Forum Wars on Speed!
03-26-2010, 11:32 AM
#1
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
Forum Wars on Speed!
http://theforumwars.tv/ Coming April 2010!
Video Promo: http://www.streetfire.net/video/the-...ars_740774.htm
Bad ass.
Anyone who has ever spent more than 10 minutes on an automotive forum knows that a flame war is only one inflammatory comment away. Fanboys love to trash anything that doesn't carry their badge of choice, but tread on their beloved marquee and the thread turns into Niagra Falls. But rather than frown upon the typical forum vitriol, a report from the Autoblog Podcast veterans at the Hooniverse shows that Speed TV plans to give these automotive fanatics some air time instead.
The new show is called "Forum Wars," and the premise is to give these big talkers track access to replace wimpy words with tire-smoking action. You think your pristine Dodge Challenger is better than a Mustang forum owner's Bullitt? You may have a chance to take it to the track to decide who's right, once and for all. The show is scheduled to hit the airwaves on Monday, April 5, with the inaugural episode pitting a Shelby Mustang GT500 against a Nissan 350Z. Drivers will hit the bends and take on the straightaways at a drag strip, so all bases are covered. Hit the jump to view Speed TV's 30-second show promo. Looks like this show could be interesting.
The new show is called "Forum Wars," and the premise is to give these big talkers track access to replace wimpy words with tire-smoking action. You think your pristine Dodge Challenger is better than a Mustang forum owner's Bullitt? You may have a chance to take it to the track to decide who's right, once and for all. The show is scheduled to hit the airwaves on Monday, April 5, with the inaugural episode pitting a Shelby Mustang GT500 against a Nissan 350Z. Drivers will hit the bends and take on the straightaways at a drag strip, so all bases are covered. Hit the jump to view Speed TV's 30-second show promo. Looks like this show could be interesting.
Video Promo: http://www.streetfire.net/video/the-...ars_740774.htm
Bad ass.
03-26-2010, 12:24 PM
#6
Senior Moderator
----
http://www.streetfire.net/video/roya...ars_741275.htm
yeay
Hey guys, if you guys recall a few months ago there was a search for a 350Z to represent my350Z.com in a TV event that will be known as "The Forum Wars" well My Shop's 350Z was selected for this task (junk yard bought 350Z) and with the Help of a few 350Z vendors we put together a 350Z to compete with an SCCA Mustang Shelby GT in 4 Days! the show will Air on April 5th on Speed Channel (the exact time will be posted once known) and well i am very proud of this and thought I would share.
Car was put together in 4 days, it's definitely not the coolest 350Z out there, its By all means not the fastest 350Z out there. (we ran it on a Recall oil burner engine) but hey making a little piece of History. I would like to thank all the sponsors that helped us put this car together and well can't wait to see it in action!
Bardabe Performance Development 350Z
Nismo Ver 2 All body work was done by DTM Auto House
Tuning Software and Lisence Provided By UpRev
Dyno Tuning Provided by Specialty Z
Springs and Swaybars Provided by Progress
Shocks Provided by Tokico
All Graphics by C4Media
Car was Put together by Me, in only 3 Days (4th day was shake down and Graphics) I droped the engine transmission and everything in on Monday after getting back from Sema on Sunday, Engine was Dyno Tuned on Tuesday, Wednesday the car was at the body shop getting wet sanded and polished, Thursday Full Suspension install Graphics and shakedown at the local track.
then we went out to Filming.
www.Uprev.com
www.specialtyz.com
www.progressauto.com
www.tokico.com
www.c4media.com
www.Bardabe.com (http://www.facebook.com/bardabe) for now.
yeay
Hey guys, if you guys recall a few months ago there was a search for a 350Z to represent my350Z.com in a TV event that will be known as "The Forum Wars" well My Shop's 350Z was selected for this task (junk yard bought 350Z) and with the Help of a few 350Z vendors we put together a 350Z to compete with an SCCA Mustang Shelby GT in 4 Days! the show will Air on April 5th on Speed Channel (the exact time will be posted once known) and well i am very proud of this and thought I would share.
