WS6 vs. Built Turbo Integra GSR... some things shouldn't happen.
04-28-2005, 01:00 PM
#1
WS6 vs. Built Turbo Integra GSR... some things shouldn't happen. Now if somebody asked me who I thought would win, a built turbo GSR on spray or a bolt-on LS1, I'd say GSR all the way. Especially when you consider the WS6 in question (mine) has nothing more than headers and a catback. Needless to say had I read a tale somewhere of a built/boosted GSR on giggle gas losing to a bolt-on LS1, I wouldn't hesitate to raise the flag and call out a domestic ricer for racing a stock LS on 6psi. The difference? I was there, and I still can't belive what happend. Details ahead..
So after some late mis-communication, we managed to gather a small group of cars last night for some mid-week fun, no better way of releasing all that 'nothing-to-do-at-work' stress than shooting the fizzle with a few friends before calling it a night. Now among the cars this particular night, I noticed a very clean pretty black DC '94-'97 Integra. No stickers, no Altezza's or uber-tiZZit3 wings, just a clean black teg with a nice large FMIC and a set of black wheels with a polished lip, very well done. This fella had come in with some friend I know, so I pull him aside and ask what exactly he has in the hopes of setting up a run. Unfortunatley, my friend didn't really know him all to well, so all I could gather from intelligence was that it was a GSR on 'minimal boost'. I think to myself "ok self, GSR on 8psi on a typical DRAG kit, shouldn't be too bad.." and I send my friend to provoke a race, no dice, Mr. Integra isn't game.
Time passes and I was prepped to race an old school Mazda Protoge with a built motor and a turbo setup. This is about the time my buddy comes up to me with the enthusiasim of a new puppy telling me "black Integra.. he's gonna race!". I guess since I already have a race to run, why not let him tag along and we can have a higway 3-way. I'm just mechanically kinky like that
So off to the highway we go, nice and empty and 5 lanes wide
I drop to 1st with the Integra on my left and the Protoge to his left. Throttle holding, revs steady, I wait for a honk but instead I see the passenger in the Teg motioning me "go! go!" and the driver gooses the throttle. He's moved up about half a car so I figure they just want to me mash and go, so I do 
Stab the throttle and the LS1 comes alive, it's amazing how much a simple header swap does for things thing, and the sound... bless the sound!! The Integra nails it and it's instant wheelspin for him and he pegs the limiter a second after laying into it. We both grab second and I'm rewarded with a twitch of the tail before the Firechicken falls back in line and keeps on chugging. 2nd comes and goes in a heartbeat, toss the Hurst into 3rd and all I'm seeing is a pair of beady headlights falling back.. back.. back. Grab 4th a bit more lesuirley and continue the pull till I realize he's way past the point of "no win for jOO", so off the throttle and into neutral, let the tach drop down to a tame idle and the T/A coasts down the highway towards our exit.
After reaching the light at the base of the exit, we all hook a U and head back to the highway in the direction of the hangouts. Didn't take any words to know the GSR wanted a rematch, and I must admit in a spur of cockiness, I was more than happy to give him one. We merge and I check behind us for oncomming traffic, nice n' empty. Roll over a few lanes and let him pull along side me which he does, though this time we're at a steady 40-45mph roll in 2nd. The Protoge passes us both on the left and coasts ahead of us, still nobody behind us and a clear path ahead. I glance over to the right and make out the outline of the driver behind the tinted windows. No honks again, the driver just slowly squeeze's the throttle to get me to bite, so I do and the momentary silence is broken by the ear-piercing hiss of his wastegate screaming away while the mighty LS1 belts out a V8 roar only a... well, only a V8 can deliver
Once again 2nd comes and goes in a blink, rip the shifter to 3rd with a precise click and the GSR has dropped to my bumper. Glance down at the tach to watch it sweet accross 5k.. 5.5k, but something is different, something is not as I excpected at all. A glance on my side mirror confirms my suspcion, the GSR is not faling back at all. Accross the yellow hash marks sweeps the needle, I grab 4th only to find the GSR not glued to my tail, but he's comming up and quick!!
