My MR DC5R

[Paulieee_R]

Love it! So clean! And only 30,000kms! So jelly! Keen to follow this build bro!

[iampotato]

Update time !

Haven't really done much, to the car since. Small stuff here and there.

Forgot to mention i also got a JDM start button. One of the first mods i did


Got myself some Innovative 60a. Went for steel, because they were cheaper and i prefer the look.



Bought some JDM window visors courtesy of JDMyard


Thanks to tim for the j's racing engine oil cap and radiator caps
Also thanks to nick for the blue rocker cover! Paint was immac

Didnt really like the dark grey spark plug cover, felt it would look better with a silver one that comes with the JDM k20s


Shoutout to Jaz helping me tuck the injector plugs
Here's how the engine bay looks now


Now just waiting for my exhaust to come !

[Beatz]

It's looking sick man! Best MR DC5 out! So did you end up getting a Fujitsubo?

[iampotato]

03/05 big update

So it's been a while since i've updated this build thread. Got a few things going on, wanted sort a few things out before posting an update!

First things first, got an exhaust. Ordered it directly from toda in japan, came in about a week! This thing is beautiful! Fitment was spot on (some exhausts touch the rear bar) as expected from a toda part, and the sound is really good. There is a very unique deep tone to the toda exhaust. Doesn't drone whatsoever, and in-cabin, is very quiet (almost stock), but is audible from the outside at a reasonable volume. It was a bit quieter than I had wanted, but it's volume is also a benefit!

(sorry, photo taken with a potato)

Soon after, I started to hear a knocking noise whilst accelerating. It felt like the sound was coming from under the footwell, and I couldn't figure out what it could be. Thanks to butter, who diagnosed my problem, and suggested it could be my innovative 60a engine mounts, maybe they required a retorque. To my suprised, whilst checking it, i saw that the rear mount has actually cracked all the way through :/ I knew innovative 60a were notorious to crack over time, but I only had the mounts in there for around 1000 km. I was very confused, and had no idea what to think of it. So I purchased another set of innovative mounts, however this time, 75a.


The 75a's felt very nice. Throttle response was very direct, and cabin vibrations wasn't that bad, since my car has no rattles. However over time, the mounts started to put a lot of stress on the dash. I started to get an annoying dash rattle. Being very pedantic with my car, I immediately fixed this issue, by going to Clark Rubber, and buying a 2m weather strip, and wedged it inbetween the dash and the windshield. This straight away fixed that problem

Next up on my to-do list was headers, to finish off my I/H/E. I decided to go with PLM, for the bang for buck choice, which actually gives a pretty good improvement in terms of performance once i get it tuned. The header came in about 5 difference pieced, and was pretty easy to put together. Installing required me to temporarily remove my front sway bar, but besides that, it was a very quick and easy install, took about 1-2 hours to make sure everything was torqued up and spot on.
As soon as i started up the car, it was noticeably louder, and when driving/revving the engine, there is a noticeable 'zing'. Sounds like the engine is breathing better! However, as I currently don't have an kpro/haltech, the benefits of I/H/E are neglible and still consider my car to be stock power-wise.


Oh and yeah, facelifted the rear when i found all the parts I needed for the facelift to be for sale all at once ! Got the JDM rear bar for an arm an a leg, however, the bar was already in Milano Red, in immaculate condition. Couldn't pass off this offer, consdiering it also had the tail light brackets I needed as well!
Before:

After:


After i had facelifted, i didn't have reverse lights, or rear indicators, because i didn't have the sockets/plugs needed. I drove around for about a month, without those 2, always clenching my asshole when merging, always having to wait for all the cars to drive past to even dare merge in. After about a month of hoarding all my plugs and sockets, with the help of Jaz, we wired everything up and got it working !

