The BME #618 LHD CTR Build

[SixEighteen]

Braid Fullrace Maxlight Wheels

[...]

So my wheels finally made it to me! After 3 weeks since placing my order, I had to make an hour trek to the UPS hub to pay $36 of import broker fees… I’ll admit, I’m pretty salty that UPS didn’t give me a heads up on that, so that I could’ve planned to be home for the delivery. Anyway, it is what it is and I couldn’t be happier with these wheels. They are absolutely gorgeous!

From the bright white finish, to the beautiful machining around the bolt holes, everything about these wheels is perfect… Weighing in at 17.0lbs, they are not the lightest wheels on the market. But you can bet your ass that they’re strong. Braid has made their name for producing top quality rally wheels, and is beginning to expand into the tarmac market. There was an article done a while back by, I believe, GRM that discovered that it is more beneficial to have a heavier, strong wheel, than it is to have a lighter, weaker wheel. Anyway, I will post the article when I find it. It’s late and I want to get this post up before going to sleep.

Big THANK YOU to Pat @ All Speed Innovations for hooking me up!

Braid Fullrace A Maxlight – 15×8 5×114.3 et38, white

205 BFG Rival vs. 225 Hankook Z214

Bringing them to have the tires mounted tomorrow!

 

[SixEighteen]

BRAID FULLRACE MAXLIGHT WHEELS … PART 2

[...]

I brought the wheels and tires to get mounted and balanced today during my lunch.

They look amazing with the tires, super aggressive. Here are some pictures from fitting them on the car. Then I took it for a quick spin to see if there was any rubbing. No rubbing from the drive I took, but I also wasn’t able to get enough corner force on the car to really tell under full compression. The handling of the car feels great, like it’s on rails. I bet I could really take advantage of a stiffer suspension setup…

I apologize for the grainy pictures… But I’m no photographer and it was raining on me

Comparison of the mounted 205 Rivals to the mounted 225 Z214's

 

[Zhlica]

Now that is a meaty fitment

 

[Martin-shankland]

Great looking car man!

 

[feeesh^^]

interesting build

but why do you go to full racing tires right away? why not try some semis first, or a decent performance street tire?

racing compound seems like quite an overkill on a car like that, especially if you have not spent much time on track. see this a lot in the us ...

 

[SixEighteen]

I have been racing for 5+ years on many different platforms. What you are seeing here is just my most recent build that I plan to have for many years to come. Nationally competitive drivers in SMF are running 275 Hoosiers up front, I would consider my setup mild at best, in comparison.

I have driven on street tires (star spec Z1&Z2, BFG Rivals, Hankook RS3's, and a plethora of others) for the past 5 seasons. I am finally making the shift to race tires since I am getting more serious with this car.

 

[feeesh^^]

thought you just got the car?

anyway, if the competition is running them then i guess you dont really have a choice

still think its absolute overkill for a car like that and it wont help you improve your driving

 

[SixEighteen]

I'm guessing you're just not familiar with SOLO Autocross. SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) has a system of classes. And you are placed into a class based on your mods, and each class has a max limit. Unlike many other sanctioning bodies, that use points systems, assigning points values based off the actual impact of the modification. I admit, I think that points systems based off the actual impact of various mods, is probably the better system. But it is what it is.

My class is SMF (Street Modified FWD), due to the engine and drivetrain swap. This class is an unlimited tire class, meaning that you can run any type/size of tire you want. If I'm on street tires and the other guys are on r-comps, I don't have much chance. I hope this helps you understand my tire decision.

 

[RiseVTEC]

Beautiful build man!
I own a legit ek9 here in Japan, but i will be coming back Stateside soon, I think i'm gonna end up transplanting everything on a CX chassis.
How do you like your tire setup? i bought some toyo RR's fr 225-50-15 and rear 205-50-15, i'm hoping to test them april 5th at fuji short. what pressures are you running them?

 

[SixEighteen]

Beautiful build man!
I own a legit ek9 here in Japan, but i will be coming back Stateside soon, I think i'm gonna end up transplanting everything on a CX chassis.
How do you like your tire setup? i bought some toyo RR's fr 225-50-15 and rear 205-50-15, i'm hoping to test them april 5th at fuji short. what pressures are you running them?

Yea that would be your best bet, but it is still difficult to import the car. You essentially need to part it all out in japan and ship it to the US as parts. Customs will not let the entire car to enter the US. Maybe try to start looking into JDM import shops in the US near where you will be moving. And try to work something out with them to import your parts for you and store them.

