Here is the tragic story of how I lost to a 1992 Honda Accord 5-speed. My friend, who has only been driving about 6 months, says his car, the Accord, can beat my 1995 GLE with intake and cat-back. I gladly accepted, and even pushed for the race. His car has no mods, and I didn't think he was an excellent shifter yet, however, he did fail emissions today because his engine was letting out a lot of two toxins. Anways, we get to the line, I turn O/D off, he revs his engine, and the light turns green. He obviously beat me off the line, and up until about 70 mph, he had a whole car lead on me. I fu**ing ****ed my pants. When we hit about 80 he said he shut down, but that might be because I passed him. At 100 I shut down, angry and confused. i did have and extra 175 pound dude with me, plus my stereo, but I also got new tires. Bottom line is this: how can I live this out, and possibly explain it? Now my friend is rubbing it in my face, and I want to race him from a roll. How much would a y-pipe help? I'm so confused and scared. How is it that I have to be afraid of accords, when I have a Maxima? Don't flame me because of my auto, I know it sucks already. Later in the night I was talking to a dude with a new eclipse (auto), and he told me to race well, I need to release my foot right before it shifts, and mash it real hard when it shifts. Is this true? Sorry it was so long. Any help would be appreciated, and I'm getting new oil tomorrow.

 

Did you push the accelerator all the way down????

 

is that the year when the accords had carbs?

 

maybe he had the parking brake on?

 

ya by the way tht is true about the shifting point about autosmatics because by you holding the pedal to the floor you car takes much longer to shift i think it'd due to the fact of over drive ?

 

overdrive will only lock up the torque converter in 3rd gear and not allow it to shift into 4th

 

All I see it doing is making the torque converter slip more as its trying to up shift. not shure its going to make you go any faster.

Maybe he was trying to say that when its shifting, letting off the gas and mashing it back down will raise the rpm's as its trying to shift and when the torque convertor locks up, it will be at a higher rpm?

 

yes i knew that but @ that speed thats what probaly happend? what do you think? fromme tim

 

Your should have blown him away. Are you sure your getting WOT? Maybe your throttle cable needs to be adjusted. Or your carpet is under your gas peddal. Something is seriously up here.

And by the way, just put your foot down all the way and NEVER let it up. The Auto. will shift at the correct times. Lifing your foot up and mashing it down is only going to play havoc on your transmission and your engine mounts. It will cost you some time as well.

 

you have a 95 .. so change your spark plugs.. change your fuel filter.. change your air filter... race him again.. sounds like you might have a fuel delivery problem.. your fuel filter might be clogged.. just check the Maintenance Sticky in the 4th Gen Forum..

you would be surpised how burned our plugs, clogged filter and dirty air filter can make you loose as much as 30 hp and no top end..

 

there is no excuse for loosing to an old economy car like that, shiet uptil 10mph i am pretty sure i could beat him in reverse tuneup your car, maintenence is KEY!

 

dammn, something is WRONG with your car heh. I had an 89 accord auto DX coupe...carburated...the thing was slower than my grandma walks. In '92 though, all the models were fuel injected.

 

Just as Ethan(Emax) tells everyone to check their MAFS, I will tell you to check the ECU for a Knick Sensor code. Alot of them 'go bad', and since the ECU will automatically retard timing without a valid signal from it, the car will not act any differently.

 

I have a 1992 Accord 5-speed, and they are quick. With your friend in the car @ 170 lbs., your power to weight ratio (190hp:3,200lbs) is the same as the 1992 Accord's (135hp:2,850). If it is an EX, then it's bumped up to 140hp. With the addition of the five-speed, there in lies the car lenghts that he had you by.

Honda's a quick, econimical and reliable cars....so just because your's looks better, don't be fooled.

 

well, i had my spark plugs changed 6000 ago, and the fuel and air filters were probably changed then too. my car felt a little slow off the line, but nothing really bad or out of the normal. WTF!!! how can this happen to me? hes talking so much **** now, how can i shut him up? from a 30 mph roll? I cant use any more mods to beat him, cause that would make me and the max look even crappier. Im seriously considering a tranny swap....anybody in the DC area mechanically inclined?

 

Keep that foot down, and go race that guy that said he picks his up when the auto shifts! LOL.

PJ

 

Practicing manual shifting the automatic. From the 1-2 shift in drive, the motor will rev out before shifting, but the 2-3 shift won't. By manually shifting, you should be able to hold 2nd gear to about 80mph, and while in 2nd gear,you will be in the sweet part of the powerband. If the car shifts into third too fast, you might as well shut it down and drop your pants

Doesn't anyone manually shift their automatics? or are they lazy and just race in Drive?

 

who changed them? i don't like that probably...

 

Prolonging a transmission's life takes precedence over winning a dumb race. An auto works best when it does what it's designed to do.

 

I looked over my records and found out that the fuel and air filters were replaced 6000 miles ago, plus I had new plugs put in, and the TB cleaned. So what now? SC or conversion? And is all that crazy auto shifting good for the car? It sounds real bad, and sorta confusing. Can somebody explain it in more detail?

 

oh, another question...how bad is it to rev in N and then shift into D? say about 2500 rpm

 

its called a neutral drop. bad thing to do. well good if its a rental car, but don't do that to your tranny. did you brake torque? if you didn't, hold down the brake with your left foot and slightly gas it with your right to about 2000 rpms. the just let off the brake and floor with (slowly) so you don't get any wheel spin.

 

You're going overboard. There are a lot of variables that can affect your performance to the point of embarassment. Most of which are detailed above. First, before going out and chasing your tail, do the simple, i.e. inexpensive, things. The tune-up would most likely be the problem. Did he jump the light? Was your car very hot from riding around? Did you do a lot of wheel spin? Like I said, a million ways to lose including driver error. BTW if everything is going well, you should be able to smoke him no prob-standing or rolling.

 

Depends, how often do you want to change your tranny? Really bad idea.

 

brake torque.

 

manual shift when racing. it the only way you can it is so fun feeling a max pull 1st and 2nd.

 

Very bad idea. Very expensive to replace.

SuDZ

 

It's amazing how nobody in this thread gave the Honda the bennefit of the doubt. They're damn good cars and quick ones. With his 5-speed matched against your 170lb friend and automatic tranny, the power to weight ratio was to the HONDAS advantage, so there ya go!

92 5-speed Accords are not as slow as you think...

 

yeah its the stillen smx grille. YOu can see it on my car here:
http://www.njrdesign.net/mymax/grille.htm

 

because the Maxima is God's Charriot....

 

You know how your bud is trashing you? It's cause you trashed him first. Dude, I learned back in my Paintball Glory days, and it applies to racing...


DON'T EVER, EVER GET COCKY!


Be Cocky After you win, as your obviously smart friend is. he knows just how to make you lose faith in your car.

But I dunno how this happened...I took down an '01 Accord V6 in my 96 SE Auto with just an intake and disconnected tranny resistor...Sux to be you...

 

Let me ask you something, Which would you rather be in during a race? Your accord or maxima? You can talk all you want about the power to weight and what not, bottom line- the max, if driven correctly, would smoke the accord hands down. I've done it several times. Once again, my disclaimer as in an earlier thread, there are a million things that could cause someone to lose, but everything equal, the max would win.

 

totally agree with you. there is no simple answer to why you lost. it could be a combination of things. but in the reality of things, the maxima is and will be faster than a '92 accord five speed.