"Great, owned my my own kind" I think to myself and I keep the T/A pegged in the hopes he'll let off before I do. The night was quiet.. with exception of a pair of cars barreling down the open interstate at 1:30am at full wail. His wastegate screaming closer.. closer, I look down only to find myself a hair from the limiter in 4th with the GSR on my door. Hell if he ain't letting off them by god neither am I! Throw the bird into 5th and hang on for the ride. it's right about this time I think 2 things: 1- If this guys wins, at least I can say I held him off through ludicrous speed, and 2- It's amazing how stable a Trans Am feels at speeds nearing 140mph vs. a 2000lb hatch.
White lines are bluring, the speedo still climbing, my fingers turning a pale white as my ankle starts hurting from the force placed on the accelerator.. the GSR by this point creeps up to my front tire, when at around 130-ish, his pull stops.. and he starts falling back back back.. I finish ringing the T/A out to a buck-forty when reality set in, off the throttle and gently drag the brakes I slow the Firechicken down from warp speed just in time to see my exit come up, and notice I managed to burn about 4 gallons of 93 octane in the span of 30-40 seconds.
Off the exit and I follow the gentle curve while relaxing my extremeties, nice to feel your fingers after forgetting where they were for the past minute. I approach the light and bring 'er down to a stop, listening intently for a new sound, a tick, a hiss, maybe some smoke or or 12 new MIL codes. "Wait, this isn't a Honda anymore..", and it's with that I hear the all to familiar sound that makes my skin crawl to this day. The sound of a starter turning over a motor with little-to-no compression. As visions of my dead GSR danced through my head, I glance back at the GSR pulled in behind me at the light and couldn't help but notice the lovley blue/white hues of smoke billowing out from around the car. "He killed it" I think to myself. Light goes green and I make a quick scamper to park the Bird on the side of the road and run back to help him push the dead Teg up the gas station driveway and park in an adjacent spot.
Hood pops up and without words, it was evident. Oil sprayed all over the vave cover, hood, and all extremeities. All signs pointed to it shooting straight out of the overflow canitster as well as the radiator cap. Headgasket 1 - Reliability 0. I empathize with the owner for a bit, entertaining him with the tales of my dead beloved GSR, whether ir helped or not I have no idea, but I did my good deed for the year so I'm good to go. The owner is on the phone at this point making calls and figuring how to get himself and his friend home.. oh yea, and the car. So I start my way back to my car, feeling a little guilty over having been the one dealing the death blow to the guys' car, and that's when I heard his 15-16 year old passenger say something that changed my outlook alogether.
"So did you win? Did you beat the Trans Am?" .. "Yea we pulled him up top"
My eyes all but bugged out when I heard this, I pull an immediate about-face and make dead-on eye contact with the kid who mumbled those words to a spectator. The look on his face.. priceless "
" I stroll right back to him standing next to the car and reply "you did what to the T/A?, you pulled me?" . "Ehh uh yea we got you up top" he responds trying to save face while wriggling in pace knowing full well that they NEVER passed me. Got close? Oh yea, hell I was just waiting to see them go by me.. never happend. "You PULLED past me!?" I ask with a bewildered look on my face, "Yea umm we were right there". I just look over at another spectator and ask simply "hey, who wins.. the guy ahead or the guy behind?". "The guy ahead.." , "Thank you" I answer while the kid responds with "well I mean it depends on where you were racing to!". Now I don't know how that means anything considering that the GSR driver didn't let off till well past 120-130 anyhow, and in any event whether the race was to 60 or 160, they never passed me so unless the rules changed over night.. I do belive that's a win in my column.
