I currently have a GSR and against everyone saying not to do it I am going to coninue my journey and rip the interior out in an attempt to make it a track car.

Here is my question: For those cars, like a GSR, who have electronic everything. For example electric windows, electric locks, etc. How do you handle this if you remove the door covers where the switches are? Do you convert the car to the old style roll up windows? Is this allowed? Any insight? I am assuming Scott and Karl could comment. If you see this please do!

Thanks in advance!

 

Who's "everyone" that told you not to do it?

And if its just a track car, that doesnt mean you have to rip everything out. Electric windows are nice, especially after you've put on your harness and forgotten to roll them down. So is A/C on grid in the summertime.... Some things arent worth the marginal gain unless you're in competition. I wouldnt bother until its got no registration/tags/insurance and spends its life on a trailer when not at the track.

 

Don't take the door panels out yet. I made that mistake and found out that I needed them in the car or had to make aluminum panels. That was unnecessary work! What type of cage will you / do you have in the car? Check the rules for the club regarding door panels.

Take out the carpet, rear seats, passenger seat, strip all of the gargage off the floor (sound deadening stuff), and then take the A/C out. Then with everything in the car, weigh it and see where you are compared to the min. weight of the club you are racing with. I had an unusual problem - I stripped the car and found out that it was underweight.

 

Just to clarify, when I said everyone told me not to I am referring to racing a GSR since it is not "optimally" classed. i.e the typical Scott advise which is great, I do not want to discount it, but for me the GSR makes sense.

Back on topic - for further clarification, I currently have been doing HPDE's and would like to get to the next big thing. What this is is not clear as of yet, but I would like to add additional safety to the car. So I will be removing my rollbar this winter and adding a roll cage. With this transformation taking place many of the nice things seem to go away and I was really asking what nice things to do you leave (AC?) and which do you take out?

 

I probably said it before, but if this is what you really want to do... then go for it.

But you will spend more money "just getting out there" than if you had just bought a car already prepared.

 

RJ's got a good point, just because you are going to deidacte the car to be "track only", it doesnt mean you ahve to strip everything out also. who cares about a couple pounds of plastic. you dont have to show everyone else you are "hardcore". although i think AC would be the part i would take out. otherwise, you dont need to do anything else to make it a "track car".

 

i would only remove what is absolutely necessary to install these safety upgrades you speak of. plus, certain orgazinzations require headliners, door skins, etc., things of that nature that would be a pita to reinstall/recreate down the road.

as many can attest to, not everyone gets to see their 'daily-driver-turned-racecar' dream through, which means you may have to make your car somewhat civil again someday. if you're not w2w right now, the extra few pounds of interior and sound deadening won't matter much.

i am installing a rollbar in my hpde/dailydriver/wannaberacecar right now, but am going to great lengths to preserve the interior as much as possible, just in case my wife gets pregnant before i get my racing license.

 

i actually love my stripped down hatch. having nothing at all really doesnt bother me the slightest. i dont even have a radio or speakers. this is also still my daily driver, but only for a few more weeks. then its a track and autox car only.

just take out what you think you can live without. save everything though just in case.

 

I still consider my GSR streetable... We just fabricated a "you weld" autopower roll cage (bolt in- a little project for fab experience and a lil safety before we do the real-deal roll cage next month) The dash and the door panels are intact (windows still electronic), and I actually have the radio/speakers in it still- but the back half has been gutted (no carpet either). Sparco seat. Toyo RA-1. Koni/EIbach. ST Sways.I also took the AC out...

I drive it to and from the track, its not too bad... (Buttonwillow last week, 4 hour drive for us, each way! ive done it a BUNCH o times)

Come to think of it, I drive my Wannabe racecar GSR on the street more than my NSX!

 

Hopefully you have something to do with this..

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just in case my wife gets pregnant before i get my racing license.
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Everybody's comfort level is different.... some people like gutted..
also depends on how much you drive and how much you care about your pass. comfort..

 

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Jeremy, here's my observations.

