Type R and VTEC owners
- Thread starter ChrisD.
- Start date
Few parts stripped off it.
Tidied the engine bay by removing the torque damper, earth kit and McDonald's sticker. Plus I've ripped out the amp and cabling. Annoying the left speaker doesn't work. I swapped them over and it stayed so the fault is at the head unit end but I'm not sure what as all cabling is good.
Oh yeah, toe eye has also been removed.
So does it go well?
Oh yes. Nothing in it between it and my mates Evo X 300 SST once on the move. Also embarrassed a stickered up WRX (unsure if it was an STI, looked like one).
After picking the car up on Saturday, I was relishing going out on track. Donington had been booked for some time for yesterday, so I was itching to try the DC5 out in anger. I haven't been really impressed with it on the road, but I think that's more down to me getting used to it. There's only so much you can push a car on the road after all.
I decided to travel up on the Sunday and then stop overnight in a hotel near the circuit so I'd be fully rested. Well, that didn't work because as usual I barely slept a wink in the Premier Inn. Sad face. I was however over the moon with the 38 mpg on the way up, sat at 70-80 most of the way with no VTEC.
I didn't enjoy Donington previously, as it was a wet and miserable day and I was in an S2000, which was hard work. I wasn't sure what to expect, both about the car and the circuit. It was a foggy start and the track didn't open till around 10 am, a full hour after it should have done. I went out with Kevin up front to get some heat into the new brakes, new tyres and to get a feel for the new suspension. We did a couple of quick ish laps and came in. I had dropped the pressure's to 27 all round and the rears got up to 32 and stayed there all day. I had to do another one or two sessions to get the fronts settled to the same pressures.
Sitting behind Kevin gave me a lot of confidence, he's a very quick driver with a fair amount of experience driving on circuit as well as a lot more in a DC5 on track than I have. We were soon dropping into the 1m24's (guessing here, timing isn't allowed). Traffic ended up splitting us up, Kevin broke into the 1m23's while I remained in the 1m24-1m26 area. A few more tweaks on the car and I think I could knock a few seconds off. Kevin an I run almost identical brakes, the only difference he has AP calipers and I have Brembo, but the same pads and same discs up front. Rears are just standard discs with a basic uprated pad. He's on JDM spec Ohlins and some castor mods, I'm on B16's although my car's been mapped so I have about 20 more bhp than him. Really doesn't make that much difference on circuit to be honest!
In the afternoon I was pretty much out alone and I started to really, really enjoy the car. Much more fun than my Evo and I'd say the S2000 as well. It's also easier to drive than the S2000. I love how the back end moves around and how you can turn the car on the throttle. So far I definitely think I've made the right move.
I was hit by a gear change issue in the afternoon though, I missed 4th a few times and it turns out I've bent a rod that connects to the short shifter. After a bit of faffing about I used a wrench to hammer it straight is again. That'll need investigating further as well as some other minor issues.
So far, so good than. I had really a really good laugh yesterday and I can't wait to go back out on track.
I'll get the videos edited this week and upload the best bits stuck together.
Changing between 5w30 and 5w40 makes a huge difference too, what are you running neil ,and do you even VTEC bro?
Watched a bit of your vid earlier, what sort of best times were you running?
1m24.5 IIRC, would have been into 1m23's but I got held up.
Watching the vid again I can see where I can make improvements, specifically going into Craner Curves and the first corner.
They are exceptional cars, there's no doubt about that. Mine isn't great on the road, it feels a little too pointy, a bit wallowy and I have steering wheel wobble at speed, which doesn't help the other two things! I'm putting that down to a few things:
- Aggressive geo setup.
- RS-R's don't seem to have stiff sidewalls.
- I think my CV joints are knackered as the wheels have been balanced twice yet I still get a wobble.
Also the O2 sensor needs replacing and the shifter cables are stretched/bent. It's going in to Performance Autoworks this weekend though for them to fix it all over the next few weeks. After that I may SORN the car till March.
