SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
09-20-2016, 03:13 PM
#1
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: True Honda Enthusiast
Posts: 12,680
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Hey there Honda-Tech! Its been a while, and with the new project Im gearing up for I figured it was time to dust off the cobwebs and try to remember that old HT password... Last I was on here it was looking pretty grim, but thankfully the traffic seems to have picked up since I last logged in which is a great sign for the the forum community I grew up with.
Anyway, I've always been fascinated with production based unibody touring cars. Anything from World Challenge to BTCC Super Touring, TOCA, etc. I love the Adaptation and creativity of working around a production car full of compromises and making it a true performer. There are tons of design cues and components that I have been dying to materialize since I was just a kid looking at one image in particular in a see-through car picture book I had. It was of the British Touring Car Super Touring Honda Accord, probably 1995-ish.
Since then my tastes have broadened, the scope of my builds for a while moved more toward the attainable "jdm street" flavor, but the itch was always there to build a real deal tourer one day. Fast forward to late 2011, and having been working for a race team for a few years at this point my girlfriend and I decided to build a club racer DC5 that we could campaign together - Her the driver and myself the engineer. It took a long time to complete as time and resources were thin, but we finally finished the car in late 2014. It was a rough start but of the 6 races we've done we landed two P2s and two wins! The DC5 build was a great experience but I was still held back in my creativity and engineering ability at the time between my skills and the class rules.
This brings us to my EP3. I've owned the car since 08, and the car steadily progressed in to a quite capable track car over the years. There's a build thread kicking around here somewhere. I had used my experience with building and tracking the EP3 as our proof of concept for the DC5 build and helped speed along the development curve considerably, albeit still having a stock K20A3 and 5speed gearbox. I was planning to do a moderate refresh on the car in winter 2014, finally put a swap in, take care of some other points of the car as well and get it back up and running for 2015. That's when everything changed.....
I was introduced to, who I consider a friend now, John Whitaker. He had just bought the last existing Realtime DC5 along with a massive spares package that he was looking to.... thin out lol.
I ended up driving down to PA to meet him and check out the car which was one of the most surreal experiences... Sitting in, poking around, and documenting this mythical World Challenge relic with its massive strut towers and custom rear trailing arm wizardry. I left that day with a pick up truck full of Realtime spares including a top to bottom suspension setup including all the custom bits, Motons, etc. as well as a pile of OEM extras. At this point I knew the next tear down of the car would be a lot more involved than I had originally planned. Not to mention we had recently bought a new house and I was in the middle of renovating the garage. I went back to the drawing board with the car and started thinking back on that old book with the Super Touring Accord...
The current completely-snowballed-out-of-control plan for the Civic is a streetable Super Tourer of sorts. I want to take pages from the ST days like big 18" center lock wheels, body drop, and mostly factory body work, and mix it up with some TOCA era BTCC EP3 bits like the stock location wet sump engine, front bumper and whatever other era-specific parts I can get my hands on. That being said I still want to keep her a lady in the streets to an extent, and be able to take it out to cars and coffee or the annual club meets and be able to reasonably have a passenger, go through the drive through etc. Maybe Im fooling myself here haha. But I do plan on having only a half cage with headliner factory door panels and carpet. I see it almost like if the EP3 was to race at LeMans(LOL), This would be the homologation car.
Ill leave you with a few photos of the Car as it was before I turned it into an empty immobile shell for the forseeable future haha
.
.
DSC_3547
DSC_3614
CVP_7471
Anyway, I've always been fascinated with production based unibody touring cars. Anything from World Challenge to BTCC Super Touring, TOCA, etc. I love the Adaptation and creativity of working around a production car full of compromises and making it a true performer. There are tons of design cues and components that I have been dying to materialize since I was just a kid looking at one image in particular in a see-through car picture book I had. It was of the British Touring Car Super Touring Honda Accord, probably 1995-ish.
Since then my tastes have broadened, the scope of my builds for a while moved more toward the attainable "jdm street" flavor, but the itch was always there to build a real deal tourer one day. Fast forward to late 2011, and having been working for a race team for a few years at this point my girlfriend and I decided to build a club racer DC5 that we could campaign together - Her the driver and myself the engineer. It took a long time to complete as time and resources were thin, but we finally finished the car in late 2014. It was a rough start but of the 6 races we've done we landed two P2s and two wins! The DC5 build was a great experience but I was still held back in my creativity and engineering ability at the time between my skills and the class rules.