With most things, you'll have to do two things. The first is unplugging the wiring harnesses from whatever you're removing. This is easy, as Honda was gracious enough to supply us with quick release fittings for most everything electric. Want to pull the rear spoiler? Disconnect the wiring harness for the 3rd brake light, undo four bolts, and its gone. Power locks? Same thing.

Trouble is that when you do these things, other things stop working.

The more important question is the use of the car. If it is still to be street driven, you'll want the windows to work (just one example of many). The problem here is that if you want windows to work, you have to retain the stuff behind the interior panel. This stuff (the window actuators mechanism, the motor, etc) is the stuff that's actually heavy. And the glasss itself os heavy. The door panel is, in the grand scheme of things, not all that heavy.

Should you decide to gut the car completely, don't cut back wiring harnesses like I did. I'm in a spot where things like the horn just don't work anymore. I'm not sure if it's because of my religious cutting-back-of-wiring or what, but bottom line, myhorn doesn't work.

FWIW, I did not do any sort of hand-crank window thing. Since the mechanisms are the heavy bits, I chose to not care.

 

What we have here is the classic not-a-street-car, not-a-race-car conundrum.

What is the purpose of the vehicle?

If it's a racing car, your answers are dictated by a rulebook - at least what you CAN do. What you decide to do may differ based on priorities, compromises, and budget. Race cars have all of the safety equipment mandated by the sanctioning body in which they run.

It it's NOT a racing car there is nothing to be gained by making it lighter - which is the ONLY reason for pulling all of that stuff out, once allowances have been made for safety equipment. These are called "street cars" if the point is anything besides attempting to get around a track in less time than (a) someone else, or (b) your previous best time. If the point is to develop comfort at speed, car control, or placement knowledge - without timed laps - then you still have a street car.

If the point IS to "go fast" - evidenced by the recording of lap times - I argue strongly that one has turned the corner and now has a "race car" (see above). It is POSSIBLE to build a "race car" that doesn't fit any particular rulebook but it is not very clever, as it dramatically increases the chance of getting financially reamed in the process, when it has NO resale value rather than the ideal small percentage of the cost of the parts to build it.

I worry a LOT about the freakish gray area that some people occupy between the street and racing. I frankly don't think that it's a very healthy place to hang out...

Kirk

 

I like having AC on the grid at CMP (where it's ALWAYS hot, even in April). Even a working radio is pretty bitchin'. I can crank up some Halen as I put my helmet over the AC vents to cool it before I put it on. Not so bad. Power windows? I wouldn't know what those were. But I'd take them since the part that makes them "power" really isn't all that heavy. Robert Williams did quite well with his R in ECHC H2 this year with working A/C (I think), a radio (I heard it on grid) and a partial interior. I know the car was streetable, because it drove away from VIR while his trailer carried Chad's dead "car"cas.

Matt&lt;---constantly hanging out in the grey area Knestis dislikes....

 

grey area... i heard thats where the is.... i'm all over that nizzle...

 

Need to clarify. A racing car with AC is still a racing car. I've got the option of removing mine (under SS rules) but am going to leave it in for exactly the reason Matt explains. I've already accepted that it's not going to be a competitive SSC ride (by buying an old-*** GTI) so the additional laptime penalty of the AC is immaterial. That's one of the "compromises" indicated above. I'll have seats, a headliner, and a lot of other "street car-ish" stuff but that doesn't mean it isn't a race car.

K

 

More clarification: The car is currently not driven on the strrets but once every two weeks to make sure everything is running and woking smoothly. Otherwise the only time it sees the road is going to and at the track. I can walk away from this car at any moment... With that said my idea was to in the "off season", which is aweful long in CT BTW, to add additional safety by adding a roll cage and removing my roll bar. In this event, I thought it just made sense to remove the other non neccessary items like the carpets, headliner, moonroof (per SCCA regs), etc. So I was looking at the Kirk Racing Deluxe Roll Cage kit and was going to install it and save ~$1000 bucks. This safety in my mind is a neccessary evil since when you enter this arena called racing its not a matter of if, its a matter of when. Really, I was thinking that if I will be going as far as to put a cage in the other stuff is also not neccessary.