The CR-X

[Jayden95]

Awesome read! Car sounded great !

[Toddxxx]

Always a good read tom.
Do you know what the official NA clubsprint record is? I might also be contending for that title this year depending on how things go.

Was nice to meet you and have a chat. Next up Wakefield update :P

[ChargeR]

Another car with an aluminum exhaust! Good work Tom! I did see the car at WTAC but you guys appeared quite busy at the time so decided not to intrude.

You should have just barged in, it's not like I was going to win anything so I wouldn't begrudge an interruption. Yep, aluminium for now...

i remember when i was explaining to someone how i'd removed my A/C system, and they said, "but you left the heater core?!?!?"

i replied "i have my reasons..."

Good reasons! I knew it was a terrible idea but ran out of time to come up with a solution.

Awesome stuff! Will you be coming to Winton on Labour day? Track has just been resurfaced

Thanks! Not going to make it Winton for Labour Day unfortunately, still have a list of things to tidy up and might be working on someone else's car that day. Though if all goes to plan maybe I'll be up there testing this other car .

Good to see an update from this. Well done again on winning the steak guy. Well deserved.

Awaiting the Wakefield update and more hopefully.

Thanks bloke, will get to the Wakefield update soon, but you were there, you know what happened.

Nice read as usual Tom!

Good chatting to you that day.

Thanks Felix, good to catch up.

Awesome read! Car sounded great !

Thanks! Opinions vary, I'm not a fan of the noise

Always a good read tom.
Do you know what the official NA clubsprint record is? I might also be contending for that title this year depending on how things go.

Was nice to meet you and have a chat. Next up Wakefield update :P

Cheers guy, good to meet you too. Getting to Wakefield! Looks like last year the quickest NA car was Stephen Jones in a Honda Civic FD1 with a 1:48.5, unless one of the 86s was NA. I'm aiming a bit higher than that though!

[Toddxxx]

Yep last years quickest was the fd civic. Just wondering if that's the quickest clubsprint NA to date. i might have to do some digging.
1:48 is very achievable! I'm heading out to smsp on the 22nd and finally have new tyres so we will see how we go
Ideally if I was to compete I'd be hoping for somewhere close to 1:45s. Should be achievable considering I've done 2 trackdays there and I'm at 1:51s already with zero power and worn out tyres

[ievaq8]

well done man...

[ChargeR]

Yep last years quickest was the fd civic. Just wondering if that's the quickest clubsprint NA to date. i might have to do some digging.
1:48 is very achievable! I'm heading out to smsp on the 22nd and finally have new tyres so we will see how we go
Ideally if I was to compete I'd be hoping for somewhere close to 1:45s. Should be achievable considering I've done 2 trackdays there and I'm at 1:51s already with zero power and worn out tyres

Sounds like a plan mate! Hope to see you there this year.

well done man...

Thanks!

With WTAC done and dusted it should have been time to bring the car back to Melbourne and tidy up all the loose ends left over from the rushed assembly. Instead of doing that I waited until the night before I needed to leave to go to Wakefield for our pre-Cup day track event and welded a muffler on, changed the engine oil, and then hit the road. The drive up was uneventful, nothing fell off the car or caught on fire.

After the long drive the EXE group and I stayed over night at the Wakefield cabins, but not before enjoying a hard earned victory steak courtesy of fellow WTAC competitor (and serial doubter) JimJim at a pub in Goulburn. Then rising bright and early to get on track, I made my out on to the track gingerly given last time I was here was in the trusty 42kW EF2, and I was again a long way from home in a car I put together mostly late at night. After a cautious first un-timed passenger session I started laying down some times, shown below:

1:29.4777
1:09.5569
1:09.5943
1:11.2563
1:09.9921
1:10.6651
1:22.0097
1:09.5379
1:31.6354
1:11.3668
1:11.2827
1:09.1138
1:09.6144
1:51.0228
1:12.4534
1:09.6554
1:32.4964
1:09.0886
1:09.1577
1:10.2075
1:09.0932

Plenty of 1:09s but I could not crack that elusive 1:08, though my nemesis Kam did in his TTRS. My excuse is that I had to organise the event as well as drive, not just swan about the pits and dance to Taytay like Kam. The day was mechanically uneventful with no issues with the car except for a dodgy fuel cap that fell off, but luckily stayed retained by the fuel flap, forcing me to abort a session when fuel fumes started entering the cabin.

The car should comfortably do a 1:08 or faster, I just need more practice and some time tweaking the car. I'm sure EXE crew will be doing the event again this year so I'm looking forward to getting on track at Wakefield again then, if not before.

A photo from the event stolen from Ying Bot:



Note PB machine Pete in the background. I managed to pip him by a couple of tenths this time at Wakefield, but I'll be very happy if I can be within a second or two of his Winton PB when we're there next!

