GDW

It's my first post here so please go easy on me!

I stumbled across your forum today, and I thought you might be interested in having a look at the Honda Jazz rally car that I currently co-drive in for the Australian Rally Championship (ARC).

The car is built to "G2 Regulations" (an ARC formula). In a nutshell it allows you to take a 2wd car, substitute another engine from the same manufacturer up to 2 litre NA if required, as well as widen the track and increase suspension travel. Our cars were built in Italy by JAS Motorsport. JAS has a long history with Honda, having built Honda Accords for Gabriel Tarquini to use in the British and World Touring Car Championships. The basic specs of our car are as follows:
- K20A engine by Mugen
- 6 speed sequential gearbox
- Reiger suspension
- fully welded Chrome-moly roll cage
- 1120 kg kerb weight



We were lucky enough to fly over to Italy to test the car before the season started. Here's a clip from the test.

[youtube]be/pV8eCkrojaI[/youtube]

Inside the cabin...


The engine bay...


Nice attention to detail...


Floor mounted pedal box with its foot plate cover removed...


Here's some great shots of our Jazz from Round 2 of the ARC held last weekend. The helicopter pilot is amazing. Apparently he's a regular pilot for WRC events and Dakar. And yes..... he was really close to us !!

http://youtu.be/4rYy2Za_Ppg

Here's a bit of in car from the same piece of road as the clip above..

[youtube]-KQMLtZnImo[/youtube]

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

That is sooooooooooooooooooo wicked, and Dirty!
The bubble wrap on the door bar has to go though

Definately Dirty approved.
Whats the cost of one of them high tech dirty cars?

GDW

The bubble wrap is gone! It was just for testing because the drivers found they hit their elbow there sometimes. It's been replaced with some roll cage padding now.

They cost about the same as a full house Group N (Lancer Evo etc) to build. Under $200k.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

The in car video was way cool seeing the helicopter right next to you.
It made me feel like I was playing a PS2 video game.

Superhatch

Amazing shots and video! It's cool to see a K20 Jazz make it into a race series and not just a magazine cover.

GDW

The K20A actually fits in there pretty well. The firewall is unmodified. We ran an FN2 Civic Type-R for the last two years. The Jazz has the same engine and gearbox, but it's shorter and wider. The transformation is amazing.

Here's the Civic from 2010-2011 Season.

vtecjj

AWESOME CAR!!! Truly amazing. I wish I knew how to drive in the dirt that well...right hand driven

Out of curiosity, does the Jazz have the 2.2 litre MUGEN RR K20a? If not, why not a K24? Rules?

GDW

You'd have no problems... it's left hand drive like you are used to!

The engine is the FIA R3 homologated 2 litre K20A. The engine substitution rules for the G2 regulations allow you to go up to 2.0 litre for naturally aspirated, or use a 1.6 litre turbo if it is FIA homologated (e.g. Citroen DS3 engine), so we couldn't use the 2.2 or K24 even if we wanted to. The characteristics of the K20A are well suited to rallying anyway, and our engine builder from Mugen is very confident in the engine we have. Well it only has to do three events before it gets changed anyway!

GDW

Here's a few more photos from the last event.

I'm the scruffy looking guy on the far right.

FijiBlueFG2

So...a K20-powered Fit?

Gee, I wonder if a car like that would sell...

essex

Love the helicopter footage.

I think this is the first honda sponsored race car to ever be posted in here


Can you post some pictures of the suspension?

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

The helicopter hovering around you at those speeds is so awesome.
K20fit... sounds interesting enough but the cost would jump considerably, and the car is ugly.
CRZ with out all the tree hugger electric stuff, that would be worth driving and still have the cool factor.

will46r

You are now officially my favorite poster on H-T

Love the in-car where you can hear the co-driver.

h46it

Awesome shot! Car is looking great!

GDW

I've got some photos somewhere. Let me see what I can do.

Here's a whole stage from the last rally then!

http://youtu.be/UvSpb-uEdQk

will46r

Thank you very much! I can only dream of stage rally but I like to put it on full screen and pretend

allyourapex

Great thread and thanks for the videos!

Would be interesting to see a k20 jazz/fit with awd in a Super 2000 type build.

tronic

awesome, and thanks for sharing!
I am a huge rally fan.

rice_classic

I green with jealous rage right now.

Great job and thank you for sharing!

Billy Elliot

Wish my G2 Civic was anywhere near this.

I'm just running a stock B16 with a GearX close ratio kit at the moment. Looking at future options of upgrading the engine/trans later. Investment costs are starting to go up as guys are now running sequential dogboxes in the R2 Fiesta, which is a bummer.

I remember seeing your test videos a while ago and was just so giddy watching the car. Looks to be a load of fun with the entire package!

FijiBlueFG2

That air intake. :drooling:

JW racing

Loving the pics! Gnarly video on that last stage.

dai-18t

Bout time you moved it from PF to here mate!

GDW

Hehe.... that's how I found this forum!

dai-18t

Still have a hard on from the PF thread. *****!! Hahahahaha