accordionfolder
accordionfolder Dork
8/31/19 2:00 p.m.

The gears and gasoline killed it with this one. Easily one of my favorite YouTube videos....

I didn't see this posted up yet, too fun to miss.

 

MINIzguy
MINIzguy HalfDork
8/31/19 2:03 p.m.

Love the idea, tried it myself and it didn't work out. The biggest caveat they have is you need a second set of wheels & tires. That's what stopped me, as my E36 wheels don't fit my E82 well at all.

Tom1200
Tom1200 Dork
8/31/19 3:35 p.m.

Track a beater...........by my standards that's a really nice car. I once raced a nearly bone stock 78 Corolla as well as its sister beater ITC car at one of our local SCCA club races.

The concept is solid though; so many people get hung up on needing a  higher end car when you could simply add some decent tires, dampers sway bars and brake pads and have a boatload to fun. 

ebonyandivory
ebonyandivory PowerDork
8/31/19 4:04 p.m.

I’m as afraid to do something like this as I would be to try opioid meds. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop doing it!

NermalSnert
NermalSnert Reader
8/31/19 4:22 p.m.

I'd hate to be the guy whose coolant sent some vette into the tires. Might need to go a little further on his prep.

accordionfolder
accordionfolder Dork
8/31/19 4:30 p.m.

In reply to NermalSnert :

In my fairly extensive on track experience, it's rarely the stock or near stock/old cars blowing radiator hoses or giving up on track. It's the "prepped" track/race cars.

spandak
spandak Reader
8/31/19 7:20 p.m.

Inspiring. One day!

Subscriber-unavailabile
Subscriber-unavailabile Reader
8/31/19 7:29 p.m.

I often think of doing this  with my $1200 ZX2...

its so slow and fun I drive it full throttle all the time, and it’s so cheap I don’t care if it breaks.. bad thoughts 

 

Daylan C
Daylan C UberDork
9/1/19 1:58 a.m.

"This thing is probably crappier than anything you have"

This fool don't know me very well does he?

 

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand Mod Squad
9/1/19 4:30 a.m.

Having completed OneLap 3 times in cars with over 150k miles... I'm all for this sentiment.  Similarly, I think they should bring that car to OneLap this year.

it's along the lines of, 'the fastest car is the one that doesn't owe you anything'

I'm a little tweaked that it looks like they swapped the tires out without using a jack stand?

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
9/1/19 8:49 a.m.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

I was also surprised that they appear to have jacked the front of the car by lifting the radiator?  But, that is nit-picky since I could not really tell what the lifting point was.  

As the video progressed I could not help but think that on a basic car like this they were less than $100 away from new rotors, pads, fluid (at least for the fronts.)  I was later delighted that they at least put fresh pads on the front.  I thought similar on tires.  My thoughts being that a car like this should be easy to source a JY upgrade wheel and even used "better rubber."  Again, they eventually went that same way.  

Fun video.  A fun premise.  

captdownshift
captdownshift GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
9/1/19 11:16 a.m.

Someone should put together a competition where the ability of people's beaters to perform in motorsports is compared. 

 

And invite these guys to bring their E36 M3box to compete as a baseline and to assist in documenting/promoting/adding views to the shenaningans. 

MazdaFace
MazdaFace Dork
9/1/19 2:32 p.m.

Haven't watched that one yet (saw it this morning but headed to the lake before I could watch it) but I do love their videos 

Vigo
Vigo MegaDork
9/2/19 9:23 a.m.

If the answer to this particular question was no, we wouldn't have EVOs, and EVOs are pretty sweet. 

 

LanEvo
LanEvo GRM+ Memberand Dork
9/2/19 10:30 a.m.
Daylan C said:

"This thing is probably crappier than anything you have"

Challenge accepted!

On a bass guitar forum, there was a guy looking for a vintage effects pedal from the '70s (a Mu-Tron III for those who care). I made a comment about how an original one would "cost more than my car." A bunch of guys started jumping on me for "not knowing what I'm talking about" because you could find a Mu-Tron III for $600 on ebay. My point exactly LOL

Daylan C
Daylan C UberDork
9/2/19 12:28 p.m.

In reply to LanEvo :

"Half price my whip, same price my watch"

And I got some cheap watches.

LanEvo
LanEvo GRM+ Memberand Dork
9/3/19 2:51 p.m.

Watching the video, I kind of felt bad for those guys.

I used to be active with the local Mitsubishi club when I lived in Canada and drove an Evo VIII back in 2003-2005. I did get to drive a few regular (non-Evo) Lancers at some racetracks in eastern Canada, including Cayuga. They do handle pretty well; not that different from a Sentra SE-R or, Mazda 3, or Protege from that era.

But if these guys are hooping and hollering with delight behind the wheel of a 200k mile Lancer on clapped-out stock shocks ... then that says something about their own track car builds!

MINIzguy
MINIzguy HalfDork
9/3/19 2:58 p.m.

In reply to LanEvo :

Well, one of those guys (Jackie Ding) has his own YouTube channel and also completes as a time trials driver. I think their enthusiasm stems from focusing on fun, rather than lap times, because of the slower car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlDB3Lx0_g4

accordionfolder
accordionfolder Dork
9/3/19 2:58 p.m.

In reply to LanEvo :

Jackie Ding currently drives a 2020 Supra they're in the process of track prepping (he's already silly fast in it), his previous was a super fast - fairly well developed s2k (and that dude is just straight up fast). Alex Li has an M-car I believe. "Fast" Ben (previously short Ben - both of the guys that film for G&G are named Ben) has an amazing ZX2 (lol) and a nice Forester turbo. Tall Ben (slow ben) has a Evo VIII.

I think it's the simplicity/purity of it that inspires those reactions.  

*edit - beat me to it.... Updated the car list though.

aw614
aw614 Reader
9/3/19 2:59 p.m.

I want to at least autocross my beater automatic ek civic, mayybe if I fix the headgasket issues I'll give it a shot. As it is, I think the hg issues are causing the low compression (but fine for dd duties) and I worry about the honda automatic lasting. But just to get it to handle reasonably well is easy since I was able to find good condition konis with gc sleeves for 300 bucks and I threw on my ITR rear sway bar that  I wasn't using. Add my 15x7 200tw tires and its all set.

That right there is a basic honda handling build lol.

LanEvo
LanEvo GRM+ Memberand Dork
9/3/19 3:39 p.m.

I don’t know those guys and I guess I took it at face value.

One of the guys said something like “this is more fun than my Subaru” (which I took literally). That comment is what really threw me: if your Subaru track car build is less fun than a stock Lancer with open diff, then you’ve done something wrong!

The Lancer is a nicely balanced car with good ergonomics and steering feel. Very similar to a Mazda 3 overall. You can slide it around quite a bit, but there is a limit to how hard you can hoon before you’re just smoking the front tires.

Having said that, I do have fond memories of flinging my girlfriend’s Mazda 3 winter beater around Tremblant when my E30 threw a rod. Ditto for a rented Mustang V6 at Sebring. 

Tom1200
Tom1200 Dork
9/3/19 9:49 p.m.

My wife had a Geo Prizim equipped with the worlds hardest tires I'd ever encountered, it actually oversteer and you could drift the thing through 60 mph sweepers............glorious fun.

I totally get the in car giggling.

akylekoz
akylekoz SuperDork
9/4/19 5:46 a.m.

This is why Lemons racing my 110 hp Fox chassis Mustang is so fun.  

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