That left me pretty irritated for the rest of the night, so I just ranted to my friends about it, gave them a good laugh but I guess in retrospect it doesn't really matter, hell I won anyways. And the cherry on top? Something I hadn't noticed when I was gazing at the Exxon Valdez-esque engine bay now covered in 10w-30, was a nice little set of NOS solenoids tucked infront of the passenger side shock tower. Turns out he told the folks over there he sprayed me at some point through 3rd and 4th, no wonder that bastard suddenly started pulled me like that!! THe engine turned out to be a built GSR (don't know about the internals other than being built), HP Racing manifold, TWO HKS SSQ blow off valves, DRAG manifold and a turbo that looked like a T04E family member. 12psi + 40-shot was the claim made to the car on that run, personally if it came from the driver/owner I'd belive it, if it was that kid with him well.. who knows.
But hey, at the end of the night I turned my key and drove home, maybe that kid will think of that next time he speaks up
Cliffs: Ran a built GSR-T and somehow managed to 'lose' while remaining ahead the entire race. I still have a full oil pan.
So after some late mis-communication, we managed to gather a small group of cars last night for some mid-week fun, no better way of releasing all that 'nothing-to-do-at-work' stress than shooting the fizzle with a few friends before calling it a night. Now among the cars this particular night, I noticed a very clean pretty black DC '94-'97 Integra. No stickers, no Altezza's or uber-tiZZit3 wings, just a clean black teg with a nice large FMIC and a set of black wheels with a polished lip, very well done. This fella had come in with some friend I know, so I pull him aside and ask what exactly he has in the hopes of setting up a run. Unfortunatley, my friend didn't really know him all to well, so all I could gather from intelligence was that it was a GSR on 'minimal boost'. I think to myself "ok self, GSR on 8psi on a typical DRAG kit, shouldn't be too bad.." and I send my friend to provoke a race, no dice, Mr. Integra isn't game.
Time passes and I was prepped to race an old school Mazda Protoge with a built motor and a turbo setup. This is about the time my buddy comes up to me with the enthusiasim of a new puppy telling me "black Integra.. he's gonna race!". I guess since I already have a race to run, why not let him tag along and we can have a higway 3-way. I'm just mechanically kinky like that
So off to the highway we go, nice and empty and 5 lanes wide
I drop to 1st with the Integra on my left and the Protoge to his left. Throttle holding, revs steady, I wait for a honk but instead I see the passenger in the Teg motioning me "go! go!" and the driver gooses the throttle. He's moved up about half a car so I figure they just want to me mash and go, so I do Stab the throttle and the LS1 comes alive, it's amazing how much a simple header swap does for things thing, and the sound... bless the sound!! The Integra nails it and it's instant wheelspin for him and he pegs the limiter a second after laying into it. We both grab second and I'm rewarded with a twitch of the tail before the Firechicken falls back in line and keeps on chugging. 2nd comes and goes in a heartbeat, toss the Hurst into 3rd and all I'm seeing is a pair of beady headlights falling back.. back.. back. Grab 4th a bit more lesuirley and continue the pull till I realize he's way past the point of "no win for jOO", so off the throttle and into neutral, let the tach drop down to a tame idle and the T/A coasts down the highway towards our exit.After reaching the light at the base of the exit, we all hook a U and head back to the highway in the direction of the hangouts. Didn't take any words to know the GSR wanted a rematch, and I must admit in a spur of cockiness, I was more than happy to give him one. We merge and I check behind us for oncomming traffic, nice n' empty. Roll over a few lanes and let him pull along side me which he does, though this time we're at a steady 40-45mph roll in 2nd. The Protoge passes us both on the left and coasts ahead of us, still nobody behind us and a clear path ahead. I glance over to the right and make out the outline of the driver behind the tinted windows. No honks again, the driver just slowly squeeze's the throttle to get me to bite, so I do and the momentary silence is broken by the ear-piercing hiss of his wastegate screaming away while the mighty LS1 belts out a V8 roar only a... well, only a V8 can deliver
Once again 2nd comes and goes in a blink, rip the shifter to 3rd with a precise click and the GSR has dropped to my bumper. Glance down at the tach to watch it sweet accross 5k.. 5.5k, but something is different, something is not as I excpected at all. A glance on my side mirror confirms my suspcion, the GSR is not faling back at all. Accross the yellow hash marks sweeps the needle, I grab 4th only to find the GSR not glued to my tail, but he's comming up and quick!!
