kaj

okay. i'm turning my ITR into a weekend/track car. i hate to.. 'cause she sure is purty, nearly stock.. and pretty much all original.. but i've been unable to sell her to someone that will take care of her.. so to the track she goes.

now.. i've done a couple of track days at buttonwillow. MUCH fun. things i've come to realize:

i need better brake fluid. done.
i need better brake pads. no problem.
i need new brake rotors. done.

i'm only going to be running cams/air intake/header/exhaust/test pipe/cam gears/tune. nothing too crazy. i'm more concerned about handling and braking.

my goal is to have a street-legal race car that i can drive to the track, have fun in, and drive home. that means i'll be keeping my PS and A/C, if that give you an idea of what i'm after. i have no issues with taking out the stereo, interior trim, etc. whatever is necessary.

now, i've done some research and have found popular combinations of shocks/springs.. so i'm cool there.
i'll be going to 15" wheels in order to run R-compound tires. no problem.

but what i'm looking for is opinions on aerodynamics. as in, who is running splitters? what kind of results are they having? canards? wings?
i know i can't just throw on any ol' parts and expect improvement.

i'm also curious about sway bars. i know this is dependent on the suspension and tires i'm running.. so would an adjustable rear be the way to go? i'm thinking that will allow me to make changes as i upgrade shocks/springs and/or tires? or maybe just a smart way to go anyway?

i guess what i'm asking is: if anyone has a "favorite" or "memorable" thread that had really good info.. can you link it for me? i've been searching for DAYS and can't quite find what i'm looking for. it seems my searchin' skills kinda suck.



so. anyone have advice? any fave threads? hook a brotha up. this won't be my daily driver any more, so i have no issues on tearing the car down to do what needs to be done.

also: i'm not planning on running in any formal events. so there is no need to conform to any certain rule book.



thanks for reading, guys!

chargeR

The only advice I would give from my track experience is to go with the car as-is without adding a heap of parts, then you will have a much better idea of where the money and time needs to be spent. Stockish ITRs with brake mods are very competent track cars in my experience.

I am basically saying that you don't need all those parts you mentioned to have fun.

kaj

very true! and i've done just that. my best time on buttonwillow's cw13 is a 2'17".00

i'd like to get as close to the 2'10" mark as possible. the car is great as-is. i'd just like to be a bit more competitive. i've been driving the car in more-or-less stock form for about 3.5yrs now. i'm ready to go a bit faster.

i will be adding safety equipment as well: roll cage, etc. i don't want anyone to think i forgot about keeping myself in one piece. i'm 35yrs old with a 9yr old son. i'm sure he wants me to be safe too.

YellowKahuna

Brakes = higher temp brake fluid and pads

coil overs = KW variant 3, that way you can play with compression and rebound damping. Don't forget to corner balance

Sway bars = leave stock for now or go with a stiffer rear sway bar for more rotation through turns. This if for a stiffer front spring rate set up. Don't do this if you decide to have a stiffer rear spring set up.

Roll bar = Kirk or Autopower

Bucket seat and belt = What ever brand you want.

Bushings = Mugen or Pic bushings

Splitter = only splitter I would buy would be from Special projects

Wing = Mugen or J's racing if you want. I felt the difference with my Mugen wing.

Tires = Toyo Proxe R1R good street/track tire. There are alot of others tires to choose from.

nsxtasy

You don't HAVE TO do any of that. You've only done a couple of track days. You've done the brake fluid and pads and rotors. Great. Stop there. Get a good 6-10 track events before you do anything else. You'll be getting good learning experience. Right now, since you don't have a lot of track experience, you aren't using anywhere near the car's capabilities anyway; the limiting factor on your car is "the nut behind the wheel", i.e. the driver. And after getting that experience, you may have totally different ideas about what the car needs than you do now. Maybe you'll want to do something else, or maybe you'll be perfectly happy with the car the way it is now.

IntegraTionR

I must say! the road to "experience" is somewhat scary at times when you're trying to push yourself!!!

thawley

A Progress or ST rear bar and some R-compound tires will change your life. Run those for a year. Hang out with the Honda Challenge guys on NASA weekends. You'll get great info and maybe some real set up help from them in person than here. And you might find some deals on used Koni/KW/Progress/whatever from guys who've stepped up to big dollar stuff recently. (I can think of at least two in the Bakersfield area alone...)