I was pretty happy with the way my car was, missed out on a couple of track days because I felt I wasn't prepared enough in terms of general preparation as I usually find out about these events pretty late. Luckily this time, butter recommended I have my first track day at EXE on 3rd of May, which was about 5-6 weeks ahead of time. I thought this was a great opportunity to see how my suspension, wheels, and tyres performed, and my driving performance.
So I signed up for EXE, not really expecting to get a spot, but it was worth a shot anyway. To my suprise, I was actually 5th of the waiting list, and apparently, each year, about 50-60 drop end up dropping out. So going off that, I had a pretty good chance of getting in, so I commenced my preparation:

First off was brakes, it wasn't that I felt my stock set up was inadequate, I just wanted peace of mind knowing that when I hit the track, I'll have something that is better at stopping me from landing into wall than just the stock brakes. To my suprise, a set of brakes came up for sale! It was DC5R brembos, with S2000 RDA rotors, and TRW brake pads, all for 790.



I thought hey, this is a great deal. So i went ahead to buy it, and just before installing them, I realized that a part was missing. It was a 'clip' that 'holds' the brake pads in place so they didn't rattle. After doing heaps of research, I found that they are called Anti-Rattle Springs:

(picture is not mine, just for reference)
So I messaged the guy that sold me the brakes, and questioned him about this. He said he too didn't know, and he came up with the idea that, since it was 'both' our faults, he's going to refund me $200, for me to 'buy a cheap set of brembos' so i can get this part. I immediately said yes, because these are OEM Honda/Brembo parts, and I wouldn't think it would be too hard to source. Spoke to Jesse Streeter, found out the Anti-Rattle Springs, only cost $10. I straight away bought them and got them shipped over with a friends order. Without the anti-rattle springs, the brakes were very noisy, and rattle a ridiculous amount.
But besides that, install of the brembos were pretty straight forward, although I had a few problems:
I already have Goodright braided brake lines, and the brake-line end(that connects to the calipers by a banjo bolt) is actually smaller than the stock lines. What this means is, the SS lines worked fine for stock caliper setup, however with the brembos, they require a shorter banjo bolt. So I measured how much the banjo bolt protruded out by, and went to a honda wrecker, hoping another model would have a smaller banjo bolt. I was in luck! forgot which car it came off, but it fitted perfectly with the Goodright and the brembos.
Another thing I had to do was, angle grind the brake dust shield, just so the brembos would fit. Besides that, brembo installation was pretty easy



As for the rest of the track preparation, I just got an alignment:
Front:
-3 Camber with 0 toe
Rear:
-2 Camber with 2mm toe-out

Conducted a oil change, put in some Penrite 10w-40 full synthetic, flushed my brake fluid with penrite racing brake fluid, mounted my fire extinguisher and bought a helmet.
Just for the track-look, I painted my tyre writing white #becauseracecar


Now i'm ready for track !

[DaRKNT]

Where's the real update boss?

[gunpoons]

Nice updates, the rear looks great,
Regarding the rear mount, Innovatives are renowned for these, the compound they use gets affected by heat, and I've seen many of these on forums melt due to them being close to the header, if I was you I'd pull them or at least the rear, and replace with a Hasport

[eLtrix]

Very naice update dude! I seriously need to do some final prep to my car to actually go track for once too. *Sigh*

Too much real life.

[felixR]

Very nice update!

How did you go at Winton?

[Timmy_B]

looks good

[danielj]

enjoyed reading your thread. car's coming along great and still a baby. keep up the good work.

[Beatz]

Nice update, good to see you settled on a Toda! Car looks phenomenal!

[iampotato]

Where's the real update boss?

Coming right up sir !

Nice updates, the rear looks great,
Regarding the rear mount, Innovatives are renowned for these, the compound they use gets affected by heat, and I've seen many of these on forums melt due to them being close to the header, if I was you I'd pull them or at least the rear, and replace with a Hasport

I havn't logged it here, but i actually changed my mounts to 62a from hasport later on.

Very naice update dude! I seriously need to do some final prep to my car to actually go track for once too. *Sigh*

Too much real life.