- Aggressive geo setup.
- RS-R's don't seem to have stiff sidewalls.
- I think my CV joints are knackered as the wheels have been balanced twice yet I still get a wobble.
Also the O2 sensor needs replacing and the shifter cables are stretched/bent. It's going in to Performance Autoworks this weekend though for them to fix it all over the next few weeks. After that I may SORN the car till March.
How long have you had your current DC5? I was just looking into these cars yesterday and came across another thread where you mentioned they were too dear
I bought it about 6 weeks ago I think, picked it up a week last Friday.
They are too dear, but I only paid £4800 for mine.
Cheers. With Honda's On Track ran by Lotus On Track. Most bugger off home after lunch so it ends up quiet. I have another vid to upload which is a few runs bolted together with the best bits but I haven't got around to finish editing it yet. That one is straight off my GoPro.
Edit. I know I can go into Craners faster but that's a confidence thing
Edit. I know I can go into Craners faster but that's a confidence thing
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I did have to spend some money to make it nice for the road. But I also spend a bit more, ie fitting coilovers and other things that a normal road car wouldn't have needed. I'd guess about £1250 or so to bring it to an acceptable standard.
Compare that with cars that have 30k more miles with similar mods listed at well over £8k I think I did alright.
Bumper is a bit yellow still as I didn't see the point in painting it, just had the lip and bonnet done. The seats could do with a wash and there are one or two little marks on the paintwork etc, but I'm happy with it. The money for doing all of that will pay for pads/tryes/track days.
Compare that with cars that have 30k more miles with similar mods listed at well over £8k I think I did alright.
Bumper is a bit yellow still as I didn't see the point in painting it, just had the lip and bonnet done. The seats could do with a wash and there are one or two little marks on the paintwork etc, but I'm happy with it. The money for doing all of that will pay for pads/tryes/track days.
Not a huge update but this will probably be it for this year. The car went to Performance Autoworks the other week to have some work done. I booked it in for the following:
First off, the lights. I drove to Donington in the dark and it was comedy, one of the headlights was pointed upwards I think and the other was pretty much a candle. It was the first time I'd driven it in the dark so I didn't have much of a choice but to continue. Luckily there was enough for me to be able to see, and for the most part the roads between mine and the hotel near the circuit are well lit. I didn't fancy taking the bumper off myself in the cold so I had Rich look at it.
I'll just quote Rich's email for an explanation.
I can't really add to that. I may get the headlights done next year, but having driven it in the dark the other evening, I can say that they are substantially improved! Still, not as good as I remember the OEM lights being. Sadly they are expensive and few and far between, so I think I'll leave it after a polish has been done.
Onto the wheel wobble. I'm not sure if I'd mentioned, but I was getting steering wheel wobble when I picked it up from TGM. They'd balanced the wheels so I figured a weight had come off. I took it to my local and trusted tyre place, they did it again but the problem moved to a different speed. I'd asked Rich to look into it confident it couldn't possibly be the balancing. He checked everything over and couldn't find anything. The last thing on the list was driveshafts, these can only be visually inspected so far and at over a grand for new items for Honda I decided to sleep on it. Rich suggested to get the wheels balanced again but use a stud pattern mount instead of the centre bore. So after I picked the car up I drove back to the tyre place for them to do just that. They said they always use a stud pattern mount anyway, but they also said they were quite a way out. I explained I had it done by them before so they let me on my way without charging me. I'm glad to report that the wobble has gone.
Rich said the car is in good health. It's been well serviced in its life although no paperwork exists sadly due to 'cash in hand' servicing. Doesn't bother me for the price. He did notice some corrosion though. Again I'll quote his email:
Before:
After:
I don't think there'll be many updates over the winter, I'm even tempted to SORN the car till the end of March and tuck it away in the garage after a clean.
As for plans I've been looking into the following modifications:
ACT Stage 1 organic clutch kit.
