DC5_lov3r

awesome build! can't wait to see videos of this beast on the track

Prudz_lude

iTrader: (1)

great work, really enjoyed reading this build.

Fatworkz25

MORE PICS

chargeR

So I got the car together, tested it, drove the 900km to WTAC and made it back without incident. Will update the thread with my adventures soon!

Picture on track through T1 at SMSP thanks to my friend Ying Bot:

spaazm

Ohhhhh... i knew i recognized this car at WTAC! hahaha.. trying to figure out the whole day where i seen it from!! Good job dude!! :D

badassmthr4000

Any updates on this puppy? Would love to see some track footage

juan3023

amazing crx lets updates or maybe your to busy enjoy it lol

chargeR

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've made a bit more progress on the car and will post up some details soon. If you like you can take a look at my instagram @honed_developments

Don't worry, this won't be one of those builds that gets sold/parted out. I'm aiming to get it out on track again in a few weeks.

dylspil

i've seen pics of this car before and followed the progress a bit, but didnt know you were on here. i'm assuming you're the same chargeR from crxaustralia... never had any idea you were doing anything this crazy
keep it up

testify

I'm surprised you're able to drive the car with those tie rod ends.

Bump steer must be atrocious.

chargeR

One on and the same! Good to see other EF8 owners, do you still update your build thread?

I'm curious what makes you say that? I've measured the bump steer on my EF2 and this EF8, and at typical race ride heights these vehicles tend to relatively large amounts of toe in with bump travel, which the slight raising of the outer pivot with these tie rod ends corrects to much more neutral behaviour.

Stock behaviour from my measurements, and my car wasn't particularly low. Positive/toe-in is to the right of graph, but I've removed the numbers so that no unscrupulous companies steal my data.



Also as I noted above, in all the photos above that wasn't the final setup of the tie rod ends, as you can tell by the split pins not yet being fitted. In the final configuration there were less spacers beneath the rod end.

testify

I was skeptical about these tie rods, disregarded the warnings, and nearly killed myself the first time out on them.

You have to lower the car something like 7" before they aren't dangerous.

Again, you can math it out all you want, I'm speaking from experience, I don't understand how you can get around a race track with them installed. They rendered my car undrivable over 20mph.

chargeR

To clarify your statement for anyone reading, you didn't have the tie rod end kit that I have manufactured and fitted to my car, so your experience would be completely different to the performance of these parts on my car. Try to understand that we've put a lot of thought and testing into these parts, and don't want incorrect negative posts on forums about them .

We didn't math it out. I physically measured those numbers on my car, and measured again with the replacement tie rod ends. On this car and many other Honda chassis.

We have extensively tested our tie rod ends on track up to 240km/h (the maximum speed of my CR-X) and through turn 1 at Sydney Motorsport Park at 180km/h. The handling is stable and responsive.

Did you have the Hardrace tie rod ends, which mount inverted on the steering arm? They are completely incorrectly designed and I can understand them causing very unpredictable handling.

testify

Yes, I assumed yours were inverted.

chargeR

Ah right, thanks for the reply. No ours are not inverted, they simply mount on top of the steering arm like the OEM tie rod, but allow slight adjustment of the rod end up and down to correct the bump steer for low ride heights, different caster, roll centre adjusters etc.

Small changes are all that is needed, the massive change from mounting the rod end beneath the steering arm like on the Hardrace items is guaranteed to cause issues!

Spoonfixer

Gorgeous car sir! Speechless on the build. Great work. Wish i could make a calendar january thru december with it lol.

dylspil

yep still working on it, moved from crxaus over to here though since that place basically died out. nothing compared to what you're doing with yours, but the link is in my sig if you're interested

deckster333

iTrader: (1)

Awesome build!! Any updates?

chargeR

It's time to get this thread up to date before another batch of track events! When I last posted I'd successfully made it to Winton, Victoria for testing, and then returned back to the workshop without getting caught by the police, which is a big deal here in Australia with a 3" aluminium exhaust.

