First off, I have absolutely no experience driving a car on a track with turns.

I'm trying to decide which of my two honda's I should use for HPDE and auto-x. I have a 96 gsr that's a beater and my daily driver. I have a turbo 95 civic coupe that has an 84mm B18c with an Endyn head and tein ss.

The civic basically sits in the garage all the time, so these events would give me an excuse to drive it; however, it has a 1/2 size Koyo, and the wastegate placement on the manifold will not allow for a full-size rad. Obviously, I'm concerned about overheating. The second concern is that the car may be so powerful and the suspension so poorly adjusted that learning proper driving technique might be overwhelming the first few times out.

The integra is completely stock with the exception of an air intake and a few rattles. I'm concerned that the car's so slow I won't be able to share the track with other cars at the road race course on HPDE days. Also, it's my daily, so if something happens to it, I end up driving the civic for a few days. The motor has around 160k on it.

My budget for race prep including tires is 5-8k for either car. Thoughts?

 

The GSR will be the better bet for starting out. It won't be too slow. Tires, brakes, brake fluid, and save the rest of that $5-8K for when you have some experience and know what you want to do.

 

Yeah. I was kinda thinking the gsr would be the better bet for starting out. Thanks for the input. I've been up to our local track the last three weekends, and there are always absolutely ridiculously fast cars out there, so maintaining speed was what had me worried.

 

You'll be fine. For one, passing areas will be limited to a couple straights, so whether you're slower or faster than anyone else doesn't really matter. For two, since you're a noob and will be in the novice group, everyone will be going pretty slow regardless of what car they're driving.

 

GSaura,

What part of Tx and what groups are you running with?

 

GSaura, I would stick with the integra; Even though you wont be making huge amounts of power it will still be pretty quick. I personally think a stock car will have way less problems on the track.

 

I'm in DFW. I was just going to do track days with Driver's edge and Apex through the end of the year to see how it goes. Texas Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Tx and Eagle's canyon NW of Denton look like the tracks I'll primarily be using. Events in July, Sept, October, and Nov. Classes are reasonably priced - 2 days for 300 at Driver's Edge. 1 day for 200 with Apex. I'm as yet unaware of any local organizations that I can join to find a group of drivers to talk tech with.

At PIC's suggestion, I'm going to replace all of the bushings in the car. Thinking about the Skunk2 Pro+ UCA's/LCA's/rear camber (all at stock settings), Blox Toe, OEM RTA bushings, Hardrace compliance bushings, OE style replacement tie rods, OEM LBJ's, and OEM wheel bearings. Are there any sponsors on the site that work with the road race peeps regularly that I should be supporting that can usually get parts quickly?

RedCrx: I think you're right about the lower probabililty of mechanical failure in the gsr vs the civic.

 

There is a NASA meet at the begining of October at Eagle's Canyon. HPDE and Racing. I may or may not be there with the Type-R

I'd make a couple of suggestions about your upgrade plans. Go ahead and put a spherical in the big RTA bushing. That is such a pain in the *** job that you don't want to do it twice. The fewer bushings you have to change out yourself the better, so if you are buying new control arms, make sure they have the bushings you want to run.

Moog brand tie rod ends and lower ball joints are considerably beefer than the stock parts.

Wheel bearings can be another PITA. Depending on how many miles on your car and what kind of tires you plan on running you might be able to hold off on them. They do give you some audable warning before they fail. I've had a front go out during a race so bad that it snapped the end off the cv joint and ruined the hub, but the wheel stayed on the car.

If a shop has taken the axles out, or if you are going to pull the upright to change control arms (you can change out all the control arms without pulling the axles if you want) I would suggest you get new axle nuts and torqe them to the exact spec. Over torque is what kills the bearings.

 

That should be my third event by that time (10/3-10/4 wknd). It'd be cool to see you out there!

I have the RTA tool that you can use to swap bushings out while on the car in just a few minutes. I also have a couple of extra, new OEM RTA bushings in the garage, so it makes more sense to just go stock for now.

As far as bushings in the control arms, I reasoned that the skunks would be the best since that company has so much road course experience. Are there better options?

Awesome. I'll buy some Moogs and try them out.

As far as wheel bearings are concerned, it's one of the few things that I haven't yet done on any vehicle ever. Regardless of how the bearing r&r goes, it'll be a good learning experience. I'll pencil these in as the last thing on my to-do list.

Thanks for the help

 

Also. Eagles Canyon does have open track days; I beleive they are every other month and they are usually $150 for the whole day. I'll probably be at one up there in a few months.

 

N/A FTW!

Driver Mod Req'd!
That^^^will be your best friend........

 

Nir, WTF are you talking about?

 

Ha, I think he means that seat time is more important than a car making huge power
or something like that...maybe

 

Sell them both and buy a c5 vette...?

 

lol A C5 with driver mod would kick ***!

Side note: the hub tamer for changing wheel bearings is way overpriced on ebay (6xx.xx vs 285 shipped at toolwarehouse) and comes in a box that is about 5 times bigger and heavier than I expected.

 

I would take a C5 over my FWD shitbox any day. Not so much for a noob though.

<--- Newly converted 'Vette fan.