Well, there's a bit of a story behind this, so I'll start with that and then get down to business...

I have a friend, Victor, who is friends with Sean Morris (previously of Motorex). Victor, for reasons I still don't really understand, has always made it his duty in life to talk shit about my S2000. He always said my car would NEVER be able to beat a stock skyline in any kind of race (drag race, autox, road course, etc.). It's one of those "my friend has a cooler car than you" things... only the cars didn't even belong to his friend, they belonged to the company his friend worked for (Motorex).

Every time I've tried to get him to prove this, he's brought out modified skylines. We were supposed to drag race... he brings out a skyline with intake, exhaust and a couple of other "minor" modifications. For those of you who are familiar with skylines, they respond to modifications like supras do - they make HUGE power off of simple bolt-ons... so this was anything but a stock R32, and I naturally lost.

A couple years back, we went to a Speedtrial event at the Las Vegas speedway. They brought out a slightly modified R34 to go up against my nearly stock S2000, which at the time had Yokohama AVS Sport tires on the rear and 225/50/16 S-02's on the front. The tire setup made my car REALLY unpredictable in the turns, but I still managed to give Sean a run for his money in the turns. On the straight though, I had nothing on that Skyline. They were jsut toying with me.

We went on the big west LA sports car mountain drive about a year and a half ago and he talked the same usual shit. But then him and Sean showed up in an R32 with everything imaginable done to it. Out of some 300 or so cars that went on the drive, he conceded I was the second fastest, even out of a field of very formidable cars (Vipers, NSXs, Saleens, a Cobra R, etc. etc.)... mostly due to driving, not to the fact my car is so great. But Sean was willing to take some pretty big risks to be faster than me and with twice the hp, twice the amount of rubber on the ground, and an Ohlin's suspension, he was again faster than me.

So - getting to the current problem (now that this is turning into a novel and I'm sure you're all falling asleep)... Victor recently purchased an R33 and Sean recently purchased an R34. Victor is a show-car guy, so he plans to modify his Skyline in the near future basically for show - including 19" wheels. But he's also planning to use a Nismo suspension, some huge 6-pot brakes, and he'll be replacing the turbos very soon. Basically, the car will have gobs of hp, but knowing Victor, it will not be "setup" for the track (I doubt he'll ever even do a wheel alignment).

Victor has started his shit talking in full force. He contends that if we take this matter to a road coarse in a couple months (after we've each had a little while to prepare our cars), he will be able to beat me using street tires on his 19" rims, even if I use race tires, and basically do whatever I want.

I was down for a little friendly weekend track day, but he has already started putting the word out to all his Skyline people about how he's going to obliterate some stupid S2000 guy at the track. (For those of you that are skimming, here's where y'all come in) Then he expanded his challenge - saying that if any S2000 guys want to come out and represent, they should feel welcome to bring out their race tires and whatever else and he and his friends will destroy us all.

This is basically going to be a battle of heavyweight, awd, high hp, huge dollar cars (they will all have very expensive modifications) vs. our lightweight, low hp cars. But I believe there is a lot more track experience with us S2000 guys and we'll have the advantage of race tires, so I think this might be a battle we can win.

I was already planning on getting a second set of wheels, a set of shaved/head cycled RA-1's, and some Carbotech XP pads for track use, but I think I may need to expand my budget slightly now. I really don't have any income anymore because I quit my job and I'm in law school now, but I think I need to dip into the savings account for this one. I talked to Docofmind and will probably be getting a JiC suspension to help out with this. I'll need to ask around, but I would like to change out my exhaust (currently, I'm back on a stock exhaust) for something lighter and it probably wouldn't hurt to run a VAFC for a couple extra ponies... but realistically, I just don't think I can afford to get an exhaust and/or vafc right now.

Who here is interested in helping out with this? I need people who have track experience to come out and drive. If anyone here is an instructor, I would certainly appreciate if we could take a couple laps at some event in the near future so I can get some feedback. I'm usually pretty fast at track days, but my experience is limited, so I could definitely benefit from a little instruction. Also, if anyone can help out by giving me good prices on any of the aforementioned parts, that certainly wouldn't hurt.