"Great, owned my my own kind" I think to myself and I keep the T/A pegged in the hopes he'll let off before I do. The night was quiet.. with exception of a pair of cars barreling down the open interstate at 1:30am at full wail. His wastegate screaming closer.. closer, I look down only to find myself a hair from the limiter in 4th with the GSR on my door. Hell if he ain't letting off them by god neither am I! Throw the bird into 5th and hang on for the ride. it's right about this time I think 2 things: 1- If this guys wins, at least I can say I held him off through ludicrous speed, and 2- It's amazing how stable a Trans Am feels at speeds nearing 140mph vs. a 2000lb hatch. White lines are bluring, the speedo still climbing, my fingers turning a pale white as my ankle starts hurting from the force placed on the accelerator.. the GSR by this point creeps up to my front tire, when at around 130-ish, his pull stops.. and he starts falling back back back.. I finish ringing the T/A out to a buck-forty when reality set in, off the throttle and gently drag the brakes I slow the Firechicken down from warp speed just in time to see my exit come up, and notice I managed to burn about 4 gallons of 93 octane in the span of 30-40 seconds.
Off the exit and I follow the gentle curve while relaxing my extremeties, nice to feel your fingers after forgetting where they were for the past minute. I approach the light and bring 'er down to a stop, listening intently for a new sound, a tick, a hiss, maybe some smoke or or 12 new MIL codes. "Wait, this isn't a Honda anymore..", and it's with that I hear the all to familiar sound that makes my skin crawl to this day. The sound of a starter turning over a motor with little-to-no compression. As visions of my dead GSR danced through my head, I glance back at the GSR pulled in behind me at the light and couldn't help but notice the lovley blue/white hues of smoke billowing out from around the car. "He killed it" I think to myself. Light goes green and I make a quick scamper to park the Bird on the side of the road and run back to help him push the dead Teg up the gas station driveway and park in an adjacent spot.
Hood pops up and without words, it was evident. Oil sprayed all over the vave cover, hood, and all extremeities. All signs pointed to it shooting straight out of the overflow canitster as well as the radiator cap. Headgasket 1 - Reliability 0. I empathize with the owner for a bit, entertaining him with the tales of my dead beloved GSR, whether ir helped or not I have no idea, but I did my good deed for the year so I'm good to go. The owner is on the phone at this point making calls and figuring how to get himself and his friend home.. oh yea, and the car. So I start my way back to my car, feeling a little guilty over having been the one dealing the death blow to the guys' car, and that's when I heard his 15-16 year old passenger say something that changed my outlook alogether.
"So did you win? Did you beat the Trans Am?" .. "Yea we pulled him up top"
My eyes all but bugged out when I heard this, I pull an immediate about-face and make dead-on eye contact with the kid who mumbled those words to a spectator. The look on his face.. priceless "
" I stroll right back to him standing next to the car and reply "you did what to the T/A?, you pulled me?" . "Ehh uh yea we got you up top" he responds trying to save face while wriggling in pace knowing full well that they NEVER passed me. Got close? Oh yea, hell I was just waiting to see them go by me.. never happend. "You PULLED past me!?" I ask with a bewildered look on my face, "Yea umm we were right there". I just look over at another spectator and ask simply "hey, who wins.. the guy ahead or the guy behind?". "The guy ahead.." , "Thank you" I answer while the kid responds with "well I mean it depends on where you were racing to!". Now I don't know how that means anything considering that the GSR driver didn't let off till well past 120-130 anyhow, and in any event whether the race was to 60 or 160, they never passed me so unless the rules changed over night.. I do belive that's a win in my column.That left me pretty irritated for the rest of the night, so I just ranted to my friends about it, gave them a good laugh but I guess in retrospect it doesn't really matter, hell I won anyways. And the cherry on top? Something I hadn't noticed when I was gazing at the Exxon Valdez-esque engine bay now covered in 10w-30, was a nice little set of NOS solenoids tucked infront of the passenger side shock tower. Turns out he told the folks over there he sprayed me at some point through 3rd and 4th, no wonder that bastard suddenly started pulled me like that!! THe engine turned out to be a built GSR (don't know about the internals other than being built), HP Racing manifold, TWO HKS SSQ blow off valves, DRAG manifold and a turbo that looked like a T04E family member. 12psi + 40-shot was the claim made to the car on that run, personally if it came from the driver/owner I'd belive it, if it was that kid with him well.. who knows.
