corolla or eg?

[firehawk]

I have both a 2gen CRX (DOHC ZC) and an AE86 as racecars so I can do some comparison between them. I don't yet have any actual track time with my own AE86 though, as the car is still somewhat incomplete. Also, I don't really care about drag racing so I may be a bit biased towards suspension issues.

Anyway, of all the late-80s/early-90s FWD cars, Hondas are probably the best suited for racing thanks to their well thought out suspension geometry. The Civics are easily competitive against a lot of other cars with bigger engines - both RWD and FWD. However, if your class allows the use of limited slip differentials, the advantage isn't as great as when only open diffs are allowed.

For reference, here's an incar clip from our CRX racing against E30 325i BMWs (2.5-liter RWD) and a Renault Clio Williams (2.0-liter FWD) - only open diffs are allowed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBq_cR2zll4&fmt=18

The AE86 suspension, on the other hand, is not particularly modern but this isn't necessarily a drawback. The live rear axle does mean zero static camber in the rear wheels but makes the AE86 fairly interesting and rewarding to drive.

In road racing, the rear suspension setup really needs to be properly tuned to avoid taking too much load off the inner rear tyre. The LSD will keep power going to the outer wheel but with effectively just one tyre's worth of contact patch on the tarmac, the rear really wants to go sliding. Beefy stabilizer bars and sticky tyres will do a lot to help in keeping the grip on both tyres.

For autocrossing, however, the easy transition to oversteer may actually be a desired trait. In tight slow-speed corners the rear can be easily "steered" with the throttle to quickly get the car aligned for corner exit and acceleration.

I've never tried autocross myself but in endurance, I sometimes use late braking and lift-off oversteer in slow corners to rotate the CRX quickly to get the nose pointed towards the exit. However, an FWD car set up to be able to do this is going to be somewhat scary to drive in wet and you'll also need to overspeed into the corner. In an RWD car you can just blip the throttle mid-corner to loosen up the rear a bit.

All in all, the FWD Honda is more sophisticated and probably offers an easier drive but not quite as exciting and rewarding as the RWD AE86. As you start racing, the Honda will probably initially help you get better lap times but in the end, with an AE86 you'd eventually reach the same times but also find yourself to have become more skilled as a driver.