The 2009 trackday car of the year is...
- Thread starter Shad
- Start date
It was a great car 
Standard 16v engine (no VTEC), about 130hp. 800kg with fuel. Spent a year developing the chassis and ended up with a competitive car that I was able to lap Bands with better than the qualifying pace of cars I was planning on racing against in 2007/2008. Unfortunately I had a bit of 'tunnel vision' when preparing it over the winter and after blowing an engine and then blowing a load of cash on a fairly extravagant roll cage, realised I was pouring a large amount of money down the drain. I couldn't justify it in the end.
I do miss that car. In terms of balance and sheer cornering grip, it was better than my Caterham is now. There's some more info on the site in the motorsport/cars section.
That was my office for a while
Standard 16v engine (no VTEC), about 130hp. 800kg with fuel. Spent a year developing the chassis and ended up with a competitive car that I was able to lap Bands with better than the qualifying pace of cars I was planning on racing against in 2007/2008. Unfortunately I had a bit of 'tunnel vision' when preparing it over the winter and after blowing an engine and then blowing a load of cash on a fairly extravagant roll cage, realised I was pouring a large amount of money down the drain. I couldn't justify it in the end.
I do miss that car. In terms of balance and sheer cornering grip, it was better than my Caterham is now. There's some more info on the site in the motorsport/cars section.
That was my office for a while
Dr Who, I had my fill of looking out the side of the car a few weeks earlier at a very damp Silverstone. Fancied a change this time
I got it mate, couldn't fault the article, just decided to rip on you a bit
They called it an 'FLP Long Shifter' which was basically just a long gear stick. It was nicely designed and specially weighted but although it made getting your hand to the gear stick quicker, it made the gear changes pretty vague.
Soldato
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Nice read, sounds like you had fun, i had thought about taking the Ford Galaxy for a trackday for a laugh one day.
Deleted member 66701
Deleted member 66701
Good on ya Shad - I can see the attraction in taking the iQ round a cold damp track.
I took the Westfield to a track day last month and decided the early morning drizzle and 2c temps weren't really going to make driving the Westfield fun - so I unhooked the trailer and took the Scorpio (2.9 V6 Cosworth engine, 220bhp, Auto) round instead - I still had an absolute blast and I certainly enjoyed it more than I would have done driving the Westy on the same day.
I took the Westfield to a track day last month and decided the early morning drizzle and 2c temps weren't really going to make driving the Westfield fun - so I unhooked the trailer and took the Scorpio (2.9 V6 Cosworth engine, 220bhp, Auto) round instead - I still had an absolute blast and I certainly enjoyed it more than I would have done driving the Westy on the same day.
Fantastic! I bet that was superb fun!! My only regret is I never had a chance to take my Volvo on track before I sold it
Soldato
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whats hardcore about it? tape over the lights?
clio's can **** their leg better
Wow, limited suspension droop.
The stiffness of two rear wheels suspension 'dependance' has nothing to do with handling. Especially when you are comparing a semi-independant multi link suspension car to one with a torsion beam.
I bet he has D2's on that CRX with that limited droop. Bad Mkay.
Surely cocking an inside rear is as much about weight transfer onto the outside front. The inside rear won't droop with an ARB as that will keep the suspension on the inside compressed.
CRX rear suspension is fully independent. The setup is shared with many other Hondas of the late 80s and early 90s, including the DC2 Integra.
The ability for the rear suspension to work independently has quite an important bearing on the handling of a car. This factor is governed by the anti-roll bar. Have a read: http://www.turnfast.com/tech_handling/handling_antiroll
The car was setup with 800lb/in rear springs and 400lb/in front springs and a stiff rear anti-roll bar. This was to promote a more neutral balance with a tendency towards oversteer, rather than the 'safe' understeer characteristics of standard cars which use heavier front springs than rear springs. This is the fastest setup for a FWD car (in the right hands of course!).
The picture shows the car mid-way through development while I was still experimenting with spring rates and anti-roll bars. At that point there was not enough roll control over the front axle which was the main reason it was lifting a rear wheel.
The D2 dampers were good value and allowed for me to mix and match springs and fine tune the weight distribution on the corner scales. However, by the end of the year the impact of using springs far outside the normal operating window for the valving in the dampers was starting to show, and I'd already bought a set of TEIN race dampers and appropriate springs for 2007/2008.
One important thing to remember is while lifting a wheel mid-corner might look cool, three contact patches on the road give you less grip than four
The ability for the rear suspension to work independently has quite an important bearing on the handling of a car. This factor is governed by the anti-roll bar. Have a read: http://www.turnfast.com/tech_handling/handling_antiroll
The car was setup with 800lb/in rear springs and 400lb/in front springs and a stiff rear anti-roll bar. This was to promote a more neutral balance with a tendency towards oversteer, rather than the 'safe' understeer characteristics of standard cars which use heavier front springs than rear springs. This is the fastest setup for a FWD car (in the right hands of course!).
The picture shows the car mid-way through development while I was still experimenting with spring rates and anti-roll bars. At that point there was not enough roll control over the front axle which was the main reason it was lifting a rear wheel.
The D2 dampers were good value and allowed for me to mix and match springs and fine tune the weight distribution on the corner scales. However, by the end of the year the impact of using springs far outside the normal operating window for the valving in the dampers was starting to show, and I'd already bought a set of TEIN race dampers and appropriate springs for 2007/2008.
One important thing to remember is while lifting a wheel mid-corner might look cool, three contact patches on the road give you less grip than four
Soldato
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Only if you remove the anti roll bar is it independant
Honda call it semi independent for this exact reason.
Jonny - CRX-UK + ITR-DC2
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