After testing the car at Winton I had a plentiful 48 hours to finish preparing the car for WTAC. The list of jobs to do:

- Fabricate a harness bar and mount my harnesses
- Tidy up the wiring a bit more
- Tape up some more holes in the car
- Mount the Voltex rear wing
- Contrive some sort of silencer for my exhaust
- Bunch of other stuff that I've forgotten
- Weigh the car just to be sure I'm not below the WTAC minimum weight
- Tighten up the right side radius rod jamb nut, as I'd incorrectly aligned the rod end in the clevis so it must have run out of travel and loosened off while I was on track

This is how the weight turned out, with around 1/2 a tank of fuel in full WTAC spec:



878kg is not bad, but there's still some more weight to lose within the WTAC Clubsprint rules. I'd like to get 5kg or so from a new bonnet. Here's the weight on the front wheels, a fairly chunky 66.7%:



After that I finished off the rest of the jobs above and then after a much anticipated good nights rest I was all packed up ready to go on the Wednesday morning:



Avert your eyes from the horrible bonnet.

Scouting out a spare motor:



We headed up to Sydney, NSW in a small convoy, travelling in numbers is a good thing since I wasn't at all confident my car wouldn't break down. Mugsee was even foolish enough to ride with me. The trip was uneventful arrived up there in time to drop of the cars at the track. There was some confusion when Ying had to explain to the fellow at the gate that the competitors car we were dropping off was the non-descript black hatchback behind them.

The first day of the event was the official Thursday WTAC practice, which was the most enjoyable day of the event. It had a relaxed atmosphere, still plenty of interesting machinery about and with fewer people around it was much easier to get a good look at the cars. The event started off well for me, with no reliability issues and I managed to get down to a 1:53 without trying too hard, faster than I went in the DC5R many years ago.

Practice day times:

2:00.05
2:26.28
1:56.83
2:02.52
2:07.52
1:56.19
1:55.37
2:44.20
1:54.74
1:56.41
1:53.47
2:11.61
1:53.15
2:45.51

Then after an interlude of beer, meat and sleep, we were into the main event on the Friday and Saturday. On the Friday I improved my times a bit more, getting down to a 1:51. Much more traffic on these days and it was challenging to get a clean lap, between letting faster cars past and getting blocked by some slower cars. The only issue for the day was a minor split in one of the CV boots, nothing a bit of Sikaflex from Bunnings couldn't fix, and I bled my brakes with some fresh Motul RBF600 under recommendations from my tribologist Mugsee from Autosphere. The ATE fluid that I had in there was working just fine though, which is impressive for an inexpensive fluid with my small standard brakes. I left my tyre pressures at 34psi hot for the entire event, as without much testing or experience with the car or tyres I decided consistency would serve me better than trying to eke more grip out of the tyres by tuning the pressures.

WTAC times (seems like some are missing):

1:53.9540
1:53.9910
1:51.8340
1:52.9320
1:53.4630
1:50.3850
1:50.1190
2:30.3140
1:59.7060

Here's few photos of the car On track thanks to Ying:





After the shots above under instructions from my manager I had the tyres flipped on my wheels to put the silver pair of wheels on the left, as it was apparently more photogenic.



All good things come to an end though, and after the first session on the Saturday I came in to the garage celebrating my PB of 1:50.1 and walked around the passenger side of my car to see that a much larger split had opened up in the outer CV boot and the hot grease from the CV had mostly drained out onto the inside of the wheel. Not ideal.

The problem:



So using the previously acquired boot repair kit, I patched it up a bit and called it a day. I could have had a new boot put on the axle and tried to crack a 48 or 49, but after a pretty exhausting lead up to the event I decided to not risk the freshly assembled car any further:



The rest of the day was spent with the car over at the show and shine, again at my managers insistence, talking crap, and having a pleasant wander around the pits and show area. Here's a photo of the team, note the excellent T shirts. Thanks for all the support guy (I'm the second tallest white guy toward the right):



As the event came to a close I packed up all my gear and we headed off to our accomodation:





Overall the event was a great time, and I'll be looking to enter again this year to hopefully push in to the mid 1:40s at SMSP with the goal of being the fastest NA car in Clubsprint. Thanks to my mates: Ying especially for all the photos above, the tops T shirt, and support along the way, along with Grant, Dan and all the other guys, couldn't have won that steak without you.

