Honda Integra Type R DC5

[martinj46]

I was asked recently in a mates thread for some pics of my car, so here you go.

Firstly a brief history, you'll see my camera skills increase as I go through:

At 17 I bought a Ford Focus, loved it, as most do with their first cars. It got chaved up, wheels, exhaust, induction kit.



Next, I moved onto an EP2 Honda Civic, it served me for nearly two years, offering cheap, problem free motoring.



Then I moved up the power scales, and bought an R53 Mini Cooper S. This was the first car that I spent a serious deal of time and money on. I had a thread on here somewhere for it. By the time I got rid of it, it was running a prototype set of MeisterR coilovers that I was helping to develop, fully adjustable damping, and camber all round. It had a Milltek exhaust, and induction kit, Brembo brakes and a set of BBS RX wheels to name a few mods. It spent most of it's time filthy as I loved driving it so much.









My family pushed me into selling it though. Their theory being it was getting older, and it was surely just a matter of time until something big went bang. I really wish I hadn't bowed to the pressure, as it's the car I miss the most and I would genuinely buy it back if I saw it for sale.

In alignment with my parents wanting me to have a newer, reliable, rust free car I tested a lot, but ended up with a mk5 Golf GTI. I hated it with a passion, and still do. It was awful. Maybe coming from setup Mini made it seem worse, but the steering feel was awful, The engine sounded like a diesel, the exhaust sounded like a wet fart, it had lots of hidden rust, and was incredibly unreliable. I spent £1k+ in the 6 months I had it sorting faults before I gave up. Diverter valve, coil packs (which left me stranded at the side of the road twice), air con, radiator fans, leaking coolant, rusty arches and door sills. Horrible car. It looked good after a few choice mods though



One of the cars I tested before the Golf was a DC5. It was a local car and wasn't in great condition, but I really wanted one. After the Golf, that was the only option. I spoke with the guys at Torque GT about my options, they had one of their staff selling a clean example with a lot of good mods already on it. I had a good look over some photos and did the deal over the phone. I took a Friday off work and made the long trek down to virtually Cornwall from Aberdeen, picked up the car, and drove back on the Saturday. It was a lot of driving, but my god it was worth it. It's a 2001 car, and is very clean. Modification wise, it's got a Toad Cat 1 alarm, XYZ coilovers (which are much better than I thought they'd be) and an Apexi Induction kit. I spent a long time cleaning it and sorting out any minor flaws. Like the Mini I drive it a lot, it's great fun especially the LSD. I'd never really thought having one made a big difference to road driving, how wrong I was.

I've since removed the rear wiper, it was useless anyway. I've added a Spoon Sports cat back exhaust, which is fairly loud but fine for me, and most recently a set of Rota Slipstream wheels. They were super cheap, so I used the tyres on them for a while, before having them sprayed championship white to match the car, and just the other day fitted a set of Yokohama AD08 tyres for the summer months.

Here's a random selection of pics from the past year including a trip to Spa and the Nurburgring:

[martinj46]

Thanks for all the kind words, I know the wheels aren't going to be to everyone's taste as they are a bit 'ricer'

oj121 said:

Love them. Very expensive though so glad you had the bottle to go for it. Glad your enjoying it!

Being 22, insurance isn't cheap, neither is buying the car in the first place. However general running costs are very reasonable considering the performance. It doesn't use much oil, the wheels are 17 inch so tyres are fairly cheap, I easily average 32mpg on my backroad commute to and from work and it was doing 37mpg on the motorway to Spa/ring.

[martinj46]

HariboLecter said:

Love it. I really miss my old '5. Yours looks great on the slipstreams - I always wanted some Regamasters on mine but couldn't justify the outlay at the time.


Very nice.

Thanks. I really wanted a set of Regas, but they are so rare in 17's and command a huge premium as you say. I'm not really a fan of replica parts, but the Rotas were going very cheap, and I love a bargain

[martinj46]

Matt Bird said:

The Mini and DC5 are just delicious! Love the rear clusters on the Mini too, never seen them like that before. Don't be talked out of the 'Teg now...

