I thought I'd just file a quick update to let you know what we've been up to the past week. I just returned from a 5-day stay in LA, where we spent a lot of time on our Project Si, primarily going through our baselining process. We took the car to The Streets of Willow and had a great time with it. We were hoping to test the car with the street tires and then on a set of race tires to get our baseline figures, but we needed some wheels to mount the race tires on and we didn't get them in time. So instead, we put something like 60 or 70 laps on the stock Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2s and pretty much reduced them (and our brake pads) to rubble. The Si was great on the track, but we already see what we're going to work on to make it better.

While I was out there, I borrowed an '06 Civic EX Coupe, because I really had very little time driving anything besides the '06 Civic Hybrid and Si at the Chicago press event. I'm glad I spent more time with the EX because I was able to fully appreciate how good this car is.

And finally, I very briefly drove an '06 S2000 on Friday night. My biggest concern when I saw the '06 specs was the drive by wire throttle. I feared that the drive by wire system would kill the S2000's amazing throttle response, but it seems like Honda may have gotten it right. The car I drove only had around 20 miles on the odometer so I didn't drive it very hard, but the throttle lag seemed minimal. Good news indeed. I will try to spend more time with another '06 S2000 when they become available for loan here in Atlanta. At that point I'll be able to really give it a thorough evaluation.

We shot lots of video footage in California and I still have hours to go on the Ridgeline and RL test. We hope to begin trickling those out as soon as I can get them edited.

Last edited by JeffX on September 30, 2005 14:41