tcjensen

Yep, I'm learning all about heavy and fwd Guess I can start competing with you to gauge my progress ...

I was surprised by the amount of lift-throttle and braking oversteer that can be extracted from the prelude with even 5 lbs additional front tire pressure vs. the rears...

mxt_77

^ Put a Neuspeed rear bar on that 5G and it'll have really nice balance. Add a set of Tein HAs and it'll handle noticeably better than a stock S2000 (IMHO, of course).

CosmosMpower

Your car really surprised me, it was quite a bit looser than I would expect. I would crawl underneath and make sure there's not a huge aftermarket rear sway bar on it or something. Your GF went into some corners without braking at all and the rear wanted to come around quite a few times (and she wasn't even full on the gas prior to corner entry). I was expecting the front to just wash out with some usual front tire squeel. I would also get it aligned (although I know nothing about FWD alignment specs).

IIRC a regular Prelude 5spd isn't much heavier than a S2000 is it?

tcjensen

I'll check on the swaybar ...

The alignment is stock-spec, just done. Is there a way to add negative camber ON the course?

I don't want to drive on much negative camber - been there, done that, and the highway destroys my tires.

thx

CosmosMpower

For strut suspension cars you can get camber plates which allow you to slide the top of the strut in and out to change camber. I'm not sure if this applies to the 5th gen Prelude or not. Performance and longevity are a trade off, as long as you don't run much toe your tires will probably wear ok even with a little camber dialed in.

PilotSi

The Preludes have a double wishbone layout with a coil-over shock setup...the strut doesn't adj the camber.

You'll have to get adj. upper wishbones for aggressive camber adjustments I think. Someone w/ a Prelude background would know better than I though?

Doug0716

Just keep rubbing it in... I want a rematch.

stickman

im not sure but my time was pretty good for street tires right? i was going out there just to have fun but if i really did that good then maybe i should take it a bit more serious!!!

CosmosMpower

That all depends by how you define good. In a very undefined class where all S2000's are grouped by just the tire, yes the time is pretty good. However on level playing grounds in any other organization that is highly competitive (like SCCA) I'm willing to bet you would not be in the ball park with the mods you have on it (probably BSP or SM2 class from what I could tell). Feel free to list your mods.

You won your class by .488 seconds with an actual time of 69.151 but according to SCCA classing (BSP by my guess) of your car your PAX (index by class) time would've been 59.331 where as R. Jones who finished behind you with a real time of 69.639 was running an AS legal S2000 (less prepared than your car) with a PAX time of 58.63. Also if you want to benchmark another stock class car on street tires you could use my Elise. I ran an actual time of 66.68 with a PAX time of 56.811 so you're still a good 2.5 seconds off after everyone's times are leveled with the index.

So for a local event with no real classing structure, yes it's pretty good but if you want to get serious and be competitive, it is not quite there yet. Hope that clears things up. If you had fun and think you can improve I would definetely come out and do an inventory of your car to decide what class you want to run in and what level of competition you want to reach. Some silly mods like an intake that don't really do much will bump you up to a class where your car would be an also-ran. But some important parts like a good coilover setup of 17X9 wheels are helpful and will put in you a street prepared class. It just depends on what you want to do and what class/level of prep you're comfortable with.

altiain

I think this particular Miata might suprise you, Corey. It wouldn't threaten your Vette on a road course, but it is a very, very effective autocross car. It is also a hoot to drive - it's like a go cart with a windshield.