Well, while I love my R and the fact that I am now back in the Honda game, I completely forgot what a PITA the FWD struggles can be.

Case in point. I have crappy traction. I'm not talking about the usual off the line, I wish I had a RWD car so I can drag race traction problem either.

Quite often (unless some awesome road condition conspire with the perfect climate to negate this) I have extremely poor traction in 1st gear once I hit VTEC... i.e. I could be at half throttle at 4K RPM in 1st, go to WOT, still have traction, then hit VTEC and get wheel sip (accompanied at times by wheel hop depending on the conditions) up to 8500RPM.

If the road is slippery for whatever reason, you can kiss 2nd gear goodbye as well.

Now, I am assuming this has something to do with the JDM 98 spec ITR transmission I have in the car, plus the added power of the modified engine (but it still makes no torque, so WTF). I am running Azenis in a 205 width and the tires have a decent amount of tread on them... although they were on the car when I bought it and I have no idea how old they are (perhaps the rubber has hardened?).

So what should I do about this? I am planning on putting some motor mount inserts in (ES most likely) to eliminate the wheel hop issue... however I am not sure of this will fix my traction problems as well. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

less power.

 

LOL, hell no! 190WHP isn't nearly enough!

Of course, I'm jaded now. My previous DD (it's sitting in the garage right now collecting dust) is a 300RWHP/285WTq SW20 Toyota MR2...

speak of which, if anyone is in the market for an '91 MR2 turbo and/or parts there of...

 

I've never heard of anyone losing traction when they hit VTEC. But maybe that's an undesirable characteristic of the JDM engine, I don't know.

If the Azenis is the RT-615, it hasn't been around long enough that age would be a concern. It might be possible if it's the RT-215 though.

 

i didnt say it was. i DD my 300whp/210fttq R, and i still dont think its enough power.

but i have driven enough high power cars to know that WOT in 1st is gonna be fvckin useless. try feathering the throttle. not saying that 190hp is fast either, cuz its not.

 

What do you mean the added power of a modified engine? What kind of mods, what kind of power? All motor, turbo, what? Need to be a little more specific if you want help.

Stiffer motor mounts should negate some or all of the wheel hop.

What kind and size of wheels are you running? Get something 7" or 7.5" wide with a 215 or even 225 for more contact patch, and yeah what kind of Azenis?

 

As long as the tires are normally inflated to support the weight of the car, wider tires do not have a larger contact patch; their contact patch is wider (side to side), but shorter (front to back). The size of the contact patch is determined by the weight of the car and the inflation in the tires. If you have an ITR that weighs 2640 pounds, and the tires are inflated to 33 pounds per square inch, the size of the four contact patches is going to total 2640/33 = 80 square inches, and that is true regardless of whether your car has 175 mm treadwidth skinnies or 245 mm steamrollers.

If you want more traction, concentrate on getting stickier tires rather than wider tires. The Azenis is no longer the stickiest street tire on the market.

However, even if you have the stickiest tires out there, they may still slip on a high-power application, unless you're smooth with the go-fast pedal.

 

from my experience azenis are great for tracking, not drag racing. change your tires out for something else... try the federal 595 they have yet to break loose on my 356hp turbo gsr... just a thought

http://www.federaltire.com/en/html/p...&pdline=1&ID=1

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=544092

 

I stated info regarding power and wheels above, but Ill get more specific.

~190WHP@7850RPM - all motor JDM B18C ('98 spec) w/ CTR pistons, I/H/E, full face carbon/kevlar clutch, Toda lightened flywheel & JDM '98 spec B18C transmission... all tuned on a dyno running a P28 and Chrome Pro.



Wheels are Falken Azenis RT-615s' of 205-50-15 variety on stock 15" USDM ITR rims.

Thank you, but I'm not into drag racing. Any tire choice I make will be based on lateral grip rather than off the line traction.

My straight line traction loss in this case isn't stemming from launching the car from a stop. I'm talking about going WOT from a roll in 1st gear @ say 5000RPM and loosing traction.

 

what rpm are you launching at?do you have coilovers or stock suspension?if you launch at wot the tires will break loose.as far as tire choice id go with m/t drag radials they stick like glue

 

Sigh.

 

So uhh.. what RPM are you launching at man?

(kidding)

 

HAHA

OP, honest to god i had the exact same problem in my old EG8 with a B16 of all things (atleast i had crower cams ). Have you had the car aligned? I also had 205/50/15 RT615 azenis's, then i got it aligned and my toe was a good bit out, after alignment no more problem.

 

The only time I had traction trouble with my B18C-R was in the rain or cold temps which the tires say not for use in cold temps and obviously cold tires and cold ground theres a traction loss. Cold temps 1st gear VTEC would start spinning but not uncontrolable you would just feel it slipping but still grabbing. Then banging 2nd gear it would spin real good but a slower shift it would hook no problem. In the rain once day I wanted to see how bad it would spin, 1st useless, 2nd useless but moving, 3rd moving but slow, 4th slight spin then hook lmao. I would blame the tires. Either not rated high for traction or it falls into the cold or wet category which no tire really has superior traction in those conditions.

 

Check your torque mounts, they could be ripped or really bad condition. My friend just bought a GSR and as soon as it hit VTEC it would hop bad.

So I checked the torque mounts and they were both ripped from being so old. Went and picked up new ones and no more hoping in VTAK. Also Energy/Susp torque mount inserts are awesome, best 50 dollar mod ever for wheel hop.

 

I did mean side to side, nice bit-o-schooling right there, I have a question though, I haven't really kept up with anything in the last couple years, what tire kicked the 615 to the curb and how good is it? Like how are people liking it, what kind of tread wear do they have? Definitely nice still seeing you around here still.

 

See this topic. People like the newer, stickier tires a lot; they are typically lasting 15-20K miles, vs 10-12K for the Azenis.

Falken is about to release a new, improved version of the Azenis called the RT-615K.

 

Other than it being obviously damaged, what should I look for when inspecting these mounts?

And yes, the ES motor mount inserts were one of the best mods I had done to my old EM1. I could drop the clutch at 8K RPM and only get wheel spin. It completely eliminated all wheel hop. I'm going to be getting some of these for the ITR next week.

Good idea. I just bought the car ~3 weeks ago and have done squat to it other than putting gas in, and changing the windshield wiper blades. The car tracks straight on the freeway, so I didn't think the alignment was an issue, but I suppose that doesn't mean that it's 100%.

Its been cold/rainy here for the past few weeks, I suppose it could be a tire temp issue. Honestly, these are the first set of Azenis that I've had. I will have to give all this another try later in the week, since it's supposed to be warming up in the next few days.

 

Lots of stress cracks from the mad torque of the 1.8, just as bad as being torn.

 

how much mileage/kms on the car?
my stock rear mount cracked around 100,000~120,000 kms (62000 ~ 74400 mileages)
even w/ the ES engine mount insert

but then I launched pretty hard in the itr (lots of times of 5k~7k launch lol) in the past...lol