If you can get all of that worked out, you should be good to go. Just find yourself a CX for cheap that doesn't have any rust, etc. Would you plan to keep it rhd? If so, I would advise against driving it everyday like that because the US is designed around LHD cars. So simple everyday tasks would become difficult in an RHD car. Feel free to shoot me a pm to chat more. Where are you moving to?

The wheels/tires are amazing, but the setup was rubbing quite a bit and I ended up pulling them off mid event and throwing on my old setup... So I need to bring it in for a fender roll and pull next weekend. The tires I have are a softer compound that heats up faster (thus better for autocross), the RR will be a better track tire and will not cycle out as fast.

 

[SixEighteen]

First AutoX of 2014!

[...]

While today’s event didn’t pan out quite as I had hoped, I did have a great time and loved the feel of the car. The new wheel setup is fantastic, and gave the car a FAR MORE neutral balance. I felt very confident through the slalom, and was able to push the car harder than I ever have (with any of my previous cars) before.

Unfortunately, the setup was rubbing a lot ,and after my third run I noticed that the paint was starting to show signs of it on the arches… So I made the decision to forfeit my 4th run, to swap out to my old wheels. I will be taking the car sometime over the next week to have the fenders rolled and pulled to accommodate the new setup.

Below are some pics that I took in the paddock.

I should have some action shots in the next day or two!

 

[feeesh^^]

its a real bummer they make it so hard to import these cars to the us

he could import the entire front clip right, but not the complete chassis?

 

[SixEighteen]

Yea... It really is a shame... In another 10 years it will be legal to import the car.

I'm not sure of the exact workings of import laws for that stuff, but shops do import entire front clip of the car.

 

[MichaelEK9replicaDK]

Nice thread! Good job mate! lovely replica!

 

[SixEighteen]

RTA Bushing Replacement

[...]

Over the past week after work, I tackled replacing the one of the rear trailing arm bushings. Originally, I was hoping to do so without removing the trailing arm from the car. That proved to be a far more frustrating task than it should’ve been. While I was able to get the bushing out of the arm, it would’ve been impossible to hammer the new one back in. Eventually, I decided to just remove the arm from the car to have the bushing pressed in. It would’ve been way easier to remove the arm from the beginning, and I spent a lot of extra time messing with it.

Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

[...]

After the last event, I knew I had to take care of the fender issue… My tuner gave me a recommendation for a shop that did the work on his Acura TL last year, so I made an appointment and had the work done.

The roll added a slight pull to the fender, it’s not terribly noticeable so I think it still keeps the car looking clean. Yet, functional.

Before...

 

[SixEighteen]

Action Shots: 3-29-14

[...]

I’m getting pumped for this weekend’s events! Running both Saturday and Sunday with two different regions should be a lot of fun. Two totally different sites, with all new competition; one concrete, one tarmac.

At the last event I ran in, a student from SIU came out and took a bunch of pictures! Huge thanks to Kevin T! For more pictures, check out his cloud space.

I kept losing my “8″, but no worries new magnets are on their way from AXLeague sponsor, SPS!

 

[SixEighteen]

AutoX Weekend: Double Header

[...]

Shameless plug out of the way… Check out axleague.org for the latest on the team-based autocross league running out of CCSCC!



I would also like to send a shout out to SPS (AXL Sponsor) for setting me up with the new magnets! They look great!



---

This weekend was an incredible eye-opener into the car’s setup. The high’s, the lows, and a look at what the car is truly capable of. Aside from some vtec engagement woes, everything else felt incredible and I couldn’t be happier with how the car is shaping up. I actually feel that the current spring rates may be very well suited for the typical, bumpy pavement that I run on.

I was very fortunate to have one of the fastest regional drivers co-drive with my for Saturday’s event. He really helped to reconfirm that the car is setup properly and that everything feels great. Overall, the car ran very well for its first full events on the new wheel setup.

For Saturday, I placed 2nd place in SMF to my co-driver by only 0.020s… I learned a lot from running with him, and am very grateful for all of his help! Aside from the SMF rankings, I placed 17th raw and 19th PAX out of 78 drivers.

