racing blog:The_Hornets_Nest on Xanga







back in the day, I drove a 91 civic si. It ended like this and I upgraded to the Lude.

I am extremely gratified to report that Team mate #55 Billy Bell won both the A-main championship race last night and clinched the season title in overall points which means we keep the trophy for another year. UH-RAH. Excuse me...I came in 2 seconds behind him in third spot and finished 5th in the A-heat which bumped me up in overall points to place 9th in the season out of 36 cars.
Agassiz Speedway 2.0
that's right, you'll notice number two was a young lady called Kimberlee. She's actually an experienced midget sprint driver so I don't feel so bad. At all. Really. Another lap I would have had her, dammit I ran out of track. The real drama was a massive battle with Mike Webb in #18. I was in 10th overall and him 10 points behind me in 11th place. To get a top ten season finish he knew it wasn't enough to beat me, he had to take me out of the race and did his level best to pit-manoeuver me. It was like taking lefts and rights but I don't spin so easily these days. I have learned much about being sideways. The rule is, in a front wheel drive, countersteer just enough and floor it, or keep the pedal down if you're already floored. she snaps out. (driver skills notwithstanding)The reason I have the E 4ws disabled is I need to do this manually. Mike made me angry, and focus, flow and rage brought out my A game. Controlled fury, that's the ticket. Trying to chop down on me and push me into the dirt on a corner, he succeeds in putting two of my wheels in but he bounces off my fender and disappears into the gloom. HA! Ya mess with the 'lude.... Anyway two laps later theres a red caution and it's him, pasted to the wall and being towed off. Too bad he took #77 with him, he's a devil on the track too but a good guy. Still, righteous, the racing Gods favour me this time.

Some of the damage sustained last night.

#18 got the worst of it.



I was bitten by bumper biting beasties



I had taken to ramming the opposition



That @#**!! Mike Webb. (off the track we're all still buddies, on the track, it's understood)



That was absolutely the best time I've had yet racing, the main was brutal, everybody got some and more than a few veterans didn't make it. In the words of XXX, "I LIVE FOR THIS S**T!" What to do all winter? Fixing my poor battered prelude would be a good start... These two 4th gen ludes have done really well for us. It would be so nice to have a clean upholstered one for the street. I'd look after it, honest.

Nice man..way to use that lude!

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95' Prelude Si
Project
Loving it already..giving her the TLC she deserves...

Thanks man, you know, the dragstrip has definitely got the Fast, but it's hard to beat hornet class for Furious!
I'd like to add: to anyone reading this. PLEASE DON'T STREETRACE, Take it to the track and drag it, that's where the real 'cred' is son. Nut up, and take a decent camera for Petes' sake! I'm sick of this cell phone shaky crap. Go Pro Hero. (that's a brand name for a good camera, but you could take it as manly advice too.)

Way cool!

Ha...as they say in Formula 1 (this season, at least), rubbin's racin'....

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Jamie
'92 Prelude Si, '01 Miata, '63 Suburban
Occasional mechanic on Alpina B10 3.5 #92
38 years continuous years with Preludes
Speed Demon Racing
Jamie on LinkedIn

Ha...as they say in Formula 1 (this season, at least), rubbin's racin'....[/QUOTE]

They do, we also refer to it as the "Paint exchange" and it's true, it's a good feeling going over to someones pits, handing them a small piece of twisted metal and saying, "I think this is yours"

Hey, do you have any good tips on getting a lude to handle well on the track? I raced an integra for 2 years. Some guys on that sight helped me set up my car better. I was never able to get a win but came in almost ever night 2nd and 3rd. The winner was almost always a Barreta GTZ. Now I'm building a 93 prelude. I race a 1/2 mile dirt track in Minnesota, it is well banked, what degree I'm not sure. Any tips would greatly appreciated.

Honestly, after working with some pretty talented Honda specialist mechanics. guys who do it for a living, after six years of tweaking, comparing results on different tracks with two identical cars, the best things you can do are pretty cheap. We've concluded that messing with camber and toe can be good up to the point where you're creating scrub, or friction. What you're gaining in cornering stability you might be losing in overall handling and speed resulting in an actual laptime loss. Ergo, you really have to know what you're doing and I don't mean if you know something, I mean you have to know EVERYTHING, and that's just not realistic at the club level unless you're some kind of fanatical racing engineer. Personal opinion, and everybody's got one; New suspension bushings all round, new struts, you don't have to get fancy racing gear, Honda is primarily a scientific engineering R&D company, their vehicles are finely tuned machines whos strong point is mainly BALANCE. Honda will sacrifice any one aspect to make a machine that does it's intended job well under all conditions. They rarely make a clunker. If it lacks the power of other makes, it's because said power would disturb the natural balance of the factory car. Start switching bits out and the parameters change for everything. (Vtecs notwithstanding.) That said, at our level of the game, it's best not to open any cans o' worms. Leave that stuff to the rocket scientists at the pro level. Trust me on this. Get a new radiator too, not a good one from the wreckers. New. Most of the overheats are because at sustained high RPMs a sludgy rad won't create enough flow. You don't need a fan over ride, the stock fan and switch work just fine. You might want to disconnect the E4ws though. We found when you put the car into a bit of drift on the oval the damn thing tries to throw you back the other way. It's disturbing. It does give you the feature of two 18mm eccentric bolts on your rear suspension for dialing camber in and out. The nuts may be frozen and may need replacement if you want to mess with that. (If you're being tech'ed you will have to get factory ones as you might be accused of cheating, you can really crank up alot of camber). I get a dialed in car that does what I ask of it, straining the limits of a performance envelope when the car has a straight frame, the right tires, (I've had a lot of luck with Falkens) and a crisp healthy suspension. When it's overtweaked it just doesn't roll right. Oh, and stay off the wall, that can ruin weeks of work in an impetuous heartbeat. Ha. I learned that one the hard way. I stayed off the wall for the whole 2010 season and I'm as proud of that as I am of my trophies! Good luck and keep us posted. Feel free to ask if you're having any problems, the racing community looks after it's own.

I raced an integra with a b18 for 2 years, didn't have enough ponies to overtake a berreta gtz, but i could keep up for 8 laps then he would get away in the final 2. I had the front set at- pass. side -4 drivers +3 and pass rear at -2. I think i said that right, i might have my + and - backwards? toe out at 1/8-1/4. We can't do much with motor so i want to get all i can with handleing in the corners. Oh by the way they won't let us run VTECH motors, but we can run twin cams, so mine is 2.3 twin cam.

I did well in track points, 3rd with 12-18 cars in the feature. I'm tired of breathing exhaust and burning oil from that GTZ. I'm going to give it a hard run this year. Last year there was also a prelude in the last half of the season. He was 2nd most of the time. So I know a prelude can do it. As far as I know there will be 4 Preludes after him this year! The rest are all Quad 4's with couple of neons and probes.