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Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Washington DC Age: 26
Posts: 13,091
| DIY Race Car (ok fine... track day car)
So maybe this isn't a DIY... and maybe it isn't really a concrete answer either, but I've learned enough now to try and pass some of this stuff on.
This pile of information is directed at anyone who wants to take their 7th gen out on a race track for a little track day lapping fun. I find that there's no better way to have fun than to take this thing out and beat the snot out of it lap after lap, the problem is the car isn't always up to it. I've had all sorts of sensors and what not hooked up and aimed at the car on the track, so I've figured out lots of stuff about what needs to be put in, whats useless and what falls into the general "nice to have" category.
First things first.... You will find that most track day FAQs say you need nothing but a car, a helmet and someone to drive it. They're right in a sense. You can show up with those 3 things and have a ball. Afterwards... maybe not so much. I call that answer the "sports car answer" where the car has enough balls to take a track punishment and not care. If you haven't noticed... we aren't driving sports cars.... so you need to bring a few more things to bring your Civic up to "bring your sports car" level. First ... get yourself some decient tires. Preferrably of the high performance variety. I have seen people take good all seasons on the track, I'm not sure any of them would do it again. At 80 or 90 MPH, tires get hot, cornering on the limit only makes they hotter. You don't want to overheat tires and have them come apart or chunk up on the track. Its not safe for you and its not safe for others on the track. Expect to pound your tires pretty good. Show up with at least 1/2 tread, you'll probably leave with more than enough to get home, but better safe than sorry on cording a shoulder. It may be wise to even pick up a second set of rims and put your race track tires on. This prevents the possibility of picking up a nail or something on the highway (BTW, don't ever take a patched or plugged tire on the track).
Now that you got tires, time to take a look at the next thing... brakes.
Some tracks are much harder on brakes than others. Where I usually go (Gingerman), its aweful on brakes. Others are more kind. Either way, don't waste your time with big rotors or 4 pot calipers. They're not necessary. Keep stuff stock sized, just buy the cheapest rotors you can find and pick up some light duty track/autox/HP street pads. Most people will recommend Axxis Ultimates, Hawk HP+, Cobalt Friction GT Sports, or Carbotech Bobcats. I've had Ultimates on the track, the first set wore real well, the second set I tore the lining off the backing in 100 miles of tracking. So mixed results. I have Hawks on the car now, we'll see. Back to the hard on brakes track thing... if you find that you're overheating the brakes (exceeding the max pad temp), which you can usually figure out buy the pads coming apart in pieces or disappearing very fast, the first thing you should probably do is pull the dust shields off. They're pretty useless. Once you've committed the car to track whore status, you'll have enough tire junk marks elsewhere that some brake dust on your suspension is meaningless. So give your brakes some air. Ducting is also a possibility, good luck finding somewhere to route them. As far as the rears... um,yeah. Your shoe options are Honda or Porterfield. I never tried the porterfield shoes, but I did manage to burn up a set of brand new shoes in 1 trip to the track. By burned up, I mean literally. I opened up the drum and got a mountain of white ash-like dust. If you're on a track where you aren't hard on brakes, or just don't want to push as hard as you can, the drums are fine. If you are hard on brakes... maybe try Porterfields, or find yourself a set of Si discs. Its a pain in the neck, but discs cool much better than drums do, which helps. Now that you've messed around with all that, don't forget to dump some high temp brake fluid in. Stock isn't gonna cut it. You'll boil it in 2 laps. ATE Superblue/Type200 works well, Motul 600 will probably work better but you gotta change it more often. I use ATE, never had a problem. Bleeding after a track day is a good idea.
Cooling wise, you're golden. Honda has greatly overdone the radiator, I've never broken 210 on the track. Waterwetter is good, but not needed, you can run stock coolant in the stock system and be fine.