But hey, at the end of the night I turned my key and drove home, maybe that kid will think of that next time he speaks up
Cliffs: Ran a built GSR-T and somehow managed to 'lose' while remaining ahead the entire race. I still have a full oil pan.
04-28-2005, 01:40 PM
#5
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damn man..u need to pm me when u get a chance so i can come out there. lets make these nights interesting. shoot me a pm when u get a chance and let me know where this takes place. the scene that i go to is getting boring as hell so i am up for new challenges.
04-28-2005, 01:44 PM
#6
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seriously, that was an epic tale my friend, where were you guys at? ]
nice run, that gsr guy need a simply yet delibrate open handed smack arcoss the face. Not to hurt him but to smack som esense into him
which part of miami you hailing from?
edit: for real, let me as well, i could use some more excitement...hehehe!!!
nice run, that gsr guy need a simply yet delibrate open handed smack arcoss the face. Not to hurt him but to smack som esense into him
which part of miami you hailing from?
edit: for real, let me as well, i could use some more excitement...hehehe!!!
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04-28-2005, 02:27 PM
#9
whitecamaross & obZidian, head over to our local forum:
www.tuner-solutions-online.com/forums
and sign up. Once you're in there shoot me a PM (VTC, I run the joint lol) and I'll admit you guys to the private meet forums so we can get toghether. I'll definatley have a few 'fast' imports to go if you guys come over, plus I'll feel a little better not being the only 8cyl there heh.
www.tuner-solutions-online.com/forums
and sign up. Once you're in there shoot me a PM (VTC, I run the joint lol) and I'll admit you guys to the private meet forums so we can get toghether. I'll definatley have a few 'fast' imports to go if you guys come over, plus I'll feel a little better not being the only 8cyl there heh.
04-28-2005, 02:31 PM
#10
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Quality writing. Good story. Much props on the about-face to go challange the punk.
I don't know much about hondas and high speed, but I'm far more worried about doing damage to my transmission than hurting the LS1. It's a ****** rock. It's like the big kid that sometimes hurts those it plays with (like the tranny and the rear end) and then says "oops, I didn't realize my own strength".
I've had the TA over 130mph numerous times, and the only casualty has been brake pads. I've run a personal best of 140mph and the car felt as steady as it does at 80mph. There are people on here that have had their cars over 160. LS1s are no slouch on top end, don't believe the import hype that says that a non-turbo engine can't have top end.
I don't know much about hondas and high speed, but I'm far more worried about doing damage to my transmission than hurting the LS1. It's a ****** rock. It's like the big kid that sometimes hurts those it plays with (like the tranny and the rear end) and then says "oops, I didn't realize my own strength".
I've had the TA over 130mph numerous times, and the only casualty has been brake pads. I've run a personal best of 140mph and the car felt as steady as it does at 80mph. There are people on here that have had their cars over 160. LS1s are no slouch on top end, don't believe the import hype that says that a non-turbo engine can't have top end.
04-28-2005, 09:41 PM
#17
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i ran a gsr with 16 lbs of boost, was a nice car. deep blue, stockish looking, except for the lack of exhaust and loud annoying sound it made. cool guy, asked to run from 45, i asked for 40, ended up being b/t 30-35 when we went. he never stood a chance. from the get-go i pulled by easily and it never stopped.
04-28-2005, 10:08 PM
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omg dude, it took me like 30 minutes to read all that, and now my eyes are killing me! You should write a book or something man, you got awesome writing skills, and you have something most of us on here dont really have. SPELLING!! Good kill by the way, and good thing when you heard him saying he pulled you up top, you went and told him in his face!
