proof that JDM DOES NOT necessarily = fast

SO this kid comes up to me (who i've known for quite a while) and tells me he got a new motor in his miata. It's a jdm 2.0 liter miata motor. I was like, "wow, cool i'm stoked for you man", to which he replied, " I wanna run your car, on the 1/4 mile" thinking I hadn't a chance with just an intake/exhuast '96 ex civic i tell him, "I was like ok cool we can run",and then I said, "but why don't we make it interesting and run the canyon (brea canyon, orange county, CA) for $200". He was like, "naw man we'll just run a drag for fun, so i was like "whatever".

anyway, that was on sunday night (i didn't wanna run that night 'cause tuesdays,thursdays, and sundays are known "race nights" around here). ANd he showed up at the in-and-out burger I was at tonight and he wanted to run. I said "you sure you don't wanna go to the canyon for some money? you have more power then I do (he's supposed to) you're lighter, and you're rear wheel drive, you should be able to smoke me. he declined and asked again for a drag race so, finally, reluctantly we go to a "track".

there was only us so we didn't have anyone to be a starter, so he gave me the move. I told him i'd let him have a car length and me on the move so it would equal out and he was like, "no it's cool we'll just go heads up".

On the first run my launch was perfect, which didn't matter cause he didn't even go, his excuse was "my clutch slipped" (new motor, new clutch I doubt it)

so i told him ok fine we'll run one more time, but thats it cause i don't wanna bust the spot. the second launch was pretty good, i spun a little, but not enough to bog me out when i got traction i pulled on him in first by about a car, and then held it till it was over. I figured it was cause I got the move. anyway, i won fair and square so everything was cool

on the way back we both stopped at the same red light side by side and obviously we'd run again, this time would be more fair cause it was off a light, not off my move. I misjudged the pavement and spun all through first gear, i was getting close to 7000rpm and i didn't wanna hit the rev limiter so my first instinct was to shift (i know, i know, bad idea) and obviously got traction in second and bogged down to appx. 3300 even with that HORRIBLE of a launch i caught him, in second pulled till about a half car in front and stuck it out till about the half mile mark (which in my opinion, and I assume you guys would concur means I won) at that point the road was going to turn so i let off and braked to slow down.

(here's where it gets maddening)

HE PUT HIS HAZZARDS ON WHEN I LET OFF!

he absolutely, completely thought he had won!

rediculous, i pulled up next to him and told him that was bullshit, unless he actually believed he miraculously gained 6 cars on me in a split second. he just laughed and drove off.

I'm gonna be FUCKING BENT if he goes around saying he beat me and stuff. anyway, if he does it'll give me an excuse to to rape him for his money. ("you beat me huh? race me again for a couple hundred bucks") hehe, that'd be hilarious.

do you guys think you have to PASS the guy to have won? Am I that jaded? or is he just an idiot and i am sane. stupid kid, i wish he had some money

If you beat him with your 16.5-17sec 1/4 car, he can't drive his miata worth shit. I got a 16.1 in the 1/4 with my civic type r engine, but on the street I beat a 5.0 by a few hairs. Don't stereotype JDM engines as not being fast, as the driver and conditions are 90% of it. If the cars could drive themselves, perfectly, yours would have lost by about 1 to 1.5 seconds on the strip.

haha yea I've got a friend like that...he'll do something and even though it's not a big deal it bugs the hell out of you...

I didn't mean AT ALL that jdm motors are not fast. I just meant that something being JDM doesn't always mean you have a fast car. people think sometimes that JDM=FAST but i meant to show there is a huge difference between a jdm b16b and a jdm 2L miata. a b16b is a RAD motor, it runs really strong and powerfully, whereas the 2.0L miata (while still jdm) runs not too much better then a close to stock ex civic (which isn't too surprising, the miata is supposed to have 140 flywheel hp mine is supposed to have 127, plus mods, we equal out pretty much i'd say) the only real factors he had over me were his car being 100lbs lighter then mine and rear wheel drive (which are accounted for by driver skill) Obviously i know the majority of jdm motors are faster, so i wouldn't go and say usdm japanese motors are better then jdm ones (duh)

Ricochet, I mainly see you as a cool guy, for the small time i've been here on this board you've been really cool about helping people and being nice to them. which is why it surprised me when you started ripping on my car. My car should run appx 16.7 in stock trim, right now i wouldn't estimate anything lower (or higher) then 16.4-16.5 on a good run

btw, i'm not bagging on you or anything, just curious what happened when you ran your car at the track? you ran 16.1 in a car that should be running really low 15's or really high 14's was the car running ok?

And again, don't think i'm bagging on you, your car has a motor that a lot of people want,

I wasn't ripping on your car, I was ripping on your friend's driving skills. I ran a 16.1 after only having the engine for a week, and got a shitty wheel-hopping launch. It's been hanging over my head for about a month now but can't do anything about it until next summer.

I apologize as my post was ignorant because I know nothing about Miata engines, jdm or not, because I didn't know they only cranked 140hp from 2.0 litres. Your car probably has about that with your mods, but I'm sure his displacement creates more torque. Still, with those numbers being so close one little slip-up could cause the other guy's nose to poke ahead I guess.

About the hazards after passing you I have a similar story. I was at the strip back when I was using nitrous on my dx engine, well I bogged at the start and floored it at about 1500 rpms (waaay to low to spray) to "unbog" and there was a HUGE pop sound. I thought for sure my engine blew into the sky.. I slowly drove to the end running a 27 or whatever. Turned out I got lucky and it just backfired the n2o buildup into the intake not damaging anything. Anyways I was racing a shitty B15 hatchback with a nasty unpainted body kit, each panel primed a different color, and he pulled that hazard light shit with me. He ran an 18.2 or something, TRYING... lol. I wanted to find and kick the shit out of him for being a fuckin asshole, but I then thought whatever I'll let him enjoy probably his only moment of "glory" he's ever seen from that car..

