Thread: Can a sentra compete?

No doubt it does! Autocrossing breeds fast drivers period! I autocrossed competitively for years on the local level. Not that I am a very fast driver but my first track day I was very fast compared to other first timers! I learned a lot about car control and lines Autocrossing and that equated to faster lap times.

Coheed have you ever autocrossed or done a track day in your car? Again I highly recommend more seat time! Regardless of straight line Soren on any mildly technical track you are going to get passed by much slower cars if the other drivers have more seat time.

No way a Sentra has a chance in TTS. Around here, that's C5/6 or GT2 territory. We tried with a turbo S13. It's now back to NA and in C.



Saini, and yeah, he can wheel. He was actually my instructor at my first autox back in 92. Back then he was running an HS Escort!



Oh great, here goes the neighborhood.....

I know a lot of people don't really like this option, because when they get on a racetrack they want to go hella fast. My suggestion get yourself a pos b13 SE-R/NX, get a decent cage in it, upgrade the suspension. Take care of all maintenance items that might fail on track. (If you spill oil or anything else they are gonna rape you on clean up charges) Once you get this POS track worthy go out and have a great time. You'll learn more trying to get the most out of the slow ass car than just flooring the hell out of a big hp car.

Track driving comes down to the driver. Knuckleduster has a perfectly good starter track car for sale. Check out his thread.

Once again open track days are NOT racing.

Alot of the high dollar cars have really crappy driver and/or drivers that don't want to push their car and damage it. Just because you are faster at an open day event doesn't mean ANYTHING. It is alot of fun to just get out there and push it a little.

Just go out there and have some fun. If you want to do entry level competition go to TT or autox. They are timed and people will be racing there. Now that doesn't mean that everybody is going 100% still... I have seen elises and bmws come out and sandbag at some events.

That is the best option. Learning on a low power cheap to maintain car is the best option if you want to seriously race. Forces you to learn to handle the car since you can't make up time with power.

Mostly spirited street/canyon driving here. Nothing too crazy, though there have been times where we've gotten a little crazy.



I think this thread is going in a different direction than I anticipated. I am NOT going to build my sentra for a road race car. It will, however, do quite well I am sure on open track days. That's all I am inspired to do with the sent.

The real reason I brought it up is because there is a guy local that wants to build a 200sx race car. Of course he is getting a lot of hard times from the RWD Nissan guys here, so I decided to get everyone's take on it. Depending on the class I think he could do decent.

How is it going in a different direction than you anticipated. Above is your original post...

When you build a road race car you build it to suit a class. Within it's respective class a properly sorted B car can do well. All hope is not lost to RWD unless you are prepping the car to run in a class where it WONT be competitive.

Again you said road race, that means WHEEL TO WHEEL racing. You will need all of the tricks and custom parts to make it competitive. I think what you meant to say was track day. The issue there is that you are not building a competitive track day car you are trying to build a fast track day car. Track day's are NOT competition. There is no 1st place or ANY place.

Spirited or even crazy street driving means nothing. In my days instructing autocross and track days I have seen street hero's come to the track to be completely humbled by MUCH slower cars. If you really want to have fun with your car then start getting some seat time as it sits.

Actually, from what I garner, the 200sx se-r is not too bad of a platform to build up for a close to stock class. I am not certain if it is comparable, but do not forget the older Golf GTi have a similar suspension setup as our (beam rear/strut front etc) and they were/are doing well in their respective class. In the slower stock classes it comes down to a few very important things

1) Momentum
2) Driver talent/experience (aka balls)
3) Suspension/tires

As all the other variables are pretty much held constant.

There was a red one local with a few national wins in its class for sale locally. Not certain which class though (scca and my guess is ITA).

My suggestion for your friend, do not bother building his "race car". He will spend more time wrenching and getting the bugs out and sorting that actually driving the car. Think 2-3 years lead time before he will see any significant results.

And not to mention the money involved.

Tell him to buy a car already prepped, save himself some time and money, and use that money saved up for seat time (as I mentioned before in my posts).

Buying a sorted race car is a whole lot different than buying a modified street car. The rules of buying modified street cars do not apply here (as in, be very reluctant when buying a modded street car, etc).

Coheed, read my posts again and shoot me a pm if you have any more questions.

Good luck!!

P.S. I highly urge you to take your sentra to a local auto x and very soon. It will be the most fun and eye opening experience you will ever have!! Trust me

Dude you are funny. You start the thread with a clear path (“I wanna know everyone's take on making a competitive road race car.”) and when you don't hear what you want you just ramble on IGNORING people's points and trying to argue against facts pointlessly.

Once again just because you are faster at an open track day than another car does NOT mean you or your car are actually faster (I have seen people brag about beating a r-compound elise that was sandbagging and then later in the day it set TOD when it had a clear run, the guy didn't want to crash in traffic is why he drove slow). They are fun, go do them, enjoy them. Go pass other cars. Setup little competitions with your friends, but when you pass an Evo, Z06 or whatever on r-compounds it means sh!t except that you were running faster at the time (go brag to your friends about it, but if you talk to anybody in the know they don’t care). And just because they have equal experience doesn’t mean they are equal drivers.

Reread boostlee’s responses he makes a lot of sense and has good points. Just get out there and get seat time and have fun.

Very well said!

I stopped going to many of the 'DE' track events now and focus on improving my skills in w2w with my Miata.

If you want to be humbled, go buy a spec miata and unlearn all the bad habits you picked up driving a high hp car! (I was just as guilty driving a 993 at DE days and laugh now at all the people who shake their heads and look down at me for 'downgrading' from a modified 300hp Porsche 911)