That brings this thread up to date. The only thing that has happened since this event is regular driving of the car, to work once a week or so. I also went for a nice long cruise around the Reefton Spur with some mates and my (poorly fitted) muffler half fell off at the top of Lake Mountain. Nothing a few cable ties couldn't fix though.

Excluding that misadventure the car is running very well, and has completed more than 4,500km of happy motoring since I put it together (if my odometer worked, at the moment it shows the same 131,000km it did 3 years ago when I pulled it apart). Over the next few weeks I'll get into a few fixes on it before my first event for the year with Nugget Nationals at Winton on the 3rd of April. Unless I go to a sneaky test and tune with a certain K24 powered EP82 Starlet before then. If we miraculously get it done. Things to do include:

- Fabricate a new rear exhaust section. I'm thinking of buying this muffler to cut down on the drone: http://www.dynomax.com/mufflers/dyno...set-17966.html Plenty of good reviews, including a couple of 3" installs on K20A.org. I'd also like to get the whole exhaust including the header ceramic coated to try to cut down on the heat transfer through to the cabin. My feet get quite hot as it is with all the heat shields and under dash sound deadening removed. I'll do the rear section in mild steel for ease of welding and economy reasons, as I'm sure I'll change it again sometime. Goal with this change is less noise at partial throttle and slightly more at wide open throttle so I can feel like I'm going fast on track with an appropriate soundtrack. Should be lighter than the Magnaflow too.
- Finish my replacement front splitter brackets. I have replacement brackets laser cut, I just need to weld nuts on to them and paint them, make up the blade (I'll make it WTAC Clubsprint legal so I don't have to re-make it later) and start making an air dam
- Fix the speedometer and fuel gauge
- Fit the carpet and more trim
- Tidy up the horrific bonnet. At this stage I'll simply blank off the purge valve that's sticking through the bonnet, smooth out the hole, and then smooth the worse dents and paint the whole thing matte black.

Longer term projects are:

- Design and fabricate my own adjustable upper control arms. I think all the items available on the market are poorly designed, so I've got a concept that I just need to refine and then weld up a prototype. It will use shim type camber adjustment to eliminate any chances of slippage and retain the same amount of bump travel before control arm contact as OEM, if not a little more since on an EF the legs of the control arm hit the body before the ball joint end does.
- Fit a flex fuel sensor, wire it up to the ECU and tune the car properly on E85
- Make a new bonnet

As usual if you want a better write up on the events, check out Ying's blog here: https://noisyninja.wordpress.com/201...get-nationals/

[RC_dc2]

Sounds like a plan mate! Hope to see you there this year.

With WTAC done and dusted it should have been time to bring the car back to Melbourne and tidy up all the loose ends left over from the rushed assembly. Instead of doing that I waited until the night before I needed to leave to go to Wakefield for our pre-Cup day track event and welded a muffler on, changed the engine oil, and then hit the road. The drive up was uneventful, nothing fell off the car or caught on fire.

Isn't this always the way? Somehow even with plenty of time between events you suddenly remember a whole bunch of things that should have been done the only the night before....

Looking forward to the next updates.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Fun times at Wakefield. Look forward to seeing this out there at Winton in April!

[ChargeR]

Isn't this always the way? Somehow even with plenty of time between events you suddenly remember a whole bunch of things that should have been done the only the night before....

Looking forward to the next updates.

Haha yep, I think with this car I'll never get ahead of the list of things to fix.

Fun times at Wakefield. Look forward to seeing this out there at Winton in April!

Yep, it was a good time PB machine. Looking forward to seeing how the CR-X matches up against you and your car at Winton in only a few weeks time.

I drove the CR-X to work today, partly because I hadn't driven it in over a week and also so I could complete a couple of small tasks on it after work. I've been given a day or two off from working on K24 Starlets. Firstly I fitted up an MPC purge solenoid block off plate, so at least I don't have the purge valve sticking through the bonnet anymore. It's the little black thing on top of the throttle body:



As my car is registered and will be engineered for the engine swap I will need to retain all these emissions devices, so I will be relocating the purge valve using an Accord item which I can remotely mount beneath the intake manifold.

After that I started putting together my splitter brackets. Here's what I was working with, the original brackets on the left, and my laser cut replacements in the centre. You can see the difference in shape to allow the bracket to fit past my traction bar, and they also give approx 20mm lower splitter height.



First I welded the nuts on. I replaced the trashy 1/2" hardware that was provided with metric M12 x 1.25 nuts and bolts. Putting non metric hardware on a Honda is a bad idea.



All assembled off the car.



On the car.



The height adjustment range extends from a little on the low side, to way too low, but I'll see how it goes and if necessary revise the design. Now I just need to hit them with a coat of paint, make a splitter blade and fill the gap between the lip and the splitter with something.

I've also ordered the Dynomax muffler I mentioned above, a bracket to re-mount my battery, and some of the parts for the flex fuel setup. Will order some mandrel bends next week and hopefully get V2 exhaust done before Winton on the 3rd of April.

