wt up? hey i just sold me EG cuz some *** hit me, so i ended up with a 96 hacth. I was woudering if some of you wth expirence and that know a lot bout road racig/autoross wut would be the best engine to g with for my EK? it would really help me out..... thanx.......

 

Stock...

Then when you don't suck anymore (newbie) you can advance up the class ranks as you wish (or even stay stock).

I'm pretty sure that most will give the same answer, though I can tell you won't like it.

 

stock for auto x. if you run an engine swap you have to run with the big boys.

Road racing any b series is ideal.

I think suspension tires and tracktime will make you faster then any motor swap. Then once you can't get any faster, start looking at swaps.

 

do what you want. i made a car the way i wanted, and then figured out what class i was in from there. i am in SM, and even though i can remove the rear seat, it's still there because i like it. mod your car the way you want (imho, b series n/a is best) and then go from there. good luck.

 

If there is even a remote chance that you are going to want to road race, don't do anything that is out of line with the rules of the organization that you will run with. I think a lot of Honda tuners are surprised when they find out that most of the common street mods (including swaps) are NOT legal to road race or really limit the groups with which you can run.

Kirk

PS - how do you know that the guy who hit you was homosexual? It isn't fair to paint an entire group as reckless, just because my gay cousin has had more than his share of accidents. (Hi, D. if you're reading this!)

 

This is arguably the worst advice ANYONE can give an individual who is looking to get into sanctionned racing. Build what you want - but don't be surprised if you end up in Modified or Production getting your *** KICKED because your one or 2 parts bump you to a class where the cars are completely out of your league.

The best advice is leave it stock. Learn how to drive the damn car before you go and modify it. You will be surprised at how fast you can actually go in a stock car. If you do insist on modifying then GET A RULEBOOK FIRST! Figure out what class you want to run and build accordingly. Probably the best idea would be to build to SCCA Street Prepared specs. That is an autocross class that is VERY similar to the SCCA's Improved Touring road race class specs. Add a cage and the other required safety gear to a Street Prepared car and in most cases you have an IT car. This is NOT true for a fully built Street Mod car. SM will dump you out much higher where you do not stand a chance (especially since the SCCA does not allow FI in any of its classes other than Showroom Stock and GT).

P.S. Motor swaps are not favorably classed in SCCA road racing UNLESS it is a USDM option (ie: Putting a GSR motor in an LS Integra of the same vintage is ok but putting a GSR motor in a Civic is not).

 

well heres my response, and i'm still a newby stick with your stock engine. you'll spend enough on tires, brake pads, etc. that you will be glad you saved your money. the best driver in our local autox group has a fully stripped crx with a STOCK engine, and he gets the best times of the day everytime. hope this helps some

 

ITE? The catch all allows it, no?

Otherwise agreed that learning to drive is so much more important than what you drive. YOUR limits are so much lower than the cars in any track-like environment.


[Modified by HippoSleek, 3:14 PM 7/24/2002]

 

Leave it stock, learn to drive (trust me, you don't know how to drive yet), learn more about autocross/road racing, decide what you want to do, then mod your car.

 

Sure does. The problem is the other cars that you will be running with will probably lap you in a sprint race.

When I started out, I never thought that I would race. I had a JRSC'd D16Z6. I race with NASA now. That would have put me in the same class as bridgeported RX-7's, Turbo 911's (GT2 etc.), C5 'vettes, etc. You get the idea. If you really think you will end up doing wheel to wheel racing, make sure you get the rule book. If you just want to have fun on the track, anything goes. Tell you what, it sucked to take off the SC, that I spent forever to run right & then sell it for less than half of what I payed.

 

Be very careful here...

ITE rules vary depending on which region you are talking about. Some have odd expectations, like that you present the logbook from the "original series" in which the car ran - presuming that all cars that are eligible are refugees from other series (e.g., GrandAm SS, SPEED Touring/GT, etc.) Depending on where you are, you might not be able to even get on the track with SCCA, in a swapped Civic.

Kirk

 

This is really good advice! Adding things like more power, R tires, full out race suspension will allow you to mask poor driving. Take it from me, the first car I rolled/totaled. Learning to drive correctly in your car 'stock', will make you even faster when you modify it later.
On a side note, you can't believe how satisfying (sp) it is to pass more expensive machinery because of driver skill. Like I said above, when I started tracking the car, I had the JRSC. I took it off after a couple of NASA events & one Street School @ Thunderhill. In a later Street School event, the European crowd assumed that I still had it. They had to come see for themselves that it was gone. Good coaching/instruction does wonders! I am sure that a bunch of people on this board have similar stories.


[Modified by civicrr, 9:10 AM 7/24/2002]

 

Sorry - to clarify: ITE was not meant as a suggestion, merely a question/point of fact. I had seen that according to the rules, you *should* be able to run a motor swap car there (in addition to other series refugees). This always comes up w/ SR swapped 240's (which, w/ 300+ whp w/n the rules, would be more competitive than a Civic, imho, but still not enough).

Clarification #2: the author does not indorse spending $30K++ on a car to go out and get his hiney whooped. The author believes that bone stock - street tires and all - is the way to go until you actually reach the limits of the car. Then buy or build to fit a class. The author has only found a couple of the many limits his stock car has.

The author has witnessed good drivers in Hertz-like rental cars (brakes, M+S tires, and all) rolling various performance tuned othe-R cars at HPDEs.

Kirk - thanks for the insight. I thought that was a more general class (if spending that kind of loot on a racecar can ever be "general."