q.

Sorry if I didn't search but I think this is all pretty car specific stuff.. I have taken a full day of driving school at button willow when I was visiting CA awhile ago. I wanna get into autocross I have been "into" hondas for about 3 years so I know how to do all the work and what parts are good etc etc. This will be my first experiences with AutoX.

Car: 92 Civic Si
Mods: Skunk2 coilovers on ITR shocks and Beaks rear lower tie bar

I just got this car and am starting to mod it rather then a hp plentiful drag car I want a list of good mods to start with for autocross to be competative. I plan to get a JDM b16 (about $700 short) complete swap with LSD in the next month.

sdcivic549

Unless you have a boatload of cash you won't be compeditive in SOLO2 with that swap. Save your cash for seat time and tires.

You have a half decent STS car started, leave it like it is until you get through a season or so and actually know what needs to be fixed. Then trash the skunks for Koni's and GC's with an adjustable rear sway and have fun chasing the EF's

q.

Local autocross is held every sunday and every other sunday they have it right up the street from me, I've been once or twice to watch and I'm going this weekend to get more info and do some photography provided I don't get to drunk saturady night haha. I see miatas, corvettes, ITR, golfs etc all running on the same track that day so I don't think they limit you like that, also I'm interested in doing some lapping days, I'm currently trying to get rid of my 16"s cuz tires are $$$$$$$$

sdcivic549

All the types of cars run on the same track, but they are divided into classes that are in theory compeditive within themselves. You race against people in your class, not everyone. the classing is based on the type of car and mods.

With the swap you'd end up in EP I think? or at least one of the prepared classes which are essentially purpose built race cars. It's a very fast and expensive class, you think 16" tires are expensive now, try a set of Hoosiers or v710s. STS is a street tire class that can be easily run with a daily driven car. I run STS in San Diego and LA with my daily driven EM2, it's well prepared and I'm usually close to the top of the sheets excepting the damned EF civics

You can of course waste alot of $$ and run in a catch all class like SU but you likely won't run against anyone remotely like your car which is no fun.

Autocross is also 90% driver, seat time is what you need, not a B16. I used to get my entry fees paid by kids from school putting money that their big buck sports cars could keep up with my lowley civic. At a rate of $10 per second difference, I made some good money lol. Learn to drive first, then you can drive a fast car fast, rather than having a fast can and being made to look like a tool by some dude with a D17z6

.RJ

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by q. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I want a list of good mods to start with for autocross to be competative.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Then dont swap the engine - you already have a great 'STS' class car.

chris1866

best mods for autox.....tires and driver.

q.

You all say it puts me in a different class if I have a swap? What if I swap in another SOHC as mine has high mileage on it and isn't very powerful it feels insanely sluggish.

AntF

Correct me if I'm wrong about this information anyone, but I believe that any motor swap except putting in another motor that was OEM for your car would displace you from the STS class.

mos

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chris1866 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">....tires </TD></TR></TABLE>

spock_rocker

i personally think seat time is the best mod ever!! i made the mistake of building my car for autox and track and then testing instead of getting some seat time and then modding.. i also started in Street Mod(b20z swap) and trust me, its a hard class to try to be competitive in.. just learn to drive the car and then mod from there.

GChambers

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chris1866 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">best mods for autox.....tires and driver.</TD></TR></TABLE>



Get yourself a cheap set of lightweight 15x7 wheels and a set of 205/50/15 Azenis RT-615s and a good alignment and run the living hell out of the car the way it is.

krshultz

Edit: the following, it turns out, is not true. I guess I was thinking of Street Prepared; when I was autocrossing my car, STS didn't exist (and it would have been illegal as hell anyway )

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AntF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Correct me if I'm wrong about this information anyone, but I believe that any motor swap except putting in another motor that was OEM for your car would displace you from the STS class.</TD></TR></TABLE>

LARGE disclaimer: I'm not really an autocross guy, so take this with a pretty fair portion of salt, but this is the way I believe it to work. I believe it depends on the swap, and the swap depends on how the rule is written.

For instance, if the rulebook lists "96-00 Honda Civic all" on a single line item, a B16 from a 99-00 Civic and stick it in a DX. However, if the 99-00 Si is on a different line item in the rulebook, the swap is no longer legal.

Solo 2 guys, have I got this right? I know this is the way Street Prepared worked when I was big into autocross. Like I said, I could be wrong - STS came along a little after I stopped being as interested as I used to be.


Modified by krshultz at 5:18 PM 10/23/2005

MattP

Nope, the ST classes don't have the Update/Backdate provisions of SP. I believe the original (SF Bay Area?) version of the rules did have it, but didn't make it to the national SCCA rules.

george34

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krshultz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">For instance, if the rulebook lists "96-00 Honda Civic all" on a single line item, a B16 from a 99-00 Civic and stick it in a DX. However, if the 99-00 Si is on a different line item in the rulebook, the swap is no longer legal. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i don't think you can do the b16 into a DX and still run stock if that is what you meant. I think that would put you in a street prepared class. i'm not 100% sure but i'm pretty sure that is right.

sdcivic549

Basically for everything but the prepared classes you can remove or add anything that is a factory option/package.This means that you can pull that optional AC, or ditch the optional power leather seats etc. So long as you add or remove the whole package if it was a part of a package. The B16 out of an Si can be added, BUT you'd need to add everything else that makes the coupe into an Si.

