What do I need to do to my 97 Civic coupe chasis to make it more rigid than a ITR chasis.I have heard that the ITR has an additional chasis bracing system compared to the regular Integra chasis ...Anyone care to enlighten me? Will stitch welding the chasis achieve my goal as I have a welder and plenty of time.This challenge is for my own personal satisfaction so that is the reason that I am doing it.Please post only if you have experience and can help me NOT if you want to tell me that I am wasteing my time or "Why don't you just get a Type R".Thanks

 

the itr has added bracing and body stampings to help chassis rigidity..

seam welding will help your civic become "stiffer"

but if you add a few strut bars and a well designed roll cage you can far surpass the stiffness of the type R...

strut tower bars help keeping the suspension geomtry intact...

but you need both sets of wheels to stay true to each other as well...

the only way to achieve this would be a roll cage.

this twisting of the car is what you most often feel as chassis flex..

 

Seam welding is useful IF the rules you race under allow it (like SPEED Touring or SCCA Rally). I helped do a shell and it is a buttload of work. Obviously, if the rules don't allow it, it's a non-issue and I won't tell you that it is a waste of time on a street car.

I do goofy stuff just for the sake of accomplishing it sometimes (see the url below for an example), so I appreciate your honesty but understand that you will have a project for a LONG time - and no car for the same period. The good news is that an inexpensive MIG welder will do the job just fine.

Kirk

 

why don't you just get an ITR!!!

 

Lets start with the basics...

(for all intensive purposes, I will be using the JDM chassis code)

EG came out in 92
DC came out in 94

The DC is based on the EG chassis. Just like the Oddyssey/Acura TL is based on the Accord chassis.

EK came out in 96

With the fact that Honda seems to improve on the rigidity of their chassis (by a substantial amount) everytime a new generation comes out, such as;
4th gen Prelude---->5th Gen Prelude. With 55% better bending rigidity and 24% torsional rigidity
3rd gen Integra (DC)---->4th gen Integra/RSX (DC5). With 35% better bending rigidity and 116% improvement in torsional rigidity.

A little deductive reasoning would lead to this:
The enormous improvement of 100+% rigidity on the RSX is when it's compared to a chassis 2generations back (EG/DC). Undoubtedly it would have been alot less had it been compared to the EK chassis. So with that in mind, it would be more than fair to say the EK chassis (since it's newer) is stiffer than a normal EG/DC chassis. Because it lies in between the Integra---RSX production timeline.

Personaly, I have both cars and I can tell you the EK is more solid.

Nonetheless, the Type R does boast a handfull of structural improvements; strut bar here, performance rod there, thicker gussets, girder, wheelhouse thickness, and the like. However, whether or not those structural additions to the chassis made it stiffer than an EK (with the appropriate Strut/tie bars) is not a question a normal Joe Schmoe can answer.

IMO it's unlikely that few upgrades to the chassis after the fact, albeit done at the factory (ITR) can compare to a stiffer chassis to begin with (EK).

What can I say, I love EKs

 

Put a cage in your EK - that sucker will be stiff as hell afterwards.

BPR - who put a 6 pt in his Type R and can't believe the difference.

 

If you want stiffness, roll cages own!