My friend and I were talking about suspensions today and one thing led to another... So, I said my stock Pro ES can out-handle his Civic SI (which he says has skunk2s which I highly doubt). His car is currently dropped about 2-2.5 inches from stock (it looks very low to me). I said to him that with that much lowering his handling gets worse, but he insisted that since F1 cars are very low to the ground, the more you lower your car, the better. I say "No! A little bit of lowering is good... SLAMMING is not!" His car is rolling on some mystery brand 195/60/15 rubber with stock Si rims. I'm all stock: 195/50/16 rubber... Now, I know his car can hand me my *** in a straight line any day, but being the Protege fanboy that I am I challenge him to a race on Hwy 9 (a local very twisty road that I know as well as the back of my hand) and he says something like "You'll be seeing that SiR badge the whole time." So, I go "Yeah, in my rearview mirror" and blah blah...

So my real question is do you guys think I can kick some Honda ***? My bone-stock (except cone air filter), 5-speed, Pro ES vs. Civic Si w/ CAI & Greddy cat-back exhaust.
Yes, his car IS a lot faster than mine, but I have that "Miata with 4 doors" feeling about our beloved Proteges....

P.S. Civic Si sucks torque-wise: 111 lbs-ft even our "crappy" (by many Honda owners' words) Proteges have 135 lbs-ft...

 

Racing on twisty roads is a bad idea. You and the other person have to pay a lot of attention to where the other driver is. Like if he tried passing you on the inside of a corner and you didn't know he was there you could end up screwed. Or if you push your car to hard you can lose it. Or if they lose it on the inside of a corner and you are next to them. And so on and so on. There are a lot more things that can go wrong than in a straight line race.

 

OK I need to explain a little. We're not gonna race side by side. That would be very dumb since the road itself is not wide enough. What we were thinking of doing is doing a couple of runs and timing each time and comparing our best times. The point is to see whose car handles better and who's the better driver...


BTW, Nice car!

 

racing on public roads is a bad idea...even the way you mention...as any of the afore mentioned things can happen and you could take out someone coming the other direction, minding their own business....

if you want to race your buddy.....find a track and take it there....its where it belongs.

 

 

you could, if you're a better driver than he is...

but instead of doing it on the public road, why don't you 2 take it to an autocross. There you will truly find out, with the car AND driver combined, who is faster

 

If you are going to race on a public road you should have somebody at the end with a cell phone or radio so they can tell you if a car comes and you can stop and turn back and start again. That way you know there are no other cars on the road. Unless it intersects with other roads or has driveways then have somebody at those too. Or go to a track.


If I were you I would just forget about it. When I got my car my friend had just purchased a civic lx and we argued over whos car was better (obviously mine ) We just decided that we both have nice cars and dropped the thing.

 

I say "Bag him a lunch" Run your times down 9! I think you'll be close if not beat him. I'm in the same situation, my roomate just bought one of the brand new mini-van hatchback SI's! I think your talking about the sedan rite? His new car looks like a bigfoot! I like arguing so I'm gonna tell him I can make it through the twisties faster than his car! I'd say we have the better stock suspension, but I don't know what your boy is running? Run, let me know what happens. And I'll let you know what my sensitive roomate has to say.....LOL Get your game face on!

 

I say just laugh at him for paying that much more then you for his ugly car and pass up the race. What if one of you guys pushes the car too far and slides out and slams into whatever's there? Man, one little mistake and it will cost you thousands of dollars that could've been otherwise spent on a turbo

 

I would definately not race on a narrow twisty road side by side. Why dont you find a local auto-cross club, or set up your own "twisty course" and battle it out there.
It seems to me that the Civic guy is very stupid by even trying to compare a multi-million dollar F1 car to his Civic. There are reasons why F1 design the way they are, and there are reasons why the Civics are designed the way they are. Yes, lowering helps, but if he would to push cornering ability of his car that is 2" lower then stock, he could seriously hurt himself, emotionally, and perhaps financially. That is my point. If I was you, I would not race him anyway, be smarter. Smart people learn from other's mistakes, and the stupid ones learn from their onw.