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Introducing myself and my car to the Honda community. I’m not new to cars and racing, but I’m a just baptized fan of the Honda community. I’m campaigning a K20 equipped CRX in this year’s Washington State SCCA time trials, but before this year I have pretty much avoided the Honda community. I’ve always been turned off by the stance life and the living my life a quarter mile at a time nonsense, so as an unfortunate consequence I’ve kept away from some fantastic road racing machines.
A Racetrack Epiphany
What changed me was a track outing at the Ridge Motorsports park last year in my BMW 335i where my 450hp car with r-compound tires got smoked by a tiny B-series equipped CRX. I was having trouble catching some 911s on the track, but this CRX not only caught me like I was nothing, but caught the 911s. Long story short, a month later I sold the BMW and got my CRX.
Rebuilding
I didn’t want to waste the time building the car, and just wanted something turn key to start driving it, so I bought a CRX a K-swap already completed. Unfortunately that plan lasted only as far as halfway home with the car. While the motor build was top notch, I started to notice how neglected the suspension and braking systems were. I noticed the car start to get very unstable at anything above 120mph where it would sway noticeably left and right. Looking under the car, I found many of the bushings almost torn in half from age related wear. Braking was awful too. Threshold braking from 100 to 50 just once would fry the brakes. The last major problem was the radiator. It was a standard capacity unit that worked fine street driven, or on the occasional drag run, but the car would over heat at only 10 minutes of track driving. I had bought a car that required a complete overhaul.
I spent the next 6 months trying to find the right parts to repair, upgrade, and tune the braking, suspension, and cooling systems for track duty. You’d think getting a Honda would make something like that easy since tons of research and parts are available for such a large community. Unfortunately the size of the community means a lot of mis-information exists. What actually works, and what doesn’t is are rare pieces of information. Why? It seems that the people with real experience to make worthy contribution are vastly outnumbered by forum trolls.
Slow Start, Fast Car
Everything eventually got replaced. Aside from the chassis, body and interior, the entire car is brand new. Every rotted bushing has replaced. Even the nuts and bolts holding the suspension together were replaced with new OEM bolts. The brake system is all new with a Willwood front kit with and a disc conversion in the back. The steering rack is taken from a SI version of the CRX. The suspension is a beautiful GC coilover instead of the generic street springs it came with. There’s tons more but you can see the total list in the specs below.
Conclusion
It took a couple months to get a baseline done, but this car’s first stage of becoming road worthy is complete. It’s very controlled and capable. The K20 gives the little 1900lb CRX a very brutal and raw acceleration feel. It will outrun many cars costing 3-5 times a much. For the class that it is currently running in the club trails, it is very competitive. It’s also a joy to drive on the weekends in the mountains or even just mundane trips to the grocery. It’s really a car that can do it all. Now that it’s complete not only do I drive it around regularly, I enjoy the genuine compliments from other enthusiast. I never experienced that kind of interaction from the BMW enthusiasts.
So all of this is a long winded way to say I’m hooked, I love my CRX, and so glad I got smoked that one track day almost a year ago today.
Specs
My engine configuration:
1988 Honda CRX HF
Honda K20Z3 (dynapack 232whp ~270bhp corrected)
Stock Internals
Kpro PNF-A04
3in cold air intake
Skunk2 70mm Throttle
Skunk2 Intake Manifold
Skunk2 Megapower Header
2.5in exhaust pipe
Magnaflow N1 muffler
RC Engineering 440 Injectors
Walbro 255lph Fuel pump
OEM NGK Iridium Plugs
OEM coil packs
BDL fuel Rail
AEM fuel pressure regulator
VW Rabbit single core radiator
Enhanced air flow front bumper
6 speed transmission w/ LSD 4 final
Base RSX axles w/CRX Si hubs
Unknown lightweight flywheel
XTD Stage 1 pressure plate and disc
Suja1 Cable to Hydro clutch line conversion
My chassis configuration:
Grouncontrol coilovers W/ extended top hats
Koni single adjustable sport dampers
OEM HF front sway bar
ST rear sway bar
Hard race bushings
SPC Rear toe link
SPC Front camber ball joint
Skunk2 Rear camber link
Konig Dial-in Wheels 15x7 (front & rear)
BFG Rivals 205/55/15 (front & rear)
Wilwood 11" brake kit w/ EBC Blue pads
Rear 10" Scarebird disc conversion w/ EBC yellow pads
Russel stainless steel brake lines
1.5in brake air ducts
CRX Si rear LCA
Suspension Alignment settings:
Springs 550f - 450r
Front dampers 1/2 turn from full soft
Rear dampers full soft
Front toe 0deg
Rear toe 0deg
Front Camber 2.25
Rear Camber 1.75
Rear sway bar setting 5of9
Front cold tire pressure 26psi
Rear cold tire pressure 26psi
Lap Times:
Ridge Motorsports Park 2m:02s
Pacific Raceways 1m:41s
Bang for the buck indeed. I wish I had discovered the CRXs sooner. I avoided all things Honda because the rampant immaturity and Fast and Furious nature of the community was a turn off so I never paid attention. That kept me away from some quality road racing machines.
