♦ ♦ ChargeR's DC5R Blog ♦ ♦

[ChargeR]

Update 1: Camber is good

Update 2: Dyno day at Pro-Tek

Update 3: New springs

Update 4: Winton - 28th September

Update 5: New wheels and springs fitted

Update 6: HSCCV at Winton - 30/11/08

Update 7: Innovative Race Mounts

Update 8: Advan Neova AD07s

Update 9: Superlap 2009 Clubsprint Class

Update 10: Toda Anti G-Force Oil Pan

Update 11: Winton Test and Tune - 8th of May 2009

Update 12: EXE/Circuit Club at Winton - 23rd of May 2009

Update 13: Symmons Plains Sprints - 19th of June 2009

Update 14: More Wheels

Update 15: More Wheels Part 2

Update 16: Suspension Revamp

Update 17: Superlap and Winton: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Update 18: Drag strip action

Update 19: Track preparations

Update 20: EXE at Winton

Update 21: More Mugens

Update 22: PCi sphericals and Hardrace rear upper arms

[ChargeR]

ChargeR's Blag

Hi everyone, Mugsee has insisted that I join him in the foolishness that is blogging about my experiences with my car. I hope that this thread will serve as a reference of all my experiences with my car, and also a place to post about any interesting changes to my car's configuration that don't deserve their own threads. I don't honestly expect anyone to read it all, I am doing this mostly for my own reference before I forget what my car and I have been through .


ChargeR: The Early Years

I purchased my Milano Red DC5R in October 2001 from Greg Crick Honda in Launceston, Tasmania. After initially lusting after a DC2R that option was vetoed by the powers that be, so I ended up with a shiny new DC5R. My family has always had Hondas so my choice of the then brand new and exciting DC5R was a simple one. My car initially had a quiet life of regular servicing, the odd licence loss, and commuting to high school and uni. The car was stock for the first 5 years until I got a job in the summer of 05-06 and I discovered clubRSX and its cornucopia of modification ideas. After deciding I wanted to do intake and exhaust on my car first, I did a bit of research on the internets and found parts that I thought suited my purposes. Here is a short summary of my first round of modifications:

Gruppe M Intake:
I chose the Gruppe M intake because it seemed to make good gains, I liked the design, and I am a sucker for carbon fibre bling. I was never a fan of the pod filter on a pipe intake style, although I will not deny that they make significant gains. I was really happy with the Gruppe M, it made a nice noise and all signs pointed to a reasonable power gain.

Amuse R1 Titan:
I also obtained an Amuse R1 Titan exhaust because it was the lightest exhaust on the market and I liked the way it sounded after watching some videos by clubRSX member K20ADC5R. At the time it was a choice between the J's 70RR and the Amuse, however I piked on running no catalytic converter on the street and I did not have the cash to buy a 4-2 manifold and a new front sway bar to fit the 70RR. Didn't really notice any difference when I put this on except for a glorious noise eminating from my car.

Energy Suspension Motor Mount Inserts:
At the same time as my intake and exhaust I bought some ESMM inserts having read about them on clubRSX. Probably the best bang for buck modification I have done. They made a big difference to shifting feel, and all but eliminated spine jarring wheel hop. I find the vibrations to be quite acceptable although they have made a few rattles surface in my interior. I have heard of other weaksauce people being unable to deal with the slight vibrations though so they are obviously not for everyone.

Here is an emo pic of the Amuse rice cannon (pic by mugsee):


Here is a dyno plot of my car in this configuration, and hopefully it still makes this much power:



ChargeR Goes to the Track
After doing these mods I decided it was time for me to take my car to the track and see what I was made of. I also picked up a set of Bridgestone S03s sometime around here.

26/11/2006 HSCCV @ Winton PB: 1:51.6
The Honda club day was where a number of important things happened. I realised I was a crap driver, I met my nemesis and his cronies and all the other cool ClubITR kids, and I became addicted to track. My first day out was entertaining if not particularly fast.

11/3/2007 RX8 Club @ Winton PB: 1:50.7
After some time in exile back home in Tas, I headed back to melbourne and I was very keen to track again. Beat my PB by a little less than a second compared to my first track day. Only lasted a couple of sessions until I used up all my stock front brake pads and scored my rotors pretty badly. Oh well. I still felt there was a lot more time in the car obviously but I was still happy with some improvement. Managed to drive all the way home without using the brakes which I was pretty proud of .

Womp womp (pic by mugsee):

[ChargeR]

ChargeR goes to the track some more
After my first couple of track days I decided to indulge in some chequebook racing and I purchased a second set of stock DC5R rims (16x6.5 +45) and had a set of 205/55R16 SR2 Bridgestone RE55s fitted to them. I was not happy with the wear on my street tyres from the previous track day and I did not want to run the same tyres for street and track, which would mean running more worn tyres on the street than I would prefer. In hindsight I should have gone to a second set of high performance street tyres, such as RE01R, since I was obviously not even approaching the limits of a street tyre with my driving. At this time I also replaced my front rotors with some cheap RDAs and got Project Mu Level Max 500 brake pads at all four corners. Sometime during the year I added a JDM 22mm rear sway bar also.

14/5/2007 RX8 Club @ Broadford PB: 1:13
Broadford is an excellent track that I would recommend to anyone. Going there in the wet on new semi slicks was interesting though. New brake pads worked very well but I was getting some fluid fade from overheating the stock, probably 2001 vintage, brake fluid. Following this track day I changed to motul RBF600 and I have had no problems since.

