bsmith100

So going back to the original question of "Why isn't the Prelude popular?" ...

because they were too expensive and not fast enough. Not fast enough in a straight line or around a road course. That is why basically nobody road races a Prelude today.

Rockstar21

LuLz...gotta give it to him, he's persistent

Remiss

I agree that the prelude was too expensive ... being just aproximatly 2000$ cheaper than a z28 camaro in 2001 ... and yess for god sakes for the price the camaro was faster ... it still got canceled in 2002 tho right??

But too be fair the OP ask why they where not popular in the honda community ... i.e. why evryone drives civic/integra and not preludes.

If there are no preludes road racing with your camaro well that's a shame ... it doesn't mean that the prelude is not worthy ... sure your v8 has more torque and hp and yess it will probably win ...

but honda didn't make the prelude as road racing competion for camaros so GET OVER IT ... your comparing apples and oranges ... the prelude was made to be a fuel efficient , reliable , introduction level sports coupe (they F**ked it up by charging 28000$ for a SH) ... your camaro is neither fuel efficient or reliable and is a sports car with more power ...

if Honda hadn't F**ked up and would have charged 20000$ for a prelude at the time you wouldnt compare your camaro to a prelude because it doesnt compare ...

and for 20000$ + 8000$ in parts it would be faster than a camaro for the same approximate price

poncec23

you know that the prelude is not the only car like this. there is atleast one from each maufacture like it. for toyota it is the celica, mitsubishi the 3000gt ect. they all have there black sheep. it doesnt mean it is a crap car, or not race worthy. again just aftermarket support. and i personaly have never seen a camaro on a circut track. doesnt mean noone does it. and just because you havent seen a prelude on a circut track doesnt mean no one is doing it. i personaly am setting my lude up for time attack, and trying to get 300-350 whp.(forced) once i get it there in another 2-3years(money and trial and error issues) to be how i want it i will post a pic. and you shouldent be arguing about a lude against a camaro. yes it might lose, might win? you have personaly never seen it so why run your mouth about things you know nothing about. i have a Z28 and a lude and im telling you i like the lude on the track and the Z28 on the strip. all prefrance. i think a better match up from chevy would be the cobalt vs lude. now i think the lude would spank it, but thoes are in the same catagory. and if you followed rules for SCCA or Autocross the camaro wouldent be racing a lude. it would race a s2000. the lude is not a bad car, more people in the younger demographic could afford the civic and teg, not the prelude. i purchased mine from a 70yo granny.

jah.tien

P13_mein

the prelude basically was the equivalent of a TSX nowadays in the honda lineup (altho the TSX really needs a HP boost) it had luxury and technology NO civic OR integra had, and unheard of reliable 190+ hp from a N/A 4 cylinder. the competition were DSMs and celicas.
firstly, a camaro is basically a dumptruck with its horrible rear suspension. however shoe-horning a 5.7L into that frame is def a boon to performance.
however, putting the $2500 or so more the camaro cost than the prelude @ the time u would have a faster car in a straight line, street, roadcourse, autocross, grocery run, beer run, evading the cops, all around fun, catching up to the chick in the camaro whose number u're trying 2 bag, beach cruise or whatever else u want 2 do.
however...the camaro was FAR superior in bagging italian chix...its tru...no offense

bsmith100

The thing is that a z28 wasn't $28,000 in 2001, the base z28 was $21,875 with a steel roof and cloth seats. With the extra $3000 bucks you saved on a Prelude you could either upgrade the z28 suspension and tires to get it handle really well, OR spend it on a supercharger to give it 500 horsepower.

I know Honda didn't build the Prelude as a racing machine. I'm not the person you need to tell. It is all the Prelude boys who swear how much faster a Prelude is than a z28 their is around a road course. They are the ones who are living in a fantasy and need to get over it. That is why they are all so angry. They can't deal with reality.

Rockstar21

all pricing aside...
this paragraph just showed how little you know about Auto X.

power accounts for less than handling. its about weight, suspension, and a little added power for coming out of the turns and short straights.

my 89' 944 would tear a Z28 a new ******* on the Auto X course (its a 4 cylinder). so would almost every Mini... and Most miata's... with HALF the power. and less then half the cost.

you can put a lingenfelter corvette on an AUTO X course and it wont do **** b/c too much power at Auto X means you fail at handling...