This brings us to my EP3. I've owned the car since 08, and the car steadily progressed in to a quite capable track car over the years. There's a build thread kicking around here somewhere. I had used my experience with building and tracking the EP3 as our proof of concept for the DC5 build and helped speed along the development curve considerably, albeit still having a stock K20A3 and 5speed gearbox. I was planning to do a moderate refresh on the car in winter 2014, finally put a swap in, take care of some other points of the car as well and get it back up and running for 2015. That's when everything changed.....
I was introduced to, who I consider a friend now, John Whitaker. He had just bought the last existing Realtime DC5 along with a massive spares package that he was looking to.... thin out lol.
I ended up driving down to PA to meet him and check out the car which was one of the most surreal experiences... Sitting in, poking around, and documenting this mythical World Challenge relic with its massive strut towers and custom rear trailing arm wizardry. I left that day with a pick up truck full of Realtime spares including a top to bottom suspension setup including all the custom bits, Motons, etc. as well as a pile of OEM extras. At this point I knew the next tear down of the car would be a lot more involved than I had originally planned. Not to mention we had recently bought a new house and I was in the middle of renovating the garage. I went back to the drawing board with the car and started thinking back on that old book with the Super Touring Accord...
The current completely-snowballed-out-of-control plan for the Civic is a streetable Super Tourer of sorts. I want to take pages from the ST days like big 18" center lock wheels, body drop, and mostly factory body work, and mix it up with some TOCA era BTCC EP3 bits like the stock location wet sump engine, front bumper and whatever other era-specific parts I can get my hands on. That being said I still want to keep her a lady in the streets to an extent, and be able to take it out to cars and coffee or the annual club meets and be able to reasonably have a passenger, go through the drive through etc. Maybe Im fooling myself here haha. But I do plan on having only a half cage with headliner factory door panels and carpet. I see it almost like if the EP3 was to race at LeMans(LOL), This would be the homologation car.
Ill leave you with a few photos of the Car as it was before I turned it into an empty immobile shell for the forseeable future haha
.
.
DSC_3547
DSC_3614
CVP_7471
09-23-2016, 12:03 PM
#2
I'm really 2slow
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Very nice man!! I am also a fan of the 90's Honda race cars. Can't wait to see what you've done to it.
09-23-2016, 03:46 PM
#3
Honda-Tech Member
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Honolulu, HI
Posts: 708
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Sounds like a fun build! Any plans to shift the engine slightly towards the rear of car to help with weight distribution? Just curious since this was one of the things that captivated me with the BTCC and TOCA cars of the 90s. Also, how were the strut towers modified on the Realtime DC5s? Looking forward to updates.
09-23-2016, 05:05 PM
#4
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: True Honda Enthusiast
Posts: 12,680
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Sounds like a fun build! Any plans to shift the engine slightly towards the rear of car to help with weight distribution? Just curious since this was one of the things that captivated me with the BTCC and TOCA cars of the 90s. Also, how were the strut towers modified on the Realtime DC5s? Looking forward to updates.
The strut towers were substantially raised but the main structure was still in stock position. They anchored the top of the strut as far back in the tower as possible before the spring and upper perch hit the chassis.
Ive actually got a little project going currently in the garage as well... John has commissioned me to do a restoration/rebuild on his Realtime car
09-26-2016, 12:54 PM
#5
Honda-Tech Member
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Ill probably focus more on trying to flatten the axles out since the body drop will put them at a pretty agressive upward angle. I'll most likely end up moving the engine up and then back if I can depending on axle angle front to rear after I have the suspension pickups placed. Raising the engine seems counter productive but I think a better axle angle will help more than the high CG will hurt! At least that's what I hope lol...
The strut towers were substantially raised but the main structure was still in stock position. They anchored the top of the strut as far back in the tower as possible before the spring and upper perch hit the chassis.
Ive actually got a little project going currently in the garage as well... John has commissioned me to do a restoration/rebuild on his Realtime car
The strut towers were substantially raised but the main structure was still in stock position. They anchored the top of the strut as far back in the tower as possible before the spring and upper perch hit the chassis.
Ive actually got a little project going currently in the garage as well... John has commissioned me to do a restoration/rebuild on his Realtime car
09-26-2016, 03:19 PM
#6
Honda-Tech Member
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Honolulu, HI
Posts: 708
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Ill probably focus more on trying to flatten the axles out since the body drop will put them at a pretty agressive upward angle. I'll most likely end up moving the engine up and then back if I can depending on axle angle front to rear after I have the suspension pickups placed. Raising the engine seems counter productive but I think a better axle angle will help more than the high CG will hurt! At least that's what I hope lol...
