[Sparky5501]

What has three cylinders, passes BMWs, MINIs, Mustangs, and Acuras in torential downpours while still keeping five bars of charge doing 73MPH for thirty laps on a race course?

A little Honda Insight.

Last Friday I took my Insight out for it's offical indoctrination into the wide world of road racing. With changes to camber and wider wheels my little Insight was kicking some royal butt. Ok, granted it was raining dogs and cats the whole day. Rain makes the great equalizer!

What great fun I had. Everyone at the track was amazed at how well the Insight was performing compared to the performance vehicles that were there. Everyone had a great time watching the Insight battle it out to pass on the straight away's. If it weren't for the people I was passing using their brakes and slowing down I'd never get by! :lol:

I really wish some other Insighters were there to have fun with. Hmmm... the Insight racing team?

PS: I felt like Drew Barrymore's character from "Charlie's Angles" after she beat up all the bad guys with her hands tied.

 

[Rick]

Cool.

 

[Hambone]

Great job Sparky! I'm registered to take my Insight on its maiden racing outing on April 18th, albeit in the SCCA Solo II autocross event. I'm pretty excited, although since I will also be making my racing debut, I'm not expecting to be dusting off anybody else!

I'm setting a goal of not knocking over any cones and successfully completing all my runs. If I beat even one other competitor I'll consider it icing on the cake!

 

[Sparky5501]

Hey Hambone,

Great to hear you are going Solo 2. I bet you'll do great in the Auto-x. Post your results and run times if you get a chance. Remember to set all your tire pressures to the same psi and keep your eye's up. Hope you have as much fun as I've been having.



PS: I've killed a few cones in my day. Good thing I wasn't in Solo 2 or else I'd have huge penalties. Hee hee :wink:

 

[dan]

Sparky 5501-

Congratulations! I am amazed! It takes all kinds to defend our honor. Did you ever get out of third gear? I bet you had the best MPG of the pack…What was it?

 

[b1shmu63]

Now that's a race I would have enjoyed watching. An Insight racing league? I1 instead of F1.

 

[Sparky5501]

Did you ever get out of third gear? I bet you had the best MPG of the pack…What was it?

Never got past third gear. I was only in third for 1/4 of the time. Mostly second gear was the gear of choice. Every once in a while traffic in this one hairpin turn would make me shift all the way down to first.

I did set my trip odometer for part of the day. For 41 miles distance traveled (maybe 30 laps) my MPG was 27.1 That's pretty good compared to a performance car as they average 10 to 18 mpg.

I'm very happy with the Insight's handling characteristics. Although to stand a chance in dry pavement conditions would need more horsepower. Willie's turbocharger mod is really beginning to look the way to go. That or dumping a V12 into the engine bay. :lol:

The brakes were doing great the whole day. Of cource having them water cooled played a big part of it. Got to love that 1/4" of standing water on the track.

I need to get someone to get some digital video of the Insight at the track so I can share with everyone. :wink:

 

[dan]

Hi Sparky 5501:

Thanks for answering my questions, including the one I meant to ask (past 3rd) instead of the one I did ask (out of 3rd). 27.1mpg is amazing for going all out! I think a V12 is definitely the way to go. You could either stand it on it’s end connected to a right angle gear box (with a little hump in the hood), or cantilever it out over the front bumper (with some kind of training wheels to keep the car from flipping over every time you put on the brakes).
:lol:

 

[Holicow]

Hi Sparky 5501:
..... I think a V12 is definitely the way to go. You could either stand it on it’s end connected to a right angle gear box (with a little hump in the hood), or cantilever it out over the front bumper (with some kind of training wheels to keep the car from flipping over every time you put on the brakes).
:lol:

No No No....Think of all the room in back! If you gut the battery/computer stuff, and give up the spare tire, there's plenty of room for a mid/rear engine. Just graft the mechanicals from any 911, and you're set!

You may want to leave the little engine in front for weight distribution, tho....

 

[dan]

Yes Yes Yes. And keep the three-banger up front connected to the front wheels and have the worlds first V12-(dash)3! I think you might want to keep your hair short so it doesn’t get caught in the fan belt.

