2008 Redline Time Attack Street FWD Champion
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From: 94608
2008 Redline Time Attack Street FWD Champion
I said I don't want a title!
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Re: 2008 Redline Time Attack Street FWD Champion (strikerflo)
That's nice, but it's nothing more than a picture thread and some patting yourself on the back.
I think what would interest folks in this forum is your cars setup, specifically the suspension. We know the RSX can be made fast in a straight line, but what did you do to conquer the corners? Also, what were your main FWD competitors?
I think what would interest folks in this forum is your cars setup, specifically the suspension. We know the RSX can be made fast in a straight line, but what did you do to conquer the corners? Also, what were your main FWD competitors?
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From: Looking for SloMofo....
Re: 2008 Redline Time Attack Street FWD Champion (Todd00)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Todd00 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That's nice, but it's nothing more than a picture thread and some patting yourself on the back.
I think what would interest folks in this forum is your cars setup, specifically the suspension. We know the RSX can be made fast in a straight line, but what did you do to conquer the corners? Also, what were your main FWD competitors?</TD></TR></TABLE>
The words under the pictures give some detail...
good **** dude. Its always nice to see our little car in the winners circle. Heres a pat on the back from me as well.
I think what would interest folks in this forum is your cars setup, specifically the suspension. We know the RSX can be made fast in a straight line, but what did you do to conquer the corners? Also, what were your main FWD competitors?</TD></TR></TABLE>
The words under the pictures give some detail...
good **** dude. Its always nice to see our little car in the winners circle. Heres a pat on the back from me as well.
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Re: 2008 Redline Time Attack Street FWD Champion (Todd00)
Indeed it is, that's what press releases are for. I normally throw in the spec sheet of mods, but I kinda forgot with everything that's been going on. It's a good point though, because out of the box the RSX can be a frustrating car to drive fast in. I drove it bone-stock for the longest time and know all too well about that. I think too many people give up on the RSX without ever really examining its potential. It doesn't take a ton of high-dollar parts...but it does take a ton of little ones to really make everything work out well. I added it up and it was probably about $12k in parts to get the car to where it is now (that doesn't count the amount I spent in parts that didn't work out all that well). And while to some that might seem to be a lot, in the bigger picture, to build a car that can run with cars that are normally considered out of the RSXs "league", it's pretty fun. On tighter tracks the car has hung with race-prepped Porches and I've even had the privilege of passing a DOT r-comp shod C6 Z06 driven by a very well-seasoned veteran of track driving. I've been very surprised with the lot of much higer-powered cars with good drivers that the RSX has been able to hang with. I'd like to brag and think it's my driving, but honestly, I think the most of it has to do with just putting some decent parts in the right places.
The car actually has very little to make it go fast in a straight line, so the majority of efforts were put into the handling. The suspension employed was a little-known set of coilvers from a JDM company called Racing Gear. They’re well-known in some circles, but are nonexistent in the US DC5 market. What intrigued me about these coilovers were the fact that they’ve got a lower mounting point for the steering arms, thus leveling out the suspension geometry without doing anything too crazy (helpful because we were on a pretty slim budget). The coilovers were actually equipped on the Integra One Make-winning DC5, save for the Mugen uppers that were series-mandated. The spring rates weren’t terribly crazy at 14k front and 18k rear, but the dampening, unlike many of the other aftermarket setups I’ve tried, really seemed to be up to the task. We’ve used them for 2 seasons now without rebuilding. We also incorporated the aluminum JDM ITR control arms to help replicate some of the more tried-and-true JDM setups that we’ve tried to emulate. In addition, we added the J’s Racing Roll Center Adjusters to help out in improving the car’s overall handling while being lowered and swapped out the front bushings with Super Pro polyurethane bushings to add more caster.
Because of the altered nature of the steering/suspension, the car suffered from extreme toe-out (opposite of what most lowered cars experience due to the RG’s mounting points), which was eliminated by incorporating J’s Racing steering arm/tie rods. This also gave us additional camber adjustability, allowing us to run -3.5 degrees camber up front. We also installed Alex racing motor mounts to help stiffen up the motor.
Next to the suspension, the J’s Racing 1.5way LSD, exedy clutch and flywheel, and CRV 5.06 were incredibly helpful. The LSD made a night and day difference on the car’s handling. Between that and the super stiff Hotchkis competition rear sway, Alex rear bushings, as well as a staggered wheel and tire setup (255/40 on 17x9 up front and 235/45 on 17x8 in rear) the car was easily rotatable. While it’s somewhat debatable by some, the J’s aero kit, diffuser and rear wing helped to keep the car stable on high-speed sweepers and turns, while still easy to rotate in other situations.
For what it was, the car was incredibly quick although the chassis still had too much flex. Hopefully a majority of this will be alleviated in incorporating a roll cage. As a street car, it wasn’t necessary, but because this car sees mostly track time, chassis setup aside, it’s a no brainer from a safety aspect.
