Hey Gents,

A few of us Canadian folk made a trip to Mosport a few weekends ago for some of the CTCC series (Canadian touring car) as well as the koni Challenge.

As some may know a while back one (or all I don't know) of the old Realtime caRs were up for sale. A team out of Quebec picked up one of them up and as big Realtime fans we were looking over the car. It now looks like this again for those unfamiliar...



There were still many traces of the old orange paint.

Anyway, I heard sometime ago rumors of Realtime getting some of the very very early north American ITR's. While looking over the VIN on the car we noticed this....

(wonderful photo, I know)

Anybody care to shed some light on such a topic? It seems to resemble a Honda part number but what do I know. I don't even own an R.


Modified by gunnis at 9:39 PM 6/20/2008

 

Wow, that is interesting. ST7 as a part number usually denotes DC2/4 parts. But the 7-digit number is very, very similar to that of the 7-digit JDM badge numbers featured on the blue chassis badge.

So, these Realtime Rs were never really made for retail sale according to the "VIN" picture above.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BlueIntegraBoy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
So, these Realtime Rs were never really made for retail sale according to the "VIN" picture above.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I cannot speak for the ITRs, but I can speak for the Realtime NSX. I talked to Peter Cunningham at Road Atlanta years ago and the NSX was a pre-production prototype. It wouldn't surprise me if the ITRs were prototypes as well.

 

very interesting

 

Everything about that caR looks to be RTR, IMO. What a great potential find.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by get RIGHT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Everything about that caR looks to be RTR, IMO. What a great potential find. </TD></TR></TABLE>

It was undoubtedly an ex-realtime car. There was lots of orange paint coming through around the bottom of the car. Extremely cool to be able to get so close and comb the car over.

 

look crooked like if someone just slapped it on

 

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

[/i]</TD></TR></TABLE>This caR can not be a phototype if the front bumper is the original bumper.

 

The front bumper was definitely not an original piece. Much of the car was showing the old orange paint around stone chipped areas such as the sideskirt and rear bumper. As you can see the scuff on the passenger side front bumper is not showing the classic orange, nor is it sporting the Realtime lip\splitter.

I imagine the car has seen a number of off's in its day and a bumper or five may have been replaced. The car was undoubtedly not the straightest one on the track.

If anybody else is familiar or got to see the realtime cars up close in their day, I will be seeing the car again in a months time roughly.

 

 

It's good to see it still carry on the Realtime tradition=Kicking asses on the race track

 

This is a pretty cool find....and it helps the registry project a lot
Not sure if they popped the hood for ya, but if they did, did you notice if the firewall VIN/chassis number was the same? Just to rule out the dash being a replacement.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doespike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This is a pretty cool find....and it helps the registry project a lot
Not sure if they popped the hood for ya, but if they did, did you notice if the firewall VIN/chassis number was the same? Just to rule out the dash being a replacement. </TD></TR></TABLE>I's very un-likely that this is a replacement dash as it carry a very distintive phototype ID#.

 

It still may not be original to this caR. Race teams swap parts all the time. So whether the R is a prototype isn't 100% known. I've always wondered if Realtime received special cars or if they were full USDM caRs that were stripped out/built by the teams, or both. As long as the OP will be seeing it again....it'll be an easy question to answer.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CW-ITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This caR can not be a phototype if the front bumper is the original bumper.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Realtime had two ITRs in 1997. I think they updated those to the 98+ once the bumpers got smashed.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doespike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've always wondered if Realtime received special cars or if they were full USDM caRs that were stripped out/built by the teams, or both. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I KNOW that Peter Cunningham received the NSX from Honda. It was a 1990 prototype that Honda could never put on the public street. So they decided to "lend" it to Realtime to win races and advertise instead of crushing it. It should now be in a Honda museum (they have pulled it out a couple times to attend events such as NSXPO and the first Acura American LeMans race). The NSX had 62 prototypes...the Realtime NSX was one of the last few prototypes and is very close to a production NSX.

Maybe keN SaX can chime in...he has taken a tour of the Realtime factory at NSXPO 2001 and has been around the RealTime ITRs throughout the years(NSXPO 98 had three RealTime ITRs). NSXPO 2001 was a transition period where Realtime was working on prepping the RSX and retiring the ITRs. From this picture, it looks as if they got a full RSX (interior and all) to start with.



Here are some pictures from NSXPRIME on NSXPO 2001/Realtime tour:

http://www.nsxprime.com/Events...y.htm

NSXPO 98

 

Hi guys,

this Blue ITR is a real old realtime racing ITR, bought by Jocelyn Hebert from Trois-Rivieres, Québec, Canada, en 2002 if I remember correctly

this car still for sale

I never see that our ITR as a weird serial like this, I will take a look on the firewall next time

I work and dyno tune this car between race, and I'm a team mechanic at the race

here is some pics





Since 2006, we are back in Koni Challenge (Grand AM cup ST) with a Si 2006, we were the first to use this car, now in 2008 there as about 7 civic SI in Koni Challenge

 

In the 1997 and 1998 model years it was possible to order a car directly from the manufacturer, which car would arrive in a stripped fashion without many of the parts that would be required for retail sale.

None of the parts that were not provided affected FIA homologation of the car.

I do not know if you could still order a car like this in the 1999-2001 model years.

By any chance were you able to see what was on the firewall?