I just bought a 96 Integra LS and I will be using it mainly for track days. I have been reading a lot of different information and I still have some questions. I'm thinking about going with Eibach springs and Koni's with a rear sway. Motul RBF600, still not sure on the pads. Toyo RA-1's on a 15" wheel, should I go smaller? I have a 2005 S4 I have been running at HPDE days, home track is Infineon, but I'm too worried about wrecking it. I am losing about 200 h.p. going from the Audi to the Acura so I'm sure I will want to do something to the motor as well, thinking about the Jackson Racing supercharger. Any thoughts?

 

Pads = Carbotech or Cobalt, Motul Fluid. If you have done a lot of track days, then the RA1's are a great, durable choice. If you're still fairly new, stick with a street tire.

Do some searching, you dont need to do too much to the suspension, Koni Yellows with GC sleeves (400/500# springs) and a 22mm ITR rear swaybar seems to be a great, easy solution.

For power, you wont need it. After 1 or 2 sessions you wont even miss it.

 

Which Carbotech's? I run XP8's on the Audi.

 

Im rocking some cobalts and I luv em

 

I have pretty much what RJ recommended- Koni, GC, 22mm sway, and no power. Works well. You can have a lot of fun on street tires, theres some real good ones now.

 

I'd say Cobalt GT sports for pads UP FRONT if running street tires up to azenis. If running grippier tires then azenis (RA1's) then go with their spec V (I think thats what its called, right guys?) pads. As far as I know, and from my experiences, you don't want these pads in the rear, for the GT sports, a set of Axxis Ultimates compliment them well, and for the racing pads up front, GT sports in rear is a good idea. (Since you have R comps)
Motul RBF 600 is great fluid, though you can get away with less. Upgrade to Type ARRRR front calipers and rotors, you'll be very glad you did. Koni yellows and ground controls is the way to be. 400F/450R is a good intro rate, If you feel more experienced, up the rates. If its predominantly track, you may consider the revalved and shortend konis, with rates in the 600-800 range. ITR sway works just fine, but make sure you have it spaced correctly, as just bolting in on, or using beaks puts the endlinks in a leaning forward state, which allows them to bind, and you see some less then neutral characteristics. The ASR brace does a great job at correcting this, as well as reinforcing the rear subframe, and acting as a tie bar.
Front sway is up to you and your driving preferances. I wouldn't go larger then stock though, and I personally like front sways, then again, I'm just a lowly HPDE guy.
15' wheels are the correct size, make sure they are 15x7. I would personally recomend ATS Comp Lites. 13 pounds, strong, and they even look nice.
what are your plans in terms of weight? track car only, no interior, no nothing or what?
As far as motor work, if you go forced induction, make sure the car is well maintained. For track, with constant WOT for 20-30 minutes in a row, you may want to consider upgrading its cooling ability. Some upgraded radiator should be sufficient, but I have no experience with FI hondas. I wouldn't go turbo for track. You can go a simply, less intensive route, and do an LS/Vtec...
Hope that was of some help to you.

 

LS/VTEC is not simpler and less intensive than a JRSC, it's more involved than just slapping a different head on. For track use, stay relatively stock, as doing anything with forced induction will only complicate the car and make more headaches down the line. Intake, header, exhaust and cams should be fine for at least awhile, as the only real place you'll be losing ground is on the straights.

One of the biggest setbacks to using an LS is the tranny, as the gearing is just plain horrendous. A GSR tranny will be a lot more fun, and you'll actually be able to use 5th gear, whereas with an LS tranny 5th gear is like hitting a brick wall. If there are any HC H4 guys out your way, check out their cars, and talk to them about their setups, that may be helpful in pointing you in the right direction.

 

You need:

RA1 Toyos like a hole in the head...

Just get some Azenis RT-615s. Good wear and good grip (Learn to drive a FF befor you get R-compounds) on 15 inch wheels will be great. I suggest 205/50/15 on a 15x6.5 or 7 inch wheel. 40 psi (hot) front and 30 psi (hot) rear.

If you run Azenis...I've found that they like 10k spring rates in the front and 8 in the rear 550/450~ w/ a 22/23mm swaybar in the rear... Im using a 23mm in the rear w/ the 94 LS 22mm in the front. Just set your alignment to spec and once you've gotten good behind the wheel start experimenting with alignment settings.

Dampening is depended on your Shocks but I usually run 2 levels in the front and 4-5 in the rear on Zeals. Koni is a great choice.

Brakes have been touched on...I would suggest upgrading your calipers/rotors...Fastbrake or something like that.

Engine: Just let it breathe!!! The LS has tons of of usefull power and install I/H/E and you'll be good for the track.

Transmission/Drive train: Upgrade your clutch and flywheel. I use an Exedy Organic clutch and a Fidanze Flywheel. Also, swap out your tranny for a B16/ITR unit. Itr would be better for the LSD but the b16 is fine because the motor wont make enough powA to break the tires loose coming out of a corner.

interior: Gut it...since its a track car it doesn't matter anyway. Get a seat, a harness and a steering wheel and you'll be ready to ROCK!!!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!! Seat time!!! There is no replacement for seat time.