Car was put together in 4 days, it's definitely not the coolest 350Z out there, its By all means not the fastest 350Z out there. (we ran it on a Recall oil burner engine) but hey making a little piece of History. I would like to thank all the sponsors that helped us put this car together and well can't wait to see it in action!
Bardabe Performance Development 350Z
Nismo Ver 2 All body work was done by DTM Auto House
Tuning Software and Lisence Provided By UpRev
Dyno Tuning Provided by Specialty Z
Springs and Swaybars Provided by Progress
Shocks Provided by Tokico
All Graphics by C4Media
Car was Put together by Me, in only 3 Days (4th day was shake down and Graphics) I droped the engine transmission and everything in on Monday after getting back from Sema on Sunday, Engine was Dyno Tuned on Tuesday, Wednesday the car was at the body shop getting wet sanded and polished, Thursday Full Suspension install Graphics and shakedown at the local track.
then we went out to Filming.
www.Uprev.com
www.specialtyz.com
www.progressauto.com
www.tokico.com
www.c4media.com
www.Bardabe.com (http://www.facebook.com/bardabe) for now.
Trending Topics
03-26-2010, 02:22 PM
#8
Three Wheelin'
I like the idea for this show. When I read the thread title, I thought it was going to be something like the Honda - Tech/SR20forums battle from like '00. They used several cars from each forum and I think they only competed around a road course.
That post you quoted makes it look like the owner already has an excuse lined up for when he possibly loses. He made it pretty clear the car was put together in less than 3 days.
That post you quoted makes it look like the owner already has an excuse lined up for when he possibly loses. He made it pretty clear the car was put together in less than 3 days.
03-26-2010, 04:38 PM
#12
Go Giants
Ill represent us....
03-26-2010, 05:06 PM
#13
Three Wheelin'
03-26-2010, 05:20 PM
#15
Senior Moderator
Thread Starter
This is from the owner of the Red M3 you see in the preview.
Originally Posted by pencilgeek
Introduction:
A lot of people have been asking and sending PMs to find the outcome of the Forum Wars competition. I'm under NDA not to disclose the results until the show airs early in 2010, therefore I'm very limited what I can say and what I can't.
If you're not familiar with Forum Wars, then read this thread to learn more about it. The original format was to be three events: 1) 1/8 mile drag race; 2) Road course; 3) Slalom. At the last minute, the slalom was replaced by a figure-8 race in case a tie-breaker was needed.
Getting Ready:
I had never driven a real drag race in my life, and as we've discussed many times on this forum, my drag racing skills suck anyways. Similarly, I hadn't driven on anything even resembling a race track in the past 25 years. Since substitute drivers were allowed, I arranged to get m3post user KingLeh to drive for me. However, when the event sponsors discovered that KingLeh is actually a very accomplished professional race car driver (something I didn't even know myself when I first asked him to drive), they forbid him from driving in the event. On a similar note, when the event organizers discovered that I was planning to bring KonigsTiger "Club Sport" stroker to the event, they nixed that idea too because of the weight reductions on the car. With time running out to find a substitute driver, and Konig's "Club Sport" out, I decided to bring my own car and drive it myself -- something I didn't really want to do. The event organizers were elated that this was our final decision.
The only changes I made to my car were wheels and tires. Instead of running with my 20" HRE P40's and Michelin PS2 tires, we fitted the car with 19" RD Sport wheels (very, VERY light) and Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires. Everything else on my car is exactly as the forum readers see in my other posts and pictures.
Sign-in / Formalities:
The day began with all of the cars showing up at Irwindale Raceway at 6:00 AM. We were allowed to bring only one friend with us. As it turned out, we probably could have brought as many people as we wanted because nobody was checking and there were a few dozen spectators more than should have been there.