Thanks to Mugsee from Autosphere for providing all the fluids for the car.

Check out Ying's blog here too, for a more interesting account of our WTAC adventures: LINK.

Wakefield park with EXE

With WTAC done and dusted it should have been time to bring the car back to Melbourne and tidy up all the loose ends left over from the rushed assembly. Instead of doing that I waited until the night before I needed to leave to go to Wakefield for our pre-Cup day track event and welded a muffler on, changed the engine oil, and then hit the road. The drive up was uneventful, nothing fell off the car or caught on fire.

After the long drive the EXE group and I stayed over night at the on track cabins. Then rising bright and early to get on track, I made my out on to the track gingerly given last time I was here was in the trusty 42kW EF2 Civic hatch, and I was again a long way from home in a car I put together mostly late at night. After a cautious first un-timed passenger session I started laying down some times, shown below:

1:29.4777
1:09.5569
1:09.5943
1:11.2563
1:09.9921
1:10.6651
1:22.0097
1:09.5379
1:31.6354
1:11.3668
1:11.2827
1:09.1138
1:09.6144
1:51.0228
1:12.4534
1:09.6554
1:32.4964
1:09.0886
1:09.1577
1:10.2075
1:09.0932

Plenty of 1:09s but I could not crack that elusive 1:08, though my nemesis Kam did in his Audi TTRS, and we were neck and neck all day. My excuse is that I had to organise the event as well as drive. The day was mechanically uneventful with no issues with the car except for a dodgy fuel cap that fell off, but luckily stayed retained by the fuel flap, forcing me to abort a session when fuel fumes started entering the cabin.

The car should comfortably do a 1:08 or faster, I just need more practice and some time tweaking the car. I'm sure EXE crew will be doing the event again this year so I'm looking forward to getting on track at Wakefield again then, if not before.

A photo from the event stolen from my friend Ying:



Since then the car is running very well, and has completed more than 4,500km of happy motoring since I put it together (if my odometer worked, at the moment it shows the same 131,000km it did 3 years ago when I pulled it apart). Over the next few weeks I'll get into a few fixes on it before my first event for the year with Nugget Nationals at Winton on the 3rd of April.

- Fabricate a new rear exhaust section. I'm thinking of buying this muffler to cut down on the drone: DynoMax® VT? - Centered / Offset Muffler - P/N: 17966 - DynoMax® Performance Exhaust Plenty of good reviews, including a couple of 3" installs on K20A.org. I'd also like to get the whole exhaust including the header ceramic coated to try to cut down on the heat transfer through to the cabin. My feet get quite hot as it is with all the heat shields and under dash sound deadening removed. I'll do the rear section in mild steel for ease of welding and economy reasons, as I'm sure I'll change it again sometime. Goal with this change is less noise at partial throttle and slightly more at wide open throttle so I can feel like I'm going fast on track with an appropriate soundtrack. Should be lighter than the Magnaflow too.
- Finish my replacement front splitter brackets. I have replacement brackets laser cut, I just need to weld nuts on to them and paint them, make up the blade (I'll make it WTAC Clubsprint legal so I don't have to re-make it later) and start making an air dam
- Fix the speedometer and fuel gauge
- Fit the carpet and more trim
- Tidy up the horrific bonnet. At this stage I'll simply blank off the purge valve that's sticking through the bonnet, smooth out the hole, and then smooth the worse dents and paint the whole thing matte black.