Thanks justin! Yeah quite a few things to do, and they generally just add up to a lot of work/money ): But track was so worth it haha

looks good

Thanks timmy, not as nice as yours !

enjoyed reading your thread. car's coming along great and still a baby. keep up the good work.

Thanks dan, i try to take car of my car as much as i should, i go as far as telling people how to get into my car without wearing out the recaros ! haha

Very nice update!

How did you go at Winton?

Now onto my track results !

I honestly didn't realise taking my car to the track was this fun! Unfortunately, I was group A, and in the morning, the track was drenched. The previous night, i stayed up watching Ryan (oz strikers) winton footage, learning all the gears and lines and braking points, however, i couldn't apply it due to the wet track. Luckily I had peter (eskimo_fighter) risk his life and sit in with me for the first session. He was showing me all the gears and braking points. However, being my first time, I was a little heavy footed haha. I understeered off track at dog leg because i entered WAY too quickly and without enough braking. Braking was probably the most drastic change, when compared with street driving, I needed to pretty much slam the brakes before every corner. Then I spun out a couple laps after at the last turn. To my suprise, my alignment was still perfectly fine! Note from peter that session: brake a lot earlier, go into lower gears around slower corners and don't go too fast into a corner, especially being a wet track and 1st time. So with my first session PB of 2:05:xx, I was actually happy with that, I didn't get any hot laps without going off track or spinning out haha. I felt a lot of understeer so after I got off the track, I tried to correct it by: changing tyre pressures, they were 38 all round, then i changed them to 34 front and 36 rear hot. I also changed my damping settings, they were 18 clicks stiff at the front, and 20 clicks stiff at the rear. I wanted to increase a bit of oversteer to correct the understeer by increasing damping settings at the rear, but still having my boot trim, it was very difficult, so I had to make do by decreasing front damping by 2 clicks.

I told Jase (butter) about my experience, and he offered to allow me to sit in the passenger for his sessions. Thats when i learned about braking, I was braking WAY too soft and late, and that i pretty much had to slam it. The sessions gave me a very good feel for what I needed to do, to correct my errors.

Second session: I planned to get napo to sit in the car with me, as I wanted some more advice and tips from various track veterans, however, second session, passengers weren't allowed. Holy crap was i nervous, first time on track alone. But luckily for me, the track dried up drastically! I went 80% of what I did first session, and my car just stuck to the road! I didn't have that much understeer, and i could attack a corner so much harder! I focused on the lines, and smashing out the brakes before turning in. I was told I wouldn't be able to hit gear 5 anywhere on the track, however, I was very confused when I was on the last straight, and I would be bouncing off my limiter in 4th if I didn't shift to 5. So the next lap, I attempted to shift to 5, and I lost focus of my braking point, and i entered S bend WAY too quickly and spun out there. So the next lap, I shifted to gear 5 as soon as it almost hit the limiter, and focused 100% on braking straight away, and I felt like i entered S-bend so much quicker than i did before. As soon as i saw the EXE flag waved around, I went 110% as hard as I could around that track. When I got back, I checked my tyre pressures, and my oils levels. Jaz came up to me, and told me I got 1:55:xx. I was actually really happy with that. But seeing how hard I went, and only got 1:55, I knew my technique was still off and I just didn't feel like I could hit my target of 1:50 today seeing I went as hard as I could, and 5 seconds being a huge difference on track. Then Jaz told me, I actually got 1:48 and he was just messing with me! I couldn't believe it, I ran to the cafeteria to see for myself. I actually got 1:48! For my second session as well! I not only exceeded my expectations, but put what peter and jase taught me to good use!