The strut towers were substantially raised but the main structure was still in stock position. They anchored the top of the strut as far back in the tower as possible before the spring and upper perch hit the chassis.
Ive actually got a little project going currently in the garage as well... John has commissioned me to do a restoration/rebuild on his Realtime car
The strut towers were substantially raised but the main structure was still in stock position. They anchored the top of the strut as far back in the tower as possible before the spring and upper perch hit the chassis.
Ive actually got a little project going currently in the garage as well... John has commissioned me to do a restoration/rebuild on his Realtime car
09-26-2016, 07:05 PM
#7
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: True Honda Enthusiast
Posts: 12,680
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Good to have you back...I was lucky enough to get to the SHG meet at James Baird St park in 2014. Scheduling conflicts have keep me from coming back, but still rocking my SHG sticker! I have an EP3 myself and think its a great platform to build on. I'm anxious to see your build and hopefully pick up some good ideas from you. I have some friends out in CT that you might know. I usually run with CARTCT to get in some track time, actually I haven't lost my class since I got the EP! Looking forward to some good work!
Very interesting. Could you briefly explain the logic behind raising the strut towers? Was this done to lower CG while maintaining suspension geometry? Were the rear towers raised also? That's pretty awesome that you have a chance to work on a Realtime race car. Let us know when you get your hands on their TLX.
Trending Topics
09-26-2016, 07:20 PM
#8
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: True Honda Enthusiast
Posts: 12,680
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Im finally getting to uploading some photos I've taken over the last couple months. Ill start off with the front brakes. I got these used for a hell of a deal which made it worthwhile to fix the cosmetic damage on the one caliper.
Period correct (early 2000's) Brembo Monoblock race calipers. Something I've always wanted! They also happen to be the same exact caliper Realtime used on the DC5, but these were NASCAR takeoffs. You can see the damage on the face, looks like something was caught up in the wheel and was dragged across the caliper.
.
.
.
I sent it to the finisher who I've been working closely with on this project to have the original anodize chemical stripped for welding. Unfortunately I never got a picture of the face welded but I basically built up the whole thing in order to start with a clean slate.
.
.
.
Then using the good caliper as a template I drew the face to scale for the machinist to write the program off of...
.
.
.
An here's the final product! There are a couple little blemishes still there but Its 100% better than before. Very happy with the final results... After a lot of discussion with the finisher we decided to do a high temp 2000* cerakote. Being that after the repair there is 5053 filler in the 7075 billet, there would be no way to get an even anodized finish on that face. Anodize reacts differently depending on alloy so we would have ended up with inconsistencies if we had gone with anodize.
.
.
.
Period correct (early 2000's) Brembo Monoblock race calipers. Something I've always wanted! They also happen to be the same exact caliper Realtime used on the DC5, but these were NASCAR takeoffs. You can see the damage on the face, looks like something was caught up in the wheel and was dragged across the caliper.
.
.
.
I sent it to the finisher who I've been working closely with on this project to have the original anodize chemical stripped for welding. Unfortunately I never got a picture of the face welded but I basically built up the whole thing in order to start with a clean slate.
.
.
.
Then using the good caliper as a template I drew the face to scale for the machinist to write the program off of...
.
.
.
An here's the final product! There are a couple little blemishes still there but Its 100% better than before. Very happy with the final results... After a lot of discussion with the finisher we decided to do a high temp 2000* cerakote. Being that after the repair there is 5053 filler in the 7075 billet, there would be no way to get an even anodized finish on that face. Anodize reacts differently depending on alloy so we would have ended up with inconsistencies if we had gone with anodize.
.
.
.
10-02-2016, 10:18 AM
#9
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Very cool project!
I have a question about your caliper repair. I was always of the understanding that 7075 alloys cannot be successfully welded. Did you do some special post-weld heat treatment to make it work, and if so, are you worried about any potential distortion of the piston bores on that half of the caliper?
I look forward to watching these projects unfold, as I have with your past builds!
Mike
I have a question about your caliper repair. I was always of the understanding that 7075 alloys cannot be successfully welded. Did you do some special post-weld heat treatment to make it work, and if so, are you worried about any potential distortion of the piston bores on that half of the caliper?