Longer term projects are:

- Design and fabricate my own adjustable upper control arms. I think all the items available on the market are poorly designed, so I've got a concept that I just need to refine and then weld up a prototype. It will use shim type camber adjustment to eliminate any chances of slippage and retain the same amount of bump travel before control arm contact as OEM, if not a little more since on an EF the legs of the control arm hit the body before the ball joint end does.
- Fit a flex fuel sensor, wire it up to the ECU and tune the car properly on E85
- Make a new bonnet

As usual if you want a better write up on the events, check out Ying's blog here: https://noisyninja.wordpress.com/201...get-nationals/

New splitter brackets

I drove the CR-X to work , partly because I hadn't driven it in over a week and also so I could complete a couple of small tasks on it after work. I've been given a day or two off from working on K24 Toyota Starlets. Firstly I fitted up an MPC purge solenoid block off plate, so at least I don't have the purge valve sticking through the bonnet anymore:



As my car is registered and will be certified here in Victoria for the engine swap I will need to retain all these emissions devices, so I will be relocating the purge valve using an Accord item which I can remotely mount beneath the intake manifold.

After that I started putting together my splitter brackets. Here's what I was working with, the original brackets on the left, and my laser cut replacements in the centre. You can see the difference in shape to allow the bracket to fit past my traction bar, and they also give approx 20mm lower splitter height.



First I welded the nuts on. I replaced the trashy 1/2" hardware that was provided with metric M12 x 1.25 nuts and bolts. Putting non metric hardware on a Honda is a bad idea.



All assembled off the car.



On the car.



The height adjustment range extends from a little on the low side, to way too low, but I'll see how it goes and if necessary revise the design. Now I just need to hit them with a coat of paint, make a splitter blade and fill the gap between the lip and the splitter with something.

I've also ordered the Dynomax muffler I mentioned above, and some of the parts for the flex fuel setup. Will order some mandrel bends next week and hopefully get V2 exhaust done before Winton on the 3rd of April.

Winton with EXE

A belated update from my last event: Winton with EXE Crew. This event ran over Saturday and Sunday which gave plenty of time to practice the circuit and try out different approaches to certain corners, perfect for PBs. It was my first time on the new surface in a non-nugget, and the first time there in the CR-X in the dry. I was hoping to drop into the high 30s, and I was targeting a 1:38 so I would at least be faster than the old DC5, after all these years and effort.

The only change from last years configuration was a new rear section for the exhaust, after a mishap with my (admittedly poorly fabricated) aluminium rear section. No fault of the material though it was purely user error, and I would definitely do an aluminium exhaust again if I didn't care for my hearing. The new exhaust mates to the original front section I made with the Burns muffler, and includes a new Dynomax VT muffler part no. 17966. I used mild steel this time, and will get the exhaust ceramic coated stealth black in the future. Reviews from those track side were favourable.

We drove up on the Friday afternoon, and after sitting in traffic for hours the old CR-X made it to our accomodation without issue just in time to head down the pub for some dinner and a beer. The new muffler cut down on drone a great deal, and if I had a stereo I think I almost would have been able to hear it.

The weather was pretty much perfect for PBs all weekend, with fairly cool temperatures.

Lap times:

Saturday:

1:44.2600
1:40.1450
1:38.9680
1:39.1520
1:41.9200
1:37.2020
1:38.1350
1:37.7730
1:36.8860
1:52.9850
1:36.5610
1:51.9170
1:59.0890
1:38.3440

Sunday:

2:14.6800
1:44.5110
1:37.0640
1:37.1410
1:37.5150
2:02.0550
1:36.7360
6:36.3550
2:10.3060
1:38.2190
1:37.2290
1:36.6680
1:37.6980
1:36.8340
2:01.4420
1:38.0440
1:36.2660
1:36.3910

My best lap for the event was a 1:36.27, comfortably beating my old PB in my DC5R, though it's unfair to compare the cars given the nearly 350kg weight difference, and 400 extra ccs of capacity.