[Toddxxx]

excellent updates as usual tom

[ChargeR]

A belated update from my last event: Winton with EXE Crew. This event ran over Saturday and Sunday which gave plenty of time to practice the circuit and try out different approaches to certain corners, perfect for PBs. It was my first time on the new surface in a non-nugget, and the first time there in the CR-X in the dry. I was hoping to drop into the high 30s, and I was targeting a 1:38 so I would at least be faster than the old DC5, after all these years and effort.

The only change from last years configuration was a new rear section for the exhaust, after a mishap with my (admittedly poorly fabricated) aluminium rear section. No fault of the material though it was purely user error, and I would definitely do an aluminium exhaust again if I didn't care for my hearing. The new exhaust mates to the original front section I made with the Burns muffler, and includes a new Dynomax VT muffler part no. 17966. I used mild steel this time, and will get the exhaust ceramic coated stealth black in the future. Reviews from those track side were favourable.

We drove up on the Friday afternoon, and after sitting in traffic for hours the old CR-X made it to our accomodation without issue just in time to head down the pub for some dinner and a beer. The new muffler cut down on drone a great deal, and if I had a stereo I think I almost would have been able to hear it.

The weather was pretty much perfect for PBs all weekend, with fairly cool temperatures.

Lap times:

Saturday:

1:44.2600
1:40.1450
1:38.9680
1:39.1520
1:41.9200
1:37.2020
1:38.1350
1:37.7730
1:36.8860
1:52.9850
1:36.5610
1:51.9170
1:59.0890
1:38.3440

Sunday:

2:14.6800
1:44.5110
1:37.0640
1:37.1410
1:37.5150
2:02.0550
1:36.7360
6:36.3550
2:10.3060
1:38.2190
1:37.2290
1:36.6680
1:37.6980
1:36.8340
2:01.4420
1:38.0440
1:36.2660
1:36.3910

My best lap for the event was a 1:36.27, comfortably beating my old PB in the DC5, though it's unfair to compare the cars given the nearly 350kg weight difference, and 400 extra ccs of capacity.

I was very happy with the car overall though now having had a chance to drive it a track I'm more familiar with. Out of the box it's close to as brisk as I hoped, and is mostly just lacking some fine tuning and driver skill. On the advice of some other AD08R users I've started running slightly lower hot pressures which has improved the front end grip over the course of a lap. 1:35s on street tyres should be achievable, and perhaps even 1:34s with a few tweaks. Beyond that I'd simply like some additional front camber and to finish off my front splitter and air dam, and then I think I'll just keep practicing and fixing things as they break.

Here's a comparison between my best lap at this event and the test and tune before WTAC last year. Click for full size:



The difference in mid corner speed is obvious, and that's where much of the lap time gain has come from but it's surprising to see I was faster at some points last year, particularly under brakes into the S.

Here are some photos from the event thanks to Steven Le from Yez Racing: http://www.yezracing.com/





A few more photos from the event thanks to Charlie from JZXgarage, check out his write up on the event here: https://jzxgarage.wordpress.com/2016...rage-may-2016/









The car performed flawlessly all weekend, though I didn't do a lot of laps. Partly because I was still recovering from working 40 or 50 hours on the Starlet the preceding week, and also spent a bit of time worrying if the Starlet was going to blow up. The Starlet experienced a near flawless debut though, with Ying completing 57 laps over the weekend with a best lap of 1:40.1, without any VTC or VTEC functionality (which we've since corrected). Well done Ying:



The only negative from the weekend was a damaged synchro on 4th gear. Irrespective of temperature or RPM it crunches a little going when shifting to 4th. I'll remove the gearbox and assess the situation before the next event, at this stage I'm unsure if it was assembly error or a fault with the new synchros. That will be the only change I'll be making before I head to Winton for H Nationals in July, though I'd also like to make it to a test and tune before then to help get down into the 35s. I'm hoping for a 2nd place finish in class behind the PB machine Peter Nguyen in his S2000.

My left side corner light fell out also, and while it was banging around hanging from the plug it made a mess of the paint on the bumper and front guard, but I guess that's what happens to track cars.

The other issue I discovered is that I can't run more than 2 sessions from a full tank before the level will get low enough for fuel surge to be a problem, so I really need to correct this issue. As I'm carrying around 20kg of fuel I shouldn't need and running the risk of damaging the motor too.

[mnc]

Awesome update charger, quick little beast.

[felixR]

Well done Tom!

[RC_dc2]

Nice update, good to see it passing your expectations on the lap times!

A few questions if you feel like sharing....

Are you still running the Hawk Dtc 60/30's? How do you feel about them now you've run them a bit with the current setup, I hear good feedback but are quite hard wearing on rotors.

And what was the issue with the Al exhaust?

[Toddxxx]

im aiming for last place in group at h nats
1:50s, cant wait!