Well, knowing his car is still not repaired from having an overly hormonal teenager with a riced-out Civic slam into him, I offered Chris the chance to co-drive my car at the Ho-Ho Solo II event in Chattanooga yesterday. And so what does this ingrate (a good semi pun for an Integra owner, no?) do, he beats me by ~.3 sec.!!!! <j/k>

All kidding aside, it was a real pleasure to have a seasoned autocrosser get behind the wheel of my ride. I rode along with Chris on his first run and was most impressed -- very smooth throughout the course, crisp turn-ins, controlled braking, etc…. It's easy to see why he won the DSP championship in Atlanta this year.

Most valuable to me was talking about the handling characteristics of my car between our runs. We adjusted shock settings and tire pressures according to his feedback so that we might get more rotation out of the car in the tighter sections. Low and behold, even Chris had a hard time getting my car to oversteer at will, as he's able to do in his. So now I've got a good idea of what I need to change in terms of my suspension set up. And that is REALLY GOOD STUFF!

Here's to being bested in your own car by another gear head. Y'all ought to try it some time.

 

You guys were flying out there! I was racing as well, but i had no tires left, so i gave up after my 2nd run. I was driving the red 2dr Accord. I didn't even realize you guys were on here.

 

I didn't realize that either. I remember seeing your car, too. Was it your car that had the "Honda-Tech" sticker in the window? I guess we all need to get a H-T.com tatoo across our foreheads so we can all recognize each other

 

Thanks Casey.
Your car is mucho fun to drive. I am still in shock from the lack of traction. There is no way that you should have to feather the throttle in a straight line on the 1-2 shift. That is a powerful example of the vtec GS-R engine. Makes me think about some of the mods you have done and consider them myself.
I think that still more pressure in the rear tires would help, not to mention an alignment, but other than that your car is pretty well set up. Thanks for the co drive!

 

No problemo, Chris. It was great fun and I learned a lot. Regarding alignment issues, are you talking about toe or something else?

 

Well, the results are in and final. The top 10 indexed finishes are as follows:

13 GS Acura Type R Lyonel Kent 70.187 70.187
0.789 55.37754
199 ES Honda CRX Robert Carpenter 70.938 70.938
0.786 55.75727
98 ES Toyota Celica GT Rick Cone 70.976 70.976
0.786 55.78714
16 AS Toyota MR-2 Turbo Jim Thompson 68.349 68.349
0.817 55.84113
10 AS Honda S2000 Keith Davenport 69.324 69.324
0.817 56.63771
4 STS Acura Integra Chris Towne 72.465 72.465
0.782 56.66763
99 ES Honda CRX Mark Pilson 72.206 72.206
0.786 56.75392
27 DS Dodge Neon Charles Wright 71.584 71.584
0.796 56.98086
29 STS Honda Prelude Type SHAdam Ezell 72.871 72.871
0.782 56.98512
41 STS Acura Integra Casey Hannan 73.048 73.048
0.782 57.12354

Well done Casey! That is some impressive company to be in. I need to reiterate that your car is very good! Thanks for the co-drive again. I am really starting to like the STS index...

 

lol, that sounds like a plan to me. The guy in the SCd GSR posts on here sometimes as Max Psi GSR. He sucked big time that day, dunno what was wrong w/ him.

 

Thanks Chris. I was just about to copy and paste the same thing here, too... Here's the link in case anyone is interested http://www.rivergate5speed.com/scca/soloii/s2120901.htm

Turns out your margin of victory was a bit larger than I had believed... <clears his throat > Pretty darn good driving yourself, Chris, especially considering that was your first time driving my car And, yes, you gotta love the index for STS -- very favorable for getting low indexed times.

 

Well, he didn't do too bad -- 2nd place in SM with a 71.075. His car definitely looked mad fast out there...

 

yeah, but he got beat by a car that 'shouldn't' beat him, an ITR w/ just susp and an aem cai. The black ITR which was stock beat him as well.

 

Yeah, I saw that Trey beat him by about 1 sec. The guy in the GS black ITR had a great day, too. I've seen him and his girl friend compete in Atlanta and at the divisional event in Perry GA. It looks like he's getting better and better all the time. Sheesh, the guy had the fastest indexed time too, so he obviously know his stuff...

 

About that black R, you have to consider that after their 2nd runs, they were running with a blown shock on the right front, too. Wheel hop during accelleration and braking has to be interesting. It is impressive that they were still able to go on and finish as well as they did.
Also, don't discount Trey as a driver. He is pretty fast. The car is only 20 percent of the equation, and if you can't keep speed up, all the acceleration in the world isn't going to help. I was impressed that that green GS-R was still running 1:11's, cuz it looked like he was having some trouble getting the car to turn.