*March 2011 to current*

BFGoodrich tires was filming a comercial at VIR on Monday.I believe I got in some of the footage.Whether or not they use any of it,I have no idea(I can hear it now "WTF is that Piece of ****?!Cut!").

Anyway,things were going pretty good until............The engine let go on the front straight,right at the kink.My first thought was to try to ease the speed down,and get off the track to try to spill as little fluid on the surface as possible.That plan lasted about one second until I actually got to the kink after the flagstand.I spun in my own oil,hit the armco at around 115MPH,then spun several times back out into the track.At some point fluids(there was a ton of oil,and it looks like the impact jarred the fuel rail loose,so I guess there may have been some gas too)caught fire,and I was straight Days Of Thunder Cole Trickle up in flames blowing up.Between the tire smoke,coolant steam and oil/fire smoke you couldn't see anything,and I knew there were at least three cars pretty close behind me,as I come to a stop dead in the middle of the track.I was scared to get out of the car for fear of getting hit,so i stayed put until I saw the rescue crew coming,then hopped out and they put out what was left of the fire(most of it died down after I came to a stop)....
So,anyway,fffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!11

Lap leading up the crash,and the crash itself.For some reason,this site decreases the frame rate,so the video is very jumpy.It's much better viewed directly on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBJtiSyExsQ The damage doesn't look so bad in the pics,but the whole front clip is shifted several inches to the side.From looking at the armco,it looks like the tow hook penetrated it,so I guess that sort of jerked the front end around.Both airbags deployed,windshield shattered,radiator support bent down,radiator(that I put in yesterday!)busted,and fenders/bumper/hood torn up.



The hood was still useable(just cosmetic damage in the gelcoat for the most part),then halfway home the dry-rotted bungee cord I had holding it down broke,and the hood flew back,completely breaking,and pushing in the front edge of the roof!



*UPDATE*

I'm not gonna say I have a horseshoe up my ***,because if I did,this wouldn't have happened...I may very well have a shoe off one of those mini-horses in my peehole though.

I started tearing the car down today.The culprit for the oil?The oil filter gasket.For ***** and giggles,I tried to start the car when unloading it.It started right up,but was puking oil,so I killed it.The puddle of oil was right below the filter,so I grabbed it and was able to turn it about a half turn.I spun it back off,and the gasket was almost doubled over on itself.I'm not sure if maybe I didn't put enough oil on the gasket and maybe it "grabbed" the block when I installed it,stretching the gasket.Maybe that led to it eventually blowing out that section?I'm very **** about the prep of the car,and I installed this filter the day before the event(last sunday),and I distinctly remember tightening it correctly.There was still almost one quart of oil left in the pan,so I dumped over 4.5 quarts on the track.The coolant I'd seen was from a hose that got pinched and busted from the impact.

I know this was a freak deal,but I'm still going to start safety wiring the filter.
Oil filter(gasket has returned to it's normal position:


The front camber readings are about .5 degrees shifted to the side,so the shock towers aren't bent too badly.From the shock towers forward the ends of the frame spars are bent pretty badly.I've talked to several body guys,and they've all said this is easily fixed by a frame shop.I'll be taking it next week to be fixed.Then I'll throw on the new body panels and get my ghetto paint job on.


Body panels off:


Pile of junk:


Pics of damage,looking down sides of car:




*UPDATE*

Tuesday I picked the car up from the frame shop.I was really,really happy with their work.Automotive Frame in Salem did the work,and I've got to give them a plug.They were really great from customer service to the work itself.

Got my Windshield put in yesterday.My friend Chris(VTEC101 on here)works for Safelite,so he helped me out.


Today I got all my body panels on.Everything lined up pretty much spot-on,despite the fact that everything is made in China,Ebay crap.Some of the bumper to fender/hood gaps are off in the pics,but I just had the bumper sitting up there.All that will be taken care of when it's mounted for good.




*UPDATE*

I also did a compression test,and all four cylinders were in the 200 psi range,with the variance from the lowest to the highest cylinders being 8psi.I really think the engine's okay,although I'll still be pulling the oilpan off next week when I have to take the header off to do some welding.

Next weekend I'll hopefully be bringing the car back to get painted.I want to get that out of the way so I have some time to street drive it before the next track event.

Soon I'll be ordering my H&N restraint.I found a good deal on a pair of CCW Classics for my M3,so I took some money out of my fund to get those.Either way,I'll still have the H&N before my next track day.


