Post pics of your car here!

[JohnnyCougar]

[HamstersFromHell]

1. Here's my old faithful...

New from the dealership.







After all my modifications.



As raced in the 1997 season in C Street Prepared.


Hammies!

[JohnnyCougar]

2. That's awesome!

Do you have quarter mile times for your car? Looks pretty hardcore!

[HamstersFromHell]

10. Quarter mile times would be rather slow.

The car's only 132hp from the factory. (Pretty consistently about 105 on a dyno at the rear wheels). Roughly 2150-2200 lbs.

Never ran it in the quarter, but with a few very cheap mods, the acceleration is vastly improved.

Bump timing from 4 deg. BTDC to 10 (It'll still run fine on cheap regular).

Trash stock exhaust (1 7/8" pipe with highly constrictive muffler) Changed mine to a 2 1/4" pipe from cat. back and eliminated resonator, replaced muffler with a 17" SuperTrapp with 12 discs.

Replace stock airbox with K&N cone.

I didn't go any further since SCCA Street Prepared rules don't allow any internal engine mods. Just intake/exhaust and timing.

Did some tests at different stages of modification on the same stretch of road as I changed things out. From 30-70 in 4th with no downshifting...approx. 2k-7k rpm (and powerband is really from 4000-7200 when it hits the reve limiter).

Stock : 11.2 secs.
Timing change: 9.7 secs.
Exhaust and airbox change: 8.5 secs.
All above plus header: 7.5 secs. (Header really helped more from 2000 - 4000 than anything.)

Now if you wanna see how easily one of these things can really run. (And if I had the $$ for it, I'd do it in a heartbeat). A place in colorado sells a bolt on turbo kit complete with intercooler and new reprogrammable computer for right at $5000.

8 hours to bolt it all on, fire it up and then drive it for 30 minutes at varying speeds while the computer's set to "auto tune" mode and he guarantees a minimum 230 rear wheel horses. With a dyno and manual tuning, closer to 250 hp. Behaves just a stock car till you nail it then it's gone.

One guy who wrote for Sport Compact Car magazine built one and then added a bigger compressor section to the turbo, and tuned his to get 297 hp at the rear wheels before he let a friend take it around the block who totalled it. :( Said it had so much power he could white smoke the tires in 4th at 80mph if he nailed it. Had to buy wider tires to try to handle the power it was making.

But before it was totalled, he street dragged a guy in a 911 twin turbo and was ahead by 5-6 car lengths at 150 mph when the rev limiter kicked in and the 911 passed him.

The Miata engine is way overengineered and takes to turbo or supercharing very well without sacrificing much reliability.

[JohnnyCougar]

11. 2000 lbs is ridiculously light.

That's in the Porsche Boxter range. I'm sure it's faster than my car, which has a bulky Quattro AWD weighing it down.

Turbocharging an engine with that kind of weight would have to be really exciting!

[HamstersFromHell]

14. I think a bit lighter than a Boxter

But with less engine in stock form.

I know in stock class when I was running in SCCA, Boxters were in AS with 2nd Gereration MR-2s and such.

Miatas were in CS with 1st gen. MR-2 and BMW 3 series.

In Street Prepared, a Miata's best competition came from the BMW M3. Depending on how tight the course was, either was capable of winning. M3 had it all over us in horses, we had it all over them in handling.

I'd never seen one of the 250+ hps Miatas, but at Miata owner gatherings i've driven some 200+ hp supercharged ones.....they are quite a thrill to drive.

I think the owner of the 297hp car I mentioned above said he's done 0-60 in 4.7 sec., but he said that was with a lot of tire spinning. He was going to try it with slicks before the car got wrecked to see how much it could really do without tires as the limiting factor.

[jayfish]

12. Can You Put A Header...

on it and can you port/polish the intake? That would give you a bit more.

Jay

[HamstersFromHell]

13. I had a header on mine

Headers are allowed in SCCA for Street prepared, but porting and polishing are not allowed. You can "port match" to the intake or header, but only like 1/2" up into the head.

The national champ. level CSP cars are using individual runner intakes with the injectors right at the ports for a few extra hp. But they are also running lightened aluminum harmonic balancers - a severe no-no for engine longetivity as without the mass of the balancer it lets the crank twist a bit and shatters the oil pump rotor which is immediately behind the cam belt on the crank.