Goto cars.com and under research you can find out all the neat options and packages for your car with minimal effort. Just remember that the manufacturer is the ultimate authority.

Or we can all just go and RTFM here ----&gt; http://www.moutons.org/sccasolo/

GChambers

STS you can not swap anything.

SP you can do swaps of anything as long as the car you are swapping FROM is on the same line as the car you are swapping to.

Don't screw with the swap if you want to autocross. The extra power really doesn't make the car much faster. Spend your $$$ on the suspension.

You already have a decent start. Get a nice set of wheels and tires like I mentioned earlier and then get the Comptech Sway bar/Strut bar or something comparable and with some good driving you should have a car faster than most cars at your local events.

BTW, if you lower the car a lot, you will need to take some of the camber out of the rear to get the car to rotate.

94accordsedan

Best mod I did for the HS Accord was letting a veteran drive it, wow where the hell did those 2 seconds come from.

So mod the monkey behind the wheel, its the hardest to do but the one that yields the best results.

CTR_ryan

the two most important items for autocross are the driver and a good set of tires. You can only get faster by having more experience, and the best way to give you more confidence is in the ability of the tires that you have.

MrTodd

Agreed, don't mod the car, just work on your seat time. Then tires. Then more seat time, THEN work on the suspension!!!

I ran my '92 Civic CX, BONE STOCK for this entire season in H Stock. 70hp and all, with Falken Ziex tires... My car is by NO MEANS tuned for performance. But with each event, I learned something new, and slowly grew to actually "feel" the way my civic handles in stock form - and throughout many events, I got faster times than a number of other drivers that drove MUCH 'faster' cars.

Next season I hope to add just a few small suspension mods, such as bushings (not polyurethane) 15x7 rims and nicer tires. I'm going to keep the stock engine in for quite some time, but I will do some work on it (such as a Z6 tranny, which would bring me into the SP class). Other than that, seat time, more seat time, evolution school, more seat time, and then more suspension work.

Believe me when I say that my car has TONS of potential with the stock engine!!!! I'm VERY glad that I kept my car stock for this season - now I know what I want to mod in my car, because I know how each mod will affect my car... I don't have to rely on the average ricer posting up his bullshit 'writeup' about how awesome his new coilover kit performs, when I have the knowledge and know-how to get the performance that my car actually NEEDS to perform better in solo2.

coot_er

trust me, if you want to be competitive in auto x and your new, DO NOT SWAP YOUE ENGINE. i have i a b16 in my rex, which puts me in sm2 and i just get slaughtered every weekend. sometimes i think about finding an A6 and putting it back in but that would just be more money.

keep your car exactly how it is only buy some light weight wheels and tires. get a few events under your belt(maybe even a season) and then start to think about suspension. the extra power is not going to help you as much as what seat time would. just buy some tires and focus on your skills.

q.

thanks everyone for your advice I think I'll hang onto my money for now and listen to what you guys said about keeping stock motor. Mods so far:

Password JDM 3pt front strut bar
Password JDM 4pt rear strut bar
Beaks rear lower tie bar
Zeal full suspension (coilovers + shocks dunno what type etc got them from a friend)

krshultz

So now that we've established that the motor swap would move you into an expensive class where you probably won't be competitive anyway, don't do that.

Go to scca.org and download the rulebook. Choose a class (sounds like STS would be a great choice for you), read the rules, and read them again. If something doesn't make sense or isn't clear, you can probably post questions on here and the considerable list of autocrossers will try and help.

Apart from what the others have said...if you must get *something* because you've got money burning a hole in your pocket...a relatively cheap place to get good performance bang for your buck is in the brakes. Get a good set of brake pads from an outfit like Carbotech - you'd be amazed at the difference. Bed them in properly. And bleed your brakes well (I use a pressure bleeder) and put in good fluid (ATE, Motul, even Valvoline Synthetic for a non-track car, it's what I use). And it's even stock class legal, not to mention STS legal.

Best of luck.

Rancid_949

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by q. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thanks everyone for your advice I think I'll hang onto my money for now and listen to what you guys said about keeping stock motor. Mods so far:

Password JDM 3pt front strut bar
Password JDM 4pt rear strut bar
Beaks rear lower tie bar
Zeal full suspension (coilovers + shocks dunno what type etc got them from a friend)
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think you will be bumped up into a different class because you have the chassis braces.

Xian

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rancid_949 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I think you will be bumped up into a different class because you have the chassis braces.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yep, you can't run triangulated front or rear braces in STS... you'll need to pull them out. At least you'll get back some room in the rear hatch

Christian

q.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Xian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Yep, you can't run triangulated front or rear braces in STS... you'll need to pull them out. At least you'll get back some room in the rear hatch

Christian</TD></TR></TABLE>

wtf are you kidding? that is so gay I just bought these bars!! I have al ocal guy who will buy the 4pt for rear but why can't you use 3pt in front?

can you use 2pt?