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Well, im really getting interseted in the whole AutoX thing. I just hate the whole street/drag/rice racing **** all my friends are doing, and most 17 year olds are to. Its so gay, IMO. I really got interested in Autox when my brother in law told me about his racing in his M3. So my question is....how does the civic perform on the track? Is it worth it to spend the money, the time, even the embarsment if the car sucks? I have heard some good things, like Hawk telling me the civic actually performs well with his K20. Whats the deal..should i keep the autox to real sports cars? Or does the civic run well?

 
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civic's do really well in autoX. Just to get 1 thing clear, Any civic will "perform" with a k20... its a rad engine. with the base engine, ull have to learn how to take corners alot better, and all that, because the 1.7L's dont have the power to hang with the big boys. But u can also go into class's that keep cars close, and most of the skill is threw the driver. But, u will need to get modifying ur car to do well in autoX. u SHOULD try to upgrade to 4 wheel disc brakes, get new pads/rotors. lowering springs/shock, or coilovers, anti roll bars, and sway bars and such. also u will need a good helmet, and TRY to get a good sturdy bucket seat, it helps a lot from getting bounced around on seats with no lateral support. If u just want to have fun, throw on some springs, get some 15" or 16" tires with R compounds and a helmet and go have some fun at any event, u wont have the best time, but it will give u a taste.

 
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I see I see. Jeez cant wait till event comes over here.

 
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What the hell are you talking about dude?? Heavily modifying your car & especially running R compounds is the WORST thing you can do as a beginner. You develop bad habits & your driving will suck untill you break them, which will take a whole lot longer than just taking it slow & learning early.

Oh yea, most of the 'big boys' are running civic hatchbacks & miatas...with 90 - 130 hp



Just go out there & run you car STOCK, youll learn what you can & cant do as it sits, take a class if you can, but if not dont let it shake you, the hardest part is just showing up. After you start getting the hang of it, modify slowly to suit your needs.

After you have a few events under your belt, you might want to start looking for some 15x7s for your race only wheels, throw some Falken Azenis, on them, & get an RSX 19mm sway bar. Thats as far as id go for the first year or so. Maybee get a racing harness to keep you planted in your seat. 4 wheel disk brakes will have absolutely NO benefit on an autoX course.

Remember, at this level, your driving makes you slow, not your car.

To answer your question... There are better platforms out there that are more adjustable, but your civic is a pretty good little car on the track. The most important thing right now is seat time, just go out there & run whatever you have.

 
Rep Power: 424

Watch this video
Watch this video if you have a fast connection (its longer)
Thats me last weekend. To answer the question, any car can be raced if you know how to drive it. Is this car competitive in any class? No not really, but if you're 17, you don't have the money to race supercompetitively anyways. Take the car, find your local SCCA's next event, go and drive it. Have fun.... get your ricer friends to come too.
To take the car on a real track.... you're gonna need an oil cooling system and upgraded brakes if you plan on driving the **** out of the car. It tolerates autocross stress just fine.

 
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Just stop talking now.

 
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Well, if your looking for a "Fast" car, the 7th gen civic aint it. however it can be a very Fun car.


any way, If your just starting out in Motorsports, dont worry about what car you have, just go and have some fun (Thats the whole point after all) once you get sucked in to it and have some experiance under your belt, then you can start looking at what you want to change with your car, or if you want to get a different one to be more compeditive. But what ever yo do, Dont go out and buy a lot of parts right now Simply because you have no Idea what you or the car needs for best performance. so, why spend a bunch of $ on parts you probably dont need (and will bump you in to a class that you have 0 chance at ever winning)

 
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I see I see, so to race stock im going to have to put on stock springs and wheels(steelies). Thanks guys, im pretty much going to race stock for about a year, like ^^you said, maybe get some trak lites :] . But since i have a dx, once i get 15s i have to move up to which class? And a catback is allowed for the H stock class?

 
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thoise are some nice vids. and the civic is a fun car to drive. it may not be all that fast but once you get used to it and a few suspension mods here and there its a fun autox car and it looks nice too.

 
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JUST LEAVE IT ALONE. Don't put anything on/back on. Show up. You won't win anyways. If you move to 15s the car is in STS, and yes you can have a cat-back in stock class.

 
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nono, i already have neu race springs on the car......do i have to put stock?

 
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LEAVE IT. Just go run STS. it doesn't matter when you first start out. Theres no sense removing parts to run stock class vs. STS. Show up, drive the car, learn. Thats all there is to it.

 
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jeez....sorry im a newb.

 
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No worries. STS and STX are your 'tuner' classes. Usually they are the biggest class in the event and you will undoubtedly have plenty of people who are willing to offer advice. As a noob you will have a newbie group course walk with one of the experienced drivers. LISTEN TO THEM!