 

[Holicow]

Ha Ha! It's been done (at least the front to mid engine thing):

http://www.nology.com/clio.html

And it's a production vehicle now, second version

Must sound interesting with that thing right behind your head..... :shock:

 

[Hambone]

It wasn't a V12, but back some years ago as a showpiece vehicle, Ford dropped a Taurus SHO V8 (may have been a V6, not sure) in a Ford Fiesta in the rear cargo area and called it the Shogun. It was never a production car, but the car mags did get to test it and it had some pretty incredible performance numbers for its time.

 

[No. 166]

......and others fitted a 3000 hp V-12 "P-51 Mustang" aircraft-engine into a 1955 Chevy !
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

http://www.rodshop.com.au/project55.htm

And y'all thought the americans were car-mad :shock:

 

[Guillermo]

Sparky,
Great to see someone else racing their Insight, too bad you live thousands of miles away.
This weekend i'm instructing at a track school in Mosport's DDT track ( east of Toronto) I"m going to go lapping while the students are in the classroom.
Weather forecast calling for rain, I hope it does.

I've registered for the reginal solo II racing season this year.
H-stock is our category (in canada at least).
I've ordered 185/55R14 Kumho Ecsta V700 Race-compound tires.
I'm going to buy used 14" civic rims for my racing only tires.

G

 

[Hambone]

Guillermo,

If you don't mind too awful much, you'll have to send me some info about what you do in terms of set-up of the car and technique involved in taking an Insight autocrossing! I'm entered in the April 18th Solo II event down here in the Washington, DC area, and this will be my first autocross event.

I have been giving some thought to trying to mess with the air pressures in the tires as probably the only tweaking I'll do. There's a fellow I work with who suggested leaving the pressures near normal (I usually run about 40psi in both the front and rear tires) in the rear and then maybe dropping the pressures in the front a few pounds to try and generate more grip in the front while having the rears higher to promote rotation of the car through the corners. What do you suggest? Also, any suggestions for best launch techniques (drop the clutch from about a 2,500 rpm?).

Since I'm a novice, I figure this year I'm not going to do too much in the way of getting special tires, and I want to stay in H-stock, so I'm not planning any engine mods or suspension mods. If I like doing the Solo II events this year then maybe next year I'll get some sticky tires and maybe look at some other things I can do to increase my speed. But, for this year at least, I figure that the driver (me) will be the slowest piece that can be improved to pick up time, so there's no reason to throw money at the car until I've increased my level of skill to the point that the only way I can continue to pick up time is to begin tuning the car.

I realize that you may not want to divulge any secrets, but any suggestions you might have that might make me faster would certainly be appreciated!

Maybe if enough of us are taking our Insights racing Honda will buck up and throw some manufacturer support behind our efforts!!!!

 

[figgy]

Can you guys start a new thread and keep your discussions public.

I think we can all learn some good things, so please don't take it offline!

figgy

 

[Sparky5501]

Maybe if enough of us are taking our Insights racing Honda will buck up and throw some manufacturer support behind our efforts!!!!

Does anyone have connections in Grassroots Motorsports magazine? I bet they'd love to do an expose' on an Insight running in Solo II.

Also, any suggestions for best launch techniques (drop the clutch from about a 2,500 rpm?).

I wouldn't recommend dropping the clutch with the stock tires. You'll get pretty good wheel spin before they bite and that will hurt your times. I'd say start like you normaly do but as soon as the clutch is out squeeze on the throttle Hard. This will get you better results.

Also, remember smooth=fast. Commit to your steering and throttle imputs. The more fussing you do like steering corrections or throttle corrections will scrub off speed and kill your times.

 

[SinisterCRX]

lmfao... thats great!

 

[figgy]

Hey, I already learned something new!

'Dropping the clutch'

 

[SinisterCRX]

Figgy-
Fun stuff. You should also try going about 50, come up to a nice bend in the road, throw the clutch to the floor.. drop it into second, jack the e-brake and throw the car sideways and gun it. I've never done it in an Insight but I'm sure it would be fun