I was very happy with the car overall though now having had a chance to drive it a track I'm more familiar with. Out of the box it's close to as brisk as I hoped, and is mostly just lacking some fine tuning and driver skill. On the advice of some other AD08R users I've started running slightly lower hot pressures which has improved the front end grip over the course of a lap. 1:35s on street tyres should be achievable, and perhaps even 1:34s with a few tweaks. Beyond that I'd simply like some additional front camber and to finish off my front splitter and air dam, and then I think I'll just keep practicing and fixing things as they break.

Here's a comparison between my best lap at this event and the test and tune before WTAC last year. Click for full size:



The difference in mid corner speed is obvious, and that's where much of the lap time gain has come from but it's surprising to see I was faster at some points last year, particularly under brakes into the S.

Here are some photos from the event thanks to Steven Le from Yez Racing: Yez Racing ? EST. 2011





A few more photos from the event thanks to Charlie from JZXgarage, check out his write up on the event here: https://jzxgarage.wordpress.com/2016...rage-may-2016/










The car performed flawlessly all weekend, though I didn't do a lot of laps. Partly because I was still recovering from working 40 or 50 hours on the my friend Ying's Starlet the preceding week, and also spent a bit of time worrying if the Starlet was going to blow up. The Starlet experienced a near flawless debut though, with Ying completing 57 laps over the weekend with a best lap of 1:40.1, without any VTC or VTEC functionality. Well done Ying:



The only negative from the weekend was a damaged synchro on 4th gear. Irrespective of temperature or RPM it crunches a little when shifting to 4th. I'll remove the gearbox and assess the situation before the next event, at this stage I'm unsure if it was assembly error or a fault with the new synchros. That will be the only change I'll be making before I head to Winton for H Nationals, though I'd also like to make it to a test and tune before then to help get down into the 35s

My left side corner light fell out also, and while it was banging around hanging from the plug it made a mess of the paint on the bumper and front guard, but I guess that's what happens to track cars.

The other issue I discovered is that I can't run more than 2 sessions from a full tank before the level will get low enough for fuel surge and starvation to be a problem, so I really need to correct this issue. As I'm carrying around 20kg of fuel I shouldn't need and running the risk of damaging the motor too.

More updates to follow soon

chargeR

H Nationals 2016

A belated update from my last event: H Nationals on July 31st. H Nationals is an event run by a group of local Honda enthusiasts, the format is basically a time trial event, with classes depending on the level of car modification. The event was well subscribed with all the regular Honda time attack guys there, and a healthy contingent of guys that came down from other parts of Australia to support the event which was great to see. I entered the CR-X despite the winner of my class being pretty much a foregone conclusion, with my friend Peter in his super fast S2000 almost guaranteed to take it out.

As mentioned in my previous post, after the EXE event at Winton earlier in the year 4th gear was broked-ed, so of course rather than fix it straight away I waited until the Wednesday just before this event to pull it out, replaced the synchro and re-assembled it on Thursday night, then re-installed it on Friday night with help from a friend, and drove it to the track the next day. In the process I discovered that with a bit of wiggling the box will come out with the motor still in the car, this is my first swapped car and it was a surprise given how tight the engine bay is, compared to my Dc5R.

The weather started off wet and cold, and it took some time for the track to dry off and start warming up. This caught out plenty of folks, with more than a few ending up in the mud. Luckily the CR-X was running in Group D which was filled with more experienced track drivers with people mostly driving within their limits, with just a few instances of drivers that weren't checking their mirrors.

It took some time to get comfortable in the car on the cold low grip morning surface, and my times hovered around the 38-40s for the first half of the day. I was running without the Voltex wing too, since I was too lazy to bring it and bolt it on at the track, and driving around with a big wing on in Australia is a very bad idea with our enthusiastic police force. After settling in toward the end of the day I ended on a 1:37.57 on the last lap of the day, a little way off the best time I ran at the EXE event earlier in the year.

