bjhines Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 I just picked up the March issue of Sport Compact Car and was reading the article on the COVER CARs... Autobacs ASM S-2000 and the Dent Sport 240RS MAXI These are some highly modified purpose built TRACK CARS... There is lots of cage work and lots of expensive hardware.... all in all they appear to be FULL RACE cars with no streetability left in them... as I was reading along I found that they were tested at Virginia International Raceway... I just compelted an event there THIS PAST WEEKEND... The Autobacs S-2000 ran a 2:28.187 lap The Dent Sport 240RS ran a 2:26.136 lap Quote: Sport Compact Car ""Believe what you want. But the fact is the car rockets around Virginia International Raceway with a vengance, netting ASM lap times in the two-minute, 28 second range"" I was instantly chuckling... How could such a highly prepared... Cover-Story pair of cars be so damn slow??? I ran a 2:26 lap with my BSP 240Z.. easily... I can shave a few more seconds on a warmer day with a track surface temp above freezing... and not to mention I run Toyo RA1s... I can easily shave some more time off with full race slicks... My car has it's original L24, 4 speed, open diff, sport springs, tokico blues, ST sway bars, stock upper mounts, too little camber, not enough caster, 15x7" wheels with relatively small 225/50/15 tires... What I am getting at is... I could buy and prepare a 240Z to kick the Cover Cars' tails up and down the track... for less $$$ than the wheel and tire package they put on those cars... WHAT A JOKE!!!! Here is some vid from my SUPERCAR TRACK TIMES.... .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 That should tell you something about SCC. When they ran their first Time Attack at Buttonwillow they were all wet in the pants over a max'd out R34 Skyline that turned 1:58s in a specific configuration. Two months earlier my Rusty Old Datsun turned eight laps in the 1:55 range under race conditions in the same configuration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cygnusx1 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 See, this is why I want a magazine to do a fair review of a few well built HybridZ cars vs. other exotic machines. Nissan Sport Mag? Come on lets do it! V8 HybridZ, L28ET, and Carbed N/A ITS Z vs. Corvette C6, Lotus Elise, Porsche 911 Turbo, STi, Diablo, Ferrari 550, BMW M3.... Road Course, Autocross, 1/4-mile. I can only dream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbob_racing Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 You should drop a note to GRassroots Motorsports/Classic Motorsports and see if they'll do it. They have a project 240Z now and they're getting a built engine for it as part of the series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 See, this is why I want a magazine to do a fair review of a few well built HybridZ cars vs. other exotic machines.... I think, like John Coffey's car, BJ's car is an NA six cylinder... Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 1:58 in the config that John mentioned earlier beats A LOT of really fast cars. That is not a slow time, and John's car was certainly not slow by any stretch of the imagination. BJ's car should be quite a bit slower than John's and for these tuner cars to be posting the same time either means that the track was really slow or the drivers were really slow, or the cars sucked. I lapped a 996TT in a 20 minute session at Buttonwillow. Is my Z faster than a 996TT? No. Was I faster than the dentist driving the TT? Absolutely. On the other hand, what was kind of disappointing was I recently read an article online where a tuner Honda Fit beat my old time at Buttonwillow by 2 seconds and he was about the slowest of the group in that article. The track may have changed since '99 and the weather may not have been 105 degrees when they were out there like it was for me, but still, these articles can either pump you up or beat you down... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TeamNissan Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 1:58 in the config that John mentioned earlier beats A LOT of really fast cars. That is not a slow time, and John's car was certainly not slow by any stretch of the imagination. BJ's car should be quite a bit slower than John's and for these tuner cars to be posting the same time either means that the track was really slow or the drivers were really slow, or the cars sucked. I lapped a 996TT in a 20 minute session at Buttonwillow. Is my Z faster than a 996TT? No. Was I faster than the dentist driving the TT? Absolutely. On the other hand, what was kind of disappointing was I recently read an article online where a tuner Honda Fit beat my old time at Buttonwillow by 2 seconds and he was about the slowest of the group in that article. The track may have changed since '99 and the weather may not have been 105 degrees when they were out there like it was for me, but still, these articles can either pump you up or beat you down... I agree 100% with this. In the end there are too many variables. Thats why I never really paid any attention to track times in mags. I always though stuff like the board on topgear was a joke too. Unless you can replicate the exact same conditions on each pass for every car, every time there is really no point comparing them. "Is my Z faster than a 996TT? No. Was I faster than the dentist driving the TT? Absolutely." That had me literaly "lol"ing haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 Granted.... The article does say that they had misting rain conditions