The CR-X

[Toddxxx]

This just made me realise how slow my S2000 is, which is slightly depressing. Haha.

S2K is slow but makes up for it with chassis ability

[Toddxxx]

I think you'll end up with around 155. We will just have to wait and see but that's where's my money is at.
That will be quite an amazing power to weight ratio though! Like Peter said it does make the S2K seem quite slow haha

Interesting with the fuel starvation. Not carrying all that fuel around will definitely help!

[ChargeR]

This just made me realise how slow my S2000 is, which is slightly depressing. Haha.

But it makes up for it with your pro driving and that perfect chassis balance!

I can't wait until you put some full size tyres on this and you're chasing Jim Jim around!

You flatter me my friend.

I think you'll end up with around 155. We will just have to wait and see but that's where's my money is at.
That will be quite an amazing power to weight ratio though! Like Peter said it does make the S2K seem quite slow haha

Interesting with the fuel starvation. Not carrying all that fuel around will definitely help!

155 would be just nice, and I'd expect the tune to bring heaps more mid range torque as I put more intake cam advance in it, so it should really scoot out of the corners then!

[ChargeR]

Another belated update. Late last year I packed a change of clothes and my toothbrush into the CR-X again and headed up to Wakefield Park. No time for any changes on the CR-X since WTAC bar some fluid changes and a quick wash to remove 2000km worth of dead bugs.

After a quiet drive up, the track day dawned with cool but sunny and conditions. Perfect for some quick lap times. There were only 25 drivers at the event, which guaranteed heaps of track time. I skipped the first session to help out running the event, and made use of the spare time to bolt on the aero bits and give the car a brief check over before heading out for the 2nd session.



Within a couple of laps I dropped down into the 1:08s, improving from a 1:09.0 best lap at the same event last year. A great start to the day, but it was clear there was more in it. Maybe the front splitter made all the difference, but to be brutally honest I'm only now becoming comfortable in the car, and more familiar with the power and handling. I'm a bit of a slow learner I think, but I'll get there eventually. I'd put the bulk of the improvement down to the imperfect device between the seat and the steering wheel.



Since I can't do more than one or two fast laps before the tyres overheat and understeer becomes termina, my strategy is to go out and complete one warm up lap and then go straight into flying laps, much like WTAC. I need to get the car to a point where I can do more consecutive consistent laps though, if only so I can get more practice as a driver!






Putting it all together I laid down a 1:07.7 lap, an improvement of more than a second since my last time at the track, and 1:06s are in reach. To put it in perspective the top 3 places in the Neova Challenge earlier in the month were all within the low 1:05s, and 2 of those cars ended up in the top 3 at World Time Attack, though I think Dan in the EK had issues at the Neova cup, so perhaps not representative of his potential.

Here's a video of an earlier untidy 1:08.5 lap, unfortunately no footage of my best lap. There's plenty of work to do on my driving, watching this video back I can see that my transition from braking to turn in needs work, and in general my steering inputs are messy.

Overall it was a great day, and it was good to dip into the 1:07s. With every event I'm getting closer to the cars potential, and I feel like I'm starting to improve a bit as a driver.

Below is a speed trace and min/max speeds for my best lap, and track map for reference.





Click it for the full size:



Unfortunately I don't have any good data from my last visit to Wakefield, but there is a couple of points for me to remember for next time:

- I'd be better off bouncing off the limiter in 5th at the end of the start finish straight rather than shifting to 6th, as my max speed of 180km/h is still just before the rev limiter in 5th
- When comparing to other laps I can negotiate T9 with a later and shorter lift off the throttle and maintain better mid corner speed and speed down the following short straight, which should be worth a few tenths
- As usual, I still think the car needs more tyre. It might be a bandaid to correct an issue that could be improved with suspension setup, but I've always fundamentally believed that staggered tyres on FWD is the right way to do it.
- I'm starting to get more comfortable with the brakes, but I'm still finding that the pedal feel is not as progressive as I'd like resulting in some locked tyres. We're developing a brake booster delete kit with correct pedal ratio and master cylinder diameter designed for track use not hard-parking and I'll be setting it up on my car soon, which should greatly improve feel under brakes.
- My shifting is a bit slow and clunky, I think I need to tweak the throw of the clutch pedal, and I'd like to make a spacer plate to re-position the shifter a bit

Thanks to all the folks who attended to make it a great day, including the Peters, Ying, Rhys and co. Looking forward to getting back to Wakefield to try to crack a 1:06 on street tyres.

[Toddxxx]

Bummed I couldn't make it to this day
Good work as always tom!
Interesting to see the closeness of a NA crx and supercharged beasts at Wakefield where power doesn't necessarily make a big difference.
Hopefully I can catch back up to you this year and maybe even have a NA battle at WTAC come October.

