I'll go one step further and say that the winner in HS will be the one
who can drive well and the one who will go the extra mile to prepare the
car properly (with good shocks, full autocross alignment, etc.). It is
amazing what happens when you have a good car and put in the time and
money to prep it right. I have been to 3 National Championship. Check
out my results:
1993 or 1994 (I can't remember now) - 85 GTI in DSP. Not the right
car. Good setup. Good driving. 16th out of 32 entrants.
1998 - 95 Neon ACR in DS. The right car. Not the best setup
(completely stock with 60k miles on everything including 10 road
races). Good driving. 16th out of 32 entrants again.
1999 - 94 Celica GT in ES. The right car. The right setup (Koni dbl
adj, front bar, extreme autocross alignment, etc). Good driving. 2nd
out of 24 or so entrants. Fastest south course time against the likes
of Eklund, McDaniels, Schroeder, etc. (I can still hardly believe it!)
Notice that the one thing I did RIGHT in 1999 was to spend the time and
money setting the car up right. Without a really good setup, I believe
it is very difficult to do really well.
As for the best HS cars, here are my picks for top honors:
1) first gen Acura Integra - good power/weight, chassis so-so
2) 95 BMW 318 - terrible power/weight, chassis/susp great (with the
right shocks). (need a roll bar and arm restraints?)
3) 1992-6 Civic EX Sedan (the Sedan has a rear sway bar and the coupe
doesn't I think...may make the Sedan better). Power/weight ok. chassis
ok. Good balanced package.
In the end, I don't know what is best. Whatever you do, try your best
to do it right because there are many others out there who will.
Just my humble opinion,
Chris
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 09:00:51 -0800 (PST)
>From: Craig Blome <cblome@yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: dominant cars in "new" HS?
>
>Probably the dominant car will be whatever McDaniel,
>Cashmore, Fessler, et al. decide to drive. Stock
>class has a way of confounding predictions...it's the
>driver, mostly.
>
>That said, are the RWD Celicas still in HS? The RA65
>GT-S wasn't too bad in its day.
>
>Craig Blome
>
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