during the last day... but the pictures show relatively dry conditions... and they clearly state that Saturday was DRY all day... I would expect misting rain to add a few seconds to my times... but I had to contend with sub freezing temps and tires that NEVER warmed up... just listen to them HOWLING in my video... That would still put us very close in times... within 2 seconds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 I suggest you find out when the next magazine has their "Time Attack", and show up! I still can't stand that they call a time trial a time "attack". If you're really able to keep up with your car which probably has 1/10th the $$$ in it, then at best it will be mighty embarrasing for the so called tuners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cygnusx1 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Trust me, you don't want me driving my own car. I think I can only fit about three road cones in the nose opening of my Z. I would need a bigger opening to hold all the cones I would steal! This Spring, I am joining a local club and will get to autocross a few times. As of now, I only have two runs under my belt. Both of which were not in my Z. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikelly Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 It kills me to think that they were gloating over times like that while thinking back on my own VIR Full course times that I turned in the 2:16 range in a relatively stock C5 Corvette on Hoosiers in cool (50s) temps back in 2005. Amazing what some think is "FAST"... And then publish and sell to the unknowing public at large. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 I really like sport compact car... They have produced some really neat articles in the past... They seem to lean more towards the track days HPDE events lately... I can remember years ago the only thing they wrote about was drag racing Hondas... I feel like drag racing and horsepower numbers for drag cars are pretty hard to sort out... But lap times in an HPDE or TT event should be something that can be compared with other cars fairly easily... You have so many opportunities to get consistent times on a closed circuit course... If it is a hot day and my tires get greasy after 5 laps.. thenI try to get my best laps in early... before the tires get hot. It it is a cold day and my tires wont warm up.. I drift a few turns to try to get some more heat... If it is raining then you are SOL... but they had at least one completely dry day to run in the article... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 John, jt1 on this board turned a 211 at VIR this weekend on kuhmos. That is in a streetable car. Not sure if John has the car on the street or not but all it would need is a tag to be street legal. Alot of this is the driver, John can drive the wheels off the car. As the matter of fact, I think a wheel almost came off the last time he was at VIR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Well you guys know better than I do what is fast at that track, but again, it's one of three things causing the car to be slow. Driver, car, or track. At least one of those 3 is to blame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjhines Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 Well.. To be honest... JT1s car... as well as Mayolives' RedBird are classed SPO with our events... That class is kind of a dumping ground for highly modifieds... ANYHTING could happen in SPO... someone could show up with a jet powered VWBug and hand everyone their asses... It is impressive how little JT1 has actually done to his car... for it to take FTD at will... He could unbolt all of his modifications and return the car to original condition in less than a week... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikelly Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 To put this into further perspective, The last Touring 1 Race run at VIR during the 2006 SCCA racing season saw fastest qualifying times of 2.05 by Chris Ingle (if memory serves, but might have been Lance Knupp). That time was turned repeatedly over the 30 minute race as well and was turned in by a C5 Z06 with a minimum race weight of 3280# with driver in car and fully gassed up. On average those C5s are making approximately 360HP at the wheels and they're required to run a completely stock, unmodified drivetrain/shocks/brakes. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexideways Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 I can remember at least on GOOD car that appeared in SCC, John Coffey's I still remeber it like if it was yesterday, I flipped the pages and there it was, the car that reminded me what was my little boy's dream car was... That was before the magazine became a Primedia Sh*t rag... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 I can remember at least on GOOD car that appeared in SCC, John Coffey's Wasn't mine. It was never featured in any magazine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexideways Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Wasn't mine. It was never featured in any magazine. Oups... I just found the old SCC issue and it was a guy named Bill Coffey who owned the car. Sorry, I think my memory is playing tricks on me but, the name was so close... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Bill Coffey's (no relation that he or I could figure out) 240Z is beautiful and fast. I'd trade a lot of things for that car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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