Well I always wanted a racecar and I finally have the opportunity to do it.
Here is the short version of my story.
I’ve been into imports since high school when it was barely taking off (93'), when you would buy Turbo magazine and it would be filled w/ GN’s and have one import article.
When Junior and Miles battled in their 12 sec. machines and everybody was in awe of them. Well I got the bug and went a different route. I bought a RX-7 turbo II and built it to the best of what I could do. Rotary Power street port, HKS exhaust mani, Deltagate, T04 turbo, Spearco front mount, F-con, AIC, ect... Boy was that car fun! Fire breathing and fire spitting, raw and loud.
Well it sat a lot more than I got to drive it, between building and 4 blown motors, I had, had enough. Meanwhile my friends where having fun just abusing there Hondas and still driving them daily. Well, I followed suit, and bought a clean 88 CRX Si, I added all the regular bolt-ons and enjoyed it as a daily driver.
Well, fast-forward a couple of years, I got married and was having a kid so I needed to get a larger car w/ a back seat. I got an SUV and totally felt like I was betraying my compact roots. I was planning to keep the Rex and build it up a little more. As luck would have it, my kid sisters car broke down and being a poor college student I felt sorry for her and gave/lent her the Rex till she could afford her own car.
3 years later, she finally said the words I awaited desperately to hear “ The Rex is yours I bought a new car”.
Well a little abused and very used, faded and worn, but complete and intact
w/ 190k miles she’s mine again!! Ready to start a new chapter in her life, as a racecar!

So for the plans – She will be undergoing an extreme makeover, a little nip and tuck here and there, An extreme diet, some new fiberglass body components and a little paint.

I will start w/ the chassis (since that will remain the same) tearing everything out and replacing the front-end, doors, hatch, and rear bumper w/ fiberglass parts, Plexiglas windows and a 6-point roll bar.
The power plant will remain as the original d16, I plan to keep the mods very mild at first. The motor/heads will remain stock, the only addition being dual carbs and a cam to take advantage of the carbs. My thinking is to actually get used to racing again (it’s been many years) before actually adding some power.
1Is it enough power though? the car was a consistent 15.6 @ 89mph ¼ miler on street tires. I know I will gain a little extra w/ carbs and a cam.
2.What can I expect from a very light car that can hook up?
3.What size slicks should I get? I’d hate to buy twice, I was going to go for the 13” slicks that could handle my future power goals. Will that be too much for my staged performance goals?
4.Lastly, What size carbs should I go for? Keeping in mind that I will be adding a fully built motor later.
5.Does this sound like a logical approach? To do the chassis first and power mods later?
Lastly the engine will receive full attention once my wallet recovers and my skills sharpen. I’ve been lurking and hear good things from Exospeed, I’ll be giving them a call soon. Thanks for listening to my long story and answering my questions. I’ll post pictures later.

 

As long as you keep the motor as a 1.6L I would stay with such carbs as the mikuni phh 44 or the weber 45 dcoe carbs. You will not fully be able to benifit fromthe carbs and the larger cam if you do not have a head that flows well and a motor that you can only rec to the stock ledline. Try to find a cheap ported head, pick up a cam from Wil at exospeed.com, and some carbs. The hard part will be finding a manifold for it. Good luck in the future.

Derek

 

just trade me...=D

check sig if you want to save a lot of time. in so cal too