Now, find a club/s near you that hold track days and show those EVOs how Hondas work...


Modified by C-speed Racer at 11:05 AM 10/5/2005


Modified by C-speed Racer at 11:06 AM 10/5/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Badthorn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Which Carbotech's? I run XP8's on the Audi. </TD></TR></TABLE>

XP8's work great with Azenis or RA1's Remove the dust sheilds behind the rotor and get some ducting in there too.

 

Thanks, great info here. I have done 5 autocrosses in my old Scirocco, and I have 4 HPDE days under my belt, as well as the Skip Barber 3 day competition course. I have a good amount of front wheel drive experience with my previous cars, and the S4 needs to be driven as such because its AWD and has no oversteer. By the way, I'm 36 so I have 20 years of driving experience as well. I would like to be on the aggressive side with the suspension, is the 600-800 range too much to start with? I have a farewell HPDE day for the Audi on Sunday, I'll hit some Acura guys there for some additional info.
Thanks again

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Badthorn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> is the 600-800 range too much to start with? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Not at all - just get the revalved konis if you're looking to run higher rates

http://redshiftmotorsports.com/suspension.htm - $1000 here.

 

come out to sears point this weekend, a bunch of honda challenge races will be out there. On of them runs pretty much the exact car you bought.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by C-speed Racer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also, swap out your tranny for a B16/ITR unit. Itr would be better for the LSD but the b16 is fine because the motor wont make enough powA to break the tires loose coming out of a corner.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'll agree with everything except that. The only problem with that tranny is that the gearing is kind of too short for the 6800/7200rpm redline, and you'd be shifting way too much. The GSR is a nice in-between. Now if you did something like throw ARP rod bolts on and revved to 8000rpm or something, or just revved that high anyway like RJ, go for it As far as breaking the tires loose, once you have I/H/E, you're making more power and especially more torque than you'd think, and the LSD becomes awfully nice.

 

I'll be there on Sunday. My car is grey, number 340. I'll be running in HPDE 3.

 

The LS is heavy and under-braked, so I would recommend going with a dedicated track pad for the front. When I was doing a lot of HPDE I used Cobalt Spec-VR and was happy with them. GT-Sport is good on the back.

 

600-800 is not very high. a lot of these guys go into the 1000's in rates on their race cars. You may want to search/ask around about rates. as a point of referance, I'll be adding Koni yellows and GC's with rates of 425F/500R to my daily driver EG hatch. (CX, 2100 pounds) these rates are very conservative for track, but quite aggressive for street. I'd like to go more, but this car is meant to be the daily after all!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sscguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I'll agree with everything except that. The only problem with that tranny is that the gearing is kind of too short for the 6800/7200rpm redline, and you'd be shifting way too much. The GSR is a nice in-between. Now if you did something like throw ARP rod bolts on and revved to 8000rpm or something, or just revved that high anyway like RJ, go for it As far as breaking the tires loose, once you have I/H/E, you're making more power and especially more torque than you'd think, and the LSD becomes awfully nice.</TD></TR></TABLE>


Since I drive an LS w/ a b16 tranny and all of the suggestions that I made are from experience w/ my car I can tell that the b16 tranny is a dream on road courses... Mainly, I would focus on the suspension and brakes of the car. This will make or break a car on a track.

Nathan: Who serves unsuspecting ITRs and EVOs there bottoms on short courses.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Agent Smith &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The LS is heavy and under-braked, so I would recommend going with a dedicated track pad for the front. When I was doing a lot of HPDE I used Cobalt Spec-VR and was happy with them. GT-Sport is good on the back.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Hence my reply earlier...Gut the car and upgrade the Calipers and rotors. My car is very quick on track because of lightness, suspension/tires and braking abilities...driver skill however is being perfected...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sscguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I'll agree with everything except that. The only problem with that tranny is that the gearing is kind of too short for the 6800/7200rpm redline, and you'd be shifting way too much. </TD></TR></TABLE>

As long as you keep the stock 4.4 final gear in it, you should be fine.

I'm very happy with my stock LS box with a 4.9 gear in it though

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by C-speed Racer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Since I drive an LS w/ a b16 tranny and all of the suggestions that I made are from experience w/ my car I can tell that the b16 tranny is a dream on road courses... </TD></TR></TABLE>

I guess that's a matter of opinion then. If I had a B16/ITR tranny on my LS, I'd definitely be shifting at weird spots on track. The GSR is even a touch too short in a few spots. I'll most likely try it (ITR) out one of these days, but until then, I'm sticking to that story

 

yes, w/ this gearing my topspeed is 130~ with 205/50/15. As soon as I can install a head ill be bumping my revs to about 8200~ and thinking about a 4.785 fd.

I found that the shift points on most of the tracks I've been on were fine.

 

Just out of curiousity, which tracks do you run on?

 

Portland International Raceway
Pacific Raceway = Seattle
Mission Raceway = Abotsford (sp), BC Canada next Spring...

And any raceway on GT4 jk

 

Ah, ok. I unfortunately have no comparison, as I haven't driven any of the WC tracks.

 

As soon as I upload my vid Ill give you a tour of Pacific Raceway...