gs-r and auto-x
 

looking to purchase a gs-r for daily drving and auto-x. how well can i make the car hande given its fwd and pretty not so light? had a miata for auto-x waslooking at awd dsm to play with buyt thinking integra might be a better overall car.

first thing i would do is suspenion and bracing..could a make it s neutral to oversteer handling car with the right work and still be able to drive it daily?

appreciate the input
Mike

Well personally I tell all newbies who start autocrossing is not to do any mods for about a year. I know it's hard, but seat time is so much more important than mods. Something I teach my students are:

You can spend $1000 on a nice coilover system, and get on the course and you maybe able to shave off about .5 seconds compared to your peers. Then you have an instructor driver your car and 9 times out of 10 he will be 4-8 seconds faster than you.

Spend $225 on an Evolution School or $50-100 on a Novice autocross school and you will be able to shave off 4-8 seconds on a 60 second course.

Last year I took the Evo school (http://www.autocross.com/evolution) and was able to shave off 2 seconds on a 30 second course and I"ve been autocrossing for 7 years. It was amazing.

So your first priority is seat time. Cause mods will just bump you into harder and more difficult classes. Read my help page in my sig too.

The gsr seems to do well in the DSP class (ala. LSD). Seat time in STS will help you become familiar with your suspension setup, but the LSD really does make a huge difference for us FF drivers.

Shingo

Damn I think I may attend the school come July when it comes to seattle :exnbp: Thanks CivicSiRacer for the link.

gs-r is a decent autox car, and with the appropriate mods, you can make it handle just about any way you want. Just get used to the car stock for a while and then see what you want to do with it. It will probably feel a bit sluggish compared to your miata, but that will go away once you drive it for a season, and get comfortable with the way the car handles.

I've never done one of those schools because I'm rediculously cheap, but everybody says theyre the shiznit. If you have the money to buy a new car, you should have the money totake it to an autox class while youre at it.:thumbup:

im just curious as to how much of a handicap an integra would be to auto-x
well the biggest handicap is me that i know but with a few mods atleast i can make the car feel better if i can hit an apex without major understeer atleast thats a start.

my main justification for an auto-x car is realtime racing sure its an ITR but they hold there own and a gsr is as close to itr i will see(well atleast until i am not finincially held down by tuition payments and little time-19 credits)

i have had a few sessions at englishtown-will hopefilly get some mroe time this year to get to the track more
thanks guys
Mike

Well, the thing is there really isn't a "handicap" for the Integra, simply because classes allow for it to become competitive. If I'm not mistaken, there are several DSP GSR's competing every year in SCCA SoloII Nationals, so it can be competitive. At least one of these guys posts over at the competition forum @ Honda-tech.com, so you *may* want to venture over there to check it out.

It's only when Integra owners strap on a turbo kit and find themselves in Street Modified with the RWD V8's that a "handicap" begins to emerge ;) .

Shingo

You also have to keep in mind that a good roadracing setup can be quite different from a good autocross setup.

If youre not too worried about competition, and just want to enjoy a car that handles the way you like... then you have no worries. An integra can handle as well as any front driver with the appropriate aftermarket attention. Sounds by your description of the way you want the car to handle, you'll need a limited slip, and swaybars at least... so you probably wont be competitive with those mods (i.e. in that class--probably street mod) unless you're really in tune with the car/course

The Integra has a lot of potential, but learn to race it in stock form first. I'm on the stock suspension with just sway bar upgrades, strut bars, and Azenis tires, and I'm consistently beating several other Integras and other STS cars that have a lot more done to them than mine. Spending all kinds of money on handling mods may make the car feel better, but it wont actually perform better unless the driver knows how to use it.

It's my very strong belief that you learn much better and faster when you have less to work with. Going out there with a full blown race suspension is only going to encourage bad habits because the car will let you get away with that crap. It's much easier to learn to drive at the limits when they're more within reach. And, you'll learn to deal with certain scenarios at lower and safer speeds too.

You don't want to wait until Solo Trials (ie road track) to learn how to drive at the car's limits or how to deal with oversteer or understeer. An even worse place to learn that is on the street (such as a cruvy mountain road).

Start stock and upgrade the car when the driver is ready for it. And running poor times does not mean that it's time for mods. Really focus on being a good driver more than anything else.

Hey Weston! Yeah, what he said ^^^:thumbup: