Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Autocross and Open Track Sentra SE-R V spec, SVT Focus,Mazda MP3, Altima 3.5SEin G Stock?

Suspect all these cars will run G Stock next year once classified. After seeing in Car & Driver that the SE-R V Spec outran a Subara Impreza 2.5RS by 6 seconds(!!!) on a road course, you gotta believe that thing is going to dominate autocrossing again. Torque rules in auto-X and the 2.5 liter four makes 180+ft-lbs. But the MP3 won the C&D road test over both cars and put up some amazing handling numbers, (.86g and 68mph slalom)so if it gets more power...watch out.

Then at Detroit someone ran a SVT Focus to a pretty incredible time as The Mark or Aussie pointed out in the Aussie bar post elsewhere in the AutoX forum.

That leaves the Altima as the unknown factor. Will it handle well enough to take advantage of its power. Saw an automatic 3.5 SE in my parking lot with Bridgestone Turanza EL42 M+S tires with a 300 treadwear rating (which should mean sticky) but only a Traction A and Temp A rating on the sidewall.
At size 215/55ZR-17 they hardly filled the wheel wells so with stickier larger tires (235/40ZR-17 Kuhmo 712 just $100)it could be a pretty good handler. Can't run STS as someone else pointed out due to the 3.1 liter STS limitation. Still in G Stock, SOMEONE will try to make a go of it. 245/40ZR-17 Hoosiers are $200 each, though.

The Altima is a boat!

I don't think it will make a dent in G-stock!

-Andy

On the Spec V, the latest SCC reports Nissan has dropped the numbers on the production car a bit. The article doesn't come out and say it, but it appears the first car they released was loaded... Regardless, they were disappointed with the production cars they received.

Just a thought. Maybe C&D got more even fare.

The Spec V Sentra struck me as being only average in acceleration (7.4 0-60mph with 2 shifts)and actually one of the slowest in 0-30 time. I wonder if this is attributable to the 17 inch wheels which seem pretty large for such an average powered car. The Focus slows considerably with 17 inchers due to rotational intertia so I suspect it is the same for the Sentra.

The SVT Focus may actually accelerate quicker 0-60 but it won't have the torque of the 2.5 Sentra, so in acceleration out of a curve, especially with an LSD, the Sentra should be much faster. Remember that the torquey all-wheel drive Impreza 2.5RS (7.8 0-60)has dominated STS yet the Sentra annihilated its road course time. It beat every other car in the test by 2 seconds or more!

The Altima has achieved better than .8 lat. g's with only average tires, so I would not be too quick to label it a boat. By comparison the Sube did .79 lat g's and it has certainly been a winner.

Just be happy that the Integra Type R and the Lexus IS 300 are out of G stock. I think that Neons will be more of a worry than any of these cars. I think that it is time for the Contour to dominate G Stock.

Michael

98 SVT

Look at the Aussie bar post here in the Auto-X section at the Detroit autocross event and check out Steve Couture's and another guy's time in the Neon ACR. Both finished in the top 10 at Nationals and they blew away all the SVT times. I'm equally concerned about the latest Celica GT if they put it with us. At local level unless you have a national contender around, the SVT should do well.

Not to be left out, I am going to toss in the Nissan 200SX SE-R. Larry MacLeod is a excellent, National caliber driver. His times were at least as fast as Steve Coutures, iirc. I rode with him on a run where he got it all wrong, looped it, doing a 360 at 45mph, gathered it up and set a sub-60 second time!! Even though the car only has 140 hp/tq, it does have LSD, and, in the right hands, will be tough to beat.

On a side note, I am going to say that a Geo Metro can whip us all in the hands of a National-level driver. I am going to be able to stay in front of *most of the cars mentioned above, and would hazard a guess that most of us here will do so as well. The rub is that, in the right hands, we are going to get beat by a great driver.

While I am happy that some of the lop-sidedness will be taken out of GS, it does mean that I will be racing against Steve, Steve, and Larry ALL the time. Which probably means that the rules changes have put an end to my trophies...Until I get better

Or an H-stock Tempo, or a 92 Cavalier

The 2.5RS is a heavy car, which hurts it... however, one of the biggest factors in its slow performance on the road course are the tires. I am *not* exaggerating when I say that the Bridgestone RE92s on the stock Subies are far worse than the Firerocks that were stock on the Contour SEs. I never thought I'd find that to be the case, but it's true: there are crummier tires than the Firerocks.

Tread squirm all over the place, soft sidewalls, no grip... they had all the steering feel of marshmellows.

I'm sure the tires don't account for 6 seconds worth of time, but certainly a chunk of it.

--Dave

I erred in quoting a 68mph slalom time for the Mazda. Quoted what someone else told me. Real figure is 58 something in emergency lane change, and MP3 was only second fastest behind...you guessed it, the Spec V. The MP3 did tie the Sentra with .86 lat g's. Noted that all the tested cars had 16 or 17 wheels. Remember not too long ago that all cars this size wore 14 and 15 inch rims/tires.

All who run against Neon ACRs, take heart that the engines must be getting tired by now. Problem is the serious ones will rebuild and be even faster.

Agree that tires on Impreza probably accounted for much of the .79 lat. g's but there still must be some secret the STS boys know that makes those things so fast. What is it? The stock ones don't seem to be that competitive based on national results.

Speaking of talented drivers making anything go fast, in the south father/son Rupps of Carrolton, GA regularly used to beat up on everybody with H Stock Pontiac Sunfires and D stock Fieros. They had a Pontiac dealership!!