The rear lights on the mini are standard pre-facelift units, just wrapped in red lamin-x film. They were something different, but it was a nightmare getting the indicator to still shine through orange. I ended up with green bulbs.

I've learnt my lesson, and from now on I won't be taking advice, I'll be doing what I want with my cars

[martinj46]

kayzee said:

Seriously good looking cars... did you respray the wheels? Because at first they're different whites which bothered me lol, but then in the later pictures they seem to match up.

Yes I did. They were a pure white initially and looked awful in my opinion. You don't realise how off-white championship white is until it's put next to a proper white. The wheels are now colour coded and look much better

[martinj46]

Update time:

I've been quiet on here recently. I kind of fell out with cars and was considering selling up, but I've now decided the 'teg is here to stay for now. So here is what I've been up to over the last few months.

First up some maintenance in preparation for another track day. Oil change, front brake pads (discs were still fine), rear discs and rear pads. There is also some brake fluid in there, but it didn't get done until later on due to time constraints.



With the car in tip top condition again, I made the long trip from Aberdeen down to Cadwell Park for a track day with Opentrack. It was a great day, that was well organised. We even got good weather for it too. I started off slow, but was soon upping my pace as I felt more comfortable until I was catching and passing cars that I really shouldn't have been. The DC5 is a fantastic track car, but mine would definitely benefit from stiffer coilovers. The current XYZ setup is a great bit of kit, especially for the price, but even on full stiff they are a bit too soft for track work.

















The speakers that were fitted were starting to crackle and occasionally cut out altogether. So I took the chance to swap all four for a set of Pioneer units. They are a massive improvement, but ideally need to be amp'd for the best results. That's not my scene though and they'll more than do for now.



I was given a new wiper delete to test from the guys at Orranje Performance. It looks great, and works perfectly with some sealant on the back to keep it watertight. These are now officially for sale here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orranje-Honda-Integra-DC...

I then found these on ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-Pack-Magic-Cleaning-S...

After hearing that they are effective at taking shiny leather steering wheels back to the factory matt finish, I thought for the sake of a few quid I'd give it a go. It worked wonders. Although the super matt finish only lasts a few weeks, the wheel is still looking a lot fresher several months later. The amount of dirt that came off was quite disgusting.

before:



after:



Back for more service items now. I finally got round to swapping the brake fluid. I went for some Motul RBF600 after plenty recommendations. So far it seems great, and going by the colour of the old fluid it was definitely worthwhile



Similar story for the power steering fluid. It was thick and gloopy. I was a bit apprehensive doing this job myself, but following some decent guides on google/youtube it was a piece of cake.



I then booked the car into Carden Motors in Aberdeen. They are a local Honda specialist, and although the car probably didn't "need" a service it's good to have an annual official service with the paperwork to prove it. I got them to change out the clutch fluid while I was there, so all fluids are now fresh.

Random beading shot, still using Auto Finesse Tough Coat Sealant, great stuff



At the end of August I became time served at work, so decided to treat myself to a new air intake. I really wanted a Gruppe M, but couldn't afford a new one and second hand ones hadn't come up for months so I went for the Tegiwa replica. Typically that week three Gruppe M's came up for sale, but oh well. As usual with Tegiwa the air box is great quality and arrived super fast and well packaged. I rushed the fitment, so will need to go back and redo the scuttle mod as it's not too pretty, but it works perfectly for now. Going from an open cone to this the noise isn't much different. The intake temps however, have dropped from about 10 degrees above ambient to only 5 degrees above. Very impressive! I'd like to get the car back on a dyno soon to see what difference the air box and Spoon catback has actually made, but it feels like it revs cleaner and harder now.



I booked my final trackday for the year, my local track (still two hours away though!) Knockhill. I'd been round as a passenger many times, but this was the first time driving it myself. It takes some serious balls to be committed over Duffus dip and the Chicane but it was great fun. Unfortunately it was also the end for my nearside front tyre and track rod end. I can't fault the AD08's though, they've done two trackdays and 8000 fairly hard road miles. Not bad for a 'track' tyre, I'll definitely consider another set for next year. The track rod ends have now been swapped for new ones and all is well.





