we have marked off the night before. Make our run and the money changes hands. Doesn't happen as often as it used to, most of the people with fast stuff around here are friends of mine so no need to race for money and there just isn't a whole lot of new sub 10 second cars being built these days.

[Thraxz]

I love how the ricers constantly claim superiority when they really don't get much faster than 10's street driven. Meanwhile there are scads of sub 10 domestics that are street driven with impecable road manners.

 

The common joke goes, "What does a 700hp Supra and a 500hp Supra have in common? They are both 11 second cars." :nod:

[Smoken Joe]

I love how the ricers constantly claim superiority when they really don't get much faster than 10's street driven. Meanwhile there are scads of sub 10 domestics that are street driven with impecable road manners.

 

Errr right. That depends on what your expectations on handeling are. Simply being able to make it to sonic doesnt count. Especaly when you cant drive through the parking lot because you dont want to hit a curb because it cant turn with the 2 inch wide front tires. Can these cars make it through a 30 min race?

 

Sorry got a bad image of americam cars from when we had shared motorcycle and car track days. They could not stop blowing up or stay on the track. It was rare for even half the cars to make it through more than 2 sessions it was almost unheard of for them to be able to do this at any decent speed and it was nearly all american. The ones that did not crash would never admit to their times. The miatas are usually quicker than the mustangs and comaros on the road cource. Here is a video at the local track a "Ferrari 348 spins at Mid America Motorplex"

[Thraxz]

Of course... if you pander to a car like the Miata's strength it'll probably win over a Camaro or Firebird. You can't do that much better than taking away ANY motor advantage of the higher powered cars that road courses do.

 

I've seen personally seen two cars ever suffer a catasrophic break down while racing... both were imports. The Honda snapped a half shaft and the Mazda scattered his engine's bottom end all over the track. That is not why I think imports are not superior. I think they aren't because they are slower at whatever they are made to do than domestics. Right now the Autocross races, guess who's starting to show up Mr. Miata? The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky...

[twigert]

hmm. Many people have the wrong meaning of the word "ricer(s)". A ricer should be defined as a person who does the absolute wrong things to a import, such as a Honda. People just don't understand that there is a BIG difference for people who fix up imports right, and those who plain fix the car up in the wrong way... so thinking that anyone who fixes up a japanese car should be called a ricer. One reason why some people hate civics, or hondas in general: ricers that put the worst and generic stuff and try to act as if theyre the fastest on the street. Sure, theres a lot of poeple midding Hondas, but theyre so versatile and have thousands of aftermarket parts, not to mention that many things between them are interchangable.

 

Example of your common ricer:

gigantic wing from pep boys, extremely loud exhuast that doesn't sound clean at all, altezza lights(chromehoused lights)...although there are only a few cases where the owner can pull it off nice. Theyre basically parts that you would find at a local autozone,pep boys, etc. People who know what they are doing will avoid parts from APC or any other generic brand.

 

The Fast and Furious movies are good examples that make it worse for people who have been into the import car scene for years. I seriously want to boycott those movies...they give out the wrong image to people, because who in the right mind in street races would have a 4-car race? and also into traffic? And I love this one: in the first F&F movie, they try to show the internals of the RX-7 that Vin Diesel drives...they show that there are pistons in a rotary powered car! how nub can you get?

[twigert]

Of course... if you pander to a car like the Miata's strength it'll probably win over a Camaro or Firebird. You can't do that much better than taking away ANY motor advantage of the higher powered cars that road courses do.

 

I've seen personally seen two cars ever suffer a catasrophic break down while racing... both were imports. The Honda snapped a half shaft and the Mazda scattered his engine's bottom end all over the track. That is not why I think imports are not superior. I think they aren't because they are slower at whatever they are made to do than domestics. Right now the Autocross races, guess who's starting to show up Mr. Miata? The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky...

 

I dont know how that could have happened to their cars, thats the first time I ever heard that happen. The Miatas I've seen at Willow Springs Raceway look like they can easily handle so much more. Actually Miatas have a great front/rear weight ratio... thats why you would see quite a few of them at tracks. I dont know about you, but you shouldn't let one incident you see let you think that imports arent as good as you think they are.

[Smoken Joe]

Of course... if you pander to a car like the Miada.....

 

Pander?

I dont even own a car so go pic a fight on some other forum.

 

 

 

It is fine to love what you have but there is no reason to get stupid about it Thrax and start putting people down for no reason. Note that this track is in Omaha and the American car is king around there 1/4 mile strat with two near dead stops one before the front strait ---cant get much more HP orented than that and still be a Road cource. The owner owns a corvette if that tells you anything.

 

 

If you really cared about HP you would have a bike The bike I own have a HP to weaght ratio better than any road race car short of true big money hand made ones that get a new engine every race. Near 200 crank HP and 425 pounds wet .44 HP per pound on 87 octane! Beat that.

[Guest oRiOn]

Lets swing this thread back on topic! As some of you know I am hoping to build an Evo, which will be setup for mountain runs/drifting as much as possible. Drag racing I am not that much into, but if there is a guy on the streets I can beat (which will be almost every car in an Evo) then I will take them on for 1 run. I don't promote street racing as I know you will start flaming me, but a couple runs with a guy in a Srt-4 would be fun.

 

-Will

[CPDMF]

The crap about which is better, imports or domestics, road or drag is pretty irrelavant. They are just cars and we race them. I'd love to do a little road racing, but it's just not in my budget to build a ride that can do everything.

I raced a Supra 4WD car about 6 months ago on the street, lost $500 that night. I know what my car runs and he got there 4 cars ahead of me putting him him real close to being in the 8's with a street driven vehicle.

 

The biggest joke when I racing sprints was, We used to say if we hung a banana on a string from the cage we could train a monkey to drive on dirt.

[twigert]

4wd Supra? I have never heard of someone doing that before. Ive seen swaps with s2000 motors in '86 corollas and Skyline motors into Supras. You must show me . lol.