Better traction for EP3 Type R?

[diehardbenzfan]

Had a mini race today in damp conditions against a 2014 116i bmw, the roads were fairly damp and we both turned into a road (I was behind him) and we both accelerated, he had 4 people in his car and I had no chance, as I shifted into second, I got wheelspin and struggled for traction all the way into third and by that time he was gone, how do i solve this? I bought the car last week and it came with a relatively new pair of Avon ZZ3's. I am very impressed with the car and coming from a 330i auto, it feels perfectly balanced and so light! However after driving it in the rain, I really need to find a way to get better traction, anyone have any ideas?

[diehardbenzfan]

I cant imagine how silly Focus ST's or VXR astras are in the rain!

[diehardbenzfan]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Not an unusual scenario for a peaky front-wheel drive car, in the wet, as I am sure that you already appreciate!

Does that not come with an LSD? If not, then the best and most expensive option would be to fit one!

Consider softer springs and dampers on the front suspension...

Avons are not the last word in traction, I've had experience before....consider some softer tyres or with softer / more compliant sidewalls - Yokohamas, Toyo Proxes etc.

Experiment with tyre pressures - you could probably drop to somewhere a little under 30psi - try different pressures and experiment with how it affects traction, grip and handling. Recommended pressures are for normal people - people with half a brain can try different pressures to suit their driving style.

Finally, driving technique can help - it's no good mashing the throttle into the floor like a mentalist, you need to work with the torque. Surprisingly, pulling away in a gentle fashion and then slowly feeding in the power once the tyres have keyed in to traction nicely, feeling the traction through the seat and steering wheel, and graduating your throttle input pays dividends.

HTH

Thanks for that, they are very light (around 1200kg) and only the JDM ones came with the LSD, I dont think I could afford one of those though ha!

As for tyres, I dont pay much attention to all that as I never had problems with my previous cars to make me think 'oh, maybe I need different tyres' so I'll have a shop around and I'll play around with the tyre pressure!

As for driving technique, Ive gotten used to the car and I know how to drive it, 1st gear into second was fine as we were turning into the road so I eased into it, as the vtec kicked in, thats when it became a problem, shifting from first into second at 8000 rpm means as you enter second gear, the vtecs kicking in which means constant wheelspin, 200 hp on 2 front wheels at 7500 rpm on a 1200 kg car is going to be a problem ha!

[diehardbenzfan]

Olivera said:

Your tyres are junk.

My old 277bhp Cupra R could deploy full power in the wet in second gear with zero wheelspin using Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 3.

thanks, I'm definitely going to have a look!

[diehardbenzfan]

Butter Face said:

Better tyres and an LSD.

That's my next plan.

If you think yours is hard to get traction, you should try driving an EP3 with 265bhp and 195 ft:lb of torque. In the rain today it was hilarious

Especially with Toyo T1R's, they're great in the summer but in the rain they're just terrible.

wow!! How did you manage all that?? Vtec does sound great though, going full blast on a dry road makes you feel like a racing driver, so much fun!!

As for modifiactions, I'm pretty content with the prerformance, I just wish it sounded a little bit nicer when driving normally, I thought about an exhaust but I love the twin standard ones, what have you got on yours?

[diehardbenzfan]

I'm probably going to go for the goodyears, thanks for the input guys!

Another question though, I like the stance of the ep3 and I intend to keep it standard, however I cant help but think how nice it would look if I lower it slightly by around 20mm and put some spacers on it! Ive never really modfied a car as I think the manufactorer made the car that way for a reason, I wouldnt do anything that would affect the car negatively.....so is it a good idea?

[diehardbenzfan]

MyVTECGoesBwaaah said:

The Eibach Pro Kit gets lots of good reviews, that may be what you are after. The problem is once it is lowered the camber is knocked out and you need front camber bolts (£20), rear camber arms (£120) and alignment which all adds to the cost.