As we registered, I met my competition at the sign-in booth. He was standing right next to me. Very nice guy, Brian La Fuente, owner of GT-Pro in Fullerton, California. Brian was to be driving his modified Mercedes AMG C63. Brian told me a crazy story what it was like preparing the car all through the night. We had similar experiences ourselves. When we fitted my car with the wheels, the Brembo bolts were slightly scraping the inner barrell. It was driveable, but very embarrassing. So when I arrived at the dyno shop later that evening, we removed the wheels and ground down bolt heads to give the wheel barrells the clearance they needed.
Brian and I weren't the only ones preparing our cars through the middle of the night. One participant in a vintage 1960's Camaro SS was literally rebuilding his motor until 1:30 AM. His competition was a 1965 Shelby Mustang. Both were absolutely beautiful cars. The Carmaro owner also had a second car in the competition: a brand new Camaro SS. His competition for the new Camaro was his wife, in her brand new Shelby Mustang GT500 (don't quote me on that...but 90% sure I got it right).
After registration, we had a drivers meeting to discuss the rules. There were one or two last minute minute match-up changes, due to no shows, and cars that didn't get there on time. We then lined up our cars on the infield of Irwindale Raceway for photos and on-camera interviews. This seemingly took forever. We didn't actually start the drag race competition until nearly 10:00 AM -- an entire hour behind schedule. (So what's new with TV productions?) With time already tight, we only had one practice run, followed by the match-up. No second changes, not best of two or three runs. One run only: you either win or you lose.
1/8 Mile Drag Race:
Clearly the 1/8th mile drag race was the event I was most worried about because I suck at drag racing in general, but I've never even tried track drag racing at anytime before in my life. Adding to my discomfort was being matched up against a car with launch control and an automatic transmission against my lowly 6MT. Then of course, I'm in the really wierd situation where many of my own forum members and fellow M3 owners are actually rooting against me. So you can see, there's a lot of pressure to do good in this event.
Road Course:
After the drag races were completed, we were taken to the track infield to take some practice on the "road course." The road course was set up in the infield of Irwindale Raceway, and I would estimate it to be 3/4 mile long. The course consisted of two banked turns, many very tight turns, and one chicane. The road course was actually very beautifully layed out. It was challenging, and high speed turns, decreasing radius turns, chicane. Basically it had it all. Even more importantly was that it was configured in a way that you wouldn't hit anything if your car went out of control (although one guy came close). Before lunch, we had a professional driver in a "pace car" take us through the track ten cars at a time. I took my 24 year-old son with me in the practice. After practice, we broke for lunch.
The road course event lasted most of the remainder of the day. Each car was outfitted with in-car and out-car HiDef cameras to capture the driver and the road course itself. After each match up, we drove to the exit, were interviewed on-camera, and then waited for our competitor to finish before being told our individual results. During the road course event, the track became faster and faster as more cars were ridding the track of its debris and laying down some good rubber to help grip. This meant the later cars were getting faster and faster. But as the sun went down, this trend reversed for the last few cars on the track and their times went back up.
Figure-8:
By the time all twenty cars (ten match-ups) were completed, the sun was going down, and it didn't look like there would be any time for tie-breaker events. So the decision was made only to match up the figure-8 as a tie-breaker for anybody who needed it. As the sun was going down rapidly, each car was positioned high on the outer track, and pointed towards the start-finish line of the figure-8. No practice was possible. Rev your motor, drop the clutch, and get a running start for a flying two laps of the figure-8.
Stroker M-Performance:
Since I can't discuss the results, instead I'll talk about the car and its performance. The stroker M3 performed absolutely amazingly. Once it got out on the road course where there wasn't any fear of hitting parked cars, curbs, or little Suzie on a bicycle, I was able to find out just how deadly this car really is. Even though I hadn't been anywhere near a race track in 25 years, I decided to go with my instincts and confidence of my own driving ability and I turned DSC=OFF and went for it. All I can say is: WOW! The M3 really showed why it's a track monster -- even for a 3600 pound boat. I was able to toss the car anywhere I wanted and with the appropriate amount of gas pedal pressure and countersteering, the M3 went everywhere I wanted it to go. It seemed like the weight balance of the car couldn't have been more perfect. I don't know how else to say it, other than the car did exactly what I wanted it to do, and I didn't even need to fight it. At the end of my run on the road course, the on-camera interview guys noted that I was literally driving with my arm out the window -- as if I were on a Sunday drive.
