EK9 Racing in MSVT Trophy this season (2017)


Worth posting again after next race??

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Sparrowhawk

Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2017
Messages
35
Car(s)
Honda Civic Type-R EK9
Hi all,

I'm not much of a poster of the forum, but thought some people might be interested in my racing this year.

I've entered the 2017 MSVT Trophy in my EK9 race car, and thought it might be worth sharing some of the experiences with you guys. I also thought it would be nice to jot down my experiences somewhere - so hopefully they are fun to read.

This race series is a great entry level for people wanting to get into racing, and was specifically designed for racers who want to take the next step up from track days in their car. You can compete in any make/model of road car, although it does need to be race prepared. Anyone who has already prepared their car to a track spec, I would really recommend this series as a first toe in the water for racing.

So I've been preparing over the past year or so, lots of trackdays, and lots of time needed to get the car ready and also to accumulate all of the gear needed to go racing. My car has been great, performing well at test days at Brands Hatch, Snetterton and Cadwell Park. I got my National B race licence over Christmas (like real life Gran Turismo), and then joined this race series.

There are 7 Rounds across the 7 different circuits around the UK. In each race you are racing against all of the other cars on track, but there are also sub-groups which are based on BHP/Weight ratio.

This is what my car looks like..

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It's been mistaken for an EK3 because of some of the changed body panels, but its an EK9 with the B16B inside.

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The engine has various upgrades, with lots of Tegiwa bits, it was originally built to Civic Cup specification. The last Dyno read out showed 190BHP, and I have another dyno session booked for next week so will see where the car currently sits. It weighs in at approx 900kg.

Race 1 of the season was really good fun. It was my first competitive race ever, so I wasn't expecting to set any lap records. Cadwell Park is a demanding circuit, and so I took it fairly easy in Qualifying, setting a best time of 1:55.55

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Those of you who know Cadwell will know that's not a particularly quick time, but it was enough to earn me P.13 on the grid, out of 17 cars. I was fairly happy with that as it meant I wasn't at the back, but also that there wouldn't be too many cars behind me hassling me from the very start.

It was my first race so my aim was to make sure I finished the race, and didn't have too many 'incidents' along the way. As we lined up for the start I was surprisingly calm, and really excited. The race started well, with me overtaking the BMW 325 in front of me and then trying to gradually up my pace as we went.

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The BMW had more grunt on the straights, and was being driven by a more experienced driver, so it was tricky to keep him behind me, but absolutely brilliant fun! The 9 was absolutely stunning through the twisty sections at Cadwell Park, and allowed me to create a bit of a gap between the BMW behind.

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The race is 45 minutes long, and there is a mandatory pit stop mid way through. Some teams choose to change drivers at this point, but I was racing alone so had to sit stationary in the car for the full 2 minutes, which is torture when you are racing!

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After the pitstops I found myself being chased down by the leading driver. The Finsport EP3 Civic was absolutely flying and got past me with ease.

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The remainder of the race I spent chasing after the BMW 325 which had leap-frogged me on the pitstop. They had also changed driver, which meant they were ever so slightly slower. But try as I might I could not get past him, and after a huge brake lock-up coming down the steep hill section I eventually lost a place to the Clio 182 that had been on my tail for several laps.

My main aim for the day was to finish my first race in one piece, so I relaxed a little and stopped chasing the BMW, and concentrated on not losing any further places.

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The car was superb, and brought me home eventually in P.9, not bad.

My fastest lap was 1:51.81 so a significant improvement over my best time in Qualifying.

Overall it was a superb first experience of racing. Finishing 9th in my first ever race felt like a good result, and I had a bloody good time.

Hopefully this has been worth posting, I'm not too sure how many people on here follow racing, or if its seen as sacrilege to race an Ek9? But the way I see it these cars were designed for the track, and I like to think Honda wanted some of these cars to be raced like this :)

Race 2 is at Snetterton in two weeks. If you guys liked this post then I'll keep you up to date with what happens there.

Cheers
 
I had planned to do msvt afew year ago in my b18 ek9. I crashed it at brands testing though so that ended that lol
Wondering if youve had the car on a set of scales? My car is pretty bare and it weighs 983kg so id be interested to see where the other 83kg are in my car
 
Good write up, I enjoyed reading it.

It's kind of inspiration to me in a way, keep up the good work
 
Hi Jesse, just had a look at your build thread, love your work! That's a pretty serious car you've built.

We had the car on the scales at Cadwell and I think it came in at 1040kg, that included the 80kg driver, plus fuel, plus a passenger race seat and harness.

My EK9 is probably at the extreme end of weight saving, so you're more than welcome to have a look around it at some point for some ideas. The rear tailgate and wing weighs a hell of a lot, mine has a fibreglass tailgate, and the rear wing is carbon fibre. That's a lot of metal taken out.

There's a lot to be saved in the glass. Mine has lexan polycarbonate windows all round. It also has single skin doors, I'll see if I have a pic, and there is a fair bit of metal taken out around the interior too.

The rota race wheels probably save a few kg, but I'm not sure how much really, probably no more than yours.
 
@jesse888 If you look at the interior of the door here there's some decent weight saving there.
You can also see from this pic the polycarb window, rear window and fibreglass tailgate.

