the master auto-xer himself might be selling his maxima for... ACK! a NEON!


drum roll please.....

 

I was wondering why it looked like he's only run five event this season. And no e-mail news updates in ages. Is he giving up autocrossing or just taking a break?

 

http://www.courtesyparts.com/chafin/competition.html

He ran 15" wheels in 01/02? What size tires?

 

That was a sad day when I heard. Barry did pickup a Neon this summer. He wanted something a bit lighter and more competitive to toss around. I think he first ran it in June or July.

Aaron and I can represent the midwest for auto-x but we need drivers on the West and East coast to help us out too

 

it is truly sad to see him go, I've exchanged numerous e-mails w/ him about how to mod the max, for autoX but as sad as this is, it definatly's not unexpected, at the track we have a 2 door neon w/ coilovers that kicks every one of the 3 maximas, I mean, really kicks us, and it's being driven by a woman what is surprising that he got a neon, not a RWD car, o well, lets hope him luck in whatever he drivers

 

speaking of change, when are you getting a new car? isn't it time for RWD and an M3 sticker to have on the back of the car

 

Damn right we can hold down the midwest fort. Too bad he gave up on the Maxima. Problem with the neon is, it's expected to do well and when it doens't it makes the driver look bad especially when it gets beat by a Maxima.

STS is so competitive you really on have 2 choices if you want to do well at Nationals, prosolo and national tours. Thoses choices are the 89 90 Honda Civic SI and the 99 Suburu RS 2.5. If your not driving one of those car your just adding trophey positions. The RS rules the prosolos and the SI rules the normal solo formats.

If you do happen to beat someone driving one of the cars you either got really lucky or they haven't setup their car propperly or they just can't drive.

I'm thinking about swicthing to STX where I'd feel the maxima would be more competitve. It just needs a good limited slip. There no use in having the most powerful car if you can't put all that power to the ground without spinning the inside wheel. That's what make the RS 2.5 so quick you can totally power out of corners without spinning the inside wheels.

 

the Maxima IS for sale. About time someone else gets the opportunity to surprise the unexpecting, don't you think???

I took caNISMO out earlier this month an left a bunch of Porsche owners with their mouth's wide open in surprise, tosting more than half the field in three runs as they enjoyed eight: http://www.dleong.org/2002/ax/ggr7/ggr7.html (Slide 10) Perhaps the fact that I designed the course helped: http://pca-ggr.org/pdf/ggf090702.pdf

The Maxima's magical. Heck, even when I enter the Neon, the Maxima and former sponsors get the credit: http://www.americanauto-x.com/result...002Round13.pdf (Street Tire)

 

Hey Mark! I've been comuting around the country for my day job and it's hard to tell the family that I'm spending the weekends racing.

One of my project locations did serve me well as I got to co-drive a nationally competitive DSP Supra @ the Bremerton Tour. Couldn't find the course the second day, though (same thing happened the first day @ the Atwater Tour )

Was going to run last Sunday but an associate invited me to the Flextronix Hospitality Chalet @ Laguna's American Lemans. In retrospect I'd rather been AutoXing

The Fall's going to be tough with the kids soccer and bball...

 

I began running 225/50 x 15 Kuhmo Victoracer V700s on Kosei K-1 15 15 x 7 wheels (H&R 20mm spacers) on the front @ the Atwater Pro last year in STR.

The intent was lower inertia and more suspension travel @ the same ride height as 225/50 x 16.

Without STR a setup like that would take you to DSP or SM. Perhaps there's an equivalent Street Tire combo???

 

Perhaps someone will pick up my Maxima on the West Coast. Afterall, it comes complete with NISMO vanity plates

 

What pushed me over the edge was value. With the loss of sponsorship and the quality of performance product development droping I began looking @ other platforms. While Nissan had never paid attention to a VQ for competition, (especially in this "fringe") there was some hope for the QR-25 Sentra with plans to bring NISMO in and an obvious Sports Compact tuning platform Nissan had a chance of returning to grassroots motorsports. But alas, they still haven't and I'm glad I jumped to Chrysler / Daimler who announced a new contingency program just before Nationals.

I paid but $14,200.00 for the '02 ACR completely "loaded" including a 100K mile / 7 year warrantee. To compete in DStock, just add tires and adjust the shocks. Now, with a little seat time I'll try and pick up some of thoes prise dollars .

 

Hey Barry.