-Hooked up an oil pressure gauge to the car and rode around for a while.My last suspicion that there was some culprit other than the gasket O-ring was that if the oil pressure was for some reason too high.Riding around today,pressure would never go over at 80psi all the way to the rev limiter.Check that off the list.

-I had planned on painting the car before the next event,but that doesn't look to be happening.It's amazing how quickly things creep up on you.I talked to a friend of mine who runs a graphics shop about wrapping the car in red vinyl.I thought it would be cool since you could just recover the fenders and bumper when they got chipped up from track use.All he had in stock was matte black.While this looks cool on a newer,expensive car,on a 20 year old shitbox Civic it just looks like you've primered it and can't afford to paint it.He's checking on pricing for a new 3M vinyl that is very glossy and looks like paint.Assuming it's cheaper than painting the car and I can get it done in time,I'll go this route.
One other option I'm going to look into is roller painting the car.When I heard of this,it seems like something a ghetto ricer would do,but apparently it can look pretty good.I've got to research it more.
The biggest thing is that I just hate relying on somebody else for anything.The person that was going to paint my car can only do it on weekends,and I won't have a free weekend for a while.

-Today I installed the body panels for good(I will readjust for better fitment later,just running out of time for now).Installed the chin spoiler on the new bumper(I decided to leave the green Armco paint on there).Installed overflow tank(had to relocate it since the CAI covers the stock mounting point),CAI,and any other parts I'd removed for the frame shop.
For the most part,I'm ready to go except for getting the hood on and brake/tranny fluid flushes.I really wanted to drive the car back home today to start getting some miles on it,but wasn't able to finish everything.Hopefully next weekend i can get it done and get a few hundred miles on it before VIR.

-I cut out most of the rear fender lips to gain more tire clearance for later.The quarters are so rusty the rolling tool just busts up the metal,so this was my only real option.I left about an 1/8" lip which I then spot welded periodically since I cut out the original spot welds.Sprayed the exposed metal with primer and put seam sealer on the new joint between the body and quarter skin.

-I also picked up an upgrade for the car.A friend's sister had this Fluidyne Integra radiator sitting around brand new for a few years now.I gave her $100 for it!Score!Sorry,no pics of her.neg rep.

rear fender lips:


How the car will look for now(plus a hood,of course):



*UPDATE*


So,change of plans.......
The 3M vinyl that looks like paint for wrapping cars would be like $800 for enough to do my car.That's not economically feasible right now,and I don't have the money to get it painted either right now.So,today I was looking and found pics of the Art Project BMW M3 from the Le Mans series last year.Basically,I'm thinking about replicating this(though in not nearly as much detail)on my car for the next two events,then getting it painted.My friend that runs the sign shop should have enough scrap vinyl to do most of this,so I should have very little money in it.
What do ya'll think?Gay or cool,not that gay is a bad thing,m'kay? Keep in mind it's a track car,not street car.

Started the graphics today.....So much more of a PITA than I figured.Spent about three hours on it today and almost finished half of it.

Also safety wired the oil filter and finished up little details like putting in fender liners and other crap.
Drove the car some more,and had no issues.I've pressure washed all around the engine bay about five times now and a couple days later I still have oil seeping out of crevices.




The point at which I quit today:



I need to add more color.Will be stopping by my friend's shop this week to pick up some yellow and more blue and red.

For reference,I'm going for a ghetto copy of this car:






waste if time.About halfway through the driver side,I got a severe case of the ****-its.If I'd have known it'd take this long,I'd have never done it.

Big thanks to JP at Longwood Signworks!





*UPDATE*

Took the car to VIR to shake it down.Everything went great,no issues at all.Sarge came down and took some kick-*** pics:

Thanks Sarge!BTW-he does shoots for very reasonable rates.Hit him up!







M3s get rollzored














Ze competizione



*UPDATE*

Off to CMP for ITR EXPO!
Once again,car ran great.On Saturday I corded one of my NT01s,so I had to go to my backup tires-7 year old Azenis that are hard as a rock-for Sunday.I went out first session Sunday and took a couple easy laps to get used to the much lower traction they offered.On the third lap,I got a little too carried away on the 4-7 combo,caught the curb with the left side tires(it does great with the R comps),and promptly spun,yanking out some of the marker posts.Minimal damage to the front bumper(good thing it's not painted!).Video to come.