Third sessions: Seeing how well I did with 2 veterans teaching me, I couldn't go wrong with another one. I then had Matt Lew sit in the car with me. His focus for me, was lines. I wasn't 'using the track' as much as I should. So I wasn't cutting in early and close to the inside enough, and on my exits, I didn't go wide enough. Once I got the hang out of that and the EXE flag came up, I was ready to go 100% again, however a mazda MPS was infront of me, and wouldn't let me pass even though i would catch him so close at corners, he was floor it on the straight. I wasn't too disappointed, the fella was probably trying to do a hot lap as well! However, when I got back, it turns out, i PB'd that sessions as well. 1:47:8x. So I beat my previous PB by a good second! All this was due to Matt's advice on lines, and goes to show, I don't have to go as hard, as long as I got good lines!

After that, i got to sit into Matt's car to see how he did it! Same idea when sitting in jason's car, I could only learn braking points and lines off these 2. Not so much gearing, and entry speeds. As Matt has a k24, so has to shift earlier, and jase has both a k24 and final drive. But I managed to get what i could out of that, and embedded his lines in my head.

Forth Session: I had my friend Nathan sit in the car with me. I brought him along that day so he could get a taste of what it was like to be on a track. My first time as a passenger was eye opening, and I wanted him to experience that, because he kept throwing numbers around of what he thinks he can get first time at track lol. By this sessions, i was alot more confident attacking corners then I was previously. So what i did this sessions was, try to go 1 level up. I had no trouble riding a couple ripple strips, so I attempted to ride out the ripple strip on dog leg turn. All was well, however that ripple strip was bumpy? So as i went over it, my car bounced several times, and I went sideways off the track for a good 10-15 metres. SO much grass and dirt went into the car lol. After that happened, seemed like a good idea to slow down a bit, and not get too excited, lucky there was no wall in the middle of the track. So that sessions, i got 1:48:xx.

Fifth session: This was my last sessions (there was 1 more and I didn't do it) I had Jaz sit in the car with me, I didn't want to go all out on this one, because I didn't want to slip up and make a stupid mistake, that would be dangerous. So I just applied what everyone has showed/taught me and went 100% that way, rather than just tackle corners harder than i should. Around several corners, I felt I could go a gear higher than what peter should be, only because the track at this point, was pretty much dry. I felt like i was going a bit faster than before, didn't have a problem with a few ripple strips, however it unsettles the car, so i try to avoid it. But on my last hot lap, I definately felt a LOT faster than previous sessions, being able to hit 5th gear a lot quicker than previously. I was really hoping to get 1:46, that would have been the cherry on top of my day, however i managed to finish on 1:47:12. I was really happy about this, but, at this point, I felt it, I felt the track bug. The urge to come out, do it again, and again, till i get a better time.

At this point, I had to make a judgement, whether I wanted to go out again or not. Lets be honest, if I had gone out again, I would have been so desperate to crack the 1:46 mark, I probably would have pushed in areas I shouldn't and make a potentially fatal mistake, going off the fact that, this is my first time, I really shouldn't be chasing any times, and just focusing on technique. But i just know, if i were to go out, I would try to beat that time. However, that session, I got to jump into napo's car, and that was a great experience! When compared with my driving, it was night and day, of course. however i was able to pick up what I was lacking. The speed in which I can corner, taking into considering he was running semi-slicks. But i definitely noticed his lines were a lot better, and his entry/exit a LOT smoother. It wasn't a surprise of course, but I wouldn't have seen my mistakes/errors if i didn't get to sit in his car. As i got more experience throughout the way, I knew what to look out for and what i could improve on.

So TLDR; I got 1:47:12 first time, with the help with Jase, Napo, Matt and Peter!

So prior to my track day, I had sold my exhaust and wheels, accepted deposit for both, and just wanted till after track to hand them over. So when I got home, gave my car a rinse from all the mud and dirty. Put my car on jack stands, took off exhaust and wheels.

I'm just waiting for my exhaust to be delivered from japan, and and my wheels to come at that point.

Speaking of which, this arrived on Sunday!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice work on the PB, very impressive for first time out there. First session was pretty scary haha.