After driving, I felt like I was on a crack high because it was so much fun. Four or five of the other drivers commented on the beauty and smoothness of the M3 on the track. I never heard anybody make similar comments of any other cars, even though many other "super cars" were far faster than the M3. They said the car looked like it performed perfectly -- which it did.
The figure-8 was a lot tougher. Even though we were on the same infield of the track, there were far fewer reference points to gain a perspective; thus it was so much harder to guage proper braking points, etc. Though the straights, I would get going so fast that I slammed on the brakes to slow down, and not realizing just how great the Brembo brakes were, I ended up slowing down too early and could have gone much deeper into the corner before braking. Regardless of the challenges of the figure-8, the M3 competed quite well on the course.
I used my Video VBox to collect two-camera angles on my own car's performance -- along with VBox pseudo-telemetry data, G-Forces, driving lines, etc. Post-driving analysis showed that my driving lines were amazingly consistent. If memory serves me correctly, I believe the data shows a max of nearly 1.2G lateral accelaration through one of the corners. The video also shows me with my arm out the window! Once the event is televised, I'll post my VBox videos of the event on YouTube. That way, you'll get to see the entire event from start to finish from the M3 and driver's perspective.
All-in-all, it was great fun. I'd definitely do it again if invited to do so.
A lot of people have been asking and sending PMs to find the outcome of the Forum Wars competition. I'm under NDA not to disclose the results until the show airs early in 2010, therefore I'm very limited what I can say and what I can't.
If you're not familiar with Forum Wars, then read this thread to learn more about it. The original format was to be three events: 1) 1/8 mile drag race; 2) Road course; 3) Slalom. At the last minute, the slalom was replaced by a figure-8 race in case a tie-breaker was needed.
Getting Ready:
I had never driven a real drag race in my life, and as we've discussed many times on this forum, my drag racing skills suck anyways. Similarly, I hadn't driven on anything even resembling a race track in the past 25 years. Since substitute drivers were allowed, I arranged to get m3post user KingLeh to drive for me. However, when the event sponsors discovered that KingLeh is actually a very accomplished professional race car driver (something I didn't even know myself when I first asked him to drive), they forbid him from driving in the event. On a similar note, when the event organizers discovered that I was planning to bring KonigsTiger "Club Sport" stroker to the event, they nixed that idea too because of the weight reductions on the car. With time running out to find a substitute driver, and Konig's "Club Sport" out, I decided to bring my own car and drive it myself -- something I didn't really want to do. The event organizers were elated that this was our final decision.
The only changes I made to my car were wheels and tires. Instead of running with my 20" HRE P40's and Michelin PS2 tires, we fitted the car with 19" RD Sport wheels (very, VERY light) and Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires. Everything else on my car is exactly as the forum readers see in my other posts and pictures.
Sign-in / Formalities:
The day began with all of the cars showing up at Irwindale Raceway at 6:00 AM. We were allowed to bring only one friend with us. As it turned out, we probably could have brought as many people as we wanted because nobody was checking and there were a few dozen spectators more than should have been there.
As we registered, I met my competition at the sign-in booth. He was standing right next to me. Very nice guy, Brian La Fuente, owner of GT-Pro in Fullerton, California. Brian was to be driving his modified Mercedes AMG C63. Brian told me a crazy story what it was like preparing the car all through the night. We had similar experiences ourselves. When we fitted my car with the wheels, the Brembo bolts were slightly scraping the inner barrell. It was driveable, but very embarrassing. So when I arrived at the dyno shop later that evening, we removed the wheels and ground down bolt heads to give the wheel barrells the clearance they needed.
