Performance comparison?

[Steve Chryssos]

Bill, your enthusiasim is infectious. {According to Johnson you have some other things that are infectious as well, but this is a family show....} I sincerely hope you get a BUNCH of participants in the auto-x. Perhaps that is a topic for it's own thread? You could post the entry list and give the opportunity for the smack-talk to begin and us outsiders to lay our own bets.

I just think that some referance against as close to a "constant" as possible might be usefull. Particularly when for instance a vendor claims "improved handling" or some other such thing.

.... If your '69 Camaro runs 2sec faster than spec miata at Road Atlanta we can assume that you'd be within a tick or two of spec miata at Thunderhill right? If that is the case then we can further assume that if Adam is 2sec faster than spec miata at his local track in Michigan and Carl is 3sec faster than spec miata at Willow that Carls car is a bit faster than Adams.
Fair?
Discuss......

No, it's the same thread. Your idea Sounds fair. But it also seems kinda rigid for a bunch of hot rods. If you want to compete against spec Miatas, BUILD A SPEC MIATA. If you want to build a fast, interesting, multi-purpose hot rod, build a pro-touring car. And never lose sight of the fact that your pro-touring car is a hot rod. With regards to racing, I can think of many better starting platforms than 69 Camaros and 71 cudas. There are many faster, cheaper, lighter foundations--including Miatas, Lotusises (Lotii?) Fox Mustangs, Beemer 3's, late model 'vettes etc. It's a long list.

So if you are starting with a 68 Camaro, you're a hot rodder. Have fun with it and quit looking for thousandths of a inch and tenths of a second.



RTH2 is the first in a series of total performance driving events for HOT RODDERS to be set up by Bill Howell and myself. Don't whine because we lack a road course--we'll get there sooner than later. We're off to a good start. Baby steps. Some people complain that we don't drive our cars. They complain that there is no comparison between cars and parts.

Well, here you go. Same tracks, same day, same clock, same weather. Car against car. One subframe against the other. The event is filling up nicely. No complaints from the sponsors. But, like Bill, I'm surprized that there isn't more buzz being generated. There's no need to participate. You can spectate, hitch a ride, or just bench race on a message board about possible outcomes. Will Detroit Speed's car win the autocross or fail miserably? Will Bob Johnson's cuda haul ass or blow up? Did two roughly similar Camaros with different clips perform the same or are they light years apart? We will have that comparison. Jason Huber's 69 Camaro has a DSE Quadra-link and a modded stock clip. DSE's 69 Camaro has a Quadra-Link and their new clip. The cars are reasonably equal. I'm dying to see those two cars run head to head. And I'm dying to run against them. I plan on spanking them both with my skinny tires and leaf springs. And there will be others. We will probably see every possible permutation of 1st gen Camaro.

Is this a hyper accurate technical comparison? Who cares? We have barbecue! There will be cole slaw! Bob Johnson will tell obscene jokes! And we will drive. It's all done in the spirit of hot rodding.

Where is the buzz?