Ahh yes, I finally get to write my own "review" of the ATS 4.73 FD. Yeah, 4.73, this was for the Hatchcrapper. And while we were at it, we threw in an OPM LSD. Mark (Midnight) at X-Treme Autosports in Tulsa installed the combo this past Saturday. They just got a Mustang Dynometer so we also did some before and after runs just for the hell of it. We did the "passing test" which is like a 40-70mph acceleration and picked up a half-second if I remember right. No change in HP that I remember, at least not until he did some tuning. And we picked up quite a bit (5wp/9lbs-ft) since it hadn't been re-tuned since I installed the SMSP header. We ended up with 112whp and 100tq. Thanks to Dave who made a very pimp header for the D16 and at a reasonable cost. Dave- I know I still owe you an OPM/SMSP back-2-back dyno comparison.

But anyway, back to the FD, heh. There was a race that weekend at Hallett, but I hadn't planned on going, as I've been trying to save for the HC Mid-Ohio event. But after I ripped the car up and down the street in the industrial area that their shop is in, I *knew* I was going to have to go to the track the next day. So at the last minute we headed out to the track, missing practice and still needing to bed in my new Panther XP's (thanks Matt!) But even driving reserved during qualifying, I could tell it was simply a new beast. Like a brand new freaking car. Granted, I've been running the stock tranny up until now, some 15 races or so, and just hadn't taken the plunge to get the parts, so of course it was going to feel all new. And Hallett is a tight course, (1.8 mile / 10 turn) and maybe the 4.73 wouldn't be the best at a track with more room to stretch, but regardless, it was absolutely perfect there. It blasted through the course and I never felt like I was out of the powerband. I had read many posts about how installing a FD is deceptive in what you "feel" as an improvement, and I didn't know what to expect. But it was just fantastic- I only had to use 2nd gear in T2, and 3rd was just crazy strong. I was in 4th gear a whole lot more then usual, but it felt really good, even going nearly flat-out into T1 which was new to me- no blipping into 3rd any more! With all the attention on that qualifying session going to where I was in the gear-box at any given time, I didn't even think about the LSD. But I remember I kept thinking to myself how much more planted the car was in the turns and how I could get on the power, and it seemed like a lot more power with the FD, earlier then ever before out of a corner. I knew it was going to be a good race when I checked my lap results and found I had run within 2 tenths of my fastest ever lap time, all while taking it semi-easy to bed in the brakes.

I ended up first in class and running a 131.8 which was my fastest lap *ever*, an improvement of 4 tenths, and I beat two local ITS RX7 guys that I have never even hung with, let alone beat. Good freakin times. I can't believe I didn't make the tranny mods a priority all along.

So anyway. Not really any point to this thread I guess... but you know, "yay me" and all, lol, I'm just still giddy a week later. Thanks to Mark and Kyong at X-Treme Autosports for the tranny and *all* the help the last year and a half. I'm doing my best to make this trip to Mid-Ohio happen so I can meet and race with all you WC/ECHC/Honda-tech friends and acquaintances.

random shot of the shitbox (j00 like my custom air dam, y0??)

 

Thanks for the review!!

What sort of "tuning" did you do to pick up 5(!!!!!!!) wheel horsepower???? any pics of the header? Oh, and was the old header tuned in the same way?

Thanks,

Jon