Oil on the otherhand... there's a bit of a problem. There's not enough of it, and there's not enough air to cool it off. Result is the oil keeps getting hotter and hotter. If you're running synthetic, you *may* be ok, but make sure you change it afterwards. If you're running dino juice, no guarantees, you may be picking up pistons off the track. When I say hot, I mean it, I've had oil over 270 on the track, which is a good 40 degrees more than you want it at a maximum. This is where the whole econobox thing really plays in. You're gonna be banging the redline for 15-20 minutes straight... the car isn't made to do that. Don't feel bad though, even people with K20A2s are having oil temp issues. Solution is an air-oil cooler. It looks like a small radiator, you can build one thats as expensive or as cheap as you want. The most important thing is to just make sure you get oil through it in suffecient quantity it doesn't throw your oil pressure through the roof. I recommend the use of -10 AN or equivelant sized rubber lines to and from the cooler. It keeps a lot of oil moving, which is what you want, and it keeps the pressure safe because you're not really changing the size of the ports the oil is running through. If you're not sure whether or not you need one, buy an oil temp sensor and mount it IN THE OIL PAN. Take the car out and measure it, if you're going over 230 or so, you probably want to invest in one. Don't forget to account for the outside temp... if its 90 out, you'll run hotter than if its 65. Its an easy way to not spin your bearings. Once I put the cooler on (my system is speced out in a thread somewhere), I brought the oil temps down to 215, which is about perfect, I'm also running 5.5 qts of oil now.
Point of good news is there doesn't seem to be a way to starve the pickup. Plan on the engine eating a little oil on the track (consequence of running flat out), and VTEC historically has a tendency to consume some, I dont know why. Bring a quart to the track.
Thats really about it. There's not much to getting the car ready to survive, now comes the other part... the fun part, making it go FAST.
Rule 1: Horsepower doesn't rule the road course. Write that down. Put it under your pillow and learn it by osmosis. Say it as you brush your teeth at night, I don't care how you get it in your head, just get it there. Straights are there to get you set for the next corner. So forget about turbos (they're actually not wise for a road course car anyways unless you build it REALLY well), swaps aren't necessary or any of that crap. Thats right, I found a use for your D17. What does make the car go fast is your ability to know the line of the track and hit it. This unfortunately isn't something that is intuitive. It takes time to learn, luckily most tracks are established enough to have nice black "lanes" in the corners to follow. You just gotta learn the track. No 2 corners are the same, neither are their setups or exits. There's late apexes, early apexes, double apexes, chicanes, esses, increasing radius, decreasing radius, on and on..... Practice makes it better.
Rule 2: Use the brake markers. Those are the sticks or signs before a corner. Don't plan on having the luxury that Michael Schumacher has on Sunday with big signs that spell out 200, 100, 50. Sticks may be all you get, they will be evenly spaced, but no guarantees on the distance. 50 yds is pretty standard though. How early you go depends on how hard you hit the brakes and how severe the corner is. Just remember, the harder you push the brake pedal, the faster they disappear. Unless you're running someone down for the lead (which you're not, this is a track day, not a race) you don't need to go as late as you can every time.
Rule 3: Mirrors are good, but don't live in them. Use your mirrors... all 3 of them. Don't constantly look in them though. Concentrate on the track, but if you get some time in a straight section, check them and let faster cars by. A fast car is defined as someone who is up your rear through a set of corners. Let them by in whatever was announced as the passing zones (these will be given in the drivers meeting in the morning). I don't really define a higher horsepower car to be a "faster car" if all they can do is pull on me in a straight line because I know 2 corners later I'll be back on his ass. Nothing will piss someone off more than not being let by when there is an opportunity to do so. Do it safely, wave them by and let them pass on the left. Ease over and take your foot off the gas, do not touch the brakes. Random braking makes people behind you nervous and you could cause a pileup... not good.
Rule 4: Don't race your friends. This goes back to its a track day, not a race. Its stupid, you'll probably get thrown out, especially if you make it look obvious. There's nothing wrong with following or lapping in groups, I do it all the time. Its great for working on lines if you talk someone who knows the track into running with you, but if you're gonna do it, keep your place in line, don't keep leapfrogging back and forth, you're looking for a disaster as soon as egos come on.