Most of the stuff we’ve done to the car is pretty elementary. Basic bolt-ons and such. The only fabrication really done on the car was our custom intake which was located behind the headlight (eliminating the majority of heatsoak/throttle response problems we in the past), welding a cat into a custom 3” exhaust, and the fabrication of a battery tray for a lightweight Braille battery.
Some of the more notable competitors were a gutted K24-swapped EG civic, an 8th-gen Civic Si with similar mods (and a pretty good driver), a few turboed civics and k-swapped civics. I was usually one of the lowest power-to-weight ratioed cars on the track, but I think a lot of the work done to the car made up for the difference. I think more notable than some of my immediate competition was the fact that our car was faster than all FWD cars in the Modified classes (with the PTuning Scion TC being the exception), and it was almost always faster than all of the Street RWD competition and a decent amount of the Street AWD, which isn’t all that common. If things stayed current, our RSX is almost just a roll cage and r-comps away from being competitive in Modified. Granted, I know most of the faster cars are already stepping their game up, so we’ve got our work cut out for us if we make the jump. In fact, at Nashville (roval with LONG WOT portion), I think I was only a little more than 5 seconds behind the World Racing Scion TC which has over 700whp on tap, DOT slicks and a much, much larger budget...not to mention a professional driver.
That being said, the last two Street FWD Redline events were dominated by a very well-built SRT4 pushing out over double the horsepower of our car. In examining the times, we’d be very close on most tracks, but I’d probably give the edge to the SRT4 in a lot of cases. However for a majority of the year, our car without a lot of power was the fastest in its class and usually a few others. The thing that scares me is that we always lost ground on the straights, and I’m afraid that adding more power is going to throw our cornering way off. Regardless, it’s something that we need to do to even things out, and I’ll just have to learn to cope with it, although I’m not sure if it’ll even out to THAT much faster times.
Hopefully that gives a little bit more insight. No crazy suspension tuning here, really. Nothing like what RealTime does anyway (although that’s illegal in our series) but it still managed to suffice.
Modified by strikerflo at 3:33 PM 10/13/2008
Modified by strikerflo at 3:34 PM 10/13/2008
The car actually has very little to make it go fast in a straight line, so the majority of efforts were put into the handling. The suspension employed was a little-known set of coilvers from a JDM company called Racing Gear. They’re well-known in some circles, but are nonexistent in the US DC5 market. What intrigued me about these coilovers were the fact that they’ve got a lower mounting point for the steering arms, thus leveling out the suspension geometry without doing anything too crazy (helpful because we were on a pretty slim budget). The coilovers were actually equipped on the Integra One Make-winning DC5, save for the Mugen uppers that were series-mandated. The spring rates weren’t terribly crazy at 14k front and 18k rear, but the dampening, unlike many of the other aftermarket setups I’ve tried, really seemed to be up to the task. We’ve used them for 2 seasons now without rebuilding. We also incorporated the aluminum JDM ITR control arms to help replicate some of the more tried-and-true JDM setups that we’ve tried to emulate. In addition, we added the J’s Racing Roll Center Adjusters to help out in improving the car’s overall handling while being lowered and swapped out the front bushings with Super Pro polyurethane bushings to add more caster.
Because of the altered nature of the steering/suspension, the car suffered from extreme toe-out (opposite of what most lowered cars experience due to the RG’s mounting points), which was eliminated by incorporating J’s Racing steering arm/tie rods. This also gave us additional camber adjustability, allowing us to run -3.5 degrees camber up front. We also installed Alex racing motor mounts to help stiffen up the motor.
Next to the suspension, the J’s Racing 1.5way LSD, exedy clutch and flywheel, and CRV 5.06 were incredibly helpful. The LSD made a night and day difference on the car’s handling. Between that and the super stiff Hotchkis competition rear sway, Alex rear bushings, as well as a staggered wheel and tire setup (255/40 on 17x9 up front and 235/45 on 17x8 in rear) the car was easily rotatable. While it’s somewhat debatable by some, the J’s aero kit, diffuser and rear wing helped to keep the car stable on high-speed sweepers and turns, while still easy to rotate in other situations.
For what it was, the car was incredibly quick although the chassis still had too much flex. Hopefully a majority of this will be alleviated in incorporating a roll cage. As a street car, it wasn’t necessary, but because this car sees mostly track time, chassis setup aside, it’s a no brainer from a safety aspect.
Most of the stuff we’ve done to the car is pretty elementary. Basic bolt-ons and such. The only fabrication really done on the car was our custom intake which was located behind the headlight (eliminating the majority of heatsoak/throttle response problems we in the past), welding a cat into a custom 3” exhaust, and the fabrication of a battery tray for a lightweight Braille battery.