High quality of company at Knockhill



The car was then put back into winter mode. Using the same Kumho winter tyres as last year, but I've sprayed the OEM wheels gunmetal to make keeping them clean a bit easier than when they were white.



Finally I went for a random drive over to Applecross last weekend with a mate. Hopefully these pictures will convince all the English guys to make the long trip up North. Trust me, it's worth it!





































































Cheers guys & girls

[martinj46]

Cheers, the Mini is by far the car I miss the most. I still maintain that I'd probably buy it back if it came up for sale.

It was British racing green underneath all the dirt haha. The wheels weren't spaced out no. BBS RX ET35. I think the OEM wheels were about ET48, so those wheels were sitting 13mm further out, making them look spaced out.

[martinj46]

Trtj said:

Im in the classifieds now! What is the rear light mod on the mini?

It was just some red lamin-x tinting film. If you're doing that though you need to either get hold of, or make some green bulbs for the indicators to get them to shine through orange. I ended up just using stained glass paint on a clear bulb as green indicator bulbs aren't easy to come by.

[martinj46]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

I still love those integras but every one I test drove was a total st box unfortunately, I could just never find a decent one.

Shame as I still want to own a mental type r car at some point, yours does look lovely OP

Yeah, I looked a few cars that were a bit un tidy before finding mine. Being an import they rust really easily, and some have been in the UK for a while now. I'm doing everything possible to keep mine a clean example as they are getting rare. You're thread for the Mini is really inspiring me to 'use' my car, and hopefully I'll get another euro trip done next year

Here are a few videos from Knockhill that I forgot to link. Doing consistent 63/64 second laps on my first time at knockhill with a fairly standard car and full interior, can't really complain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwnUrBepzFE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDp99VAhYEI

[martinj46]

I’ve been very slack at keeping this up to date, apologies. For anyone interested, I’m much better at keeping my instagram account up to date – ‘martinj46’ on there too. But for now, here comes another expensive update!

Since my last post, last year this car has had;

MeisterR coilovers



Some colourful adjustable camber arms



Some even more colourful harnesses



Some driveshafts, and other boring bits without pictures.

It went to Knockhill, Oulton Park and Donington Park last year







After many track days last season, the tyres were ruined! Rather than putting the car off the road for winter, I stuck on a set of Bridgestone RE070s for the winter months. At £70 a corner, they were an absolute steal. They are more than enough for the road in the dry, and still decent in the wet – providing there is no standing water. They seem to be wearing decently too.



With the new tyres fitted, I was off for a ‘lap of Scotland’. A 384 mile loop from Aberdeen, to Dunblane, Aberfoyle, over the ‘Dukes Pass’ to Crianlarich, Glencoe, Fort William, Pitlochry and back to Aberdeen over Glenshee. Some of the best driving roads and scenery anywhere in the UK.





A slight detour from the route near Glencoe took me to Glen Etive, one of the iconic filming locations used in the Skyfall James Bond movie.



After a hard year, I spent a good few weeks stripping the car down in the garage for some much needed TLC. First for attention was behind the rear bumper. A known weak point for corrosion. I was pleasantly surprised, as for a thirteen year old import with well over 100k miles on the clock, it was fairly clean!



Not clean enough though. A good clean, rub down and fresh coat of paint tidied it up. While I was at it, I made sure to reseal the rear light units, which are a known leaking point resulting in a pond in the boot. No leaks since I did this, so problem solved.



With the rear in better shape, I moved onto fitting a stockpile of parts to the front end.



First up was the same treatment the rear got, to freshen it up and prevent from any further corrosion. While I was there, I spotted that the radiator had taken a bit of a battering.



So a brand new shiny Mishimoto unit went on, complete with Mishimoto silicone hoses. The build quality and finish on this was impressive. It’s such a shame that it gets hidden behind all the plastics of the bumper. Swapping the radiator is by far the most daunting mechanical job I’ve done myself, but by following some simple online tutorials it was no bother at all.