Azlazy

I think alot of you are forgetting that the Prelude wasnt made to be fast. It was made to be a good looking, great handling economy car. and if you happened to get one for under 20K new like i did in 2000 than you had the best FWD car out there besides the ITR.

poncec23

Ok im starting to see your aguement. i know it make people upset when someone talks crap about your car. example guy with a DSM GSX said oh ill beat you all you have is a prelude they are slow. all i said is "maybe, but lets find out" i didnt care about winning or losing or if he was right. i know i dont have the fasest car in the world. but i also dont have the slowest. he didnt even bother to see what was under the hood or ask me what i have, he just assumed. well we lined up at the strip and went for it. he got me on take off but i had more hp and the car is set up nicely, i caught him and passed him. think he admited he was wrong? nope. tucked his tail and left. the people you are refering to are probably the "ricers" 17 or 19 year old that mom and dad bought them the car, not the car lover. i like all sorts of cars for many different reasons and dislike others. i know i am not the fastest but when i get beat it is incentive for me to change it up and try again and change the outcome. let people run there mouths, just smile and say run your car. it is the only way to truly tell. and take the out come like a man, or woman. my wife has the issue of thoes little ricers wanting to go at lights(including stangs and camaros) and sometimes she will drop the hammer in her civic and walk all up there asses. then at the next light they wont even look at her, or say it is her bf's car. anyways if you beat my car on the strip or circut my hat is off to you. but if i beat you i would like the same respect. dont hate on my ride as i wouldent hate on yours. it is all maturity

bsmith100

Yeah, except I don't care about autocross because it is barely even racing. I do not consider cone dodging to be real racing.

The funniest part is that after you get your 2 minutes of "track" time you have to spend the next half hour running around resetting cones. After a whole day of baking in the sun you get maybe 10 minutes of actual "track" time (if you consider a parking lot with cones on it a track).

I know that a Miata is one of the fastest cone dodging machines out there. I am talking about real racing, as in wheel to wheel road racing.

For the record, I think a Spec Miata car also has a decent chance of outrunning a Prelude on a full sized road course.

By the way, I said that "A z28 will blow the doors off a Prelude around any track larger than an autocross course." So I concede that it will lose in the cone dodging universe.

Hey a shifterkart will blow the doors off a Prelude and a Z28 around almost anything but the largest road courses. It will also destroy just about everything on an autocross course.

Except... only a total loser takes a shifterkart to an autocross to begin with. The shifterkart was designed for wheel to wheel combat on a kart track, or even on a full sized road course.

So back to my original point. The Prelude is unpopular because it is not fast enough for the price.

NirVTEC

Well, I have done plenty of Roadracing and I can tell you where the MildModded Camaros/Mustangs are........behind me rolling through the turns like a school bus and spinning the **** out of their tires on corner exit...

As far as SPEC Miatas, are you really comparing a Full Blown Race Car to a Stock Prelude?

I've had no issues with Spec Miatas on track......

bsmith100

You say this, but you still can't post any laptimes to back it up.

When I said roadracing, I didn't mean track days. I meant actual racing, which would have paper trail of everything from qualifying times to lap times.

psychotech

I see quite a few ludes here in cali, especially in stockton. I see about as many of them as integras and egs

NirVTEC

If you really think the Mustang/Camaro makes a viable roadracer, you sir have NOT been on a track.....

poncec23

can you post a lip time for us of a camaro? you should have no problem finding ten DIFFERENT camaro lap times if they are raced every where

Also the castrol challenge had a time attack section and a honda took 3rd overall. i didnt even see a camaro step up. whats that say? and pick up a copy of honda tuning about once every 6 months a prelude will make the top spot in a class usually H1 or H2. its not unherd of just uncommon. because everyone has a civic or teg everyone will choose that chassis. people wanting to be different chose things like preludes or TSX's.

ok so tell me this. if your camaro cost what? 23000 and the lude was 2000 more right? your camaro made 310hp for 23000 right? why arent you bashing a NSX that made 270HP and cost 90000? never really see thoes being beat on a track now adays.

allentownrep

Dude shut the **** up...you sound like a little whiny bitch...jeez. Take that z28's dick outta your mouth and exit the prelude forum. Seriously.

poncec23

racing preludes

NirVTEC

Yah, nobody has ever raced a Prelude.

