How decent is this car for this competition. I would be in the Street Prepared Class E. Not many of the cars look like they would match up with a Hawk, but some of em look like they could rape. Just wondering what the general opinion on this is.

Thanks,
Gary

 

The cars to have in ESP are 3rd and 4th gen F-bodies (and occasionally a Mustang wins).

If your Firehawk is stock, a well driven, fully prepped ESP f-body will put a hurting on you. A lot of the 4th gen ESP cars are running 17x11 with 315's at all 4 corners.

A short list of what the prepped cars have:

-Big wheels
-Big tires
-Long tubes
-Springs (600-800 lbs/in front, 150-200 lbs/in rear)
-Heim panhard bar
-Konis (SA is fine)
-Aluminum flywheel
-Offset upper control arm bushings
-Lightweight seat

If you have never auto-x before, you will definitely be the slowest part of the equation. Going fast in auto-x is 10% car, 90% driver.


If you get serious about ESP, you can definitely build a Firehawk into a very competitive car, but the Firehawk specific parts really aren't as good as what the real ESP cars have.

 

Thanx for the info, yea it's a stock firehawk with only the auburn option. I'm more lookin to have fun than to be competetive... I just didn't wanna be the only one there runnin a stock car.

-Gary

 

check around to see if there are any local, smaller clubs in your area. more stock cars, usually more runs, less pressure. thats why all i run is a little local club by me, i dont even bother with the SCCA runs in e-town. mostly all rice, and you only get 3 runs a day. thats for more serious competitors who threw alot more money into making it an almost race-only car. at a local club, you could get 8-12 runs in a day, depending on the people there. try that first, cut your teeth, and see what upgrades you can/want/need to do. your first time, having a stock car, will probably end up in last place. that happened to me when i first started. yeah its fun, but its more fun to at least beat SOMEBODY.

if you have time and money, pick up a set of rims and race tires. any kind of slick, r-compounds will make a world of differance, even with an otherwise stock car.

 

Mojave; they allow rod-ended PHBs, but NOT rod-ended, double adjustable LCAs??!

 

4th gen Camaros and Firebirds cannot replace any control arms in ESP. Bushing material is free for stock arms so long as it has no more metal than the original.

Panhard rods are open and torque arms are open.

Add a good diff (Torsen T2R) to the must have list.

 

Blah, I knew I would forget something... Yeah, a T2R is definitely a must-have upgrade.

 

To back this up for the original poster... click HERE

The top three drivers have reasonably prepped (but not fully) cars. The "Firebird" listed under me was a Firehawk.

To my knowledge, this was an inexperienced driver with a near stock car. He got crushed (as I did my first time out). As you can see by the times, this event had a very short course because we ran the event at an alternate location for the local Corvette club. Had this been a "normal" sized venue, the Firehawk driver would have seen an even larger gap.

Experience is the key. Get out there and start taking your lumps. It's the only way to improve.

 

Thanks, my best buddy is out at the Honda Plant in Ohio, and he's into their AutoX team, driving their S2000 and RSX. He said it was a blast, so I guess now I'm gonna have to try it... I can't wait. I get my car in about 6-9 days. Thanks for all of the suggestions/help/pointers.

-Gary