[ChargeR]

Bummed I couldn't make it to this day
Good work as always tom!
Interesting to see the closeness of a NA crx and supercharged beasts at Wakefield where power doesn't necessarily make a big difference.
Hopefully I can catch back up to you this year and maybe even have a NA battle at WTAC come October.

Thanks mate, we were disappointed you couldn't make it too. I think the closeness in times is maybe because those fast guys had issues that day, and conditions on the day we were there were perfect for PBs.

A few weeks after the Wakefield event I headed up to Winton with Circuit Club to see if I could crack that elusive 1:35 lap time. Basically the same setup as the last time I was at Winton for H Nationals, just the maintenance items and a couple of small other items done per the previous updates:

- Front end refurbish including hubs, bearings, lower ball joints, Hawk DTC60 pads and discs
- Front splitter
- Rev limit increased to 7,800RPM

Conditions were good for PBs, with a top of 19°C and a bit of cloud cover to keep track temperatures cool. After spending most of the morning helping out the guys running the event, then stuffing about fitting my splitter, I headed out for a few laps late in the morning.



Out of the 7 laps I did, the best for the day was a 1:37.28, about a second off my best pace here. As always I've got a ready supply of excuses though: Without being balked by my mate in the R33 with the broken mirrors I would have been comfortably into the 36s, and if I can drive the first half of the track as well as I have in the past the 35 second range should be within reach. Maybe even a 34.

Here's a video of the best lap, watch to the end to see R33 Skyline skids.

Unfortunately no data this time due to GPS problems, but comparing the sector split times from this event and my previous best a couple

- Holding 5th gear on the front straight is consistently worth 3 to 4 tenths improvement in lap time, part of which is better entry to the S as with less shifting I've got more time to focus on braking and turn in.
- The tyres may be past their best. The mid corner and exit understeer was noticeably worse this time out. At the next event I'm going to increase the rear anti-roll bar stiffness from it's current softest setting.
- Even with the increased rev limit I'm still running out of revs so I will be further increasing the rev limit to 8000RPM before my next event at Winton and crossing my fingers that it holds together.

The car is having a short holiday now to fix and modify a bunch of things before this years events get underway.

[felixR]

Better luck next time Tom!

What's next in terms of aero? Side skirts? Rear diffuser?

[RC_dc2]

That skyline was lucky to clear where the tyre wall juts out! I had a sliver R33 and it handled exactly like that one on the track, needed some better tyres.

P.s Your car sounds really good in the video.

[ChargeR]

Better luck next time Tom!

What's next in terms of aero? Side skirts? Rear diffuser?

Thanks boss man. Hopefully 2017 will be the year I finally hit my sub 35 goal.

Aero is a little way down the list, there's just so many other things I need to fix and tidy up! Probably the next aero work would be to revise the front air dam to recess it a (bit to maximise the area of the splitter that sticks out and also make it more easily removed), the mounting of the splitter, and make a new composite splitter which extends a lot further back to the front axle centreline per the Clubsprint rules.

I've made the decision that I'm basically very happy with the car in general, I just want to refine what I have, so there really won't be any wholesale changes. Until I start building my next car .

That skyline was lucky to clear where the tyre wall juts out! I had a sliver R33 and it handled exactly like that one on the track, needed some better tyres.

P.s Your car sounds really good in the video.

Thanks! Yep I've been happy with the sounds from the new Dynomax muffler I put on, I just need to tweak the fit of it a bit to maximise the ground clearance. I thought the guy was trying a bit hard as well, which is why I backed off quite a bit in case he ran out of skill .

[ChargeR]

Now we're finally up to the stuff I'm actually working on now. As I complained about in the Wakefield recap, I've never been happy with the brake pedal feel in the car. It doesn't feel progressive, with plenty of flat spots on my tyres as a testament. I'm not a great driver, but surely not that bad and I haven't had this issue in my other cars.

So it's time to attempt to fix the issue before I run out of tyre and/or money for tyres. To get better brake feel I've decided to remove the brake booster using a prototype of a kit we're making at Honed. Here's the basic idea: an adapter plate, finished in a fetching anodised satin black to match the rest of the engine bay scenery, plus the pushrod and master cylinder:



The master cylinder I'll use is a 13/16" from an ED6 Civic hatch, replacing the original CR-X SiR 15/16". The 13/16" diameter should hopefully give a good balance of pedal feel and travel with the smaller 262mm braking package on the CR-X, and it was something I had lying around anyway. I worked on a similar brake setup on an associate's Toyota Starlet with a 7/8" master and the pedal was just a little too firm for my taste and for my skinny legs.