They also run 5 or 6 lb. aluminum flywheels with very small multiplate clutches which are totally unstreetable...thay act more like a toggle switch than a clutch. You slip it a few times and the steel plates warp and ruin the clutch.

The idea of Street Prepared class is to be a "mostly stock" street legal car, but with the that clutch you've made it a "trailer queen" that can't be seriously driven on the street.

I'd love to see the SCCA make a rule change that'd force cars to use a stock diameter clutch. Then the car would be fine on the road even with a 6 lb. flywheel.

[jayfish]

17. I Thought A PP...

might have been a little much. Nice car BTW. I always liked the look of them but they seemed way underpowered. From talking to fans though, I have learned that thats not what they're all about.

Jay

[HamstersFromHell]

18. Exactly!

It has it's downsides:

Small trunk (but you learn that you don't need to pack a ton of things for a weekend trip)

A bit cramped if you're over 5'11"

Not real comfortable on long trips...the same buckets that hold you in well on corners keep you from shifting your weight around on long drives. That said, I've driven it on road trips and had 750 mile days. (ouch!)

What it's about is finding a nice curvy road and just tossing it around. With the OEM size tires (185/60-14) you get a lot of "warning" before you they let go since there's so much sidewall height.

It's got 50-50 weight distribution, in stock form will hang with most anything on a corner. With some simple mods and not a lot of money, it overcomes it's lack of power. (Just a $250 catback system and bump the timing...stock timing is way too conservative for making power.

But the real fun is modding the suspension to make great even better.
On mine, I went from stock springs (150 lb. front, 90 lb. rear) to Ground Control adjustable coil overs with adjustable Konis (about $800 together). The new springs were really "track" springs 500 lb. fronts, 350 lb. rears. ("Kit" springs like H&R are about 220 front, 120 rear, Eibachs are a bit stiffer at around 300 front, 200 rear.

That much spring rate makes the ride a bit stiff if your local roads are bad, but combine those with Eibach sway bars (the stiffest brand available for a Miata) a change to 16" wheels and 215/40 Toyo Proxes tires and the thing corners like it's on rails with NO body lean.

That's when things get fun. There's a local road going up a ridge that has a few nice sweepers. And that's where I just love eating camaros and such. They got it all over me on hp, but I can set the cruise at 70 and not even squeal a tire through the whole series of curves while they are slamming brakes to stay off the guardrails while trying to keep up.

On tighter stuff, it's even more fun. :)

[jayfish]

3. Here's Mine.

The last couple of winters have been pretty hard on the old girl though.
She need a lot of TLC this summer.

Jay

[JohnnyCougar]

15. Nice rims!

[jayfish]

16. Thanks,...

they are stock 16's. Before I found Eagle One A2Z, it took me about 1/2 an day to clean them :puke:. If anyone else hate cleaning their wheels, I highly recommend Eagle One A2Z.

Jay

[HamstersFromHell]

19. I've used it...works nice.

Mine were a pain to clean as well.

Another Eagle One product I swear by is the 20-20 glass cleaner.

Being a smoker, it's the only thing I've found that really cuts smoke well enough to just spray and wipe. Windex and all that other stuff only softens it enough to smear it around.

And I think a new thread is in order for our favorite car care products.

[Huckebein the Raven]

4. You have a nice Audi

:thumbsup:

Is that an A4 2.8 Quattro ?

[JohnnyCougar]

5. Yup....1996.

When I get my Masters Degree, I hope to upgrade. The 1996 A4 is only 172 HP, but the 2006 one will be about 250 HP with a similar engine. Of course, the S4 will be 330 HP, and the RS4 420HP. I might just get a used S4 instead of a new A4....who knows. That is all provided I actually get the job I am supposed to get. That's not a given with the Bush economy.

[Huckebein the Raven]

6. Do they still sell the S8 here in the states ?

[JohnnyCougar]

8. You'd have to get it used...

They only sold it here from 2001-2003. The new A8 comes with an optional 420 HP W12 enging, though, which is more powerful than the original S8.

The S8 (or possibly RS8) is planned for re-release in 2006 or 2007. Rumors are circulating around that it will either have a normally aspirated V10 (around 500 HP) or as high as a bi-turbo W12 (about 650 HP). Volkswagen already has a W12 bi-turbo in the Bentley Continental GT. The V10 is the Lamborghini Gallarado engine. No one know for sure yet, but if your choices are between Lamborghini and Bentley engines, you really can't lose. All of them are designed by the same core of engineers, pretty much.