Some of the more notable competitors were a gutted K24-swapped EG civic, an 8th-gen Civic Si with similar mods (and a pretty good driver), a few turboed civics and k-swapped civics. I was usually one of the lowest power-to-weight ratioed cars on the track, but I think a lot of the work done to the car made up for the difference. I think more notable than some of my immediate competition was the fact that our car was faster than all FWD cars in the Modified classes (with the PTuning Scion TC being the exception), and it was almost always faster than all of the Street RWD competition and a decent amount of the Street AWD, which isn’t all that common. If things stayed current, our RSX is almost just a roll cage and r-comps away from being competitive in Modified. Granted, I know most of the faster cars are already stepping their game up, so we’ve got our work cut out for us if we make the jump. In fact, at Nashville (roval with LONG WOT portion), I think I was only a little more than 5 seconds behind the World Racing Scion TC which has over 700whp on tap, DOT slicks and a much, much larger budget...not to mention a professional driver.
That being said, the last two Street FWD Redline events were dominated by a very well-built SRT4 pushing out over double the horsepower of our car. In examining the times, we’d be very close on most tracks, but I’d probably give the edge to the SRT4 in a lot of cases. However for a majority of the year, our car without a lot of power was the fastest in its class and usually a few others. The thing that scares me is that we always lost ground on the straights, and I’m afraid that adding more power is going to throw our cornering way off. Regardless, it’s something that we need to do to even things out, and I’ll just have to learn to cope with it, although I’m not sure if it’ll even out to THAT much faster times.
Hopefully that gives a little bit more insight. No crazy suspension tuning here, really. Nothing like what RealTime does anyway (although that’s illegal in our series) but it still managed to suffice.
Modified by strikerflo at 3:33 PM 10/13/2008
Modified by strikerflo at 3:34 PM 10/13/2008
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From: 94608
a few videos from this season:
RSX Near Crash/Recovery - Time Attack St. Louis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRVsbsahS0Y
RSX warmup - shakedown session at Gingerman
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...5.htm
RSX, Wai's Honda Challenge Spoon ITR, LoveFab 900hp NSX
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...4.htm
Practice at Nashville Time Attack
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...7.htm
Nashville Time Attack - 1st Session
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...2.htm
Nashville Time Attack - 2nd Session
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...3.htm
Nashville Awards Ceremony
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...0.htm
RSX Near Crash/Recovery - Time Attack St. Louis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRVsbsahS0Y
RSX warmup - shakedown session at Gingerman
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...5.htm
RSX, Wai's Honda Challenge Spoon ITR, LoveFab 900hp NSX
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...4.htm
Practice at Nashville Time Attack
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...7.htm
Nashville Time Attack - 1st Session
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...2.htm
Nashville Time Attack - 2nd Session
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...3.htm
Nashville Awards Ceremony
http://videos.streetfire.net/v...0.htm
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Re: 2008 Redline Time Attack Street FWD Champion
Very sexy cars .. BUT.. WHERES THE EP? jeesh 
Gotta admit that s2k is sexy(Cant wait for mine in like 32 years,) and talk about money! Would love to be rolling in that cayenne
Modified by 02_Si_FTW at 11:14 PM 10/13/2008
Gotta admit that s2k is sexy(Cant wait for mine in like 32 years,) and talk about money! Would love to be rolling in that cayenne
Modified by 02_Si_FTW at 11:14 PM 10/13/2008
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I can't speak for the Porsche owner, but I got a steal on that LR3. For one, it was a "lemon" car (faulty latch button, lol) and it was confirmed repaired after being repurchased by Land Rover who went over everything and provided a pretty hefty additional warranty. On top of that, it sat and sat and sat on the dealership's lot...for a safe SUV that my gf could drive that has the same monthly payments as my Honda Fit, had only 15K miles and good amount of remaining warranty, it's pretty much like balling on a budget 
Right now, that LR3 hardly gets driven. Since my gf commutes via train every day, I drop her off and pick her up and go to work every day in the Fit (lil easier on the gas budget).
If it's any consolation, I still live at home and don't have many friends away from the race track. So I've definitely had a little bit of dedication invested towards this (in all honesty, probably too much).
So I don't quite feel like I have baller status at all.
And my buddy ditched the Cayenne just because there were a few mechanical issues and he found it to be cheaper to pick up a brand-new GMC Sierra 2500HD Diesel which can tow even better for cheaper.
Right now, that LR3 hardly gets driven. Since my gf commutes via train every day, I drop her off and pick her up and go to work every day in the Fit (lil easier on the gas budget).
If it's any consolation, I still live at home and don't have many friends away from the race track. So I've definitely had a little bit of dedication invested towards this (in all honesty, probably too much).
So I don't quite feel like I have baller status at all.
And my buddy ditched the Cayenne just because there were a few mechanical issues and he found it to be cheaper to pick up a brand-new GMC Sierra 2500HD Diesel which can tow even better for cheaper.
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From: Waynesville, MO, United States
First off, Congrats! You deserve it. Second I met you and your partner at NOPI St. Louis this year. Got a couple of pics with your car on the trailer and mine next to it on the ground, they turned out pretty tight. I wish you guys luck for next year.
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