And the whole point isn't winning anyways. It's all about having fun. It's not like there are $1,000 checks waiting for the winners anyways.

 
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imo, first off, learn to drive. kia, civic, corvette, it doesn't matter since you don't have much track experience.

find the slowest and crappiest car u can, and learn to drive that thing fast and learn how to carry your speed through the turns

 
Rep Power: 381

I'm with Boilermaker here.. you dont have to put the car back to stock, but DONT add any thing else. Though With you being on Neuspeed race springs and OEM dampers... I'd say that it would probably be a very good idea to pick up a set of Konis, or other performance damper. Reason being that its OK to learn on a car that has some inherent handlign issues as it will teach you to deal with those issues and be a better driver because of it, its quite another to learn on a car that is down right setup wrong and has some Serious issues with its suspension (Blown shocks) that will end up teaching you bad habbits because the car simply wont do what you need/want it to do even if you are driving it right...

 
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Zzyzx and Boilermaker are absolutely right, just take what you have down and practice being humble. Most regions have novice instruction available, take advantage of it as long as you can, it's the best way to get up to speed. Also if your region allows, get your instructor to drive your car for a lap and watch carefully.

As to 7th gens being compeditive sts is the class where it gets closest and that's mostly up to the driver, at least at the regional level. Being from san diego/LA regions we've got some of the fastest STS cars and drivers in the nation. I can't win against that many fast drivers. But I can try, even against Will Kahlman and his escort, or Ken Montoyashi etc etc and all the HF hatches, but on most courses I can get within a second and a half, not too shabby. So yes you can do well especially if your region isn't too quick and you'll definately have fun trying!

 
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Or run the car with NO MODS and do it in HS. NEVER EVER modify a car and then race, always see what needs to be done based on your driving habits then make adjustments. You can always make the car faster by throwing money at it, spend more money making yourself a better driver, like, go to an Evolution School!!

My $.02 FWIW.

 
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How does it go..brake before the turn step on it out of the turn. bascially before you hit the apex of the turn you step on the gas to get thru the turn. correct me if I'm wrong.

 
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Brake before, accelerate at the apex, and don't ever shift mid corner

 
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Well he already had a modded car, theres no point to take stuff off, thats just wasted time

 
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exactly^^ That was my conflict

With turn, lets say im in 3rd, going to a turn that will require to shift to second, should I clutch in the whole turn and when out then hit gas in 2nd? OR should you shift from 3rd to 2nd b4 the turn?

 
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Brake and heel toe into 2nd, turn in and gas towards the apex right boilermaker?

 
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yea the heel and toe..ive seen it done, but i still dont really understand the purpose. Your at 6Krpms in 3rd..so you break, clutch in, hit gas while still breaking, then go to second, and let off clutch, so you go into turn with 2nd gear? The hitting the gas does what? Raise the RPM's? But if your at 6K already why go anymore...im confused.

 
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As soon as you start to brake and push in the clutch the rpms are going to go down of course, so hitting the gas will help you to stay in your power band in 2nd and allow for a smoother gear shift transition.

 
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Heel toe allows you to keep the brakes on and shift smoothly at the same time. If you take your foot off the brakes to shift, you're no longer slowing down and if you shift without blipping the gas, you'll go through clutches like I go through brake pads.
You need to go though the corner in the gear you want to exit it in, don't ever have the car out of gear for an extended period of time (more than seconds). If you ever have to make a panic move, you can't. Watch your tach, watch your speed, make sure you downshift so you don't blow the redline on the downshift. I think to go from 2nd from 3rd, you'd have to be below about 5500. But if you're making a corner exit at 5700 RPMS, its more worth your while to stay in gear and either ride it out, or exit at a higher speed in the higher gear. If you're shifting 2 seconds after the corner exit, you didnt need to downshift. I'll copy over and post a video of my feet if I can find it.

 
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Brakes down to a reasonable speed, turn in, slowly bring the throttle back on, accelerate through the apex and out of the corner.

You think thats fun... try a double apex where you need to downshift for the first one, then left foot brake your way through the second.... talk about fancy footwork

 
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I guess the blipping part just takes practice to get it natural and right. So basicaly your raising the RPMs in neutral so when you downshift theres not alot of stress? And you do this while braking for the turn.

 
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Yeah, you blip in neutral, but the whole action occurs fluidly in less than a second. If you're trying to practice, it works much easier at high RPMs where the flywheel is really moving vs. doing it at highway RPMs. The hard part is not stomping the brake when you go for the gas.

 
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One of the better decriptions of Heel Toe I could find

http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/how...2/article.html

another
http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving..._heeltoe.shtml