So the car is ever closer to being ready for the first HC race here in AZ. I went through a torturous internal debate, decision and rationalization as to why I should race my beloved itr in the HC (I won't get into the conversation as I would probably be institutionalized ) and stupidity won, so...

The first thing I addressed was the cage. I was weeks into negotiating with Kirk on a spnsorship for a cage which eventually fell through due to an overly optimistic rep that couldn't convince her bosses of the benefits of advertising on my car. I'm grateful now, since I really didn't want to add Kirk to the decor of my car and I found a great used Autopower cage from a local guy that went custom in his beast (thanks alot, Eric!).
So thanks to Danny (DMF) with http://www.Revolutiontuning.com the cage was in the car in about 4 1/2 hours.

The next thing was the tranny. I've always been curious about different final drives and the HC gave me the perfect excuse to make some upgrades. I decided on the JDM final drive due to it's price and the fact that my car is still a daily driver. I went straight to Dave at R&D for the FD and he hooked me up with a great price as usual and had it in my hands in 2 days.
Thanks alot, Dave I'll be back for more soon

To go along with the FD I decided on an ACT HDSS clutch and a Comptech flywheel, but after several people warned me off of aluminum, I settled on trying out the Kaiten one piece chromoly 9.5 lb flywheel.

I wasn't expecting a big difference since I didn't go "all out" and get the ATS, but the feel of the car has changed dramatically and like everyone says about lower final drives- it is not a subtle mod. You definitely feel the added torque, esp before VTEC. FWIH the ATS accelerates like you're a gear lower, but with the JDM I'd say you feel like you're in VTEC before you really are, and when you are redline just happens sooner Sorry for the bad description, it's hard to explain but VERY easy to recommend. The only bad side is highway driving but... ah screw it, you know already.

Overall I give the "new tranny" only because I was expecting revs to be a bit quicker. But I love it.

Tomorrow I'll be ordering everything else (safety wise) the car needs for the first race happening a mere 2 weeks from now! You ECHC guys have been doing this for a while now but for me this will be my first WTW racing and the butterflies have started already. I'm nervous about hurting the car (internally or externally) but what are you gonna do. In the end, it really is only a car.

I have a great sponsor that is helping me incur alot of expenses and helping me prep the car, so I also wanted to give a HUGE thanks to the guys at Superior Racing Development in Tempe for all their enthusiasm with my project. They're primarily drag racing specialists but have branched out with an autocross hatch and my car, so props to them for expanding their horizons

If anyone's interested I'll try to get pics up when everything is done

 

glad to hear that things are going well! hopefully i'll get to check it out next time i'm home.

-tony