Since I got the car, the a/c has never worked due to a leaky condenser. I’ve had a replacement second hand unit sitting for a few months, so took this opportunity to whip it on too. The a/c system just needs a re-gas and hopefully it’ll be as good as new.



With the more daunting stuff out of the way, I moved on to what I already knew about – brakes. Having had no luck with MTEC discs and Ferodo DS2500 pads last year I decided to up my game a bit. So after a lot of research and phone calls, on went a set of SPD Automotive two piece discs. These are a proper piece of kit and aren’t cheap! Paul at SPD was more than happy to go through all the details for getting them fitted, torquing the bolts etc over the phone.



These were than paired with a set of Pagid RS29 brake pads.



I’ve not heard of many people running these on the DC5, so I was keen to give them a go. They are essentially an endurance racing pad, and like the discs, aren’t cheap! I’ve learnt before though, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately Pagid make this pattern for eight different applications, all of requiring varying thicknesses, so I had to spend a while sanding down the pad. This is no easy task when the pad has been designed for endurance!! Anyway, fitted to the car, and bedded in nicely, they are awesome! I was a bit sceptical about cold bite, but they have been fine so far on the road. They don’t even squeal like other ‘race pads’ I’ve seen before.

With everything fitted, it was off for another excursion into the highlands to check it all over. No problems to report.



I paid a visit to Grinspeed in Leyland last week for a much needed wheel alignment. I have tried and failed many, many, times with local so called ‘performance specialists’ and given up on them. Grinspeed have a good rep in the Honda world though, and Stevie was more than helpful. He had it all sorted within a few hours and me back on my way. I’ll definitely be back down again soon for some future plans. My alignment is now at -1.7 deg camber on the front with 1mm toe out and -1 deg camber on the rear with 1mm toe in. These are by no means ‘track’ settings, but considering I have 5+ hours motorway driving to get to any English tracks, my tyres would be ruined by the time I got there if I went much more extreme.



All good to go for track season then! First up this year was Oulton Park. I wasn’t sure how the RE070 would hold up on track, but they did surprisingly well for a road tyre. They would be fine for track day novices, or if you’re only doing a few a year. I’ll be swapping them out for something a little more track focussed soon though.

As for the new brakes? Wow! They are decent on the road, but on track when they are up to temperature, they are incredible. Such a huge improvement over last years setup and no fade at all. I didn’t think such a big difference would be achievable with just pads and disc. Bearing in mine I haven’t even got braided lines fitted, and do not plan to.










A full day pounding round Oulton with no problems, has only left me craving more…

[martinj46]

Thanks all.

Danny, get to it! Donington is still my favourite, but Oulton isn't far behind.

kayzee said:

Holy st you're doing this properly! Stunning car mate, always loved these. Are the wheels now the same white as the car? Sorry, didn't read the whole thing, but they seem to change halfway through lol.

No point doing things by halves! Yup, the wheels are now the same colour as the car. Although in certain lights they still aren't quite right, which bugs my inner OCD

[martinj46]

MyVTECGoesBwaaah said:

Those Rotas just look so right, good looking car.

Cheers, although I'd much rather that they were Desmond Regamasters I got the Rotas cheap though, so they'll do for now.

Nezquick said:

I'm now without a car and having had an EP3 Type R and then an S2000, I really fancy one of these.

If I were looking to buy one, what are the main things to watch out for? I'm assuming if they've been serviced properly with good oil etc then higher mileage isn't much of an issue as with any VTEC engine?

What's the performance on one of these like (as standard) - are they quicker than an EP3/S2000?

As with all Hondas, regular services and they'll run for ever. These cars are getting on a bit now though, so I'd be making sure the engine mounts and suspension components are still in decent order.

As for speed, they are faster than an EP3, and have hydraulic steering, plus the diff, which makes a huge difference. I've never driven an S2000, but know of a few people who own both and say that the DC5 is the better "drivers car"

Revs_Addiction said:

I love these.