[youtube]Qank3ClS6II[/youtube]

[youtube]4ZBToPzTBf4[/youtube]

Sunday’s event was with Chicago-SCCA. It was my first event with them, and unfortunately Sam and I got off to a bad start. The Google Map for Route 66 Raceway takes you to the wrong location…. Already having been down to the wire for registration, being late put us past the deadline. The guys at the event were kind enough to tech us upon arrival and get us to where we needed to be. Although running late, needless to say, gave us very little time to walk (more like RUN) the course, just once. Being that I am still a “driver in development”, it’s nice to have a good solid walkthrough where I can visualize my lines and memorize the course in my head.

Anyway, enough whining… I had a poor showing to my maiden Chicago-SCCA voyage, and am disappointed in my overall performance. The experience was very humbling after such a fantastic Saturday event. It just goes to show that even though the car is set up properly with great tires, it still has its limits and I need to learn to drive as close to the edge of those limits as possible without wandering outside of them. Tire heat is also an extremely important factor, and on cooler days with more time between and fewer runs, I need to find a way to get (and keep) heat in them.

The MLS Tire Blankets look like a really nice solution.

I also have video from my fastest run on Sunday that I will upload tonight.

 

[SixEighteen]

Sponsor Update: All Speed Innovations

[...]

I am proud to announce that All Speed Innovations is officially sponsoring the #618 SMF Civic! If you’ve been admiring my new custom BRAID wheel setup, you can thank ASI for the hook up on those! Pat, owner of ASI, has been very receptive to my future goals and is excited to have some new blood coming through the shop to expand on their ever-evolving expertise with purpose-built vehicles.

I am excited to work with the shop over the 2014 season, and have begun working out some setup options for the off-season entering 2015! Topics of discussion have ranged anywhere from a high compression ITB setup on the B16B, to a K-swap, and everything in-between. All Speed Innovations will be performing all of the major work on the car, and the CTR will likely spend most of its winter within the confines of their shop.

All Speed Innovations is also a sponsor of the Chris Greenhouse SRT-4 Rally car. Helping Chris to pave the way to multiple trophies in his professional really tour. They also were responsible for the cage design and fabrication of the new Professional Awesome Evo! ASI specializes in full track builds, rally prep, cage fabrication… And the list goes on… Give them a call if you’re interested in having some top-tier work done on your car!

Check out their website or give them a call to find out more what they can do for you! Here is a great write-up about the shop in Cincinnati Street Style



All Speed Innovations
2996 Henkle Drive
Suite J
Lebanon, OH 45036

(513) 228-0065

Picture credits to Cincy Street Style

 

[SixEighteen]

Craftsman 40" Tool Storage

[...]

This past weekend, my wife and I were at a Sears department store shopping for a new washer/dryer. I was browsing through the tools department checking out the current deals, when I saw that the 40″ Heavy Duty Tool Storage Unit was 50% off the retail of $1,200. When we got married, my wife promised to buy me a tool storage unit, since my ring was far cheaper than hers was . 8 months later, she followed through with that promise.

I am really impressed with the quality of the unit, and glad that I held out for this one rather than picking up a cheaper quality one. For something like a tool storage unit, which I intend on having for a very long time, I am happy spending a few extra bucks on a premium brand. Although with the sale, I’m not sure you can beat this 40″ unit for $600 USD.

I’m going to be putting the unit in the corner of my garage in front of the civic, with a 6′ butcher block countertop next to it. I am also getting a 30-gallon horizontal compressor from my dad’s warehouse, that I will be placing below the counter (need to see if it would fit, though. Also considering plumbing it from the basement). A wheel rack in the corner above the tool unit, and cabinets mounted above the work top. I’m also going to have an electrician come in and wire a handful of additional outlets, and some nice overhead lighting. Then I need to finish the walls and paint.

Anyway, here is phase 1!

Key Specs
75 lb load rating per drawer
Ball bearing drawer slides
Keyed locks on top and bottom units
Heavy duty casters
Nicely powdercoated finish

Here is my mock-up for the final back wall plans. Compressor placement depends on its size, etc.

 

[SixEighteen]

There’s Always Next Year: 11/08/2014
[...]
Well I’m back… After being plagued with an electrical issue for the past 6 months, I finally got the VTEC engagement working again on the car. I figure that it has to be a bad connection to the injectors or something, because the car and engine are mechanically perfect. The wiring, however, is a little bit janky. Which is why I have some big plans for this winter. More info to come as details get hammered out.
The event went well considering that I hadn’t driven the car since April, however there is still so much potential with the car. There is no reason why it should not be in the Top 10 raw times at every event. I did manage to pull out a 1st Place seat in the SMF class, which I was happy with. I won myself a nice hoodie.
Here are some pictures…

One of my co-driver