Chrysler / Daimler bucks are hard to pass up. DS should continue to be a tough class to compete in. You still compete mostly in SFR events? I'll keep an eye out on results. Naturally, your kids come first.
-Mark

 

SFR when the venue's good, SFR Fresno Chapter on concrete, AAS and PCA occasionally, all choices based on how the schedule works out but National Tours and preparation will take priority, for sure when DCs paying contingency.

Thanks,

b

 

Here's couple pics: http://www.streettouring.com/photoga...Chafin%201.jpg
http://www.freshalloy.com/site/featu...c/home02.shtml

 

I've been working on the Maxima since 1998 and accomplished what I set out to, develop the suspension and brakes to the level of a proper sports sedan, proven with trophy finishes in a Sports Car venue.

Agreed, the 4th Gen Maxima should be competitive in STX and with sponsorship I might of taken it to that level but since Nissan never looked at the Maxima, despite it's (PROVEN) capability, as a performance car I set out in a different direction. Thinking that Nissan had woken up to the Sports Compact Sedan segment I began looking @ the Spec V for STX (with the hope of NISMO upgrades) or D-Stock. When Courtesy and Cattman dropped and Nissan never stepped up I began looking elsewhere. Today the landscape has changed. MazdaSpeed has entered with their turbo Protege' and Dodge with the SRT-4, both 4 Doors with independent rear suspension and reported to have LSD.

Expectations? Bet the Z28, Firebird and Corvette drivers were frustrated when a Neon with a roof rack beat them real time and the results showed it was a Maxima???


Dream mode on: a 2.4 Turbo and VLSD dropped in my '02 Neon ACR with Ground Control coil over adapters, bigger rear bar...

Reality: wife's warming up to a Miata as a putt around car...

 

barry!

sell me your plates!
i need it for my 350z

 

I've a couple options with the CA NISMO plates (one of them signed by Mr K @ the 350Z unveiling http://www.freshalloy.com/site/featu...onc/home.shtml or http://www.vq30de.net/zonc_june2002/). Sell them with the car or reserve them (not sure how this gets them to another owner sans car). I'm thinking the value of the Maxima is increased with the plates and competition history. I have been considering giving EBay a run to see what kind of response I get.

Thoughts?

barry

 

Woah... Barry's still alive!

heh. Just kidding.

As for the Neon... yeah, a Neon ACR... man... Nissan needs to get their butt in gear with NISMO parts and sponsorships.

BTW, got any wheels to sell me?

 

Haven't been out back recently to cultivate the Maxima wheel / tire farm but I'm sure there's something there that you'll find palatable

Daimler / Chrysler PVO (Performance Vehicle Operations) & Mopar Performance Parts introduced the 2002 Neon Contingency with contingencies of up to $5,000.00 @ the Runoffs, $2,000.00 @ the Lake Superior ProRally, $1,000.00 for the Solo2 National Championship...

In all fairness, I think Nissan Motorsports does support SCCA Club Racers and the Runoffs with contingency funds (Courtesy Nissan participates), being an AutoXer just don't know to what extent.

BTW, the Neon ACR was discontinued for 2003. Wonder if all the energy's going in the SRT-4? http://neons.org/srt/

Barry

 

You got an upgrade clause in that lease?

 

No "fork lift" upgrades in the base cotract but I might consider swapping a few components w/ the SRT-4 and remaining "street stealth" (Cheston, the SRT-4 salad bar won't fit under my car cover).

Let's see, I think STX limits forced induction to 2.0L and below, that won't work. There's SM (really means Spend Money), no not that, despite Mark Daddio's Neon successes. Guess I'll just have to go Celica hunting next year, again, and hope the Mini's don't get bumped to G-Stock and the Impreza RS's get bumped to D, then there's those pesky CRXs, 318is and 6 cylinder Camaros.

Shoot, I better just get out my big book of excuses and brush up for next year.
Barry

 

i was watching this show on the speed channel where it said that the se-r spec v can auto X right out of the dealer - he should have tried that instead of an ACR

 

Uh, you can auto-x ANY car right out of the dealer.

Just, some are better than others.

Grassroots Motorsports tested a bunch of cars for auto-x, including the ACR and Spec V, and the ACR was significantly faster in stock form. I fully believe it, go to an auto-x and try both for yourself.

 

I became interested in the SpecV when I read the first report in Grassroots Motorsports where they said "it's so easy to autocross it feels like cheating". Having competed with the Maxima for several seasons I was ready for a car that was easy and placed an order for the SpecV with Courtesy in September 2001.

By the time the car came in December, the economy was impacting advertizing (my sponsorship) , I'd actually lost money on some failed Maxima product tests , (don't worry, the product was removed from the market based on my tests), the Street Touring folks were commenting that the rear beam on the SpecV was a disadvantage in the class it which it would compete and Sport Compact Car had dissed it .