We are tentatively planning to do this in a couple months, but we need to find a track day here in SoCal when everyone's available. Victor is afraid to run Streets of Willow and is already making excuses that we would have the advantage on a tight track like that. I ran in the same run group as a Porsche Turbo at the California Speedway a couple weeks ago and that car really took advantage of its power advantage coming down the front straight. I suppose against the skylines, we could still stand a chance at CA speedway though, as long as we can make up a lot of time in the turns.

Victor's schedule is available online at:
http://www.calendar.yahoo.com/,,,/YYY,5706...=2&t=1044086400

 

Sun Tsu said the best General is the one that wins the battle before it ever begins.

You can win this without unnecessarily modding your car or spending any of your own money. Tell your friend to make a trip to any real CA track, and that he has to run with a legitimate timing system. Compare what he ends up with to the existing S2000 records on Doug's \"Honda Hall of Fame\". Even with an above-average driver, I'd be surprised if the overweight, street-tired blingmobile gets within 2-3 seconds of the top "stock w/R-tire" S2000 times.

If he's "afraid" to run the low-speed Streets of Willow, a local SCCA or PRO autocross might be more his speed. There, if he can beat John Hyon (driving a stock S2000) or even Ken Motonishi (driving a stock Miata) he wins. On street tires, he won't.

If neither of the above are suitable, there will be a handful of S2000s ready to deliver the whoopass at any 2003 SpeedVentures event.

Good luck General, may victory be yours.

 

Jason,

Very good advice. I would be very surprised if they come close to eight Hyon or Motonishi. Experience is everything on the track.

Bill

 

Thanks for the support. The speedventures event at the end of March would be perfect except that Buttomwillow is a bigger circuit (that gives the skylines a lot of room to use their power) and, according to his calendar, Victor will be at IDRC in Arizona that weekend (watching civics turn 15.5 second quarter miles). I'll run it past him anyway, just in case he's willing to miss IDRC.

 

Tell me if I am correct in this. He says he can beat any s2k, with any driver. If I am reading this right, I may be able to help. I do not have any race tires for my car, but I might be willing to lend my car to a very experienced driver to run circles around this guy. I am in the process of getting a turbo installed on my car, and can think that the extra HP will help alot in the straights. Let me know what is going on, and if i can help at all.



Kevin

 

I don't think he has had the pleasure of meeting Moton Man aka davepk.

 

This would be a good time to try out an LS6 conversion into an S2000. Make sure you inform him that a skyline is just a glorified econobox 240sx. Invite him to come autox it. All the mods in the world won't allow that big heavy lump of coal to get around an Autox course quicker then even an average driver in a S2000. And the most embarasing part his he will probably get beat by C Stock Miata's. I hope you guys whimp him good.

 

Well, I invited Victor to "bring it" for the Speedventures event Mar. 21. It's on a Friday before an IDRC event in Arizona, so he could make it if he wanted to, he'd just have to leave from the track to Arizona. Here's his response... I've printed his comments in yellow, for obvious reasons. It's hard to read yellow type though, so you may want to use your mouse to highlight the text so you can read it.

ImPortBeat888: you want me to go to buttonwillow and THEn go to Arizona?
ImPortBeat888: please...
ImPortBeat888: count me out.
ImPortBeat888: you have to be kidding me.
The Reverend 448: you have like three weekends open between now and the end of the year on your schedule of import showoffs.
The Reverend 448: I'm sorry, but there are no track events on the weekends you have open.
ImPortBeat888: but between then and now, we have to build the cars as well.
ImPortBeat888: if there are no events, sorry...there are no events.

I believe this should count as officially backing down or "bitching out," if you will.

Coward.

 

Yeah, he pussed. He'll dodge you until he's got race slicks, 600 hp and enough track time to feel comfortable enough to beat you. Does Sean still own a Skyline? Maybe you can get him to come out.

UL

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ultimate lurker
[B]Yeah, he pussed.