How many of you in AutoX use your daily driver ? How often do you race? How often do you guys have crap go wrong w/ your car?
Also I don't want to make another post, is the "datalogging" upgrade for the Hondata really worth it?, I mean does it do anything that really helps or educates?

 

I don't drive my R daily - but I have never had any problems occur because of an autocross (1 or 2 events/month)

 

I autocrossed mine, and the first time I did, I screwed up the engine. But I have a friend that autocrosses his every event, bouncing the revlimiter and whatnot, and its fine.
I ended up buying a POS just to autox in.

 

well my R is daily driven , and has taken many trips to many places and has been raced about every other weekend in racing season since it was bought.
no problems yet. . . . and its been almost 2yrs

 

What happened?

 

autocross, drag strip, track/road course, two or three weekends a month.... drive it every day.


...at least until I get my Si running

 

I guess theres a dowl that holds up the oil pump? Anyway, supposidy it broke, fell to the bottom of the timming cover and ate up the timing belt, and I think messed up a timing sproket or something like that.
Pretty much a freak thing, but I'm a little gun shy about racing it now.

 

I autocrossed my daily driver Integra twice so far, at the moment I don't have time to do it on a regular basis. I had a master cylinder failure my second event, but problems like that are pretty unusual from what I have seen. Your tires will take a beating however, and if you participate regularly you'll want a dedicated set of wheels and tires for autox.

 

Its just that I love to race, and recent events and all (deaths and tickets) I'm not up for street racing anymore. So either I'm going to quit building my engine and simply do the occasional drag or safe Interstate race, or I'm going to completely build my engine and do AutoX and have it as my daily driver(girlfriends car will be my back up)
I have 90k on my integra, and if I get a shop behind me I'm going to buy a Spoon balanced Block, get some head work, get a lsd tranny, and fix the suspension. I'd Love to do AutoX
:starnly thing keeping me back is that I live in an apartment complex where I don't have a place to work on my car. So I'd have to get a shop to help with labor(sponsored deal or not). But if there is super crazy maintanence like changing the timing belt every 2 months or other crazy expensive maintanence it would get to be a little too much to do without a deal, and I'd rather leave it my daily driver. But I'm crazy about power and going fast.
So what are the opinions of some of you autoXers?

 

you consider changing a timing belt crazy and expensive labor?
its not very hard to do , shops just charge alot becuase they can

 

It is my daily driver, autoX car and DRAG monster

 

You don't need to worry about building your engine and all that stuff - take your car out there and learn how to really drive fast. You can worry about suspension and stuff later... jsut get out there and do it!

 

werd ! you don't need any of the stuff you have to auto cross or to do track events. learning to drive fast is the first step!

 

autox = no more wear and tear than a daily driver...

Honestly, I feel that sitting in stop and go traffic is worse for the car...

 

Both of my cars are daily driven (mainly I drive the Prelude, my wife drives the Integra, but sometimes we will swap cars for couple days), and both have been to Street Legal drags, track days, and lots of auto-x'es. I've been auto-x'ing the Prelude since 98. The only problem I had was that the ATTS decided it couldn't handle my driving so it malfunctioned. But it was an easy fix, nothing major. I just started auto-x'ing the Integra in S.D. since January of this year, no problem with it either.

 

The only thing that should be an issue will be brake pads and tires. Depending on how much autocrossing you do you may want to replace wheel bearings like every 2-3 years too. My old car was a daily driver and an autocross ***** too. Never any major problems in the three years that I raced it. My new car however is not a daily driver.

 

Big mistake. I regretted just installing an intake in my car, since it kicked me out of stock class. The more modifications you put into your car, the more competetive the class you'll be put in. In your case, you'll end up in Street Modified against some very fast cars that will probably outclass your Integra, regardless of how much money you put into it. The drivers will be tougher to beat as well. Learn to drive your car stock, then see if you still want to modify your car and move up to a more challenging bracket.

 

LOL, a little too late to go back to stock. I want to do the newer spoon bottom end because my engine alredy has 93k miles and I also need the compression for my Toda Spec B's. I heard you can get a spoon balanced block for about the same thing as a USDM Type R Block. Also even though everyone says honda's stock parts are great I'd trust the type r rods with 11.5 compression way over my 90K mile GSR Rods.

 

Daily driven, ~2 autox per month, and three track days between Aug & Sept. to Honda for a quality vehicle.

 

:raises hands:

I autocross my ITR about 16 times per year. I drive my ITR year round in the snow, rain, sun and wind.

I have had no problems so far :crosses fingers:, I keep a close eye on my oil quality, oil level, tire ware, suspension and brakes.

 

.....for the $, just go with itr rods and ctr pistons in that block. Add headwork and your spec b's will thank you for it.

I run in SM locally - spec b's and all.

 

I did my first autocross in my 98 R a month after I got it. It has 36k miles on it and I believe my autocross tally is up to 6 or so. I haven't had a single problem, and like John(johnd) said, the past autocross I was forced to bump the rev limiter for a split second or so many times and haven't had a problem. As long as the car is in good condition, and has had proper maintenance done, I feel no need to feel bad about driving my car at the autocrosses, and actually I am always amazed that a street driven car can do so well completely stock. Just go out and autocross, you'll love it and find yourself doing it more and more.


[Modified by HondaRcB, 8:01 PM 8/14/2002]

 

Well AutoX deffinetly sounds like something I'd like to get in to.
What are some of your expenses as far as registration and participation? Do all of you guys tow your cars to the tracks? Any body know any of the circuits around the east coast.

 

Here it costs $25 per event which is usually 4 runs. Its a lot of fun. Right now, the track car I have is still street legal, so I just drive it to the track.

http://www.autocross.com/autoc/seclub.shtml





[Modified by jond, 3:54 PM 8/14/2002]

 

Hold on to your hats...

I am a member of the local AutoX chapter, membership is approx $32 USD per year. Each event I pay...get ready for this...$6 USD. There is an event every week and a big event at the end of the year.

I average about 5-6 runs per event (4 competitve runs and the rest fun runs). At some events I get about 8 runs in (same amount of competitve runs, just more fun runs).

We don't get trophies, ribbons or plaques per event. Instead a scoring system is setup and at the end of the year, trophies are handed out.