As I was deciding what to do Grassroots published the test Brian mentioned. The ACR got through the course signifigantly quicker than the other cars in the test including the SpecV which was classed against the WRX / ITR / IS300, not the Celica GT Impreza RS and CRXs as is the ACR. What no one knew was the ACR was a "prototype"... mine's production ...

Barry

 

I take it these product tests were more signifcant than the ES bushings.
Any suggestions where the rest of us might pick up on ideas you had?

 

Ha! I performed the ES test in the process of the suspension development video Courtesy and I were working on (modeled after their Z Car Street Racing Suspension Video). The bushings didn't work, I was out the $700.00 in labor to remove, replace, align and film, remove and replace and align. Courtesy was out the cost of new lower control arms to replace the ones we removed the OE bushings from.

I've also got video on upgrading the Cattman Gen 1 coil-overs to Gen 2s, visio digrams (notes) on all the work that went into getting the right ride height, springs and bump stops but they're no longer offered.

Perhaps the best advice I can give on product development ideas is NOT to follow my lead. I've also got a "one of a kind" Front STB on my Maxima
http://www.vq30de.net/zonc_june2002/dscf2861.jpg (talk about dumb).

 

Well isn't one of your strut tower bars a one-off Kojima special from a Q45?

... I'm still waiting for double-adjustable coilovers for the Maxima. Progress/Cattman's non-adjustable ones are very nice but awfully silly when I can buy 15-way adjustable JIC FLT-A2's...

 

The brackets are left overs from Mike's I-30 ELSE project. Back in 1998 when there were no rear strut tower braces for the A-32 I bought the Q-45 cross-bar from a dealer put the drawings together, started working on fabrication quotes flew to Dallas to meet with Courtesy and we discovered Sentra front brackets would work with a Maxima front cross-bar for the rear. Courtesy contracted for the package off-shore and I've got what was going to be a fabrication prototype for the first "production" rear strut tower brace

In terms of adjustable ride height coil-overs, I bet you can guess what I'm thinking... If not send me a private e-mail...

PS: How can I get a pic to show up instead of that silly URL... anybody know???

 

Yeah, I think I know what you're thinking... but you have a Neon now.

As for pictures, use the "IMG" button in the vB code section, it's just [ img ] url to the image [ / img ] without all the spaces.

 

We got going early today, represented (kicked some butt) and got home in time for the kid's basketball game... the Maxima dis'ed!

Best scratch time was over 0.6 sec quicker than the next closer competitor (but - here comes an excuse - killed a "stupid" cone (first in the first slalom, duh!?)). Still took second on second run (just one passenger): http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Results...und5_info.html (STS results should be up in a few days)

Barry - http://www.4d-sport.com/pages/758661/index.htm

 

I'll have to check out sfr's results when they're posted.

BTW, I ran an autocross last month, the first in a long time, and was I rusty. Borrowing a great F-Stock car from my friend Brian Goodner(who finish 4th in this Z28 at this years SCCA SoloII Nationals in Topeka in FS, he won the FS National Championship 3 or 4 years ago with this car) I got placed in our local Pro Index class because of my prior experiance and came in dead last. At least I beat all the F-Stock class cars and didn't hit any cones.

I've got to say, that a rear drive automatic Z28 handles MUCH differently then the low power front drive cars I last autocrossed, like my CRX and Maxima. You really have to steer with the throttle and hold on. What a blast though.

Here are the results if anyones interested:
http://www.dmvrscca.org/s2_1006r.htm

 

Wow! Impressive results given the first event in a while and driving a very different car.

I find that the slightest vairences throws me off my game. Things as subtle as air pressures and harnesses / no harness. When I co-drove a Supra @ the Bremerton National Tour it was like my first event ever, not the performance you'd expect after the experience of a few dozen. On the other hand, I've always said that the Maxima is easy to drive.

 

I know what your saying. I can jump into most cars I've never driven before and get 9/10ths out of them within the frist run or two, but to get the last 1/10 (particularly around the whole course) takes some doing. There is no substitue for practice and seat time.

 

It's official, we sneak up on the competition and...

...sucker punch them into oblivion.

http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Results...ound5.html#sts

Now there's talk about restricting STS displacement to 2.5L.

For Sale:
http://www.4d-sport.com/pages/758661/index.htm

Barry

 

Wow - Top 7.5% on PAX. Great job!
Hey, stop the Dremmel and boring that thing out...we need smaller now

 

Nice job of smokin' em, Barry.