So I came to somewhat of a crossroads with my Turbo astra with regards to its ability/suitability for the track.
I had purchased cams and a standalone ECU to go further with it, but looked at the cash that would have been outlayed and thought it more sensible to look at other options.

The Astra, whilst relatively quick, is much better as a street car due to early spool, oodles of torque, leather seats etc.
Going further for the track would have ruined it.

So the hunt was on for a more suitable track car, i looked around at the options and yes being the FWD fan that I am, looked in this direction.
I missed my old sr20ve nissan pulsar, the light chassis, response and 8000rpm+ revs, and having to wring its neck for performance, but doing conversions etc didnt appeal to me from a cost/effort factor.

I've always respected and admired Hondas, they really are the kings of lightweight, FWD performance, so I looked at my options.
After looking at an olld EF civic - i was going to buy but seller pulled out at the last minute, road tested some ******* 250,000km VTIR (GS-R for you US folk) integras with the intention of building them up from scratch, when a contact informed me a friend was selling his converted EG civic.

I organised a test drive, was impressed and did the sums on what the gear in it would cost me to slap into a cheap civic/integra and the sums came in favour of the car with the lot already done.
Some history on the car....

It was built back in 2004 by Gabe (owner of honbits), who took a JDM Type-R integra and other parts cherry picked, and piled over the bits to an EG chassis.
Its been through a couple of owners since then, and I took ownership about a year ago now

Full spec list upon purchase:

Type-R b18c Jap spec 147KW Motor
Type-R Close ratio G/Box
Type-R Radiator full length
Type-R ABS This is the only one in Aus AFAIK
Type-R F&R brakes
Type-R 5 stud Hubs and Abs Lines
Type-R Front Sway bar 28mm
White Line Rear Sway bar 22mm
D2 Gen 3 Coil overs
Type-R DC2 Dash inc full console and type-R badge
Mugen Full Exhaust system including 4-2-1 Manifold and twin loop muffler
Mugen Stainless Dials Dial kit and Dials
Oil Cooler with braided lines and speed flow fittings
Oil Filter Relocation Kit
Type-R Aircon
Cusco Catch Can
Gates Hi Flow Thermostat
Earth leads
DC2-R Red Recaro Seats
Dc2 Type-R 15" Wheels
Carbon Spoon Mirrors
Ultra 3 point front strut bar
Ultra 4 point rear strut bar
Ultra 2 point Lower Strut bar
Ultra 2 Point Lower Strut bar Rear
Ultra 2 point Upper Sturt Bar Rear
K&N Pod Set up
Momo Tuner Wheel
Carbon Quick release Boss kit NRG
Rear Type-R seats
Gates Camgears
Carbon Spark plug Cover
Mugen Brake and hydulic oil covers
Red Recaro Fabric Door Cards
Type-R Gear ****
Type-R Shfiter
Hard Race Front Camber Arms
Cusco LSD


Heres a couple of pics from when i bought it





Then the mods started

Yokohama AD08-R semi slicks
DBA clubspec rotors

QFM A1-RM brake pads
Penrite Sin brake fluid

I then took it to the track and the car overheated pretty much immediately.
We did a pressure test and found that it was very slightly leaking.
Hence further purchases

Mishimoto DC2R full size rad
Mishimoto shroud + fans
new thermostat and coolant and hoses

Upon starting work, this is what we found


Hugely corroded.
So combination of some new parts, and some custom fabrication:




Had to replace the mishimoto fans/shroud as they didnt clear the headers.
Now has a pair of SPAL fans.

Finally managed to get it to the track and last the day!

Midvale:

Long Track

Short Track

Fitted Bride low seat rail for some additional clearance as i'm 6'2, and some gauges


Took it to the drag strip and only managed to run a 14.8 @ 94mph with crap 2.3-2.4 60' times.


Purchased some Hasport billet engine mounts as the factory ones were shot.
Replaced the exhaust with a Varex rear muffler (switchable volume via remote), and a 2.5" high flow cat converter, much louder now!


Lastly ordered a hondata and some ID600 injectors and got them fitted.
Not big gains but one less thing to do later when i do the valvetrain


Probably leaning towards some skunk2 or DDtech cams, springs, retainers and LMA's.
Not keen on building the motor at this stage

Thanks for reading!