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Great write up! I'll be following your thread :))
Ek9 as a race car is where they belong! Don't worry about upsetting anyone trust me on that one! I'm a pro at that lol.
 
Ah mines 1070kg with me in it(apparent 87kg), next to no fuel with passenger seat like yours.
My entire bootlid assembly is still standard bar abit of plastic removed so i assume thats where the majority of the weight difference is, ive had the spoiler off before and was surprised how much it weighed.
I shaved 11kg per door so short of fibreglass not much there to come out, poly windows for the sides but not the rear yet.
 
Yeh the bootlid is a heavy piece of kit. I have the original and can't believe how much it weighs by comparison. The fibreglass lid with polycarb window is significantly lighter.

However, it is a big compromise. There is no real way of making it fully secure, and it also lets in a little water when raining/washing.

The bonnet on my car is standard, but thats the next obvious thing to change to save weight. I'm sure you've considered that.
 
Carbon bonnet on mine already, my car lives in a garage most of the time anyway so its not a huge deal really. Not like i drive it everyday, or even every week lol
 
Nice. Looks like I need to keep reading your build thread, will probably give me some ideas!

There is some metal work cut out of the back of mine too. I'll grab a pic of the inside for you soon.

Where did you acquire a lightweight front crash bar from? Thats a good mod
 
Great write up! I'll be following your thread :))
Ek9 as a race car is where they belong! Don't worry about upsetting anyone trust me on that one! I'm a pro at that lol.
Cheers mate! I'm getting the car ready now for Snetterton, and will do another write up after the race weekend :nice:
 
Yeah please do, any weight related tips ill be happy to see.
They came on certain models(its a stock honda part) was on my last ek9 so i just transferred it over to this one.
 
Looking forward to your next write up!
I'm also interested in weight saving so
Will keep an eye on your posts.
My car will be going on a diet over winter.
 
Great write up and insight to the TD trophy, I've hmmm'd and haaaa'd over this before, Great inspiration. I was at cadwell just last week in my EP3, Lovely track.
 
Great write up and insight to the TD trophy, I've hmmm'd and haaaa'd over this before, Great inspiration. I was at cadwell just last week in my EP3, Lovely track.
I really recommend it. The process of getting your National B race licence is really straight-forward.

MSV Trophy is the ideal way to start because you aren't tied in for an entire season, you can pick and choose which Rounds you want to enter. And there is a real mix of cars and skill levels. I'm also looking at the Civic Cup, but that is slightly more daunting as the standards of driving are higher, and the driving style is far more 'competitive'!
 
Very nice car you've got.

What was the total cost to enter etc if you don't mind me asking?

Of course. No racing is 'cheap', but this is certainly one of the most cost effective ways to go racing.

You pay a one-off fee of £99 to join the MSV TT series.

Then you pay £329 each time you go racing. For that you get a 30-40 minutes Practice/Qualifying session, and then a 45 minute Race. There are 7 of these rounds across the season, and you can go to all of them, or go to just a couple, its your choice.

And the thing that makes it really cost effective is that you can opt to have 2 drivers, who swap over mid way through the race, and therefore share the £329 race fee. £115 to go racing is very cheap indeed.

The expensive part is getting to that point, and all the extra stuff you need. On top of getting the car race-ready you also need to get yourself race-ready. Helmet, Hans device, Race Suit, none of it is cheap. And then you have the other extras to think about such as getting your licence etc.

It is an expensive thing to get into - but once you've taken care of all that stuff, the actual racing itself isn't mega money at all. No more than track days really.

My advice is to spend a year or two accumulating everything that you need. That way you can shop around, look for good deals, and spread the costs out. Trying to buy everything in a short space of time is a quick way to break the bank!! In that time you can also spend time learning the tracks online, watching videos and tutorials, doing track days etc, meaning that once you get to starting your first race, you feel ready, well-equipped, and prepared.
 
I had the race car on the dyno this week at Torque Developments in Lakeside (Essex).

It is a superb set up there and I highly recommend them for anyone who needs some dyno time. The guys were easy to speak to and very knowledgeable. The technician doing my car had a simply epic race-prepared Mondeo that was in their workshop, which is always a good sign.

The power run is used to determine the cars power-to-weight ratio. This number is then used by MSV (the race series organiser) to put your car into the appropriate 'Group' for races.

Civic on dyno.PNG


At Round 1 at Cadwell Park I raced in the 'Guest Class' because my car had not yet been power tested. I now know I am in 'Class B' which is the top class, for cars of 150-175 BHP/Tonne.

That is not an ideal situation, because some of the cars in this class are running far more powerful engines, such as a BMW 328 etc. However, as a novice it doesn't really matter much which class I am in. IMO the important thing at this stage is to get track time under my belt.

Round 2 is at Snetterton this weekend, at the MINI Festival. There is lots of racing across the Saturday and Sunday. The MSVT Trackday Trophy is a 45 minute race on Saturday afternoon (Race 5 of the weekend). I will do a write up next week (if it doesn't go too badly that is!!)
 
Really enjoyed reading this man, after giving me a few ideas for my own guild.
Best of luck this weekend and look forward to reading more
 
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