JohnTurbo's B18C EK4 Race Car


unreal build man

any tips on drillin the bonnet , i have those pins too and bit sceptical at drillin it...what way do you mark it out ?
 
Pins were not difficult. I fitted the pins to existing holes in the centre panel (above the radiator). - Fit them a bit high and lower the bonnet onto them.
I scored around the pins and drilled the centre of the scoring with a 3mm pilot drill, at the angle the pins would eventually go through. Fibreglass doesn't drill brilliantly!
I went up to a 10mm hole then and looked again for position by the pins. In the bottom skin you actually want the hole 3-4mm further forward than it looks. I opened up to 12mm and then modified the bottom skin holes with a dremel to suit.

- You can then see through the 12mm holes in the top skin where the pins are heading, and dremel them to suit.

Fibreglass is quicker to work than steel, but it was 30-45 mins in total. I then drilled the 2mm pilots for self tapers with the pin retainers in position and screwed them up.

Thanks for the comments guys - Stephen did a great job with the car as I keep saying, and I'm grateful for the quality of what I now have to work with. It goes great, and is a bit quicker now with the B16B in it.

I'm racing in Tintops...

Sun 13th April – Snetterton 300
Sat 10th May – Silverstone
Sun June 1st – Brands Hatch
Sun 13th July - Castle Combe
Sun 3rd August – Anglesea
Sat 30th August – Donington
Sat sept 20th – Oulton
Sat Oct 18th – Snetterton 200
 
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Coming along nicely :nice: Tin Tops is a cracking set up, had a lot of fun in it last year, some great racing, very well organised club, best of luck in there :drive:
 
Good luck with the Tin tops! Will have to come to the Castle Combe round!
 
Ill be hoping for pit help at some of the southern rounds!

Got a thread Haitch?
 
Loving this! Nice build with an end goal in mind. Hope all goes well for you come season.
 
JohnTurbo said:
Ill be hoping for pit help at some of the southern rounds!

Got a thread Haitch?
Click to expand...

You can do the pit stop on your own if you have an open face helmet, you need a hand if it isn't! Always great to have people in the pits though, I had one helping with the harness & one dropping some air out of the fronts.

My build thread is long gone, I did start a racing one over on the HOT forum :)
 
JohnTurbo said:
Will have a look. Bigskank...is yours the 1.8?
Click to expand...

Yes, mate had a few problems last year about it being a 1.8 , it's all ok now by the club . It's good fun. Watch out for the black puma in yr class it's quick , I've been doing pits stops all my self do practice again again all seconds count .
 
I'd gathered about that - since that "type" of engine was never in the EK. But presumably you argued that it was just the same as a stroked B16B - which would have been legal?

I paid attention because I've swapped engines obviously, but the B16B was in the EK at least.

Do you have to get out even if you race alone?

Well been busy a little this evening...

I bought a lightly used "MeisterR" brake kit off a CL member. That site is useful for shopping! These consist of 286mm disks with a much more track oriented construction, using new carriers for standard VTI front calipers.

I chose these over the EK9 brakes I'd already bought for several reasons:-

1) The VTI brakes with Stoptech disks performed flawlessly at Cadwell, and I famously boil brakes. I believe the calipers and pad areas are perfect for the size of the car, but the 242mm disks seem impossibly small. The disk is by far and away the biggest heat sink in a braking system.
2) Ease. The brakes on my car are in great nick, and are in known well-functioning order. It would be both time consuming and a shame to replace all brakes, carriers, disks and master cylinder. It also allows me to continue using the DS2500 pads I already have. An extra 10mm on radius will not shift brake balance too significantly to the front like fitting EK9 fronts only would. I may still get a bias valve to suit different conditions.
3) Cost - New track compound pads for four corners, plus disks $$$ - Whereas I now have a nearly new set of Carbotech XP8 (150quid) front pads in reserve. I can also sell all the EK9 stuff and the 2 nicely refurbed VTI calipers that came with the kit.
4) Weight. This will be a considerably lighter setup than EK9 brakes, with less inertia. I suspect the new disks weigh virtually the same as the smaller ones due to larger vent channels.

I'd imagine the full EK9 setup would be superior - but on my lightened car, not remotely necessary. Time will tell.

The carriers and disks fitted:-

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Old vs new

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See the much better vent design

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Fitted! Nice gap!

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I made a mistake , by not getting race pads , you will need them I had brake fade at brands after 30mins
 
You are right John, with the freakyparts plain discs and DS2500 pads the brakes were plenty for the civic on the track, I was braking from 120mph twice and about 90mph twice every lap at my local circuit and they never let me down.

The calipers on the car were new reconditioned units about 6 months ago and only did a few trackdays. The rears are original 17 year old VTI calipers that came on the car so wouldn't do any harm to change them and one of the piston boots ripped when one rear corner brake pads went down to the metal on a trackday and the piston came too far out....they are still free enough though and the pads usually wear even enough on the rear


Just a heads up mate....I used a very similar set of grooved discs that you have put on the front by stoptech and I was eating a set of even the DS3000's in one trackday!! It was getting far to expensive and the grooved discs were just shaving the pads off. So I took the grooved discs off, fitted a set of plain discs from freakyparts and a fresh set of DS2500 pads and after 1 trackday the pad thickness had barely changed!
 
You still need to get out of the car on the pit stop even if you race alone. The pit stop can be crazy, its good though as you can gain places if you time it right, or not, and when you come out again, often you will be racing a different set of cars :naughty:

You may find a disc & pad combo that suits, its expensive that way, as Bigskank says you will probably have fade - difficult to compare things from a trackday as racing is more. A big brake kit is better, the initial outlay is big but the discs & pads last MUCH longer in a good kit, braking is more consistent, zero fade, possibly better choice of pads depending on the kit, I would not start a race with the DS2500 imo (if I read your post right).
 
I went for performance friction , they are so good done 4 races on them and about half worn :)))
 
PF pads are very good, though have a terrible effect on paintwork!

Will keep an eye on pad wear - have had grooved disks before without issue, but would generally prefer plain disks where possible.

Made a panel from (real) carbon fibre that was lying around my boss' office.

Have fitted 6 switches.
Only actually need rad fan override, rain light, service jumper. - The rest are for expansion, such as camera or lap timer wiring.

Battery cut-off is going in the LHS of the panel.

20140117_204913.jpg
 
Bud Where did you get the cage padding? guessing its MSA compliant?
 
MSA yes, FIA no. FIA stuff is square and mega money.

Its from tweaks at circa 10quid a meter.
 
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