Once again Sarge came down and took pics.Not sure when they'll be available,as they're hopefully going towards an article in Super Street.












Video of my spin into 4 at CMP.The aftermath reminds me of my VIR crash.After the car stopped,I couldn't see the flagstand to be waved back on the track,so I tried to turn the mirror where I could see the cornerworker.I finally had to unlatch the HANS(which I'm still not used to doing)so I could move my head enough to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2pjiAdajtk UPDATE:
Finally got the full width radiator in today.Also got airbags back in.
Added more Safety Yellow and Safety Orange also.
Still need to clean the engine bay from all the dust from my off at CMP







Finally getting back on track with the M3 too.Fixing the Civic has killed any extra money to put into it.
Picked these up last week.GC front coilovers with 500lb springs,Tein rear with 550 lb springs.Also included Koni fronts(which I already have)and KMAC camber plates.Both of those will be for sale.Still need to go a little lower front and rear,but ran out of time to **** with it.





UPDATE:

Got bored today,so I continued the stripe theme into the engine bay.Was thinking about doing the firewall and fenderwells,but was too lazy.Did the plug cover,engine mount,oil cap and breather filter.No hood-going for that S3 look,yo.Actually,I'm having to cut a shitload of the framing out of the hood to clear the Integra radiator.I think something in the front(maybe the lower support)is still tweaked,as I've never had clearance issues before with this setup.
There's still two months before the car will be back on track,and I've got a lot of vinyl left over.....



On another note,we're officially accepted to the Charlotte Lemons race.
New theme is the Ruste Carlo.It's rusted much more since this pic was taken.Also added some stuff to the rollcage since hitting the the retainer walls on the NASCAR portions of the track will suck.



Sweet JDM tow hook/dangly thing(I just need some stuffed character zip tied to it):



UPDATE:

New wheels.
Yes,the paint job sucks.I started touching them up,and promptly said **** it.When/if I paint the car again I'll strip them and powdercoat them white.
Got some red Kosei stickers,and had to break out the ricer red aluminium lug nuts.Forgot to take the camera,so shitty cellphone pics.








UPDATE:
Car is now even more annoying.Two wheels painted safety orange.I have new Kosei stickers coming for these.Pics of them on the car next week.
On another note,today I started inspecting the car for next month's Trackdaze Grand event.Need front and rear pads,and both axles.Great.


New paint and stickers on wheels.

 

Wow man!!! Great work. It was funny seeing your broad way go flying off! lol
I think you should have went flat black with it!

 

Glad to see you got it back on the track! When you get back to the paddock do all the BMW/Porsche guys give you props or turn their nose up? I've always been curious about that.

 

great work on the car i like the stripes

 

Beauty!

 

It goes both ways.I'm a member of the Tarheel BMW chapter,and do their regional events at VIR sometimes.About half of them give you the look like "what is that POS doing here?!".After most all of them get rolled,they either get even snottier,or are amazed at what a shitbox Honda can do.
You also have some guys who are really cool and curious about the car.
Porch guys tend to be mostly on the elitist side.

Since I put the stripes on,the reactions have ranged from dissapointment that somebody would put a design off an almighty BMW onto a Civic(I've had guys tell me,completely seriously "You do know that scheme only belongs on a BMW race car?") to thinking it's really cool.

 

I have a lot of friends with VWs and it still amazes me at how big of d-bags some of those guys are about Hondas being modified, especially for road racing. It's a Euro car owner thing I think.

You would think after they got passed by you with ease that they would realize that the suspension on these cars yet simple works really well with the right combinations of parts whether it's a Honda or not. I can hear the Porsche Boxster guys say "Meh, he passed me, but it's still just a Honda..." When in reality they just have an overpriced MR-S...

 

awesome car. probably my favorite at expo this year. i remember i let you go into t8 or after, then i said to myself "i'll catch him in the kink", since that was the case with our run group. definitely didn't happen, lol. you kept the gap and it made me think bad about myself. then i figured out what motor you were running and your tires. then i came to ease with myself, but still bitter. lol. i was in the 521 civic. once again great car, i whored a few pics of it out on here and the other "main" site.

!!!

 

Wow glad you stuck with it after the crash!

The one section of stripes that goes the other way looks photoshoped !

 

Your car is awesome and I truly enjoyed reading all about the rebuild. Thanks for sharing!

