Weight is very important, this is why they say "weight is king". And, all else being equal, a lighter car is going to do everything better than a heavier car. That is: It will accelerate, turn, transition and brake better than a heavier car.

Note that I said "all else being equal". It is not.

- The Camaro has a lot more power, so it can make up for some of its shortcomings in any place it can put down some power.
- The Camaro is RWD, which allows the driver to get on the gas earlier when exiting a turn making even more use of available power.
- The Camaro has a lot wider tires, which will help it to corner nearly as well as the Honda.
- The Camaro is wider, wider track lowers the effective roll center, which again will help it to corner better.

In stock form, with equal (top-notch, National-level) drivers, proper setup and fresh autocross tires, the Camaro should normally be the faster autocrosser. (F Stock is a faster class than H Stock... or is the CRX in D Stock? F Stock is still faster.) But if you trick both cars out to full Street Prepared specs, the CRX will normally be a little quicker except on courses with long straights. (CSP is a slightly faster class than ESP)

To simplify: Just because car A is lighter than car B doesn't mean it will be faster because there are too many other variables. BUT... if car A goes on a diet and loses 100 lbs, it will without question be faster than it was before. Weight is king. (but unpainted CF hoods are still rice )

Test: Have a good consistent autocross driver take two runs in a car with an average weight passenger, get a good baseline time. Kick the passenger's fat butt out and let the same driver take another run. Assuming none of the runs were botched, you're guaranteed to see a minimum .5 second difference.


Post edited for bad English and poor proofreading.