Rule 5: Don't be a hero. There will come a time, I've done it, as has everyone else who's ever set tire on the track, where you will push too hard and lose control in some way. Remain calm. Thats the most important thing. Trying to save it may actually make the situation worse. If you go into a corner too hot and the car won't turn and running off the track is inevitable, go straight off the track, try and keep the wheel centered. Track infield isn't the smoothest stuff... turned wheels aren't necessarily good. Get the car back under control, and safely re-enter the track. Pit immediately and get the car looked over for damage. Its uncommon, but you also don't want to drop any junk on the track. If you feel the rear start to come out, be gentile with your corrections. It doesn't take much at speed to overcorrect and throw the rear end out the other way. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do and it snaps around. Should you spin out, chances are, the car will die. Just so you know. When oil goes up the engine wall or fuel comes off the pickup, it tends to stall the car. It should restart. You may get a CEL. If you do, reset the computer, it should go away unless you broke something. This is also reason number one why you shouldn't ride someone's ass. Watch NASCAR on sunday and see what happens when one car loses control. If you ever have to pull off the track due to a problem, STAY IN THE CAR. The exception is if the car is on fire. If you get out of the car, they have to red flag the whole track, that pisses everyone off. If you have any control over it (sometimes you don't), pull off the track as far as you can, and in a spot where you're not in danger of being hit (on the outside of a corner near the exit is NOT a smart place). Best is to pull yourself off near a worker station, and if possible, put the worker station between the track and your car. Wait for assistance.
Ok, so we've gone from the car, to driving, now its time for a little Voodoo. The suspension. I can't tune your car, niether can anyone else really. You can take suggestions, you can do your homework and all that other stuff and still end up messing with it. Can you take a completely stock suspension on a track, sure, absolutely. Its it fun? Sure is. Believe me, race tracks are fun. I'd do it on a Power Wheels if I had to. There's something about being allowed to go as fast as you possibly can and not getting in trouble for it. Now, there's of course ways to increase the magnitude of the fun. As we've established before, HP won't always make you faster, so there's gotta be another way to go faster.... make it hold the road. You really can do any sort of upgrading you want. Depending on how trackish you want to make the car vs. making it streetable. New shocks will make a huge difference from a reaction standpoint. Just the firmer damping with help greatly. You can run progressive springs on the track, lots of people do it, the problem you stand the chance to run is them not being stiff enough and you hit the bumpstops. There's no easy solution to that. Next step up would be a straight rate racing spring. Ground Controls or something of the sort. You can go to full coilovers. Necessary? No. You actually won't see too many club racers running threaded body coils. Some of it is due to rules, some of it is just because there's no need. Your alignment will also make a huge difference. To do it right, use a tire pyrometer and go for even temps all the way across. For the casual tracker, throw out the stock alignment specs. Go for something like -1.75 to -2.25 in the front and -1 to -1.7 in the rear. Forget tire wear. If you're going on a track and you care, go home and go back to bed. Sway bars.... don't forget you're going fast. Oversteer can get you in trouble. If you've got a 19, I'd say you're safe. 22mm bars make sure you ease up to it first. Find out just how hard you can go. Believe me, 22mm bars on the track are fun as all get out, but they're definitely not forgiving to courageous manuvers, so be careful.
If you're just starting out, I do not advise the use of R-compound tires. In fact, I ban you from using them. The stocker you go out there, the more you gotta control the car and the less the car controls itself. It'll make you a better driver down the road. Roll cages and racing buckets are unnecessary for track days, don't bother. JDM does not make you faster. Put your money where it's needed. Plan on having to fix things afterwards. I guarantee you'll find something you don't like or isn't up to snuff. Spend money on brake pads but not brake rotors. Buy good tires, but not forged Volk wheels. Plan on trashing everything. Leave your bodykit at home or find a way to tape it over. Track junk will hit your car and leave marks. While most of it is just rubber chunks and will come off, every once in a while someone will kick a stone up and there's not much you can do. Thats why you'll see most people tape headlights. It keeps the scuffs on them down and if they shatter, all the pieces stay put. I guess this is also a good time to mention that while track days are classified as driving schools, the nature of it being a closed environment speed event usually voids your insurance for the day.
While you're not actually racing, you're still theoretically racing yourself. You'll have laps that you know went better than others, the more and more you get those kinds of laps, the more consistency you're developing. Thats good. It means you're getting better. If you're consistent and right, you'll find yourself running faster than some of those cars you thought were "fast" and you're well on your way to learning why the driver makes the car go.
Have fun.
Any of you other guys can feel free to add to this if I missed something or your experience says otherwise.
Last edited by Boilermaker1 : 05-21-2005 at 12:40 AM.
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