mug23

Hello All. I hope this is the right place to post my 1993 Civic CX endurance/HC race car build. If not, please let me know where it has to go?

Anyway, I like to introduce myself a bit. I started doing autox for fun in the mid 90's with my EF Si and stopped for a while. Fast forward to 2007 when I landed a job working for Cobb Tuning in Salt Lake City, UT I started doing HDPE/Time Attack at the beautiful back then Miller Motorsports Park. The weapon of choice was my highly modified 2005 Subaru WRX STi pictured below:


In 2014, I wanted to do some wheel to wheel racing and I searched. At that time, I was running in a local Time Trial car club in the Boston area known as "COM". I found one member in the club was looking for drivers to do some endurance racing. I got more involved and started doing Chumpcar and from there on, this is where I moved over to AER, (American Endurance Racing series). I have been racing with AER for the past 3 years and I have won few events as a rental driver running other people's cars. This is where it lead me to wanting to build my own endurance car and the Honda Civic is one of the best platform to build upon on.

The goal for this build as follow. This section will be updated as new data becomes available:

Engine
K24A2 high compression motor. Looking for around 230whp with 7500 - 8000 RPM redline
RBC manifold
70mm or 80mm drive by cable throttle body
injectors ???
Type s oil pump

Tranmission
Either a RSX type s or Civic Si 6 speed with LSD
Driveshaft Shop Level 2.9 axles

Suspension
Fortune Auto 510 Series custom coilovers <-- proud sponsored
ESM Race complete spherical bushings for front and rear upper and lower control arms <-- proud sponsored. Thank you Frankin@ESMRace
Front and rear anti-roll bar setup. <-- Haven't decided on which one to go with

Brakes
Front Wilwood 4 pot 11" ???
Rear Integra GSR ???
4040 proportioning valve <-- installed

Wheels and Tire
15x8 <-- Not sure which brand of wheels yet
205/50/15 <-- Bridgestone RE-71R or Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Spec in 200 thread wear as per rule for AER
225/45/15 <-- This will require 15x9 wheels to maximize the performance of the tire.

Fuel Cell
ATL 16 gallon

Fire Suppression System
Zero 2000 Electric Slimline system

Enough of history about me and let's start my beginning process of this build. I found this Civic on AER Facebook thread. The vehicle was located in Ohio and therefore, I did a road trip from Boston to pick up the car.





Once I got back home, I started to get to clean out the engine back in preparation for paint. It wasn't easy to clean this puppy up.



Now, it all nice and clean ready to prime.




Here's what it looks like after painting.





Here are some picture of the roll cage.







To be continued...

mug23

Picking up the K24 motor from JDM New York in Jamaica, NY. This place is like heaven for JDM Honda nerds. If you get the chance, you should go check it out.





Thank you Franklin @ ESM Race for the help on getting me the beautifully make spherical bearing bushings for the front lower control arms. I can't wait till I come and pay a visit to you guys, I was able to pressed them into the brand new lower control arms.







Here's a little bit more goodies from Franklin @ ESM Race. You guys are awesome! It's the front upper camber kit bushings. More goodies to come...




.
Today, I added few items to my roll cage to give it a little bit more strength.





Brake lines with the 4040 proportioning valve back into the firewall.


Update 7/3/2018
Today, I just received a new lotos ltp5000d plasma cutter from Amazon and this device is very reasonable priced and this thing cuts 16 gauge sheet metal like butter. Here are some pictures of my A&B pillar gussets.



I'm about to drill some holes so I can dimple die them.






The gussets welded onto the A&B pillars.






The cage is now pretty much completed. The next step will be clean up of the interior for paint. Guess what color I'm going with???? I will be updating very soon again.

Please stay tuned!

mug23

A good friend of mine John Ly (where are you John? Haven't seen you for a while) who is a regular here and writes articles for Honda-Tech forum helped me crafted a Sponsorship proposal in hoping to have a opportunity to work with some of the major manufacturers/retailer such as K-tuned, PCI-Racing, ESM Race, Fortune Auto, Hondata, Hasport, etc...

I have attached the sponsorship document here for your review. I really hope to be able to gain some help with this project and get it ready for next season of endurance racing!

Guys, I have some updates for your review. I have painted the interior and the roll cage and it's coming out pretty nicely. Let me know what you guys think?






Now it's time to start on the exterior. I'm thinking of changing the color of the car. I was thinking of going yellow front half with a silver diagonal wide going over both side and roof than white for the rear section. What you guys think of that? Any suggestions on new color or scheme?

Update - 9/11/2018
It's has been a while since I have any updates on this build due to summer, family trips, few endurance races with Champcar and AER so now I have finally continue with the build. Below are some pictures of my latest work. I will be doing a full complete paint job very soon and I will update with more pictures once the car is fully painted.