Not discouraged though, I'll be back again soon to chase after that elusive 1:35s street tyre lap time, without much in the way of further changes. Some alignment tweaks and a lot more seat time is all it will take. After that I might bolt on a set of Hoosiers and delve a bit lower into the 30s.



Lap times for the CR-X for the day:

1:48.3180
1:59.7330
1:46.9940
1:42.1110
1:40.6440
1:54.7250
1:47.9310
1:40.2550
1:41.4450
1:39.6660
1:39.1140
2:01.4240
1:48.3150
1:39.2550
1:50.9960
1:42.3230
1:38.1870
2:14.5250
1:40.7180
5:51.5440
1:51.1960
1:41.2990
1:39.4180
1:48.2410
1:41.9180
1:37.5700

Take a look at our blog for a write up on some of the other entrants, including my friend's EP82 Starlet that we've put a K24 in, and some more photos: Honed



Here's a few more photos from the event, thanks to Folk's Photography, check out their full gallery at:

chargeR

Prep for WTAC started this evening after work. First up I wanted to tweak the caster, as I'd only roughly estimated the radius rod lengths when I initially installed the traction bar resulting in more caster than I'd like and hadn't bothered to adjust them since. I dialed it back a bit by lengthening the rods, but I'll have to wait until I can run it down to the alignment shop before I can confirm the actual values.

With that done I ran through setting up the the bump steer, since when I put the tie rod ends in initially in a rush I only did some very rough measurements. I setup my backyard style bump steer gauges, and went to work:



Here's the tie rod ends, set with 2 of the possible 7 spacers beneath the rod end, corresponding to roughly 5mm higher than a stock tie rod end.



The graph below compares the tie rod end in near stock location, with it in a raised location by approximately 5mm. The near stock location gave a large amount of toe in with bump travel, and based on the second set of measurements I think I'll go one spacer higher on the tie rod end to get moderate toe out in bump, tending toward zero/slight toe in at the extremity of bump travel (about 250mm hub centre to guard is where my car bottoms out)



Also found that the rod ends on the front end of the radius rods are nearly running out of travel at full bump, so I'll adjust them slightly tomorrow night, put one last spacer in the tie rod ends, then put it back together.

chargeR

Sorry for the lack of updates, busy month and a bit, but a few things have been happening on the CR-X.

In the lead up to World Time Attack I decided to tackle a handful smaller jobs that I'd been putting off. Budget and time constraints meant no major upgrades for this years event, but there was still time to refurbish the front end and correct a couple of other issues. I find reliability is essential for a fun weekend at the track.

I had a spare set of CR-X SiR front knuckles sent to me by a Japanese gentleman, after having no luck sourcing any locally. Despite me only wanting the knuckles, the kind fellow carefully packed up the whole front suspension bar the shocks and springs, so I've got spares of everything now. As a bonus these front knuckles are from an ABS model complete with sensors, useful for a traction control system if this build escalates that far!



To freshen up the knuckles I'd ordered a bunch of parts, including OEM hubs, bearings, lower ball joints, ARP extended studs and a set of Hawk DTC60 pads.

The previous pads still had plenty of life left, but with the single piston sliding calipers the pads always get tapered wear. Even slight pad taper with the dinky little stock calipers results in a long pedal lacking confidence, and a fresh set of pads and discs before heading to a high speed track like Sydney Motorsport Park is cheap insurance against brake issues.



I gave the knuckles a coat of paint, and pressed the ARP studs into the hubs. Then I got the knuckles all assembled, taking great care to preserve my fresh paint job since no-one's got time for a 48 hour cure time.



Front knuckles installed in the car, with the correct quantity of spacers beneath the tie rod end on our tie rod end kit to correct the bumps steer, as I measured last time I was working on the car.



The front tow hooks would have to make way for the splitter brackets, so I added a tab on the forward face of my "traction bar" to allow me to bolt on a tow strap that found in the corner of the workshop. I don't remember buying it, but that's not the first time that's happened.