I opted to go for just the camber kits and get it aligned to "fast road" specs (FRSU) which made a world of difference, even at standard height. I didn't really want to lower it and ruin it's versatility over rougher/uneven roads, not that I am taking it off-roading but some roads I need to use for work are a bit ridiculous!

Oh ok, I dont really want to spend over 200 pounds as this car I only paid 1500 for the car and I dont want to get carried away haha! This may sound stupid but what are the camber kits and what do they do lol
do the camber kits do?

[diehardbenzfan]

MyVTECGoesBwaaah said:

diehardbenzfan said:

MyVTECGoesBwaaah said:

The Eibach Pro Kit gets lots of good reviews, that may be what you are after. The problem is once it is lowered the camber is knocked out and you need front camber bolts (£20), rear camber arms (£120) and alignment which all adds to the cost.

I opted to go for just the camber kits and get it aligned to "fast road" specs (FRSU) which made a world of difference, even at standard height. I didn't really want to lower it and ruin it's versatility over rougher/uneven roads, not that I am taking it off-roading but some roads I need to use for work are a bit ridiculous!

Oh ok, I dont really want to spend over 200 pounds as this car I only paid 1500 for the car and I dont want to get carried away haha! This may sound stupid but what are the camber kits and what do they do lol
do the camber kits do?

That's fair enough! There is no camber adjustment on the EP3s from the factory, they use fixed arms on the rear which means when it goes lower the wheels go more like this... / \ The camber kit allows you adjust the camber back to straight or somewhere in between to give better handling. Out of the factory there were very wide tolerances for the alignment, you could have -1 on one side and then 0 on the other which would explain the improvement by doing it on stock springs etc...

Something like these:

http://www.tegiwaimports.com/select-car/honda/ep/s...
http://www.tegiwaimports.com/select-car/honda/ep/s...

Of course you may choose to just fit the springs and leave the camber as it is. It will likely end up around -2 degrees (Depending on your stock setup of course), maybe not optimal but definitely cost friendly! All depends what you use the car for and how many miles you want out of a set of tyres

Another simple handling mod is a JDM rear anti roll bar, they are around £100 and are supposed to make a bit of a difference. Even with new rear droplinks, poly bushes and fitting it would likely come out cheaper than £200.

Thanks for that, just saw the response!

Errrr well I use the car daily on a 3 mile commute to work so I'm usually driving normally as the car is never fully warmed up enough for me to rag it! On my days off however, thats when I give it a good seeing to, I don't have nice twisty clear roads in my area so I'd say I mostly floor it on straight roads. Tyres wise, Im only keeping the car till christmas as I'm saving for a newer car so thats not a problem.....If I was to just put some springs on it, do you think there would be a noticable penalty?

[diehardbenzfan]

Butter Face said:

Camber setup is well worth doing. I've done a little video about it on YouTube if you want a link?

That would be helpful dending on how easy it is, thanks

[diehardbenzfan]

JoeMarano said:

diehardbenzfan said:

Had a mini race today in damp conditions against a 2014 116i bmw, the roads were fairly damp and we both turned into a road (I was behind him) and we both accelerated, he had 4 people in his car and I had no chance, as I shifted into second, I got wheelspin and struggled for traction all the way into third and by that time he was gone, how do i solve this? I bought the car last week and it came with a relatively new pair of Avon ZZ3's. I am very impressed with the car and coming from a 330i auto, it feels perfectly balanced and so light! However after driving it in the rain, I really need to find a way to get better traction, anyone have any ideas?

If you are getting left by a vastly slower car with 4 people on board might I suggest you spend no money on the car at all and sort your driving first?

That or your tyres are epically ste in the rain! Rainsport 3's are sublime in the wet so that would be my first port of call!

My Polo Gti doesn't struggle for traction at all and that's got almost 100 more torques than your EP3!

It was t a drag race where you can blame driving, both of us turned into a road and accelerated, you could say the race was from 15 mph as we were turning, first went fine but second was a problem as i struggled for traction while the bmw didnt, maybe its because it was an msport with 245 rear tyres and the car being brand new? Who knows but you cant blame driving technique on that