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Dyno Day Oct. 1 at Raceline USA | Track Day Oct. 2 at Streets of Willow Springs
Competitors outfitted in Continental ExtremeContact DW summer UHP tires
Jason Lee's Sportcar Motion turbo K-swapped Civic puts down 336hp
Lewis Liang's K-swapped Integra Type R nabs best lap: 1:27.963
Streets of Willow Springs is a short but sweet circuit. Depending on the vehicle, rarely if ever do you reach for fourth gear. Once you get on the track, the fun is so infectious it's hard to quit. It's for these reasons of pound-for-pound, bang-for-the-buck excitement that Streets has become our go-to circuit for Super Street's annual FF Battle track day and competition presented by Continental Tire.
Now in its sixth iteration, FF Battle this year was less strict warfare and more lighthearted brinksmanship. Set over October 1 and 2, the format was unchanged from previous years, with invitees again first hitting the dyno and then heading out to the track for some time trials action. And again Conti set up all the street prepped, front engine, FWD vehicles with fresh rubber, bringing back its ExtremeContact DW tires for everyone to thrash on.
From dozens of entries, the edit staff whittled the field down to 13, and from that we had a few more drop out due to technical reasons. As much as we would like to see other makes emerge from the tuner ranks for this event, the unavoidable truth is that Hondas continue to represent the greatest numbers and most prepared. We had Civics from the last five gens, three Integra Type R (ITR), and even a TSX among competitors.
October 1 we went back to Raceline USA in Temple City to have them dyno the cars on their DynoJet 224X chassis dynamometer. Each entrant received two pulls on the roller, and not unexpectedly the two forced induction Civics - Ken Suen's supercharged ninth gen. and Jason Lee's turbo fifth gen. - put down the most impressive figures, Suen netting 258 horsepower and Lee wringing out 336 ponies from his K-swapped machine.
Leading the naturally aspirated pack was Lewis Liang in his ITR, which recorded a pull of 209.6 hp. Scott Dukeshire was not that far behind in his TSX, at 209.2hp, and then came Jaime Mendoza's CR-X, laying down 197.3hp.
October 2 the FFB6 circus headed to Streets, where it was sunny and warm with only a slight breeze kicking up occasionally. Drivers were pushing to shave whatever they could from each succeeding orbit, with the circuit's tight, technical nature serving to equalize the field.
Suen, in his late model, boosted Civic, had the third fastest lap of the event, clocking a 1:28.312, which was only a few tenths faster than Mendoza's CR-X (at 1:28.864) and slower than Kristian Wong's 2000 Civic (at 1:28.181). The fastest of the day, though, was Liang, who laid down a 1:27.963 - and he did it in the final hour of the day, just in the nick of time.
And then there were the casualties of war - like Jason Lee, whose Sportcar Motion-built 1994 Civic had a connecting rod bust through the side of his K24 engine block, pretty early in the day, too. A similar fate befell the 2.0L K-series in Ryan Hoegner's Type R, now rocking a jagged window in the block that peers into the rotating assembly.
In spite of the day-ending injury to his engine, Lee still managed to have the fifth-best time at the track, a 1:29. Suen's Si and Lewis Liang's ITR also impressed, but for our money no one was more exciting to watch than Kristian Wong; his Civic put down only 177.5 horsepower, but he still had the second fastest lap at 1:28.181, just a tenth or so away from Liang's leading 1:27.963.
We had a blast at this year's FF Battle, and from the feedback it seems most if not all the competitors had lots of fun as well. A track day with friends, old and new, is probably a no brainer for good times, but we've been exceedingly fortunate to always run with a solid group of enthusiasts who don't take themselves too seriously but still go 110 percent when the time comes. Thanks goes out to them, our sponsors, and everyone else who helped make possible FFB6 - let's do this again next year!
THE COMPETITION
This year's field of FF fighters
Lewis Liang
2001 Acura Integra Type R
Power: 209.6hp (3rd)
Best Lap: 1:27.963 (1st)
Ken Suen
2013 Honda Civic Si
Power: 258.4hp (2nd)
Best Lap: 1:28.312 (3rd)
Jason Lee
1994 Honda Civic
Power: 336.3hp (1st)
Best Lap: 1:29.613 (5th)
Kristian Wong
2000 Honda Civic CX
Power: 177.5hp (6th)
Best Lap: 1:28.181 (2nd)
The video was great. Makes me motivated. But I was thinking the same thing when the guy was explaining what a turbo did and how a waste gate works. But then again, some people don't know. I know I didn't know much before I actually boosted.
i was suprised motortrend uploaded something like this, they seem very bias.
they should have said something about how honda dominates the ff field, while watching i was wondering if there was simply no other car company allowed to compete
Great event! I wished the video focused more on the more balanced cars rather the overpowered Civic that ended up blowing up. Also, if they wanted a technical section they could have talked about the challenges of tracking FF cars and how to address them.
Very nice, I liked this Thomas Smith, very grassroots, down to earth kind of guy. I think many people can relate to him better than to the high-budget speed shop teams.
FF Battle 6
