Again,
I was lost, but now I am found.
What have you all missed? Well, not much-- aside from my decision to take the majority of mods off of my car including:
- Coilovers
- 255/40r17 RS3's with 17x9 Rotas
- Long tube header
- and K-Pro
I did it because I was literally working on my car once a week, at least-- tightening up coilovers because of degraded spherical bearings and loose lower locking collars and also trying to correct the toe issues associated with running a lot of camber on the RSX:
It didn't help to have a naturally disadvantaged front suspension from the start either. With the poor camber gains associated with MacPherson strut, even when the car is not extremely lowered, it becomes necessary to run additional negative camber-- more than would be necessary on an equivalent double wishbone car.
Note how a typical "macstrut" suspension moves in comparison to a double wishbone suspension:
I'm not saying these cars are not great cars. These cars are plenty capable-- whether lightly modified or highly modified. This can be seen from SCCA Solo Nats in 2015 where an EP3 Civic took first in STF or in the PZTuning RSX which was record-paced FWD time-attack car at one time.
However for me, the relatively small amount of headaches I had seen for my daily driver/track day/autocross RSX were enough to drive me insane. I had probably done about three DIY alignments in one month and one alignment in addition to that at my friend's shop.
It took one last hiccup where I discovered that my steering rack was slipping before finally giving up on the chassis and searching for something different. This is the "different" that I searched for and finally found:
I chose it for a variety of reasons, including the better suspension, lighter chassis, wide variety of cheap parts available, and because I was already familiar with tracking and autocrossing an FWD car, however that's a story for another time.
While I was putting my car back to stock, I was focused on getting to and from my job in South Jersey, finding a place to live, and enjoying my life with my friends, family, and girlfriend without having to worry about working on my broken car every weekend. So, I took a short hiatus while I started my job.
I didn't hit the track. I didn't go to many autocross events during this time. And I didn't worry about mechanical issues for a while.
However, as it usually goes-- a car guy cannot stay away from the hobby for a long time without going insane...and with that being said, I tried to pick up seat time in as many different peoples' cars as possible.
My friend Anthony's Miata
My friend Alex's Impreza L Wagon
My friend Jason's Shifter Kart
During this time, I also started accumulating parts for the Civic-- including a full GSR suspension and brakes, ITR Koni Race and GC coilovers, used Team Dynamics Wheels and Hoosier R7 Slicks, all necessary camber and toe adjusters, and hard rubber bushings.
With a, now reliable, daily, some slicks in my garage, a running Civic project car, a new-found sense of security at my new job, and a couple of events left in the season, I decided to get back on the track with my cars and have some fun.
Body roll for days
Heading onto NJMP Thunderbolt on Stock Suspension
For my last track day in Arcie, I decided to install some Koni inserts since I didn't like the way the OEM ones felt over bumps at high speeds. I didn't want to install any lowering springs, or anything crazy-- I just wanted Koni inserts.
These were around the same price as RSX replacement struts from KYB or similar brands, and since I had over 70,000 miles on my OEM struts, I just pulled the trigger and went ahead with it.
As you all can see, the install didn't go so smoothly without all of my dad's tools in my old garage in PA:
The result was rather astonishing with a decrease in lap times of approximately 1 second after my first heat. My times improved drastically after getting some instruction and adjusting my line, of course, but for a back-to-back comparison of OEM to Koni struts, my results were pretty amazing:
Now that the season is over, I'm mainly focusing on finishing the Civic and saving money for student loans (yay), other adult things, social functions, and track days! Wish me luck as I continue on this journey of hoonage!