[iampotato]

Update time!

This thread update has been well overdue, ended with a teaser of my new wheels, which most of you will already know what they are!

Wrapped around my current set of Federal 595 RSR's

How it sits with it's new shoes


The exhaust that I was waiting for was the J's Racing FX-Pro 60RS Titanium. Picked it up from yahoo auctions for a steal, and it made a very big difference to how my car sounded. Very quiet on idle, yet very loud once vtec opens up. Definitely a big upgrade from my toda exhaust.

After those 2 mods, haven't really touched my car, has just been left there, not even driving it around as much either. At that point in time, I lost motivation to continue modding the car, and at one point, I was very close to selling it. I'm glad I didn't because an upcoming track day pumped up my motivation again.

After achieving a meager 1:47 for my first time, there were a few things I knew I could improve on. Gearing, lines, aggression etc. I knew at the sweeper, I could be in gear 4 rather than 3, also the last 2 right hand turns before S-bend, I could be in gear 3 rather than gear 2. I wasn't too happy with my alignment settings, because I still had more wear on the outside of my tyres, despite having -3 and -2 cambers for fronts and rears respectively. I think I had around 2mm toe out at the rear. However this upcoming track day, I aimed to rectify all those problems. I had predicted an improvement over last track day, but the results surprised me!

Previous Track Day Setup:
RPF1's 17 x 8.5 +30 all round
Front: -3 camber, 0 toe
Rear: -2 camber, 2 mm toe out
Coil damping were F:16/32 R:12/32
Stock wing

Current TRack Day Setup:
TE37SL 17 x 9 +22 all round
Front: -3.5 camber, 0.5mm toe out
Rear: -2.5 camber, 6mm toe out (yes, 6mm)
Coil Damping: F: 26/32 R: 32/32
Voltex Wing (big thanks to jase(butter) for letting me borrow his wing, and believe or not, it made a quite a big difference)

The reason I opted for 6mm toe out, wasn't for daily driving, since this was going to be for track. I wanted extra agression during turning. Since understeer was my biggest problem last track day.
Because there was a few things I had changed from last track day, it was hard to monitor what made the biggest impact. So on Saturday for Tampered, I just wanted to wing the first session to see if I could gain any improvement with my current setup at all.

Tampered Motorport Track day:
So heading out first session, I sat in passenger with Nathan, just to get a feel for what being on track was like again. After his session, I felt confident that I could improve upon my previous track day. With a few improvements from last, I was curious as to what I could achieve on the day. One of my biggest concerns was my tyres. Despite going wider with my wheels, the width of my tyres stayed the same. It was a bit more stretch than I would have liked. And due to my first track day, I had a tremendous amount of tyre wear, due to improper throttle control and management. I would full throttle right after the apex, which would induce understeer, then the car would correct itself when the tyres picked up traction again. Going off the indicators, I probably had 40% tread at the front, and 20% at the rear (when putting on my te's I swapped my tyres left to right, and front to back, to even out the wear). When it was my time to come out, I was too aggressive, my lines were off, and I had a lot of understeer. I think this was due to me not braking hard enough. I used the same gears and lines I had from first track day, to see how that compared for 2 hot laps. I under steered off track quite a few times, just due to aggression. So with the first 2 hot laps with my old driving style, I got 1:48.8720 and 1:47.9740, despite going off track a few times. I more or less matched my Pb on my warmup session. But then, I dialed down my testosterone, focused on the homework I did prior to the track day. I watched Ozstriker(Ryan Gundry's) track day videos, and memorised the lines, braking points and throttle control as best I could. Once I applied my new technique, I was able to achieve 1:44.9410 on my first session! This was also with a passenger, and when I was told this, I was completely over the moon. However, going off track, not knowing what I got, I was really disappointed, I felt slow on track, I went off a few times, and that messed up my toe. I didn't feel like I even achieved 1:50 and was dissapointed because I thought my day was over first session. Looking at my alignment by eye, the front probably had 10-20mm toe out. Being disappointed with myself, I did the regular post-track checkup etc. Then Huy came up to me to tell me I got 1:44.9. I was completely overwhelmed, and didn't think I could have improved that much from my previous track day. I thought hard about what would have caused my understeer so I decided to keep my tyre pressures the same, and lowered my coilover damping at the fronts by 6 clicks, from 32 to 26. I just figured, I should brake harder and earlier, enter slow, exit fast.

