- Sat Aug 11, 2012 12:33 pm
#3412788
Hi all,
Sat twiddling my thumbs at the moment waiting on parts so thought i'd start a build thread. [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]
I've got a 51 plate SS which i've had for the best part of five years now. After a couple of years ownership i decided to head down the S/C route and went and bought most parts to bring it up to spec before buying the charger. Over that period of time things changed and i decided to sell up so put it up for sale on here. Didn't really do it whole heartedly as the main reason was to buy a TDi golf or something for the chick to learn to drive in. Neadless to say it ended up staying even after selling off a rake of tasty parts!
As it's been for the last two years, totally std apart from Premier rear glass, ATR front seats, Mintex discs/pads & HID's:
Fast forward to now and again i was thinking of selling it but decided instead to turn it into a hill climb/sprint car. The old man used to race when i was a nipper and every event he went to i was there watching. Even though it's clubsport level there's some very tricked out motors, especially in the Nationals. Never did try my hand at it due to being away most of the time so now's the time to start, using the civic! Re-sale value on these is fairly low now and it's a hell of a good engine to start with for competing and also means i'm not overly bothered if i bend it as i can pick up another for a relatively small outlay. Parts are easy to score due to popularity and there's still good support from the dealerships for oem stuff.
So, where do i start! Well...1st thing was to decide what class to compete in. Being a 2L you can end up in with some serious machinery which also comes with a serious price tag. Had a good read through the MSA Blue Book for all the reg's and decided standard production road going class (up to 2000cc) was perfect. Rules are basically car needs to be fully road legal, no slicks etc (there's a list for what semi's you can use), interior's got to stay apart from carpets/mats, bonnet/boot can be changed for grp/carbon etc, glass stays std, body to remain std, all suspension pick up points to remain std but fairly free to run whatever shocks/springs/arb's etc etc you want, block/head to be original etc etc. So all in all not too restrictive but enough free play to make it a damn sight quicker than std! As the car's going to be retained as a daily driver for the 1st year this should all fit in nicely. I'm away half the year working so it's not used too often so slightly hard road manners ain't an issue!
After that i spent countless hours reading about suspension specific to the civic and was amazed at the amount of good info available over the uk and stateside forums. Some really insightful stuff which a few people have obviously spent a good bit of their own time to contribute the knowledge they have! :bigthumb: Track build threads have also been good for feedback on whats working and whats not, which hopefully this thread will do for others who are following suit. Suspension will be completely re-built but nothing out of the ordinary.
Engine wise the plan is to modify it as much as reasonably possible without opening it up. No point in going all out on the 1st year and it'll be mainly used to get get a feel of the car on the different tracks and develop the suspension for each meet. Bolt on mods won't put the car to anywhere near the front of the class but it'll still have enough poke to have fun with it. Fully built N/A to be dropped in end of next season if all goes well.
Away for a coffee then i'll post whats been done in the last week or so..... [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]
Sat twiddling my thumbs at the moment waiting on parts so thought i'd start a build thread. [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]
I've got a 51 plate SS which i've had for the best part of five years now. After a couple of years ownership i decided to head down the S/C route and went and bought most parts to bring it up to spec before buying the charger. Over that period of time things changed and i decided to sell up so put it up for sale on here. Didn't really do it whole heartedly as the main reason was to buy a TDi golf or something for the chick to learn to drive in. Neadless to say it ended up staying even after selling off a rake of tasty parts!
As it's been for the last two years, totally std apart from Premier rear glass, ATR front seats, Mintex discs/pads & HID's:
Fast forward to now and again i was thinking of selling it but decided instead to turn it into a hill climb/sprint car. The old man used to race when i was a nipper and every event he went to i was there watching. Even though it's clubsport level there's some very tricked out motors, especially in the Nationals. Never did try my hand at it due to being away most of the time so now's the time to start, using the civic! Re-sale value on these is fairly low now and it's a hell of a good engine to start with for competing and also means i'm not overly bothered if i bend it as i can pick up another for a relatively small outlay. Parts are easy to score due to popularity and there's still good support from the dealerships for oem stuff.
So, where do i start! Well...1st thing was to decide what class to compete in. Being a 2L you can end up in with some serious machinery which also comes with a serious price tag. Had a good read through the MSA Blue Book for all the reg's and decided standard production road going class (up to 2000cc) was perfect. Rules are basically car needs to be fully road legal, no slicks etc (there's a list for what semi's you can use), interior's got to stay apart from carpets/mats, bonnet/boot can be changed for grp/carbon etc, glass stays std, body to remain std, all suspension pick up points to remain std but fairly free to run whatever shocks/springs/arb's etc etc you want, block/head to be original etc etc. So all in all not too restrictive but enough free play to make it a damn sight quicker than std! As the car's going to be retained as a daily driver for the 1st year this should all fit in nicely. I'm away half the year working so it's not used too often so slightly hard road manners ain't an issue!
After that i spent countless hours reading about suspension specific to the civic and was amazed at the amount of good info available over the uk and stateside forums. Some really insightful stuff which a few people have obviously spent a good bit of their own time to contribute the knowledge they have! :bigthumb: Track build threads have also been good for feedback on whats working and whats not, which hopefully this thread will do for others who are following suit. Suspension will be completely re-built but nothing out of the ordinary.
Engine wise the plan is to modify it as much as reasonably possible without opening it up. No point in going all out on the 1st year and it'll be mainly used to get get a feel of the car on the different tracks and develop the suspension for each meet. Bolt on mods won't put the car to anywhere near the front of the class but it'll still have enough poke to have fun with it. Fully built N/A to be dropped in end of next season if all goes well.
Away for a coffee then i'll post whats been done in the last week or so..... [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]
Last edited by doug2507 on Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:54 pm, edited 17 times in total.
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