I look forward to watching these projects unfold, as I have with your past builds!
Mike
10-03-2016, 06:08 AM
#10
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: True Honda Enthusiast
Posts: 12,680
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Very cool project!
I have a question about your caliper repair. I was always of the understanding that 7075 alloys cannot be successfully welded. Did you do some special post-weld heat treatment to make it work, and if so, are you worried about any potential distortion of the piston bores on that half of the caliper?
I look forward to watching these projects unfold, as I have with your past builds!
Mike
I have a question about your caliper repair. I was always of the understanding that 7075 alloys cannot be successfully welded. Did you do some special post-weld heat treatment to make it work, and if so, are you worried about any potential distortion of the piston bores on that half of the caliper?
I look forward to watching these projects unfold, as I have with your past builds!
Mike
10-22-2016, 11:46 PM
#11
Honda-Tech Member
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Racine, WI, United States
Posts: 1,288
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Glad to see you're still working on this thing! Wish I had done the same, however the EM1 has been treating me fairly well. None of the suspension geometry issues that are associated with the EP3 and DC5! Keep up the work bud I look forward to finally hitting the track with you one of these days!
12-18-2016, 11:18 AM
#12
Honda-Tech Member
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Hey there Honda-Tech! Its been a while, and with the new project Im gearing up for I figured it was time to dust off the cobwebs and try to remember that old HT password... Last I was on here it was looking pretty grim, but thankfully the traffic seems to have picked up since I last logged in which is a great sign for the the forum community I grew up with.
Anyway, I've always been fascinated with production based unibody touring cars. Anything from World Challenge to BTCC Super Touring, TOCA, etc. I love the Adaptation and creativity of working around a production car full of compromises and making it a true performer. There are tons of design cues and components that I have been dying to materialize since I was just a kid looking at one image in particular in a see-through car picture book I had. It was of the British Touring Car Super Touring Honda Accord, probably 1995-ish.
Since then my tastes have broadened, the scope of my builds for a while moved more toward the attainable "jdm street" flavor, but the itch was always there to build a real deal tourer one day. Fast forward to late 2011, and having been working for a race team for a few years at this point my girlfriend and I decided to build a club racer DC5 that we could campaign together - Her the driver and myself the engineer. It took a long time to complete as time and resources were thin, but we finally finished the car in late 2014. It was a rough start but of the 6 races we've done we landed two P2s and two wins! The DC5 build was a great experience but I was still held back in my creativity and engineering ability at the time between my skills and the class rules.
This brings us to my EP3. I've owned the car since 08, and the car steadily progressed in to a quite capable track car over the years. There's a build thread kicking around here somewhere. I had used my experience with building and tracking the EP3 as our proof of concept for the DC5 build and helped speed along the development curve considerably, albeit still having a stock K20A3 and 5speed gearbox. I was planning to do a moderate refresh on the car in winter 2014, finally put a swap in, take care of some other points of the car as well and get it back up and running for 2015. That's when everything changed.....
I was introduced to, who I consider a friend now, John Whitaker. He had just bought the last existing Realtime DC5 along with a massive spares package that he was looking to.... thin out lol.
I ended up driving down to PA to meet him and check out the car which was one of the most surreal experiences... Sitting in, poking around, and documenting this mythical World Challenge relic with its massive strut towers and custom rear trailing arm wizardry. I left that day with a pick up truck full of Realtime spares including a top to bottom suspension setup including all the custom bits, Motons, etc. as well as a pile of OEM extras. At this point I knew the next tear down of the car would be a lot more involved than I had originally planned. Not to mention we had recently bought a new house and I was in the middle of renovating the garage. I went back to the drawing board with the car and started thinking back on that old book with the Super Touring Accord...
The current completely-snowballed-out-of-control plan for the Civic is a streetable Super Tourer of sorts. I want to take pages from the ST days like big 18" center lock wheels, body drop, and mostly factory body work, and mix it up with some TOCA era BTCC EP3 bits like the stock location wet sump engine, front bumper and whatever other era-specific parts I can get my hands on. That being said I still want to keep her a lady in the streets to an extent, and be able to take it out to cars and coffee or the annual club meets and be able to reasonably have a passenger, go through the drive through etc. Maybe Im fooling myself here haha. But I do plan on having only a half cage with headliner factory door panels and carpet. I see it almost like if the EP3 was to race at LeMans(LOL), This would be the homologation car.
