This was my second appearance at Lightning Lap, and prior track knowledge absolutely made a world of difference. I knew the basic line around the place, but I was not so glued to a specific approach that I couldn’t easily settle into a rhythm that felt well suited to each car. It helped that I was driving machines that were utterly familiar to those I used to race in SCCA Showroom Stock—relatively low-horsepower front-wheel-drive momentum cars that reward a deliberate and precise approach.
Which cars were those? Blue ones with manual transmissions, as it happens. I pounded around the Grand Course in a 2023 Honda Civic Si sedan with 200 horsepower under the hood and 235/40R-18 Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 summer performance tires filling its fenders. I also had the pleasure of piloting the 2024 Acura Integra Type S, a street car I really love that is propelled by 320 horsepower and rolls on 265/30ZR-19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer rubber.
Those tires would be the story of both cars. Supply was not the issue it was last year, as each came with at least one set per day—as well as extra brakes. In the case of the Civic, the Goodyears were the same size and construction that was developed for the 10th-generation Si coupe we brought to LL a few years ago, a stasis that made the longer and heavier 11th-generation car feel mildly under-tired. Beyond that, the Eagles have since gone out of production, so the summer-shod Si I drove no longer exists. As for the Type S, it’s simply not available with the Pilot Cup 2 factory option tire that helped last year’s Honda Civic Type R edge below the three-minute mark. The Integra’s sole tire choice, the street-focused Pilot Sport 4S, was never going to keep up around this place no matter how similar the rest of the car was.
Dan Edmunds was born into the world of automobiles, but not how you might think. His father was a retired racing driver who opened Autoresearch, a race-car-building shop, where Dan cut his teeth as a metal fabricator. Engineering school followed, then SCCA Showroom Stock racing, and that combination landed him suspension development jobs at two different automakers. His writing career began when he was picked up by Edmunds.com (no relation) to build a testing department.