I saw that you're still powder coating some parts. How long until your CRX can breath in some fresh tarmac?
Well there is a track day this Saturday and an auto cross the weekend after the 4th of July so in hoping to make them both. They were supposed to be done last week but it seems I am getting the run around.
I hear you on the new bushings too. My car did not feel good at higher speeds so sure enough I ripped apart the front and all of the bushing were old and heavily worn (246,000 miles when I bought it).
I luckily replaced my tie rods and noticed how big a difference that made. Who'd of thought bushing were that important . I'm so jealous of the K swap I really want to pull my B series this winter and go K. Nice car again
Well there is a track day this Saturday and an auto cross the weekend after the 4th of July so in hoping to make them both. They were supposed to be done last week but it seems I am getting the run around.
I hear you on the new bushings too. My car did not feel good at higher speeds so sure enough I ripped apart the front and all of the bushing were old and heavily worn (246,000 miles when I bought it).
I luckily replaced my tie rods and noticed how big a difference that made. Who'd of thought bushing were that important . I'm so jealous of the K swap I really want to pull my B series this winter and go K. Nice car again
Where are you located? You said there's a track day this Saturday and autocross. I'd be interested. Also if you're interested in joining a small group, there's going to be a few of us on a track day at the Ridge on July 8th, and our team is doing the 24hr of Lemons on the 10th-12th that same weekend.
Im in Reno which I think is a pretty good drive to Seattle although I've been dying to go up there. How much are the track days up there about $200 I imagine? My friend just moved to Spokane and said he's loving it.
You'll have to let me know how that Lemons team goes we almost did it this year too! Looks like a blast.
Did you by any chance buy this car in Arizona? It looks very familiar. Either way it's a beautiful car and I'm sure it's a blast to drive.
Small world...yes, the car is originally from an owner in Tucson. He did a great job keeping the body clean and tasteful, and the K20 engine work was top notch. I came along afterwards and did all the road race modifications. How do you know the car?
Im in Reno which I think is a pretty good drive to Seattle although I've been dying to go up there. How much are the track days up there about $200 I imagine? My friend just moved to Spokane and said he's loving it.
You'll have to let me know how that Lemons team goes we almost did it this year too! Looks like a blast.
Track days are a little meh at about $300+ in the Northwest. The SCCA track nights can be cheap at about $150 a pop. Lemons is a blast. This is my 3rd event, and its just around the corner. You should definitely give it a try. There are tons of teams looking for drivers. I'm driving with another owners car this year. Next year, I should be finished with two CRXs I bought for a Lemons run.
Small world...yes, the car is originally from an owner in Tucson. He did a great job keeping the body clean and tasteful, and the K20 engine work was top notch. I came along afterwards and did all the road race modifications. How do you know the car?
VERRRY small world lol. I went to check it out for my buddy who actually lives in Seattle, WA. Super crazy. It's an amazing machine and I'm glad to see it went to good hands. Keep up the good work man!
06-17-2015, 05:19 PM
Introducing myself, New CRX in Seattle
. I'm so jealous of the K swap I really want to pull my B series this winter and go K. Nice car again
