Jim- I'd love to see a Lightning with stock style suspension (upgraded of course) and no significant weight added to the rear pull 1.0g on the skidpad. Not going to happen "easily."
Please note that I said 0.9-1.0g range, not specifically 1.0g.
Ted- Do you ever visit Northern California? You should come out on the road course this summer. In NASA HPDE Group 4 there isn't much that can touch the car... I was being chased by Evan Ginsberg (instructer) in a C4 Vette with 500hp+ motor, lexan everything, major roll cage/chassis stiffening, 315/17's all around R compound tires and he didn't pass me for a few laps until I let him by due to getting hot coolant temps. Modified Evo's and Sti's I could close the gap closer even in the corners and in the straights it was good bye time.... I was roping in a Lotus Elise at Thunderhill every lap until coolant temps made me do a cool down lap. I have no radiator ducting or belly pan right now... or hood venting. I'm curious how the car does at Sears Point (Infineon) in August. I would love to have a professional driver sort my car out and see what kind of lap times it could pull at the 10/10 full out level.
Oh, I don't doubt the car is fast; that wasn't my point.
I just question how applicable / relevant the skidpad numbers are.
You can basically bolt on slicks onto almost any chassis and get 1.0+ G's.
I find it the skidpad is more a function of how sticky your tires are rather than how sorta the suspension is.
Do you think a car with modified suspension with stock tires would outperform the same type of car with stock suspension + slicks?
I'd put money the car with slicks (+ stock suspension) would edge out the modified suspension.
Man, I just missed you guys by about...er...5 years. :P
I used to live in the Sacramento area back in 2000 - 2001.
I lost my job, so I couldn't stick around.
Trips to Thunderhill / Laguna Seca / Sears Point were priceless!
I miss all of that.
BTW, what kinda lap times were you turning at Thunderhill?
This is about the 20 year anniversary for when I was in the Sport Compact Car Mag USCC shootout. The car ended up having a cracked front subframe on one side the entire time! Not a blown shock... so it was repaired and the handling was normal turning both ways again. The car was sold about a year later to a local guy that enjoyed it for a couple years.
Once I sold it I bought yet another super clean silver FD around 2006 for something like $6500 with a low compression rotor in one housing and drove it home like that about 40 miles even over the Golden Gate bridge and made it back to SF. Yanked the motor and added a cam/headers only LS7 making 520rwhp to it with a Holley HP EFI around 2008/9 which were very hard to get, did wide body, T56 Magnum, 8.8" Cobra IRS swap, much nicer interior, Mitsu Evo gray paint (paint jail forever), which took a few years to complete the car and here it is! Still own it about 19 years later. I sold the rear wing/CF hatch/lexan window setup which I rocked for a few years... then added about 40lbs of insulation/heat shield and a stock rear hatch to make it more comfortable to drive on the street. 315 front and 335 rear! Sold the LS7 as the factory dry sump really is a gimmick and not great for racing and did a 12:1 416 with small bore LS7 heads currently.
Do you do any track days? Would love to see it again sometime. Really nicely built.
I need to get back on track! For some reason the Holley EFI isn't communicating with the engine. It turns over and injectors are working... just doesn't fire up. Will look into that issue in June.