Spoon 5.3 Final drive.
FD2/EP3 (same) 0.738 6th gear.
Kaaz plated diff.
Clockwise Motion gated baffle.
Nice cheap shopping list! I'm also looking at a polybush and a quieter intake, possibly a Mugen.
Massive thanks to Rich at Performance Autoworks for yet again outstanding work.
- Oil change. Yes, it was done at TGM before the track day, but I figured I'd get it done anyway considering how long the car had been sat previously.
- Investigate steering wheel wobble.
- Remove steering rack, fit SHG slider and flush the fluid. It was low and I needed to top it up, but I only had Halfords fluid so I wanted Honda back in.
- Check/adjust geo - I was a bit exuberant with the kerbs at Donington.
- Overall health check of underneath, bushes etc.
- Fix lights as they were bog eyed.
- Fix EML - I read the code at home so already knew it was the O2 sensor.
- Fit KTuned shifter cables.
First off, the lights. I drove to Donington in the dark and it was comedy, one of the headlights was pointed upwards I think and the other was pretty much a candle. It was the first time I'd driven it in the dark so I didn't have much of a choice but to continue. Luckily there was enough for me to be able to see, and for the most part the roads between mine and the hotel near the circuit are well lit. I didn't fancy taking the bumper off myself in the cold so I had Rich look at it.
I'll just quote Rich's email for an explanation.
I can't really add to that. I may get the headlights done next year, but having driven it in the dark the other evening, I can say that they are substantially improved! Still, not as good as I remember the OEM lights being. Sadly they are expensive and few and far between, so I think I'll leave it after a polish has been done.
Onto the wheel wobble. I'm not sure if I'd mentioned, but I was getting steering wheel wobble when I picked it up from TGM. They'd balanced the wheels so I figured a weight had come off. I took it to my local and trusted tyre place, they did it again but the problem moved to a different speed. I'd asked Rich to look into it confident it couldn't possibly be the balancing. He checked everything over and couldn't find anything. The last thing on the list was driveshafts, these can only be visually inspected so far and at over a grand for new items for Honda I decided to sleep on it. Rich suggested to get the wheels balanced again but use a stud pattern mount instead of the centre bore. So after I picked the car up I drove back to the tyre place for them to do just that. They said they always use a stud pattern mount anyway, but they also said they were quite a way out. I explained I had it done by them before so they let me on my way without charging me. I'm glad to report that the wobble has gone.
Rich said the car is in good health. It's been well serviced in its life although no paperwork exists sadly due to 'cash in hand' servicing. Doesn't bother me for the price. He did notice some corrosion though. Again I'll quote his email:
Before:
After:
I don't think there'll be many updates over the winter, I'm even tempted to SORN the car till the end of March and tuck it away in the garage after a clean.
As for plans I've been looking into the following modifications:
ACT Stage 1 organic clutch kit.
Spoon 5.3 Final drive.
FD2/EP3 (same) 0.738 6th gear.
Kaaz plated diff.
Clockwise Motion gated baffle.
Nice cheap shopping list! I'm also looking at a polybush and a quieter intake, possibly a Mugen.
Massive thanks to Rich at Performance Autoworks for yet again outstanding work.
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Nice to see the care being put into it Dooksy!
Are you planning on keeping it mainly as a fun toy, or for daily usage? Judging by the thought of garaging it for winter I'd guess the former? If so, any specific reason you'd want the longer 6th gear? I suppose with the Spoon FD in place it gives a bit more headroom at the top end...
Baffle is definitely worth it for some serious track abuse too. Plans look good! Any plans for further drivetrain gains?
Just a track toy with occasional weekend use. Fingers crossed if I get the new job I'll be walking to work or on the bike as it's only a couple of miles away.
6th gear is for motorways, you hardly every hit 6th on track so it's nice to cut the revs down a bit on longer journeys to save a bit of fuel and hearing.
I think once the Kaaz diff is in that'll be for the drivetrain.