 

Haha,I just can't see somebody with a VW having that kind of attitude.They're basically driving a German Civic.
When German car driving guys give me ****,I just tell them that the M3 is my daily driver,as the Civic is much faster.
I know I could be faster in a better platform car,but the Civic is so cheap as far as consumables and fixing damage,plus I love the underdog factor.

Yeah,on Sunday I had to run my rock hard street tires,and the corner speed was way down.I wish the engine made a difference too though-my lap times at VIR are no faster than they were with the stock B20Z I used to have in there!I need to get Jack to tune this thing to hopefully get some power out of it.I really wanted to go K20 instead,and now I wish I would have.
Thanks for the compliments!I meant to talk to you all weekend about your sideskirts and see how you made/mounted them.I've been wanting to do more with the front lip/splitter and skirts,but I want to make it all myself.

I intended to make sections like that all over the car,but I quickly ran out of motivation,haha.

 

got any more pics of the strut brace, it looks like a PITA to install

 

This is about the best pic I can find at the moment:


It's a Neuspeed brace that I added the firewall bars to.You just tuck it up under the lip on the firewall,then over the UCA studs like a normal Neuspeed bar.The two bolts on the firewall thread into existing weldnuts,so no problem there.The biggest issue is I can't take the intake off without removing it(which has nothing to do with the bars I added).

 

This made me laugh pretty hard. That's exactly what I said, but don't tell them that or you will be shunned....

 

I meant to elaborate more when I originally posted that...I mean,it's an underpowered,FWD car that's heavier than a Civic and with a worse suspension design.I can't see how they'd find any reasoning in talking bad about a Honda.
At least the BMW/911/Vette guys actually have superior cars.

 

Cool Story man! i dont post on here often but this is an actually read worthy thread. You make me love my honda even more. I love seeing them woop up on expensive cars. That crash looks pretty tramatic, has it affected your mentality at all getting back on the track?

 

Sick, subd. I'm a fan of the art car theme. I'd personally just leave it as is instead of investing in paint, since it is solely a track car, just my .02

 

Wow, that accident was really unexpected :/

I didn't understand why the car has flipped over like that.

Oh well, it's the risk when you run on track. Glad to see the car is back now.

I'm not a huge fan of the vinyls but if you like it, it's perfect.

 

First off,that's a huge compliment.Thank you!
The day it happened,I was sure that I was done with it.I always leave a little extra as far as the car and my own capabilities,so that hopefully I have an out should something happen.
My big issue that really messed with my mind was that this incident pretty much had no possible good outcome,and really where it happened is one of the better places at VIR it could happen.There's places that could have resulted in the car rolling or hitting something solid at an even higher angle.
I'd always had this mindset that pretty much no matter what happened,I could compensate and do something about it,and I quickly realized there's a million scenarios that could result in serious damage and/or injury that you'd have little to no control over.

When I got the car done and took it to VIR to shake it back down,I planned on taking it very easy,and was sure that I'd never push the car as hard as I used to.After two laps at probably 75%,it killed me to not be driving it hard,and I went back to driving it just as hard as I used to.Over the course of five minutes I completely got over any mental reservations I'd had.
The only real difference is that I now find myself checking the mirror for smoke constantly.

I do like the vinyl,but I look at pictures of it before and other pics of EGs with nice paint,and I'd really love for it to be red again.I'll keep the vinyl probably through most of next season,but then I'll be getting a cheap paint job on it.Depending on how mu schedule is at that point,I'd like to do the paint myself.

The oil filter gasket blew out and dumped about four quarts of oil on the rear tires,leading to the spin.

 

Yeah I got the neuspeed brace and it is a pain putting it on was thinking of doing the same thing you did but wasn't sure of how to mount it

 

i like it! i like the stipes

 

I just installed the Neuspeed bar like normal(which yes,can be a PITA in itself),and bolted my piece of angle to the firewall,then started mocking up by connection tubes and tacked them in place once I was happpy with it.It actually didn't warp or distort at all during the final welding,and just went right back on.

 

The vinyl scraps look amazing. I'd do it to my car right now if I could. lol

 

Car is now even more annoying.Two wheels painted safety orange.I have new Kosei stickers coming for these.Pics of them on the car next week.
On another note,today I started inspecting the car for next month's Trackdaze Grand event.Need front and rear pads,and both axles.Great.

 

YOUR THREAD MAKES ME WANNA TRY CIRCUIT RACING SO BAD...