Well anyways, that was a pretty cool story, thats suprising that a car with about 20 more hp and is lighter with RWD would lose to a stock FWD EX. :rofl:

at absolute most he's got 7 more FLYWHEEL horsepower then i do, stock he's got 140 at the fly whereas I have 127, but i have a CAI and a catback exhuast (which even at a low estimate should put me at 132 which would be +5 fly hp) also, he's got a whole lot more drivetrain loss then i do cause he's rear wheel drive. when it comes to wheel hp i think it's equal if not an advantage for me. and when it comes to weight his stock curb wieght is 2299 and mine is appx 2400, a differece, but not a humongously substantial one. Physics are against me cause of the fwd thing, but it's not like we were on slicks, aired down or anything, it was just a street race. what surprised me most is that i spun first gear and bogged out 2nd on the second run and still beat him.

nice kill.

thanx man, i love positive reinforcement.

I'm leaving for the track in about n hour, so we'll se exactly how well I am running. I'm on new rubber now too, hopefully it'll make a difference.

anyway, that was on sunday night (i didn't wanna run that night 'cause tuesdays,thursdays, and sundays are known "race nights" around here). ANd he showed up at the in-and-out burger I was at tonight and he wanted to run. I said "you sure you don't wanna go to the canyon for some money? you have more power then I do (he's supposed to) you're lighter, and you're rear wheel drive, you should be able to smoke me. he declined and asked again for a drag race so, finally, reluctantly we go to a "track".

...do you guys think you have to PASS the guy to have won? Am I that jaded? or is he just an idiot and i am sane. stupid kid, i wish he had some money

Somethings to point out here. When driving a canyon (or auto-X course for that matter) while weight and power can be a to an advantage, driving in that situation is 90% driver skill than anything else. After all even though it is a cartoon, it also states the truth of why in Initial D, a Hachi Roku CAN really beat a Skyline, or RX-7 through a canyon pass. He may not have been a good canyon racer (or else he just wasted $$$ to build it up for drag, hahaha :loser: ) but eitherway, he's gotta be crazy to decline something like you offered. Well I wouldn't have done it for $$$ though, but just for fun. Also unless your suspension is built up (which mine is rather extensively) he's already at an advantage over you on that. Their suspension isn
t nessacerily better, but the car is one of the most perfectly balanced cars ever built.

Now before you start getting pissy for me not agreeing with you or being on his side, I know all this from fact and experience. I auto-X, I canyon run or "togue" and I've been in a couple canyon battles before, one of them a VERY heated one with a couple FC chassis RX-7's Neither of the battles did I know the people or even get a look at them till it was over. The FC's seriously gave me a run for my money, I mean they knew the road we were on VERY well, although they didn't have the best of technique, then again mine went down the drain just trying to out speed them which was almost impossible since we were battling going up hill rather than down. When you have a car on your tail about as close as a NASCAR drafting another car, for the whole 4 miles up a windy hill, you'd be pretty wigged out over it too. The other battle was against an EF 4th gen hatchback, and that one I was able to easily pull from him on the curves. I could just handle them faster and attack them better. Like I said, it's all in the skill of the driver, not car power.

As for who won your race or not, if there was danger ahead, you made the smart move by pulling back behind him. He just took advantage of it and called joy. Sounds like he would have just ate the curve had you two ben in the other's lane. I've had to forfite quite a few races because things were just getting too dangerous or something was coming up ahead. The smart one always acknowledges when to quit, the dumb one will end up with a wrecked car or just flash their hazards on a false win.

bah jdm = way faster.....mugen sticker=5hp compared to apc=1hp.... :nutkick:

bah jdm = way faster.....mugen sticker=5hp compared to apc=1hp.... :nutkick:

Your getting ripped John, Spoon sticker = 10hp, and Tein sticker = 15! Bonus +5hp if that sticker is of Dampa-Chi (the Tein Guy) :D

what about the calvins sticker? the one of calvin wearing a d15shirt pissin on the d16? an extra 30whp!

the reason i was trying to race him in the canyon for $$$ was i run there as often as I can, it's only a few minutes from home, so i can just hop on by for a little midnight run after work so i know the road decently well. I know positively the only times he's ever taken his car to the limit in a turn is on an onramp to a freeway. I even offered him to trade cars and run for the same money. Mainly it's because he's babbling so much about "ooh, i have a jdm motor, i'm mr. racecar driver". I didn't feel bad about trying to hustle him out of a few bucks and a fun race.

the reason i was trying to race him in the canyon for $$$ was i run there as often as I can, it's only a few minutes from home, so i can just hop on by for a little midnight run after work so i know the road decently well. I know positively the only times he's ever taken his car to the limit in a turn is on an onramp to a freeway. I even offered him to trade cars and run for the same money. Mainly it's because he's babbling so much about "ooh, i have a jdm motor, i'm mr. racecar driver". I didn't feel bad about trying to hustle him out of a few bucks and a fun race.

True enough. I don't know what a JDM motor for a Miata can do for it, esp. if it's only 2hp more than stock. :eek7: Could just be more torquey, or have better components, Who knows. If you want some GOOD roads, you should check out Latigo Cyn. sometime if you haven't yet. Probably one of the most difficult canyon pass roads in CA in the Malibu area off PCH Highway 1.

we should organize a socal canyon meet.