I did some work with the doors to save some weight:




This is what I took out. I didn't have a scale but it's almost like good 60 lbs of metal I removed from 4 doors:


Some mods with the hood as well. Let me know what you think? The holes are to vent hot air from the engine:


I want to give a big shout out to Dave @ Hybrid Racing in helping me with this BIG box of K swap parts. Without support from Hybrid Racing, ESM Race, my build would be much more difficult and possibly wouldn't happen:




Well, that's it for this week. I hope in few weeks I will have a nicely painted car soon. Stayed Tuned....

Update - 3/8/2019

It has been SO long since I posted some update of my build and I have some good progress. Finally finished all the rear quarter panel rust repair and any other repairs before going to the body shop.

Here are some pictures of the progress.

Cutting out the rust


Got the new replacement fenders cut


Welded onto the body


Another rusted spot


Brought the car to the paint shop Clean Lines Collision and Restoration LLC in PITTSFIELD, NH. They are awesome and did an excellent job on painting the car. Anyone in the Mass, NH area and need some body work, contact them. Thank you, Clean Lines Collision and Restoration.








Here is a nice set of Fortune Auto 510 with Swift Springs. Thank you Fortune Auto for the help on these beautiful coilovers!



This KTuned shifter is such a work of art. I love it. Can't wait to start shifting some gears.


Once again from Hybrid-Racing for their help on the Competition clutch kit


That's it for this time. Stay tuned for some more updates shortly after I pick up the car from the body shop!

LankorDie

Sick beginning to a build!

Following this for sure.

mug23

Thank you for your post. I will be posting something new soon. Just got a new Plasma cutter. Going to test it out soon and post some pictures!

Dublocivic

Looks like an awesome start! Cant wait to see how it turns out =-)

JDM_Ej

This looks great.

gramkrackers

I look forward to seeing how this thing turns out! Keep up the good work!

booch

Looks good Dave! Can't wait to see this beast on track. Make sure you take it to some COM events for a shakedown
- Ryan

mug23

I'm 100% sure that I will take it to a COM event for a shakedown. I really hope I can make it to like the last event of this year.

mug23

Thank you. There will be some new updates coming this weekend as I bought some new tools like a plasma cutter and dimple die to cut some plates for the A and B pillar gusset.

Pictures coming soon!

miamirice

mug23

Hello All,

I have posted few updates and some more new pictures on post 2 and 3. Please check it out and enjoy. Comments and feedback are always welcome good or bad!

Dublocivic

Don't put away the white paint, you will need it after you remove the bracket from the passenger frame rail. : P

mug23

I'm not, as a matter of fact, I'll be painting the interior all white as well. Update and picture of the painted interior coming soon.

Stay tuned...

killerpenguin21

where are you located? i race honda challenge in the northeast and i (and im sure a lot of the other hc drivers) would definitely be interested in renting some endurance seat time!

i would also recommend not going to wilwoods for the brakes...seen some really bad taper even in short sprint races

mug23

Hi,

I'm in the greater Boston area and the tracks I visit mostly are The Glen, NJMP, Thompson, Palmer, Road Atlanta mostly in the east coast region. I have been with Chumpcar for a year and the last 3 years with AER. I was renting seats from a CRX and S2k for the past few years and I really want to do my own car and team where I can push it without worrying about paying and crashing other people's cars.

Once the car is completed and sorted out, I will see if I want to rent it out or not. I would really like to have few regular guys on the same team for all the event so we know each other and how we drive. I'll definitely keep you in mind. BTW, where you located? Love to get a group of Honda guys to give those BMW guys a fight!

SonicC

Very cool build

mug23

Thank you.

Happy 4th...

killerpenguin21

im in NY, used to live in RI. We race all the same tracks, we have a race at lime rock in a week and at the glen at the end of september.

mug23

limerock is not one of my favorites tracks as it's a bit boring? Anyways, I have an event with Champcar at Thompson at the beginning of September. Stop by if you get a chance?

mug23

I have some updates of my progress of this project with painted interior on post 3. Check it out!

sjg88

what are you estimating the weight to be?

car looks like its going to be fun

mug23

somewhere around 2100-2300. I really want to be at minimum weight of course. Looking to get 220 - 240whp maybe with a bigger cams and some head work?

Dublocivic

You should be in that power range with well placed bolt on parts and good tuning. If I was building a car for endurance, I would keep the cams stock. If your K24 isnt the 06-08 TSX variety, grab a set of those cams and youll make a bit more power and stay reliable. If you can run E85 you may be able to squeak 240-250 whp out of it. Cage looks good!