1989 Honda CRX K20 track car.

[JeffC]

first time on the track with the Itbs at Oulton Park on Saturday , I stuck a late entry in for Time Attack. Weather on morning was shocking so 1st two practices were done in standing water which made it hard work I was on the control Pirelli trofeo tyres which in fairness are far to big for my car and they caught on the arches, it didn't feel great in those conditions and I had a few close moments as I pushed as hard as I dared which paid off resulting in finishing 1st in class and third overall , the grid was made up of 4WD FWD and RWD , second practice was still wet I changed set up and went a fair bit quicker close to 1.5 secs quicker than anyone in my class and was running fastest overall til was pipped by 0.06 of a second by a 4wd Subaru .

It dried up after dinner and as suspected with a 300bhp deficit from most of the other cars in class it was going to be an uphill struggle. The Trofeo tyres in the dry are pretty good and went the full 15 minutes without dropping off which is an improvement over the 888s that I usually run, I drove as hard as I could for the full 20 minutes but just couldn't find space on track to get in a lap so finished 4th in class.
I prayed for rain for the final but it didnt come, so dry I altered tyre pressures and had a plan , sadly that all went out the window when one of the quicker cars came past me as we left the pits, I thought I would try and tag on the back of him but he had more straight line speed than me I ended up out-braking myself to try and catch him , so I settled down to original plan try and find some clear track to get a lap but everyone else had the same idea , my quickest lap was disallowed for exceeding track limits and I finished 3rd in class which I was happy with.


Video of it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gaGRJ5qEs8

[richtea78]

Tuned at TDi by her looks of it?

[keith2.2]

Superb!

I used to have a thing for retro-fitting engines into eg civics. The prime one was a B20 (CRV bottom end, Jim sir-2 vetch head) that went like the clappers. I then got a bit ambitious and did a H22 swap (2.2 prelude) and it despite all the work I just didn't ever get it to run right. Torquey little thing...

Ten years on and I still have a hankering for a really nice EG civic - the one I couldn't afford to build at the time.

[JeffC]

richtea78 said:

Tuned at TDi by her looks of it?

yep I highly rate their work.

[adingley84]

JeffC said:

Dropped off to be mapped, was hoping to do the next round of Time attack at oulton park but looks like I need to fit headlights, indicators , hazard lights , drivers seat and belts and a dash to comply with regs and suspect will run out of time...

LOL at needing a drivers seat 'to comply with regs' 😀

Love the build and as menacing a crx as I've seen!

[Birky_41]

Just watched the video...what a sound!

I had a kitcar that was circa 300bhp per tonne and loved it but went back to bikes

Gotta say though it looked hard work at higher speeds keeping that in line, certainly a lively little number you have there!

[Richair]

Love this! Great build, must be a lot of fun. I have very fond memories of my old mk2 CRX fast-road and trackday car, it was my first 'proper' car.

Tricky conditions at Time Attack for you!! Don't think I've been round Oulton in the wet, but that looks sketchy as... Nice smooth driving though

[Max5476]

JeffC said:

cheers tbh its awful on the road, just about tries to kill you everytime you floor it with the plated diff and geo settings it runs, great on track though and yeh it does go very well .

I've always fancied completing an engine swap / tuning a car in such a way the rev counter goes off the top of the dial before hitting the limiter, looks like you are nearly there.

[BenLowden]

Love that! Watching your video around Oulton Park made me feel very ashamed of my attempt at driving it last year...

[Andy500SL]

dr_rallye said:

I remember thinking that they looked quite futuristic in their day. Not sure I've seen a red one before. Paint colour undoubtedly adds 5mph

I had a red one back when they were a current model (1989-91). Mine was an '88 so pre-VTEC. As I recall, there were only 3 colour choices, red, silver & ???.



Loved it to bits but had to sell it it for a more practical car, the need for which disappeared within a year. Such is life.

They are like hen's teeth now but there are some still out there:

Silver 1988 CRX

Silver 1989 CRX

Red 1990 CRX

Sometimes thing about going back in time but . . .

[JeffC]

Andy500SL said:

dr_rallye said:

I remember thinking that they looked quite futuristic in their day. Not sure I've seen a red one before. Paint colour undoubtedly adds 5mph

I had a red one back when they were a current model (1989-91). Mine was an '88 so pre-VTEC. As I recall, there were only 3 colour choices, red, silver & ???.





Sometimes thing about going back in time but . . .

You should, they are still an entertaining drive, downside is It is getting harder to find one thats not rotten as they can suffer from tin worm in the sills and arches , 16v cars are cheap as chips which is what mine set out in life as but a good vtec can command pretty strong money but still affordable and in line with most 90's hot hatches , I recall Back in 1991 my pal bought a brand new celestial Blue V-tec and it was one of the quickest cars around, I could never afford one back then and at the time I had a 86 205 pug that I fitted an Mi16 to and I still couldn't keep up with my pals Vtec he had some superchip fitted to it and the limiter was removed, we had never seen anything rev so high my car is an F reg but even at 27 years old it will still shame most modern machinery, They have all the ingredients for a good handling car ,fairly lightweight , slippy shape and Double wishbone suspension on track they just work and seem to work well, the early Civics Ef/EG/Ek are the same and a quick track tool.

[anonymous-user]

I had a mk2 VT. I remember one damp track day at Oulton trading laps with a mint race-prepped pug 309 (nothing silly, just cage/stripped I think) and there being sod-all in it between them. 'twas great fun.

[king_ZS]

Awesome, nothing sounds better than itbs. Sure my mate has whats app me some videos of this.

[JeffC]

done a few trackdays and raced at Anglesy but nothing much happened with the car since last updates other than I have had the suspension set up tweeked to help turn in .

Anyway just thought I would post a link to those interested of the race I did on Saturday at croft in the car , my pal has exactly the same car (K20 crx on itbs) and we were pole and 2nd on the grid with less than 3,000ths of a second between us ,so race 1 with me starting 2nd resulted in a 20 minute battle to the line with 1/10th sec difference between us at the chequered flag.


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

[JKING]

Great driving! That goes like hell!

[JeffC]

Last race of the season for me at Donington, After qualifying 3rd in the wet on lap 2 of race 1 I outbraked myself resulting in going over the kerb and busting the sump wide open

luckily fellow competitor had a spare sump so managed to swap over before race 2.

So starting from the back of the grid for race 2 managed to get to the front for an outright win.

car seems to have developed a horrendous brake vibration which left me with confidence in the no brakes so thats something to investigate over winter .

In car race footage from race 2 from last to first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gej2dzc3mNY

Edited by JeffC on Tuesday 18th October 22:17

[TotalControl]

Just watched the footage. Impressive win.

[jmate]

Seen this various times and even had a few Trackdays with it. Utterly amazing car mate and great driving by you. Flew past me like the atoms and gtrs do !

Have you on YouTube and love watching it so keep it up !

:-)

[Krikkit]

Brilliant driving, but holy moly that brake wobble is something!

[anonymous-user]

JeffC said:

In car race footage from race 2 from last to first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gej2dzc3mNY

Thoroughly enjoyed watching that, great stuff!