Parking hard:


Random Winton Practice Day #1 PB: 1:46 Hand timed

Random Winton Practice Day #2 PB: 1:48

4/8/2007 Circuit Club @ Eastern Creek PB: 2:01.4
ChargeR and his illustrious brother made the trek up to Sydney to see how those north of the border rock out at the track. It was a very professionally run day with lots of nice machinery on show. Was reasonably pleased with my time although I would have liked to dip into the 1:59s. I was driving like a little girly girl anyway, and I still had to drive the car 9 hours home, so I was a little wary especially at such a high speed track. Got to meet some of the Sydney clubITR crew at this track day which was ace!

[ChargeR]

ChargeR cruises for chicks at the track, camber assists

Had a break from track after mid 2007 due to some unforeseen circumstances, and headed back home to Tasmania to chill out with some of my two headed friends. On my return I decided it was time to take my car to the next level of hard parking and dump it. After an offer I couldn't refuse I was the new owner of some minty fresh Mugen N1 coilovers with swift springs, thanks to whtdc2 and also thanks to R-DC5 for facilitating the exchange. After a few difficulties getting my alignment correct (see this thread: LINK) I was really happy with the suspension. I went from having what I felt was terminal understeer in most corner phases to a very neutral car that turned in really well and had good traction coming out of corners. Probably the best single modification I have done. I got my car sorted just in time for the first track day of the year, the RX8 club day at Winton. Here is a summary of my track days so far this year:

17/2/2008 RX8 Club @ Winton PB: 1:44.25

pic thanks to Jingers:


22/3/2008 Tampered Motorsport @ Wakefield Park PB:1.13.72

27/4/2008 Tampered Motorsport @ Winton PB: 1:55.8 Wet

10/5/2008 Circuit Club and EXE @ Winton PB: 1.43.76

9/6/2008 EXE Crew @ Winton PB: 1.43.01

21/6/2008 Tampered Motorsport @ Winton PB: 1.43.2

24/7/2008 Ozhonda @ Wakefield Park PB 1:12.46
Recently mugsee and I decided to take a little trek up Sydney way to have another crack at Wakefield at the annual Ozhonda day. Mugsee decided not to bring his car which was disappointing. It was a great trip thanks to a few people in particular: Q ball for putting us up, and Chi, Sam, Jing and Lay for entertaining us while we were in Sydney. I managed to better my previous best at Wakefield by a little over a second which pleased me a little however I did not represent Melbourne as well as I would have liked. The car was definitely capable of 11s on the day.



Specifications of the Ghetto Fab DC5R

Current Modifications:
Spoon Ti gear knob
JDM 22mm rear sway bar
EP3R front sway bar
Mugen front strut bar
HKS Kansai lowered seat rail
Amuse R1 Titan exhaust
Gruppe M intake
Toda exhaust manifold
Mugen N1 Suspension (14kg/mm front and 28kg/mm rear)
Todd's caster adjustable strut tops
Todd's modified tie rods
Innovative 85a steel engine mounts
Takata 4 Point harness
J's Racing steel wheel nuts or Project Kics Neo Chro
SSR Type Cs (17x9.5 +15 and 17x8.5 +30)
Volk Racing TE37/SSR Type C (17x10 +18 and 17x9 +28)
J's Racing tow hooks
Toda Racing Anti G-Force Oil Pan

Past Modifications no longer fitted:
10kg/mm Swift springs
24kg/mm Swift springs
J's Racing tie rods
J's Racing C pillar bar
J's Racing engine torque damper
ESMM Inserts

Consumables

Tyres:
205/55-16 Bridgestone Potenza RE030 (Retired)
205/55-16 some ghetto Michelins (Retired)
205/55-16 Bridgestone Potenze S03 (Retired)
205/55-16 Bridgestone Potenze RE55s (Retired)
205/55-16 Bridgestone Potenza RE001 (Retired)
255/40-17 and 235/45-17 Advan Neova AD07 (Retired)
275/40-17 Hoosier R6 (Retired)

245/40-17 and 225/45R17 Hoosier R6 (Current)
255/40-17 and 225/45-16 Dunlop Direzza Z1 SS (Current)

Brake Pads:
OEM x 2 (F and R)
Project Mu Level Max 500 (R) (current)
Project Mu Level Max 500 x 4 (F) (current)
Project Mu Level Max 700 x 2 (F)

Rotors:
OEM
RDA (F)
DBA Slotted (F)
DBA Plain (F) (Current)

Fluids:
OEM brake fluid
Motul RBF600
Red Line Engine Oil (10W-30 and 10W-40)
Plenty of Honda FEO too
OEM Honda MTF

One last image of mugsee and I getting prepared for track (pic by mugsee)

[dy1973]

Nice write up - I enjoyed reading it.

[Berty]

=o That was long. But good write up!

[Chi]

hmmm.

Makes me want to blog ...

Great choice of parts though Tom.

[Didz]

pure awesomeness... cangt wait to experience my own first rack day

[Q_ball]

Nice read Tom

[m0nty]

Nice blog guy. No mention of Chi's l337 navigation skills. I'm impressed you got back to Melbourne after that.

[Wlee2]

nice tom..

i cant even remember what i did to my car yet alone have photo of the progress..

[philly]

One last image of mugsee and I getting prepared for track

my my, waynes garage looks pretty professional these days

[mugsee]

Cool story Hansel.

Really good writeup, although I think both our blogs are missing a fair bit of info still. haha.

Btw, do you still have that link to the nemesis video? Might be good to post up in case people might be wondering.

Makes me want to blog ...

Do it. The cool kids are blogging nowadays.

[Absolut R]

top read bloke.





Tom where is this beautiful and mysterious place

[air23box]

TEch sport it is pat.......best place to get jobs done so far......they know what they doing.......

Nice write up......didn't know much about ur history until now......