[Huckebein the Raven]

9. I couldn't afford one anytime soon. I was just curious.

But I'm liking Audi more and more over BMW. The new 3 series looks ugly to me.

[CO Liberal]

7. Here's My 2002 Chevy S10...

...covered in fresh Colorado snow.

[Orsino]

20. New Prius

Here I am, about to take it out for a gloat:

[JohnnyRingo]

21. '71 Triumph TR6

Going to a Brit car show tomorrow in Akron. (Sun)

[seemunkee]

22. My MINI

[Nite Owl]

23. Here's my new baby

Acura TSX '05

[Carla in Ca]

24. Here is mine

<http://tinypic.com/4hpht1>

[onager]

25. Nice 57!!!

Reminds me of the stories about the infamous "Black Widow" that Chevy sold out the back door in 1957.

At the same time GM was hypocritically announcing a ban on racing, it was selling a lightweight 2-door "post" sedan just like yours. It had the Corvette 283 with fuel injection, six-lug truck wheels, and a bunch of other hi-performance parts.

A racing car in a crate, direct from the manufacturer!

[RedRocco]

26. heres mine.. can you tell I'm a VW fanatic?

the beater


the nice one





the project

[jayfish]

27. I Love The Scirocco.

Had two of them myself. One was a perfectly preserved 1978 (with the 16v teardrop wheels) that was trashed by an unruly party-mob. The other was a totally built 79' that had a 2.0 crate motor. It was insanely fast and handled like a slot car. That one got gas in the oil and burned up it's crank-shaft. I bought it for $900.00 from some rich kid who just got a 5.0 mustang LX and just wanted to get rid of the VW. I didn't have the money to fix it so I ended up parting it out. I was A VW fanatic for quite a spell. I think I've still got "This Is Recycled Bugs" catalogs and a video lying around somewhere.

Jay

[RedRocco]

28. thanks jay

the red '80 S is a hotrod :-P
I'm running an ABA/JH swap hooked to a 4k tranny, Neuspeed race springs over Tokkio Sports, full Techtonic Tuning exhaust, 4 wheel discs with 10.5" uprade on the front, Fox intake with large throttle body

makes me smile to drive it

[jayfish]

29. Now That You Mention It...

I think the stock one I had was an 80'. It was so long ago and the car came to such a sad demise, I try to forget. Throttle body? Now that's a good one. I think the reason that my "hotrod" VW died is because the dude replaced the f.i. system with a dual webber carb setup. I think it either wasn't adjusted right or I didn't know how to use the choke correctly. Nice cars though. The only problem I ever had with the stock one is that the radiator melted about a week after I bought it.

Jay

[RedRocco]

30. I had a radiator

explode on the first Scirocco that I had. it was an '81 S and had a plastic radiator shell. of course it did this just as I opened the hood :/

[jayfish]

31. Ouch!

Yeah, I couldn't figure out why in the he-double hockey sticks anyone would make a radiator out of plastic. :shrug: Oh, I did lose a fuel-pump on it but that was about a 5 minute job.

Jay

[PatriotGames]

32. Wow! That car is hot. Love it!

[JohnnyCougar]

34. Thanks...

Those are aftermarket rims, and aftermarket rear veiw mirrors. And I put some E-code headlights and for lights in myself, too.

I'm probably going to customize my brake lights this summer, as I hate the amber colored blinkers. It just doesn't look right on a black and chrome car.

[Caution]

33. My Cooper

[Bombero1956]

35. picking this up tomorrow

It has leather seats, the Shaker 1000 sound system and all the bells and whistles.

[RC]

36. 1988 ford Mustang

Not mine, it belongs to my 60 YO woman friend who can well afford something newer. She likes it. I cleaned the snow off and she drove it away.


BTY, those are high bucks Firestone's holding it up.

[kysrsoze]

37. Very Clean A4 - Nice. Here's my baby...

It's an '04 G35 with a 6-speed manual transmission. After 2 years, I'm still in love with it - seriously fast, great handling and ultra-reliable with zero problems. The re-sizing jiggies don't do it justice. Hope you all like it.