Most of the really fast guys (who have what you need in terms or info and parts) don't spend much time on the forums any more.

I'm here 'cause I suck.

Stinkycheezmonky

Thawley's suggestion ftw.

My one and only suggestion for what you're asking: be careful with the splitters on the street. It'd really be a shame to smash one up on a speed bump or something. In addition to that, that's kind of the LAST thing you want to attend to on the car. Get the shocks/swaybar and all dialed in first, then move onto the aero stuff.

The Destroyer

Are you only interested in hpde/road racing? Autocross is a very cheap way to gain experience.

Austin

You look like you have a good direction, but I'm going to comment on these items:

Cams - no reason, and most of the time it's a pain in the ***, more wear and tear, more maintenance, been there, done that...sold them off.

Intake - no problem here
Header - no problem here
Exhaust - no problem here
Test Pipe - meh, most high flow cats flow almost the same as a test pipe, I dyno tested it a few years ago...and if you're caught running it on the street, it's a $3k fine.
Cam Gears - I ran them on stock cams with a +2/+2 based upon my tune
Tune...yeah, good idea with the rest of the mods.

I ran my stock suspension Type-R on street tires for a couple of years. A Rollbar, seat, and harness would be highly advisable. Stock brakes are good, just upgrade the fluid and pads, I tended to boil the fluid a lot, and kill anything but race pads fairly quickly.

Now if you want a suspension...I have a Zeal B6 suspension that I bought from Yoshi that I could give you a killer deal on ;-).

dumafit

Don't mean to thread-jack, but you mentioned using some high flow cats that flow just as good as test pipes, which one's were they?

YellowKahuna

Well, if I know Austin from previous posts, its got to be the Renault

Stinkycheezmonky

SMSP sells them, and could for sure fab you up one to whatever length you need.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

[QUOTE=thawley;37257005]A Progress or ST rear bar and some R-compound tires will change your life. Run those for a year. Hang out with the Honda Challenge guys on NASA weekends. You'll get great info and maybe some real set up help from them in person than here. And you might find some deals on used Koni/KW/Progress/whatever from guys who've stepped up to big dollar stuff recently. (I can think of at least two in the Bakersfield area alone...)

Most of the really fast guys (who have what you need in terms or info and parts) don't spend much time on the forums any more.

X2 except the last part that i took out.
Bring the R comps to the track in the car or it might be time to look into a tow or a support vehicle if they dont fit.

Austin

Correct, I'd have to go searching for the dyno plots, it's been a while, but the difference was negligible.

kaj

been there. two tires off is scaaaaaary. haha

i'd like to, of course. but it's almost as far for me to get to an auto-x event as buttonwillow. given the choice....

cams came with the engine. i could swap them out for stock.. just trying to use what it came with. i bought the engine from HMO.. had the valve cover off one day and BAM! big, fat cam lobes. so.. i just figured i may as well put them to use. i'm used to 350whp+ but i'd be happy with 185whp from this setup. now if anyone has some stock ITR cams they wanna trade....
intake/header/tune/test pipe would only to make full use of the cams. i PREFER a cat, as it quiets the exhaust down a LOT. i do not like loud cars. then again, this will not be my daily driver, either. i have a test pipe that looks like a cat.. but i'd NEVER use it..
if i can find a really nice flowing cat? i would have NOOOOOOOO problem running it.
cam gears would only to make best use of the cams too.
tune: of course!

upgraded to better fluid. i will be going back to Cobalt or trying hawk HP+ pads. already running brembo rotors. i'm REALLY curious to try some R-compound tires, though.

pm me on the Zeals.

i do have a question. i used to have Spoon N1 coil overs. i think the springs were 16/14. i felt they car slid around too much. i'm guessing i had too much spring for my sway bar and tire setup. am i close with this guess?

aight. off to LA tomorrow. i gotta crash. all this info is EXACTLY what i was needing. thanks, guys. keep it coming!