The next session for me, was also very disappointing. I didn't get out many hot laps, Huy unfortunately spun off track, and it tore out his bumper and sideskirt. Once that was cleared, the cars were too clustered up, and I didn't have any space, either infront or behind. Despite being blocked the whole 1 hot lap, I still managed to PB with 1:44.7450. At that point, I knew, I could crack 1:43, and perhaps maybe 1:42(aiming very high here). So next session, I went out without a passenger again, to chase that PB. Prior to this session, a friend had recorded me at S-bend, and i could see that i would going very wide around the corner. I knew I could shave down some time by going closer. So approaching this session, I decided to go as aggressive as I can. I practically mounted all the ripple strips I knew i could mount lightly. At S-bend, I practically just went straight through them, exited as wide as I possibly could, and was riding on the dirt for a while. I was only able to get 2 hot laps out, before I couldn't get into gear 2 anymore, and gears were a lot harder to get in, since the gearbox oil had heated up to an extent where shifting got hard. So i just cooled down, and went off track. I felt like I could do another hot lap, but my gearbox oil let me down, it was also a good indication that I should take it easier on the car as well. As I went off track, Jaz and my other friends asked me what was going on, because I performed poorly in comparison to previous sessions. They said I got 1:45, which I honestly did not doubt, because I felt I could have been faster during my 3rd hot lap. Then they broke it to me, and said I actually achieved 1:43.3350. I could not believe it. I did not expect an improvement this drastic from previous track day.



Thoughts
The voltex wing definitely helped, using different lines helped as well. I didn't have as much tyre screeching as I did first track day. My car had a lot more power going through corners (I think this is due to more aggressive camber?) I didn't get any oversteer due to the wing giving me some extra downforce. I think where I could improve on is at 'boobs' I felt my gearing and lines were a bit sloppy. But I was definitely happy with my performance considering my tyres, and it's condition. Also remembering my car is untuned, I still consider performance wise, to be almost stock, so I know I could squeeze a better time after a tune and maybe better coils? I have no plans in the near future for them, as I want to get as close as I can to 1:40 without a tune before I even consider it. I want to know, I'm improving as a driver before I go forward with those steps. What I think helped me out was my alignment settings, the toe out at the rear, and the accidental toe out at the front, definitely allowed me to go a lot more aggressive around a corner. Looking at my times for this track day, I can see a pattern of consistency in terms of my hot laps. For me, consistency is more important than 1 good time, because at least I know I'm doing something right, rather than fluking that 1 good lap.



Big thanks to everyone who came to spectate, helped and supported me. Big shout-out to Jaz for driving me up. Big thanks to Jase for the voltex wing, and Tim for letting me borrow the harness, even though I didn't have time to put them in. Also a big thanks to Ozstriker for the videos on youtube, so I could learn off that. Goes to show what a healthy, low km K20A2 with some homework can do. I'm hoping to get 1:41 or even in the 1:40's with some better tyres next time, also going from 225/45/17 to 255/40/17 with more aggressive camber. I know that might be aiming a little too high, but then again, both times I went to winton, I have exceeded what I thought I could achieve, so I guess it doesn't hurt to aim a little high Unfortunately I don't have any footage, and I merely rely on my memory to try and improve. Hopefully next time I'll be able to record some footage. All in all, still cannot believe I was able to get 1:43 for my second time at the track

[butter]

Quick times! Maybe soon you can join Team MR and bring them out of retirement.