Brian and I weren't the only ones preparing our cars through the middle of the night. One participant in a vintage 1960's Camaro SS was literally rebuilding his motor until 1:30 AM. His competition was a 1965 Shelby Mustang. Both were absolutely beautiful cars. The Carmaro owner also had a second car in the competition: a brand new Camaro SS. His competition for the new Camaro was his wife, in her brand new Shelby Mustang GT500 (don't quote me on that...but 90% sure I got it right).
After registration, we had a drivers meeting to discuss the rules. There were one or two last minute minute match-up changes, due to no shows, and cars that didn't get there on time. We then lined up our cars on the infield of Irwindale Raceway for photos and on-camera interviews. This seemingly took forever. We didn't actually start the drag race competition until nearly 10:00 AM -- an entire hour behind schedule. (So what's new with TV productions?) With time already tight, we only had one practice run, followed by the match-up. No second changes, not best of two or three runs. One run only: you either win or you lose.
1/8 Mile Drag Race:
Clearly the 1/8th mile drag race was the event I was most worried about because I suck at drag racing in general, but I've never even tried track drag racing at anytime before in my life. Adding to my discomfort was being matched up against a car with launch control and an automatic transmission against my lowly 6MT. Then of course, I'm in the really wierd situation where many of my own forum members and fellow M3 owners are actually rooting against me. So you can see, there's a lot of pressure to do good in this event.
Road Course:
After the drag races were completed, we were taken to the track infield to take some practice on the "road course." The road course was set up in the infield of Irwindale Raceway, and I would estimate it to be 3/4 mile long. The course consisted of two banked turns, many very tight turns, and one chicane. The road course was actually very beautifully layed out. It was challenging, and high speed turns, decreasing radius turns, chicane. Basically it had it all. Even more importantly was that it was configured in a way that you wouldn't hit anything if your car went out of control (although one guy came close). Before lunch, we had a professional driver in a "pace car" take us through the track ten cars at a time. I took my 24 year-old son with me in the practice. After practice, we broke for lunch.
The road course event lasted most of the remainder of the day. Each car was outfitted with in-car and out-car HiDef cameras to capture the driver and the road course itself. After each match up, we drove to the exit, were interviewed on-camera, and then waited for our competitor to finish before being told our individual results. During the road course event, the track became faster and faster as more cars were ridding the track of its debris and laying down some good rubber to help grip. This meant the later cars were getting faster and faster. But as the sun went down, this trend reversed for the last few cars on the track and their times went back up.
Figure-8:
By the time all twenty cars (ten match-ups) were completed, the sun was going down, and it didn't look like there would be any time for tie-breaker events. So the decision was made only to match up the figure-8 as a tie-breaker for anybody who needed it. As the sun was going down rapidly, each car was positioned high on the outer track, and pointed towards the start-finish line of the figure-8. No practice was possible. Rev your motor, drop the clutch, and get a running start for a flying two laps of the figure-8.
Stroker M-Performance:
Since I can't discuss the results, instead I'll talk about the car and its performance. The stroker M3 performed absolutely amazingly. Once it got out on the road course where there wasn't any fear of hitting parked cars, curbs, or little Suzie on a bicycle, I was able to find out just how deadly this car really is. Even though I hadn't been anywhere near a race track in 25 years, I decided to go with my instincts and confidence of my own driving ability and I turned DSC=OFF and went for it. All I can say is: WOW! The M3 really showed why it's a track monster -- even for a 3600 pound boat. I was able to toss the car anywhere I wanted and with the appropriate amount of gas pedal pressure and countersteering, the M3 went everywhere I wanted it to go. It seemed like the weight balance of the car couldn't have been more perfect. I don't know how else to say it, other than the car did exactly what I wanted it to do, and I didn't even need to fight it. At the end of my run on the road course, the on-camera interview guys noted that I was literally driving with my arm out the window -- as if I were on a Sunday drive.
After driving, I felt like I was on a crack high because it was so much fun. Four or five of the other drivers commented on the beauty and smoothness of the M3 on the track. I never heard anybody make similar comments of any other cars, even though many other "super cars" were far faster than the M3. They said the car looked like it performed perfectly -- which it did.