Stinkycheezmonky

If you're sliding it's most likely only your tires or the inputs you're giving the car. I've driven a couple cars on very similar spring rates with street tires and it wasn't a big deal. Also, with those spring rates you don't necessarily need a big rear swaybar. It'll make the car loose (and thus, fast), but you'll be able to get plenty of rotation out of it with a stock rear bar.

kaj

gotcha. i was on decent street tires. sold the spoons to my friend. he had the same issue but WAY worse. he would slide every turn. four-wheel drift. i was out-handling him with my 205 Nitto Neo Gens while he was running 215 Azenis.. which we have found to be HORRIBLE track tires.

Stinkycheezmonky

Azenis aren't that bad, though there are certainly better options. When they overheat, they stick like garbage. Being in CA, that might've been part of what you experienced.

The kind of sliding you're talking about, it seems a little...suspetise. I've tracked my car on 16/18K springs and Azenis, and while it wasn't great it also wasn't completely unmanageable.

The Sword

subscribed because im in an almost identical boat with the OP.

i am curious as to you guys swapping your front and rear springs. doing the 16k rears and 14k fronts. are you getting more rotation that way? front stick more?

someone please elaborate. not trying to thread jack, i think the OP could learn something too.

YellowKahuna

That kind of set should only be on the track, not on street. That set up is for a skillfull driver and not a novice driver. For any reason in an emergency action is required for me to sway hard to avoid an accident or object on the road, I for sure don't want a 16K spring rate in the rear.

clem kevin

i think you should give mikehonda a call about an ITR track car....

But ill post before i read anything else in this thread, if someone has said it... good.

I think i haven't been to the track any more times than you dude, but theres a few things ive learned from hanging around the right people. Don't over do it is the first rule. Going all out on aero and stuff, a waste of money. What i've been told by some of my closest friends who are professional drivers is that you shouldnt be doing things like that to your car until youve completely exhausted your skills without it. Don't go to R-compounds until you've exhausted your skill driving on a street tire.

I think the best advice anyone could give you is if that youre going to spend money on a car, spend it all on SAFETY FIRST. I've spent a couple thousand dollars on suspension on my car and feel stupid not having very much safety equipment in the car for track days. My next purchase will be a roll bar. Also, im building a motor for the car as well at school and Im glad to say that im practically building an ITR motor, because i dont think i really need the power. You want to go fast? put a better LSD in the transmission or something.

After reading a bit more, Ill chime in with my not so knowledgable advice.

Suspension, I would recommend Bilstien or Koni shocks with a sleeved coilover setup. Its easy to swap out the springs if you want to change things up. If you want to spend the money though, my friends who are driving in the time attacks all worship KW suspension. Its expensive stuff and for good reason.
Upgrading bushings made my car feel SOOOOO much better. I got the hardrace set and its made a wonderful difference in the way the car feels. I found that my rear trailing arm bushings were torn too, that made a huge difference.
Im using an ITR rear sway bar, i think it's plenty for me seeing that i dont like a lot of rotation with the little experience i have.
Tires, i would wait for some of the new tires coming along. Im excited for the new Advan ad08's, as well as the new bridgstones. There should be a few good new tires out by the end of april i believe. Im using the dunlop star spec z1's, a great tire.
Buy a good helmet. I wish i would have, instead i have a 100$ open faced helmet. I regret not spending a couple bills more on a quality helmet.
Im using an SMSP 300 cell cat, no problems here. Makes a bit of noise with my profab header but a 22" resonator should fix that soon.
I love my hawk hp+ pads and recommend them. Great for daily driving. Im also using the ate super blue brake fluid, i guess i cant tell the difference as long as its bled well.

clem kevin

a road with rocks in it?

nsxtasy

That doesn't make sense, unless there was snow on the track or it was below freezing out. Otherwise, the Azenis is fine, and the NeoGen is just your typical decent all-season tire. There's no comparison.

Austin

The Azenis will grease up on you fairly quickly during any hot day at Buttonwillow in SoCal, I ran them for a few years and they're a great beginner's tire. I ran them until I moved to shaved RA-1's, the Azenis taught me a lot about proper car control, correct lines, and braking, whereas the RA-1's allowed for me to pick up some bad habits.