Building a Racer to beat a Honda CRX - Options?

[haygood at myway.com (Brian Haygood)]

Yes, everyone is on track with the power mods.  How about suspension?  What class are we talking about here?  



Things that come to mind (from a guy who hasn't really competed hard in a Scirocco, but I've prepped other types for race):



Use the lightest wheels you can afford with the best tires you can afford



Lower the snot out of it, do whatever strut tower or strut mods you can to give you more compression (bump) travel, then choose springs that will keep you from bottoming out anywhere on the track.  Use sway bars to stiffen further and to adjust over/understeer balance to your liking.  



Lighten it well beyond what the class minimum weight restriction is by cutting things off mercilessly.  Add steel or lead to the car to bring it back up to weight.  Removing steel all over the car and then putting the weight back where you want it is the idea.  Centralize the weight and lower it as much as possible.  Mount the weights below the car at or near the C.G.  



Note: I once saw a car with barbell ends welded in to the corners of the trunk so he could adjust weight balance front to rear and left to right to balance the car.  This is a lousy idea.  Mount the weight under the car instead of inside the trunk to lower C.G.  Centralize the weight close to the C.G. - the balancing he was doing is better achieved with suspension height adjustments (i.e. coilovers or shims under springs).



Get an infrared pyrometer and measure tire temps after every run and use them to set your camber and tire pressures.  This is easy to do, but was hardly done by anyone when I was Autox'ing.  



BH









 --- On Tue 01/23, =?iso-8859-1?Q?Jeff_Toomasson?= < area53@validpath.com > wrote:

From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Jeff_Toomasson?= [mailto: area53@validpath.com]

To: Cory_Langford@bcit.ca

     Cc: scirocco-l@scirocco.org

Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:05:52 -0600 (CST)

Subject: Re: Building a Racer to beat a Honda CRX - Options?



To trot out an old phrase - "speed costs money; how fast do you want to go?" <br>Also, I guess you need to define "legal" mods - ie, does massaging the engine <br>count as legal?<br><br>If so, my recommendation would be to get a hold of a Heron head and pistons. <br>P&P the snot out of the head (an expert job is required here) and get some 7mm-<br>stem big valves (41mm in/38mm out). Lighten/knife an early 1.7 crank, <br>lighten/balance the lower internals and run a Supersprint race exhaust w/ <br>whatever cam you can get away with. Dual 40mm carbs are a must if allowed and <br>the usual race suspension treatments still apply. If carbs aren't allowed, get <br>Euro CIS to remain stealth and use the traditional methods to minimize airflow <br>restrictions. You should be able to wring out 115+ hp if tuned right. A cam <br>gear will help emphasize the torque band if you prefer.<br><br>The true gap-closer will be how you choose to gear it though. You could run a <br>4.25 R&P for a 
really close box or roll w/ a 2Y or 4K.<br><br>HTH, JT<br> <br>> After doing some nosing around, it seems the class that a mk1 (or mk2) roc<br>> would end up in at the local track is dominated by 90s Honda CRX's with<br>> the<br> 1.5L 16V engines.<br>> <br>> They seem to be putting out about 108-110 HP with legal mods and weigh in<br>> around 2000 Lbs.  Internet lists the torque from the factory at 90 Ft-lbs<br>> at 4500 RPM.<br>> <br>> The local track is short and full of corners. It is far from a high speed<br>> track, there is only one real straight section and it is not that long. <br>> So<br> a quick point and shoot style setup seems to be the way to go.<br>> <br>> I figured a high torque car would be better than a masive HP beast.  So<br>> the<br> question remains, can a Roc be designed to out class the 0.06 HP/Lbs<br>> crx?<br> <br>> Class is limited to 1750cc, so the 1.7L from a mk1 or early mk2 works<br>> great.  BUT: the 75HP it comes with stock might get bumped to 
80 with<br>> legal<br> mods (still invstigating) and the curb weight for a mk1 roc is<br>> around 2000<br> Lbs as well is it not?<br>> <br>> That puts the roc at only 0.04 HP/Lbs, what I am hoping for is to get a<br>> whole lot more torque out of the engine to pull out of the corners.<br> <br>> Just looking for ideas :)<br>> <br>> Cory<br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Scirocco-l mailing list<br>Scirocco-l@scirocco.org<br>http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l<br>

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