Just got a 1992 'lude (H23a) and want to set it up for said topic. Searched and didn't find anything, archived or recent. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

just give up now, and get a 1989-1991 Civic Si hb. You'll spend about the same amount of money preping a prelude, as you would to buy the civic si and fully prep it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RAB &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just give up now, and get a 1989-1991 Civic Si hb. You'll spend about the same amount of money preping a prelude, as you would to buy the civic si and fully prep it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

sad thing is he's right too. civics will dominate at autox reguardless of what u do to your prelude.

 

I'll assume that the car was not purchased with the intent of autocrossing, but now you have found autocrossing and you want to set your car up for it.

First off you should read the rules to see what classes allow for what modifications. The easiest to deal with would be stock (so spring changes allowed), however there is a huge number of hondas in STS (do allow spring changes).

Depending on how far you want to go with your car's setup will limit your choices. A lot of FWD Hondas have success with something in the 400f/600r range or higher. Depending on your shocks this might be a little rough if you daily drive your car. If so you might want to consider 300f/400r, it's the rear spring that most effects the ride quality.

These are just general suggestions and over time you will probably want to change them or adjust them to your needs.

 

I drove ( and won) a local autocross in STS in a 98 Prelude VTEC with 500/600 rates, koni yellows, Falken Azenis 215-45-16, I/H/E and progress rear sway bar. It was a decent car considering its weight. Good torque and decent turn in (its never going to beat the 88-91 Sis though). I would go higher rates if it was only to use as an autocross toy however. Perhaps something on the order of 600/800 with properly rated Konis.

 

What class are you running in? I don't think anyone currently is running a fully prepped Prelude in any of the non-stock classes, so there's not much point comparing to anything. It would cost a lot to fully prep one to National level.

If you wanted to stick to G Stock, despite not being one of the current favorite cars, I think it's capable there so long as you do everything within the rules to lighten it.

As far as setup, like RineRacing said, you need to pick your class first. From the tone of your post, I'm guessing you're new to autocross(?). If so, be prepared to not be competitive no matter what class/car you have. Lots of folks have been doing it a long time, and they're hard to beat. If you're new, don't bother messing with the car at first, just go out and have fun. Then when you're comfortable, start looking for some new toys for the car.

If you are on street tires, then you'll want pretty high tire pressure up front (~45-50) and a reasonable pressure rear (~26-35). The lower you go in the rear, the more understeer you tune out. Some people will tell you the opposite (higher rear than front) but that doesn't work on Preludes (I've tried).

For G Stock, the first thing I think you'd want to do is get a light weight 15x6.5 wheel. Then, R compound tires, 225/50/15 range and the usual suspects - Koni Yellows, alignment (this can be done first too if you're not going to change shocks for a while. Then re-align after the new shocks), lightweight battery, lighter aftermarket exhaust. That's all I can think of right now.

For STS, all of the above(except tires) plus CAI, stiffer springs, stiffer rear sway bar, ECU reflash, cornerweighing... Just go here for what needs to be done in STS
http://www.sccaforums.com/ubb/...2/907

 

I was thinking stock. I have never owned a car that was capable of autocrossing, just thought that this would be an easy start, nothing fancy. Did you say that different spring rates are allowed in stock, and also no touching the motor?

 

The guy to talk to is Vince Bly. He was an early convert to STS in a 4th gen (I think that's 92) Prelude. He is not on this list but you can poke around the DC area autocross haunts and probably scare up an email address for him.

-Alan

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by axilla16 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Did you say that different spring rates are allowed in stock, and also no touching the motor?</TD></TR></TABLE>

You can't change the springs, rear sway-bar, or touch the motor in the stock classes. You can change the shocks though in a stock class.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by axilla16 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was thinking stock. I have never owned a car that was capable of autocrossing, just thought that this would be an easy start, nothing fancy. Did you say that different spring rates are allowed in stock, and also no touching the motor?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Stock is an easy start. For starting out, you'll probably just want to drive the car as is, no adjustments. You'll find that there's a pretty big learning curve, and you can pretty much learn on any car. Just do the tire pressures in the range I mentioned. What kind of tires are on the car?

The basic philosophy in Stock is to only allow replacement of 'wear items'. Things like brake pads and rotors, shocks, exhausts (which rust out). Sometimes older cars don't have OEM parts available so rules allow for any aftermarket part that follows stock specs (this is where the rules like the lightweight wheels come in. So long as their stock size with stock offset +/- 1/4").
Vince Bly had a VTEC Prelude, but the guy who helped me a lot when I started (and is a great guy) is Jamie Sculerati http://www.mindspring.com/~jsculerati/sdr/
Setup tips http://www.mindspring.com/~jsc....html
He's been autocrossing Preludes for a long time, and currently runs the same Prelude you have. His e-mail address is on his site under Sponsorship Opportunities. You really can't find a nicer guy or better information than from him.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Steppin Razor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Stock is an easy start. For starting out, you'll probably just want to drive the car as is, no adjustments. You'll find that there's a pretty big learning curve, and you can pretty much learn on any car. Just do the tire pressures in the range I mentioned. What kind of tires are on the car?