While I had the TIG fired up I welded the hexes on to my radius rods for easier caster adjustment without having to resort to vice grips. They copped a fresh coat of paint while I was there. Once I stop cutting and welding things in the front suspension, if ever, I'll pull it all off again and get it powdercoated.





With all that boring stuff done I moved on to the most exciting job on the list; fitting up the new OEM hatch struts I'd acquired at great expense. My days of getting hit in the head with the hatch are over.



Last on the list I constructed a splitter to suit the earlier manufactured brackets. This is just Version 1, but the blade is 6mm marine ply, with a doubled up section along the forward edge and some 40x25mm aluminium channels added for transverse stiffness. The end result is quite lightweight, and while I wouldn't call it quick release, it's an easy process to get it on the car, just requiring some contortion and patience.



Next update I'll give a bit of a run down of the WTAC event.

chargeR

World Time Attack

After doing all the work in the previous post I had a good nights sleep then headed up to Sydney for World Time Attack. I gave the car a wash before we hit the road, it's pretty photogenic when the bonnet is not in the picture:



The drive up was about as enjoyable you'd expect in a car with a 3" exhaust and no interior, but it was uneventful and we made it to Sydney in time to get rejected by security at the gate to Sydney Motorsport Park, since they didn't get the memo about letting competitors park up the night before. No big deal though, I just headed to the apartment where we were staying and parked there. Can't imagine what all the other guys that trailered their cars there did, since Sydney roads are a nightmare.



Thursday

WTAC is a 3 day event for most, with a dedicated practice day on the Thursday, with plenty of time on track since half the competitors are usually elsewhere fixing their cars or doing whatever it is that non-Honda drivers do.



The first session was spent bedding in the brakes and getting familiar with SMSP again, it went well and the car seemed to be more stable than last year with the newly fitted front splitter. In the second session I was just starting to get up to pace, then after heading through pit lane for a quick check of tyre pressures, gave it a bit too much throttle re-entering the track and the resulting wheel hop popped the slip join apart in the exhaust which meant a missed session while I fixed that.



Finally in the last session I'd built up a bit of confidence in the car, and nothing had fallen off in the previous session, so started to push a bit harder which resulted in the fastest lap of the day of a 1:49.6. This was already 5 tenths quicker than last years best time and a promising early result.

Friday



Friday is the first day of the main public event, the pits are noticeably busier with the addition of all the spectators in their flat brimmed hats and fake Takata or Bride backpacks. I knew that the morning session was going to be our best opportunity to set a good time with temperatures warming up compared to the day before. I managed to improve in a couple of areas, getting down to a 1:48.9.

The afternoon sessions were marred by other competitors with either poor situational awareness, mechanical issues, or impacts with solid track side items, so I just focused on improving in sections of the track where I could, particularly the high speed T1 to T2 section, and staying out of trouble everywhere else.

Then it was beer time:



Saturday

I took it pretty easy in the first session just wanting to get back up to speed after maybe a few too many beers the night before. In the second session I went out at the rear of the pack, ran a lap to search for some space on track, but running into plenty of traffic I came in to the pits to wait for some clear track. The strategy worked well, and I was able time it so I exited the pits with nothing but open track in front of me bar one back marker that I managed to sneak past without losing a lot of time. With a clear run at it I managed to put together the best lap of the event a 1:47.7. 2.5 seconds faster than last year with basically no performance upgrades to the car, bar the splitter, on the same beaten up set of AD08R so I was pretty happy with that.



Our goal for next year will be to take another 3 seconds off and run a 1:44.X lap. For reference the winner of my class in an EK Civic with a Rotrex'ed K24 on 295/225 tyres put down a 1:39 lap time, so I've still got a way to go, but I'm in reach of being the fastest naturally aspirated car in class.


2015 vs 2016 Best Lap Comparison

Below is a comparison of the data from the fastest laps of 2015 and 2016. Click the image to get the full size graph.





Looking at the data comparison, there's a few things I've noticed:

- T1 minimum speed is up 10km/h to 175 km/h and the braking point has been pushed back 25m to beyond the 100m mark, though there's definitely gains to be made in the braking zone here by braking a little later and trailing the brakes further into the corner.