Ill leave you with a few photos of the Car as it was before I turned it into an empty immobile shell for the forseeable future haha
.
.
DSC_3547
DSC_3614
CVP_7471
Anyway, I've always been fascinated with production based unibody touring cars. Anything from World Challenge to BTCC Super Touring, TOCA, etc. I love the Adaptation and creativity of working around a production car full of compromises and making it a true performer. There are tons of design cues and components that I have been dying to materialize since I was just a kid looking at one image in particular in a see-through car picture book I had. It was of the British Touring Car Super Touring Honda Accord, probably 1995-ish.
Since then my tastes have broadened, the scope of my builds for a while moved more toward the attainable "jdm street" flavor, but the itch was always there to build a real deal tourer one day. Fast forward to late 2011, and having been working for a race team for a few years at this point my girlfriend and I decided to build a club racer DC5 that we could campaign together - Her the driver and myself the engineer. It took a long time to complete as time and resources were thin, but we finally finished the car in late 2014. It was a rough start but of the 6 races we've done we landed two P2s and two wins! The DC5 build was a great experience but I was still held back in my creativity and engineering ability at the time between my skills and the class rules.
This brings us to my EP3. I've owned the car since 08, and the car steadily progressed in to a quite capable track car over the years. There's a build thread kicking around here somewhere. I had used my experience with building and tracking the EP3 as our proof of concept for the DC5 build and helped speed along the development curve considerably, albeit still having a stock K20A3 and 5speed gearbox. I was planning to do a moderate refresh on the car in winter 2014, finally put a swap in, take care of some other points of the car as well and get it back up and running for 2015. That's when everything changed.....
I was introduced to, who I consider a friend now, John Whitaker. He had just bought the last existing Realtime DC5 along with a massive spares package that he was looking to.... thin out lol.
I ended up driving down to PA to meet him and check out the car which was one of the most surreal experiences... Sitting in, poking around, and documenting this mythical World Challenge relic with its massive strut towers and custom rear trailing arm wizardry. I left that day with a pick up truck full of Realtime spares including a top to bottom suspension setup including all the custom bits, Motons, etc. as well as a pile of OEM extras. At this point I knew the next tear down of the car would be a lot more involved than I had originally planned. Not to mention we had recently bought a new house and I was in the middle of renovating the garage. I went back to the drawing board with the car and started thinking back on that old book with the Super Touring Accord...
The current completely-snowballed-out-of-control plan for the Civic is a streetable Super Tourer of sorts. I want to take pages from the ST days like big 18" center lock wheels, body drop, and mostly factory body work, and mix it up with some TOCA era BTCC EP3 bits like the stock location wet sump engine, front bumper and whatever other era-specific parts I can get my hands on. That being said I still want to keep her a lady in the streets to an extent, and be able to take it out to cars and coffee or the annual club meets and be able to reasonably have a passenger, go through the drive through etc. Maybe Im fooling myself here haha. But I do plan on having only a half cage with headliner factory door panels and carpet. I see it almost like if the EP3 was to race at LeMans(LOL), This would be the homologation car.
Ill leave you with a few photos of the Car as it was before I turned it into an empty immobile shell for the forseeable future haha
.
.
DSC_3547
DSC_3614
CVP_7471
I am hoping to one day find the time to do a build thread of the Mugen car
01-13-2017, 08:22 PM
#15
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: True Honda Enthusiast
Posts: 12,680
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Got to post some updates in here soon but focusing on finishing the RTR build currently so we can start season prep on our DC5. Sit tight 👍🏻
01-14-2017, 05:47 AM
#17
Honda-Tech Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: True Honda Enthusiast
Posts: 12,680
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
Glad to see you're still working on this thing! Wish I had done the same, however the EM1 has been treating me fairly well. None of the suspension geometry issues that are associated with the EP3 and DC5! Keep up the work bud I look forward to finally hitting the track with you one of these days!
01-16-2017, 01:30 PM
#18
Honda-Tech Member
Re: SHG Motorworks EP3 Touring car build
i think i saw one of your videos of your gf driving that car in ITC in SCCA..why dont you run honda challenge (correct me if you do..)
the video i saw, there were barely any competitors from what i could see.
is ITA/ITC or whatever a thin class or..?? is it a regional thing.
the video i saw, there were barely any competitors from what i could see.
is ITA/ITC or whatever a thin class or..?? is it a regional thing.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
BMo Tuning
Road Racing / Autocross & Time Attack
24
09-13-2007 03:12 PM