I had an absolute minter <20k miles, and one of the very last off the line, however I sold it as I wanted RWD. Took me over two years to make the decision to sell it, which should have been enough to tell me I was making a mistake!

Still remember the feeling when the diff hooked up and pulled you round corners!

I've come close to selling mine a few times too. Just can't bring myself to do it though. The OEM
Diff is great! I've never had a FWD car with a proper diff before, so it took a bit of getting used to. You can really rely on it to pull you out of corners at speed though.

Dave^ said:

Dammit, I hate reading about quick Hondas!!

Stevie looked after my EP3 a few years ago, it's awesome watching him and Steve whip out the front subframe, gearbox, clutch and bolt it all back up in the space of a few hours while drinking tea and eating his biscuits...

Must get back into one soon, although a DC5 is on my radar, more so after reading this...

PS - I remember the MCS from MiniTorque too... Was one of my favourites at the time...

Yeah, Stevie is a good lad. And really knows his stuff about Hondas, which is very reassuring.

Cheers, I still miss the Mini. Always got a hankering for another one to play with...

[martinj46]

More trackdays!

Knockhill from a few months ago first, sadly the GoPro battery died before filming anything useful so it's just photos.





Then I headed to Croft for the first time. A really interesting track. It's the first track I've done which is based on an old airfield, so the lack of elevation change was new to me. It's a surprisingly fast circuit though, demanding a lot of patience for the many late apex corners and serious balls for taking the Jim Clark Esses, I was nudging 100mph in the dry! I even finally got to meet some more DC5 owners, great to meet you guys.







The GoPro worked this time, however I only remembered to film in the afternoon when it had rained. Croft is very very slippery in the wet, possibly due to it not getting used as often as many other UK tracks? The video looks even slower than it felt, but the Jim Clark Esses was still 85-90mph! Excuse the terrible lighting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCRZeTYkHic

For these trackdays I'd swapped to a set of Federal RSR tyres in 225/45/17. They were mega cheap for what they are, and I have to say I'm really impressed so far. Wet or dry they seem to grip well and don't fade on track. They didn't cope well with standing water on the way to Croft, but what track focussed tyre does?

The brakes are still phenomenal! I don't regret spending so much on pads and discs one bit, and struggle to see why anyone would 'need' to upgrade the calipers for trackdays, I'm not even running braided lines!

Random post trackday detailing shot



Something that's been niggling at me since I bought the car was the flakey cam cover paint



I'd put it off long enough, so attacked it this last week. There are several companies out there who will do you one on an exchange basis, but I've always been of the belief, that if you can do something yourself with a bit of graft, why pay someone else to do it for you? That said, i never want to have to remove wrinkle paint again! What a pain, I used a whole tin of nitromors paint stripper and still had a heap of sanding back to do afterwards. The results have been worth it though in my opinion as it really freshens the bay. I've not bothered with wrinkle paint, so it's a gloss red. I plan to get a carbon plug cover eventually to tie in with the intake, but that's not a priority.



What's next? I've pretty much got the car to where i want it mechanically now, but cosmetically the paint could do with some attention to freshen it up. I'm also investigating fixed buckets and a roll cage. There doesn't seem to be too many options for DC5 cages though. Custom cages looks like a decent option though. Any thoughts would be appreciated?

Since my last post, I've bought a new 'sensible' daily car too. It's a 2006 BMW Z4M Coupe in Interlagos Blue. It's more powerful, less economical, has fewer seats and a smaller boot than my 'track car', but I absolutely love it. For those not in the know, it has a lot of E46 M3 underneath. It's got the 3.2 straight six making in the region of 330-340bhp, the tightest manual gearbox I've ever used and the liveliest steering rack I've ever tried too. It's a riot of a car!









It's even been to the Nurburgring with a previous owner. If anyone knows Stuart Meredith, please get in touch!

[martinj46]

em177 said:

Looking good Martin.... still haven't offered me a passenger ride at Knockhill yet btw

Get yourself to Knockhill, and I'll more than happily take you out for a spin (not literally hopefully). There's an SIDC day in early September I'm hoping to do if you're around then?