if you had a 5spd you'd beat him. your transmission is robbing you of extra power, and torque. he might beat you off the line, but in the end if you had a 5spd you'd pull and pass. Even if he putting down more power earlier in the powerband, once you hit vtec, and shift correctly it shouldn't be all that close. i'm not sure about the gear ratios and FD on the MBZ and how many gears it has, but that's what's separating you and him.

also, on a stock tach, it underpegs the RPM's by around 400 rpm, so truly shifting at redline would be shifting @ 8000 rpm.

there's no way he's beating RSX-S and S2000's unless grandmas are driving the other cars.