 

Sick hatch bro

 

Beautiful. Subscribed

 

What a find! She's a beauty!
I had a black EG before, & thats basically how I wanted it to look. Sold it before I started the transformation. Finally got back into the honda game!
I'm going to follow this thread, I might be in the market for another EG.

 

when i was looking i would have liked an EK or DC2 as they're a bit newer, but the lighter shell and still good looking (to me) EG also appealed.

The fact that it came with pretty much the bonest of a DC2R underneath all done was a big bonus.

Cosmetically i'm really happy with how it looks, maybe a few carbon bits and maybe some white JDM wheels to finish it off

More about the performance than the looks for me

 

that's an extremely clean bay despite not being tucked/shaved, guessing you're in the UK? what track is that?.

 

Its not so "clean" after a few track outings but will get to that eventually.
I'm in Perth, Western Australia

Track was wanneroo (45 mins out of city) and collie (2.5 hrs out of city)

 

Nice hatch. What camera are you using, its a nice set up.

 

in the car racing?
Just an Iphone with an app called Harry's Lap timer, highly recommended

 

This thing is gonna fly with some DDTECH camshafts.. Boy, such a great, solid foundation you've built.

 

decided to pull the trigger on some goodies for the head...

DDTech stage 2 cams
Supertech Valve springs and Ti retainers
OEM spring LMA's

Any recommendations on good and cheap cam gears?
previous owner said it has gates cam gears in it but pretty sure these dont even exist - he probably meant cam belt.
Probably skunk2?

Will change timing belt, tensioner and water pump as unsure of their age and health.

Hopefully will net me 20-30hp and a fatter power curve.
Will of course be fully tuned via S300 after install.

 

Uh, something seems wrong about that dyno chart. First off, it shoots up at ~3200 RPM? Second off, the horsepower and torque values don't cross at 5252. Those values will ALWAYS cross at 5252, and if they don't, either your tuner is lying to you, or your tuner's dyno is lying to him. There's something seriously fishy going on ITT.

 

the lower spike is when he put his foot down and the dyno ramps up
the values dont cross as the scales on the sides are different

 

went with Skunk2 Pro cam gears, and parts have all finally arrived, in for install at the end of the week and tune on the 30th.
Fingers crossed the parts combo all works out and get some decent torque/hp gains

 

that hatch is BEAUTIFUL!!! ...or a more "manly" word...SICK!!

 

Beautiful is ok by me too

So, time for an update...
Firstly want to point out, this post is not a shot at DDtech - he has tried to be very helpful with information and offered to help out with the cams, but heres the story.

I purchased a set of 2nd hand (but unused) DDtech stage2 cams from a member here, and they came with a cam card for degreeing.
I gave all this to my mechanic, and when they installed them they were noticing some strange behaviour with the exhaust cam, in that the specs they were measuring were far off the cam card.

After trying both methods of cam measurement, this was still the case.
Spoke to DDtech, who then sent through a 2nd cam card (yes, 2nd card for same set of cams...) - these settings unfortunately also didnt match up.

In the end we set them to what DDtech said to, and got it towed off to the dyno, as the car would barely idle let alone drive.
Tuner got the car on the dyno and it ended up making ~30hp less on vtec than the factory cams.

Started playing with cam gears, advancing the intake didnt do much (this was dialled in during installation and was ok).
Started advancing the exhaust and power started to come back up.
In the end, we ran out of adjustment on the cam gears - 8+ degrees and we ended up with 10hp less than the factory ITR cams.

DDtech believes that they may need more advance, and admitted that there were some issues with his grinds from when the cam was made (i suspect the offset is just too much for me to get adjusted out)

Unfortunately for me, as I need to pay a mechanic, tow truck and a tuner at high costs to continue to troubleshoot them, and have no real base degreeing settings to work from its just not viable to continue with these cams.

I'll be pulling them out and replacing them with a more proven design from another manufacturer and trying again.
This isnt to say that DDtech's newer ground cams arent good - they may well be, but with the money lost so far I cant take another guess and need something that will just work.

p.s. the DDtech cams will be up for sale on here eventually (at heavy discount) - they would probably suit someone who can get them installed and played with cheaper than what I can, they may then get the intended results.
DDtech also agreed to take a look at the cams and rectify any issue found, which will be good for the buyer on your side of the ocean - so good customer service there.

So look forward to a further update once I get some new cams in and hopefully make some gains!

 

Absolutely gorgeous!!!