- The exit and run through T2 to T3 was better this year, picking up nearly 10 km/h before braking into T5. I chose to short shift to 4th and focus on positioning the car as far to left of track at the exit of 2 as possible to improve the line through T4. Mid corner speeds through T4 and T5 are improved, but the exit from T5 isn't much better probably due to running out on to the south circuit pit exit and unsettling the car.

- Speed over corporate hill (T14) has improved, and a bit more bravery at T16 has resulted in better speed there.

Track map for reference:

chargeR

Another belated update. Late last year I packed a change of clothes and my toothbrush into the CR-X again and headed 700km across the state border to Wakefield Park circuit in New South Wales. NSW has a bunch of excellent circuits, and Wakefield is a great little track. It's built into the side of a hill with quite a lot of elevation change, and has a compact but flowing layout.

No time for any changes on the CR-X since WTAC bar some fluid changes and a quick wash to remove 2000km worth of dead bugs.

After a quiet drive up, the track day dawned with cool but sunny and conditions. Perfect for some quick lap times. There were only 25 drivers at the event, which guaranteed heaps of track time. I skipped the first session to help out running the event, and made use of the spare time to bolt on the aero bits and give the car a brief check over before heading out for the 2nd session.



Within a couple of laps I dropped down into the 1:08s, improving from a 1:09.0 best lap at the same event last year. A great start to the day, but it was clear there was more in it. Maybe the front splitter made all the difference, but to be brutally honest I'm only now becoming comfortable in the car, and more familiar with the power and handling. So the I'd put the bulk of the improvement down to the imperfect device between the seat and the steering wheel.



The CR-X is fitted with small 205 width front tyres so I can't do more than one or two fast laps before the tyres overheat and understeer becomes terminal. So my strategy is to go out and complete one warm up lap and then go straight into flying laps





Putting it all together I laid down a 1:07.7 lap, an improvement of more than a second since my last time at the track, and 1:06s are in reach. To put it in perspective the top 3 places in the Neova Challenge earlier in the month were all within the low 1:05s, and 2 of those cars ended up in the top 3 at World Time Attack.

Here's a video of an earlier untidy 1:08.5 lap, unfortunately no footage of my best lap. There's plenty of work to do on my driving, watching this video back I can see that my transition from braking to turn in needs work, and in general my steering inputs are messy.

https://youtu.be/LUJ6B_YD5gU

Overall it was a great day, and it was good to dip into the 1:07s. With every event I'm getting closer to the cars potential, and I feel like I'm starting to improve a bit as a driver.

Below is a speed trace and min/max speeds for my best lap, and track map for reference.





Click it for the full size:



Unfortunately I don't have any good data from my last visit to Wakefield, but there is a couple of points for me to remember for next time:

- I'd be better off bouncing off the limiter in 5th at the end of the start finish straight rather than shifting to 6th, as my max speed of 180km/h is still just before the rev limiter in 5th
- When comparing to other laps I can negotiate T9 with a later and shorter lift off the throttle and maintain better mid corner speed and speed down the following short straight, which should be worth a few tenths
- As usual, I still think the car needs more tyre. It might be a bandaid to correct an issue that could be improved with suspension setup, but I've always fundamentally believed that staggered tyres on FWD is the right way to do it.
- I'm starting to get more comfortable with the brakes, but I'm still finding that the pedal feel is not as progressive as I'd like resulting in some locked tyres. We're developing a brake booster delete kit with correct pedal ratio and master cylinder diameter designed for track use not hard-parking and I'll be setting it up on my car soon, which should greatly improve feel under brakes.
- My shifting is a bit slow and clunky, I think I need to tweak the throw of the clutch pedal, and I'd like to make a spacer plate to re-position the shifter a bit

ssmrico

wow amazing! I wish I could find parts that easy for my ef like the bumpers and fenders lol