The figure-8 was a lot tougher. Even though we were on the same infield of the track, there were far fewer reference points to gain a perspective; thus it was so much harder to guage proper braking points, etc. Though the straights, I would get going so fast that I slammed on the brakes to slow down, and not realizing just how great the Brembo brakes were, I ended up slowing down too early and could have gone much deeper into the corner before braking. Regardless of the challenges of the figure-8, the M3 competed quite well on the course.
I used my Video VBox to collect two-camera angles on my own car's performance -- along with VBox pseudo-telemetry data, G-Forces, driving lines, etc. Post-driving analysis showed that my driving lines were amazingly consistent. If memory serves me correctly, I believe the data shows a max of nearly 1.2G lateral accelaration through one of the corners. The video also shows me with my arm out the window! Once the event is televised, I'll post my VBox videos of the event on YouTube. That way, you'll get to see the entire event from start to finish from the M3 and driver's perspective.
All-in-all, it was great fun. I'd definitely do it again if invited to do so.
03-26-2010, 06:57 PM
#20
03-26-2010, 07:21 PM
#21
From the two quoted articles this doesn't really seem like a well thought-out and put-together production. A day to shoot this? And I'm sure they're going to take 10 weeks to show all the episodes while hyping it up between every commercial a month before. Regardless, I'll try to catch the first episode.
03-26-2010, 07:29 PM
#22
Go Giants
03-26-2010, 07:32 PM
#23
TellinItLikeItIsSince1/06
looks extremely interesting...
wait i just watched the trailer now...looks a little cheesy actually, but im sure it'll still make for good TV
wait i just watched the trailer now...looks a little cheesy actually, but im sure it'll still make for good TV
03-26-2010, 07:44 PM
#24
Go Giants
03-26-2010, 11:12 PM
#29
Team Owner
03-26-2010, 11:25 PM
#31
03-26-2010, 11:29 PM
#32
Team Owner
03-27-2010, 09:30 AM
#35
Go Giants
03-27-2010, 10:49 AM
#36
Team Owner
Of all the people I've run into on all the forums, the one I would give anything to race is "Manual Transmission" (IS350). So consider this a call out. He's probably banned but if anyone knows this guy let him know.
03-27-2010, 08:00 PM
#38
Someday, an RS6 Avant+
Do you guys want me to start asking around on LegacyGT.com or NASIOC.com? MattG, help me here...
I'm sure some Imprezza douche bags (of course, not all of them, but some are similar to the Civic douche bags, but have more HP) would give it a try, but they don't look at Acura as any "competition". Maybe I could bait them to challenge the SRT-4 crowd....
I'm sure some Imprezza douche bags (of course, not all of them, but some are similar to the Civic douche bags, but have more HP) would give it a try, but they don't look at Acura as any "competition". Maybe I could bait them to challenge the SRT-4 crowd....
03-27-2010, 08:09 PM
#39
Team Owner
Do you guys want me to start asking around on LegacyGT.com or NASIOC.com? MattG, help me here...
I'm sure some Imprezza douche bags (of course, not all of them, but some are similar to the Civic douche bags, but have more HP) would give it a try, but they don't look at Acura as any "competition". Maybe I could bait them to challenge the SRT-4 crowd....
I'm sure some Imprezza douche bags (of course, not all of them, but some are similar to the Civic douche bags, but have more HP) would give it a try, but they don't look at Acura as any "competition". Maybe I could bait them to challenge the SRT-4 crowd....
It kind of makes me want to go ahead and button my other car up. It's got extensive suspension mods on top of the 600hp but the stock brakes would be smoked by the second stop.
04-01-2010, 04:02 PM
#40
Senior Moderator
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Brooklyn, NY USA
Age: 47
Posts: 17,085
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Not quite sure when this is playing, It's mentioning April 5th on SpeedTV, but It's not listed anywhere in my Fios TV Guide, nor on Speed's website...Is it online only maybe?