First up I removed the original master cylinder, booster and brake pedal and in the case of the master and booster, turfed them into the bin. Then I needed to grind out a small area of the firewall to give clearance for the bit that protrudes out of the back face of the master cylinder. Difficult to start grinding on a car relatively recently painted!



Next job was to drill a new hole in the pedal to correct the pedal ratio. The new hole is gives a pedal ratio of 6:1, whereas the stock pedal measures out at about 4:1. 4:1 just won't work without the booster, as there's not enough leverage and it's a critical item that many overlook when removing the booster.



With everything suitably drilled, ground and hammered it was time to start reinstalling everything. First up the booster delete plate itself, with some studs that I scrounged up fitted to it to make the install a bit easier. I guess as easy as working on anything under the dash of a CR-X is ever going to be. The final kits will use nicer studs, and the factory Honda nuts in all locations.



Then master cylinder, pedal and pushrod in:



Then I made some new hoses to connect to the proportioning valve, I'm still using the stock prop valve relocated to the firewall out of the way of the motor. Created some templates for the hoses using some filler rod, and got all the tools I'd need together:



After a flurry of cutting, flaring and bending here's the finished result. I'm getting less bad at making these things, after a few more revisions I'll attempt re-making the hoses to the rear brakes to get rid of the ugly joins in the engine bay. If I'm feeling very ambitious I'll do the whole lot in stainless steel tube.



Then all that remained then was to fit up the hoses, fill up the reservoir with some Motul RBF600 and give the brakes a quick bleed.



I'll report back with on track impressions as soon as I can, but on the street it feels good. Still plenty of stopping power at moderate pedal effort, but feels a lot easier to modulate. Previously it felt like I could lock a tyre with just my big toe on the pedal, now the force required feels comfortable and progressive.

[ChargeR]

Hello all. Updates!



So since last update I've done the following:
- 12ish track events at a few different tracks (Winton, Phillip Island GP circuit, Wakefield park, and also a terrifying set of runs at Bryant Park hillclimb)
- Fitted our Honed front and rear roll centre adjustment kit
- Wore my way through two sets of 225/205 sized BF Goodrich Rival S, with the fronts on 9" 6ULs
- Then purchased a set of Hoosier R7s in the same size, and have just started running those

Made a bit of a comparison video to show the progress I've made/bought.

So next on the list is:

• Brake upgrade, I'm trying out a 986 Boxster caliper
• 
• New DIY fibreglass bonnet (hood) in place of the hacked up steel one
• Various plumbing and wiring tidy ups
• Tune
• Fuel system fix to prevent such excessive fuel starvation

Aiming to hit my goals on this car before the end of the year and move on to a different RWD project, so I'll be updating more frequently.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Updates!

Good luck with hitting your goals this year. Am excited to see what this new RWD project will be. I am guessing, lightweight, KSWAP and non JDM chassis?

Am also keen to see what you'll be doing for the fuel system as I foresee that I will have the same issue once the S/C+E85 S2000 goes to the track.

[ChargeR]

Updates!

Good luck with hitting your goals this year. Am excited to see what this new RWD project will be. I am guessing, lightweight, KSWAP and non JDM chassis?

Am also keen to see what you'll be doing for the fuel system as I foresee that I will have the same issue once the S/C+E85 S2000 goes to the track.

There's still a couple of candidates for the next project, but you'd be right in saying it won't be a JDM chassis. If I could go back in time I think a MX5 with K swap would be a cool alternative to what I've done with the CR-X, but right now I consider it to be too similar in spirit and construction to the CR-X and I don't want to retread the same ground.

Initial plan for fuel system is either Holley Hydromat in either a modified stock tank, or in a new fabricated tank in the standard location. I don't want use an external surge tank for safety, weight and simplicity reasons. The hydromat has been on the market for some time now, and haven't heard any negative reviews as yet, and it looks like an elegant solution.

Because I believe in setting clear goals and being accountable to both oneself and others, these are the modest 2018 goals:

1:28.XX at Winton
1:04.XX at Wakefield
Car complete and genuinely road legal bar the ride height and front wheel width

[Apu]

Hmmm...how many K-swapped Nissan S1x are there in Australia?

BYP are finishing off a K-swapped Toyota MRS - would be interesting to see a couple of them running around!

[iwearmoccos]

This is a great photo.

Hello all. Updates!

1:28.XX at Winton
1:04.XX at Wakefield
Car complete and genuinely road legal bar the ride height and front wheel width

Good luck with your 2018 goals.
Confidence and German BBK will get you there.