The basic philosophy in Stock is to only allow replacement of 'wear items'. Things like brake pads and rotors, shocks, exhausts (which rust out). Sometimes older cars don't have OEM parts available so rules allow for any aftermarket part that follows stock specs (this is where the rules like the lightweight wheels come in. So long as their stock size with stock offset +/- 1/4").
Vince Bly had a VTEC Prelude, but the guy who helped me a lot when I started (and is a great guy) is Jamie Sculerati http://www.mindspring.com/~jsculerati/sdr/
Setup tips http://www.mindspring.com/~jsc....html
He's been autocrossing Preludes for a long time, and currently runs the same Prelude you have. His e-mail address is on his site under Sponsorship Opportunities. You really can't find a nicer guy or better information than from him.</TD></TR></TABLE>

stock is a good place to start, but ironically, stock classes can be one of the more expensive classes to run in (R-comps, crazy shocks). It all depends on if you want to commit that much to A/X, which is all sort of irrelevant until you get enough seat time for mods to matter.

once you get a year of A/X'ing under your belt, you'll have a much better understanding of what you will want to do to your prelude. For the first year, don't worry about winning anything, just work on improving every time out.

with that said, eventually you'll pick a class that you want to run in--popular prelude classes are STS, STX, GS (4th gen vtecs might be pretty competitive here), and SM. I'm running a 5th gen in STX and have spent a fair amt of money on it, my current problem is that the car is still (much) faster than i am.

my current build for STX is:
i/h/e, ground controls (450/550), koni yellows, a sway bar, a quaife, 15x7 w/ 205/50/15 azenis. one of my biggest issues with this car ever being more compeitive is tire selection. the gearing is too tall already, so i cannot run the popular 225/45/17 sizes, the wheel wells too narrow to run anything larger than a 225 w/o lots of # crunching and fenderrolling, and in the end, the car weighs alot for a car expected to run on 215/45/16's or 205/50/15's. what i like about my car is that it's well behaved at speed, fairly easy to drive, and powerful enough to make HP an excuse.

the prelude was always the blacksheep of the honda family, and it's sort of a black sheep in auto-x. it's not THE car to have (which also means it's underdeveloped as a platform), but it's also not completely incompetent so there's just enough hope to keep me going back for more.

vince w. won STX in a very competitive region (Southern California) in a prelude SH. he's an outstanding driver, but it shows that you can def win on a local level with one. i believe he or one of the other lude drivers that went to nationals last year placed 15th.

 

What is i/h/e and can you do anything to the engine in stx? I really wanted coilovers but apparently can't do that in stock.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by axilla16 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What is i/h/e and can you do anything to the engine in stx? I really wanted coilovers but apparently can't do that in stock.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Intake/header/exhaust. No, you can't touch the engine in STX.

bad-monkey is right about the tire selection. If a 225/40 235/40 or 245/40 were available, the prelude would be a whole lot more competitive in STS/X. But you don't have to worry about that right now anyway.
He's also right about determining how much you want to commit. A fully prepped Prelude for STS could cost you a few grand in tire testing, a few hundred in dyno tuning, a few grand having custom built parts (not a large selection for many parts), a few grand in custom DA shocks + several spring rates to find the best one, etc..
I for one am only willing to commit enough resources to tell myself the Prelude could be competitive "if only"...

So, decide if you just want to go and have fun/enjoy your hobby or if you want to compete seriously.

bad-monkey, I thought all VTEC preludes were in DS??

 

I talked with a friend and was thinking about just doing all the things to the car I want to like complete coilovers, sway bars, wheels and tires, nothing engine yet. This way I can have what I want for the street and start, as a hobby for now while still in college, the autocrossing days. I completely understand that I won't be competitive, but still able to learn. In a perfect world either I or my family will win the lottery and I can skip the autox, SCCA club stuff and go right into Speed World Challenge or ALMS, my main offenders. Also if anyone is interested in that stuff, me and a bunch of my friends will be at Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta in a few weeks, down in the skidpad with an RV.

 

Make sure the car is in good order, has decent tires and go have fun.

The biggest return on your time (and $$) will be from learning how to drive at this point... do a few autox schools and get a season of events under you first.