Maybe HE should find some Camaro Laptimes instead.

I'll tell you what Bsmith, I will be at Autobahn for 4th of July weekend, have some Muscle Car folks come out to see what they can turn on a 3.5mi 25 turn roadcourse.
If you really think anything short of a C5 Vette(when talking RWD V8) will blow away a Prelude......IDK what to tell you man. You haven't driven anywhere near the amout of cars I have. No F-Body is even close to handling without thousands of $$$ in suspension mods.

And you're also welcome to bring a diaper, and I will take you for a ride.....I will most definitely show you that Preludes don't suck......
We'll see how much of a man you are when you're screaming like a girl when we're up on 3 wheels drifting a sweeper at 70mph+++ and slamming from 110mph to 45mph to dive into a turn. You'll wish you were in a Camaro.

poncec23

Shoot, i would take you up on that offer, my colon needs a good clensing. i would even bring extra huggies if you needed one. anyone notice how when we asked him for camaro times he shut up real fast?

bsmith100

Well as far as I can tell all you have done are track days - not any actual road racing, since any time I ask you for lap times you can't post any.

I can give you links to the Speed World Challenge, Grand Am, Nasa, for laptimes. It is all public knowledge and widely available, or simply go to theracesite.com where they are all collected.

Of the pictures that were posted, one shot is of a lone Prelude, and other shot is of a Prelude racing a Civic and a Jetta, that is nothing like the competition the Camaros and Mustangs face. The Camaros and Mustangs race against Corvettes, Vipers and Porsches in the fast class.

That is all public knowledge. If you don't believe me then turn on The Speed Channel and watch a World Challenge, ALMS, or Grand Am race. I didn't see any Preludes there.

Would you like the link to the Speed World Challenge site? The Camaros and Mustangs run competitively against the Porsches, Corvettes, and the even the Realtime Racing NSX in the fast class.

Nobody in their right mind would think a Prelude can keep pace against that crowd. It could compete in the touring class against RSXs,Integras, Civics and such, but not with the faster, higher horsepower cars.

Are there any professional races where the Prelude competes? Ever seen one on the Speed Channel winning anything? Have you seen a Prelude in the ALMS, GrandAm, or Speed World Challenge series?

You say that it takes a C5 vette to blow the doors off a Prelude, yet the Camaro and Mustang run in the same class as that same C5 vette does. So if a Camaro and Mustang can compete against a car that blows the doors off a Prelude, wouldn't they also be able to blow its doors off?

bsmith100

My shifterkart will blow the doors off of both my cars around AutoBahn or Blackhawk farms. I'm not talking about the Autobahn kart track, I am talking about the big track. It will blow the doors off anything short of a Formula Atlantic car, and that doesn't even have doors. I don't get all bent out of shape about it.

By the way, all those laps I have turned in a kart have been in wheel to wheel racing, not track days where you get black flagged anytime you get close to contact with another competitor. Not only wheel to wheel racing, but open wheel, where a touch of wheels sends you airborne. So I'm definitely not afraid to ride in a Prelude for some laps.

Since all you run are track days and not any actual wheel to wheel racing, you probably aren't that fast anyway. If you really want to race, and you really want to go fast, then sell your Prelude, and use the money to buy a shifter kart and a truck to haul it to the track.

Street cars are slow as hell compared to karts. Nobody ever got to F1 from racing Preludes, Camaros, or any street car. However all those guys have serious karting experience.

NirVTEC

Mmmmkay buddy!....

I drive a street car that runs 1:39s(with my old setup to add) at Gingerman...But since you seem to know it all, that isn't fast....

bsmith100

Okay Senor Alonso, if you are so fast then why are you wasting your time at track days instead of doing some real wheel to wheel racing?

You can't use cost as an excuse since you can get a brand new, top notch shifter kart package for around 8 to 10 thousand dollars.

You can get a barely used package that is just as fast for around half that.

Why are you wasting time at track days running a Prelude of all things?

bsmith100

See that (karting) is another reason for the lack of Prelude popularity. There are many ways to go racing at far higher speeds for far less money. Of course, this same comparison can be done with every street car. Karting is always a better value.

It still comes back to the relatively high cost of the Prelude compared to what else you can get for the same amount of cash.