just wondering if anyone would know, and i do know that in the arrc 2002 championships that the 325is and 240z were the cars to beat, my real question is can a GSR or Del Sol take these?? i looked at the lap times and the ITS front runners were running 1:40-1:42 at road atlanta, now what does a GSR or twin cam Del Sol run at road atlanta, were talking race car prepped here. if anyone has run road atlanta with their honda please answer, im just trying to get a comparison here.

 

The Del Sol has the best chances of the two. The GSR might be a contender as well. Of course, with the 944S classed in ITS, the playing field has yet again been raised.

 

The GS-R needs help in ITS. Good car for sure, but the E36 is just too good. Never underestimate the 30+yo 240Z either. It won last year (Bimmerworld cars were DSQed) and the year before.

 

Can a GSR or Del Sol take these cars? That's a question of economics from my perspective. I don't think that any sub-30k GS-R will beat Robbie or Kip or J. Williams anytime soon. I have watched Seck and Dubinski run very competetive (GS-Rs) around the top 5 in ECRs at RA. I do not know if RA is a track that a Del Sol can win, from what I have heard, the 5th gear is too weak and that's a long back straight (from my perspective). Personally, I would think a GS-R with the same financial investment as a Speed Source RX-7 or Bimmerworld E36 could compete in the right conditions. I do not know that RA is the best track for that to happen however. This of-course is just my opinion and I have not driven any ITS car nor can I quote the ITS FF lap times at RA.

Out of curiosity, why do you ask?


[Modified by phat-S, 2:18 PM 3/31/2003]

 

Don't forget about the mightly Prelude Actually I think a 5th gen Prelude could come in the top 5 based on that I can run similar times as Bob Stretch's ITA 240sx at our home track and he would have been in the top 5 if he ran his car in ITS. I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

The Prelude VTEC can run ITS now? I know for years you could only run the Si and some of those did pretty well. Good luck. I would love to see a Prelude do well in ITS.

 

Just trying to answer what dude was asking as best I could but in all honesty, I don't really follow your logic that you run similar times to Stretch's A car and how that relates to RA - are the tracks similar?

 

The bar is pretty high in ITS these days. Most of the cars running up front and posting low 1:40s at R.A. have around $40K invested.
I had around 1/2 that in my GSR and the best I ever managed at RA was an (unofficial) high 1:45. A pretty good time, but at 4 to 5 seconds slower than the leaders that'd damned near have me getting lapped at the ARRC sprint race.

That said. If someone like King or OPM put that kind of money in a GSR and really put time and development into it, it might have a shot. SCCA taking about 100lbs out of it wouldn't hurt either.

 

Only the 5th gen '97-'98 are classified in ITS. The 4th gen VTEC '93-'96 are being considered and most likely will be classified soon. Considering the 4th gen VTEC has about a 40 pound weight advantage and the 5th gen has a 5hp advantage I think they should be pretty equal.

 

great answers guys, im just really curious about the Del Sol because of the minimum weight at 2360, thats a 14.75 weight/hp. sounds interesting to me.

 

Yeah, we've all noticed the weight and power of the Del Sol. But, we have all also noticed the cost of a VTEC model. And the cost of body panels.

 

Hmmm, how about a one word answer? The best way to make the GSR or DelSol competitive against the big $$$$ cars in ITS...

SUNBELT.


But WTF do I know, I don't even race