Civic Type R at the track, goods and bads! Let's share our experience.

[rnh204]

And here 2 laps trying to pass a Cayman R...not enough power..sigh

More like the Cayman R driver doesn't want to give you a point by.. too much ego or a friend making you REALLY earn it.. While it is 10 degrees here in NY, I really enjoyed watching you harass him though. He missed a few turns trying to get away from you..

Sponsored

 

[bouford]

thanks for the vids, that's some great driving! those guys should let you pass (especially that e46 )

 

[yargk]

Stig_jdm, wow, that's a stunning performance.

 

[Stig_jdm]

Thanks for the track videos. Awesome driving. With this setup, what kind of IATs are you experiencing?

Thanks. I didn't monitor it. Now I plan to do it with my new Solo 2 DL.

More like the Cayman R driver doesn't want to give you a point by.. too much ego or a friend making you REALLY earn it.. While it is 10 degrees here in NY, I really enjoyed watching you harass him though. He missed a few turns trying to get away from you..

I was a bit pissed, but later I found out it was a woman driving it Kudos to her.

thanks for the vids, that's some great driving! those guys should let you pass (especially that e46 )

The E46 was a disaster. He blocked me several times. It was do frustrating .

Stig_jdm, wow, that's a stunning performance.

 

[DPL8]

Just got back from a track weekend at Thunderhill Raceway. Averaging around a 2:10 lap time on Swift springs and 265/35 Pilot Sport 4S tires. I definitely can make up a few seconds on turn 1, 3, and 5. I think I may have warped my rotors on the last session on Sunday. Getting a weird pulsing in the pedal and cabin followed by a (humming?) noise when braking. Can visually see some grooves on the rotor. Car ran pretty well for the most part. I did see the coolant temps spike for a quick moment but that went away after I let it cool down for half a lap. Ambient temps for the weekend were around 75-80F IIRC. Will definitely look into getting an oil cooler and doing some cooling mods for peace of mind. Looking forward to hearing how others are keeping temps at bay.

How did the car feel with the swift springs? was there a difference compared to stock? i have heard there is more understeer due to more negative camber in the rear but i wanted to confirm. I wonder if it is worth installing camber arms

 

[Stig_jdm]

Came across this article and at the time I was still slow (lol), but it's pretty cool.

https://www.turnology.com/race-cove...pe-r-takes-on-corvette-c6-z06-at-laguna-seca/

 

[DPL8]

Came across this article and at the time I was still slow (lol), but it's pretty cool.

https://www.turnology.com/race-cove...pe-r-takes-on-corvette-c6-z06-at-laguna-seca/

Damn that is fast

 

[MonkeyConQueso]

Came across this article and at the time I was still slow (lol), but it's pretty cool.

https://www.turnology.com/race-cove...pe-r-takes-on-corvette-c6-z06-at-laguna-seca/

I love some of the comments: "...i think the Corvette driver lost his nerve and had enough and just let him pass or it was just Honda propaganda..."

 

[yargk]

Stig_jdm:
I was wondering if you could comment on your upgraded rear wing. It seems a lot of amateurs who talk about aerodynamics value balance more than increasing overall downforce. The argue (explicitly or not) that to add downforce to one end of the car and not the other isn't an improvement.

Personally, I think there is enough empirical evidence that more rear downforce alone generally helps because there are a lot of time attack cars and other race cars (like GT3 cup) that have a lot more rear downforce than front downforce, and they are faster for it. It seems to me that more rear downforce would allow for greater trailbraking (or a more aggressive corner entry in general) and therefore faster corner entry speeds.

As a quick driver, where do you think you're picking up time with the wing and how do you change your driving to take advantage of it?
(some less experienced drivers may upgrade the wing and not see faster lap times because they don't 'use' it, I think)

 

[Stig_jdm]

Stig_jdm:
I was wondering if you could comment on your upgraded rear wing. It seems a lot of amateurs who talk about aerodynamics value balance more than increasing overall downforce. The argue (explicitly or not) that to add downforce to one end of the car and not the other isn't an improvement.

Personally, I think there is enough empirical evidence that more rear downforce alone generally helps because there are a lot of time attack cars and other race cars (like GT3 cup) that have a lot more rear downforce than front downforce, and they are faster for it. It seems to me that more rear downforce would allow for greater trailbraking (or a more aggressive corner entry in general) and therefore faster corner entry speeds.

As a quick driver, where do you think you're picking up time with the wing and how do you change your driving to take advantage of it?
(some less experienced drivers may upgrade the wing and not see faster lap times because they don't 'use' it, I think)

Great questions and I can certainly share my learnings, although I am not a pro.

I have to agree that the most important aspect is balance. When you see a fast car (Like GT3 Cup) with a big wing, that probably means that car would be an oversteer machine without it, or with a smaller one.

In general, I prefer cars that oversteer and rotate easily. The CTR in stock form, is very neutral, so I started changing the rear sway bar to help with the rotation and it did.

When I bought the JRZ coilovers, I chose to use stiffer rear springs. That, with the stiffer RSB in a square setup, provided a very good balance. Then I decide to try a staggered setup 275/245 and it was too much, so I had to soften the sway and shocks to balance the car.

With that info in mind, I was preparing for the GTA SLB and from my experience with wings, I knew it would change the car behavior drastically. Since I would only have the wing available to me the day of GTA, I brought 2 tire setups to the track. I started running the square setup with no wing and did a 1:55.5. Then I decide to try the wing, but I didn't use the square setup, since I knew it was going to understeer. So I went back to that setup I said it was too much oversteer. The wing overcame that unbalance and provided some hint of understeer on high speed corners and the car was rotating beautifully on low speed corners, which is what you want. I was faster (1:54.8) and was able to hit 106mph on a high speed turn that I was doing 100mph max without the wing....

When I went to Laguna Seca last month, I wanted to use a set of slicks on square setup and knowing the car was going to understeer with the wing, I didn't bring it with me. Funny part is that I drove to Laguna on my staggered setup and did the 2 first sessions with it. The car was oversteering like crazy! I put the square setup with slicks and the car was perfect again.

The other point is that the JRZs are incredibly responsive to adjustments. 1 click makes a big difference, so I use it to balance the car, but there is a limit without compromising other aspects.

I now plan to add a front splitter and re-test the square vs staggered setup to see which one works better with the wing + splitter.

In summary, yes, the Voltex wing makes a big difference and will change how the car drives, and you will need to compensate for it in some shape or form (rear sway bar, springs, shocks, tires, tire pressure, splitter etc...or a combination of several of these factors), but once you get the balance right, the car will be faster!

I hope this makes sense.

 

[iLovePho]

Great write-up! I actually purchased the Eibach 25mm RSB as an impulse buy (Black Friday sale lol) but haven't installed it yet. I'll probably put it up for sale since I'm a noob driver and need to learn to drive my car as is before doing any further suspension mods. Currently my only suspension mod are Eibach Pro-kit springs.

 

[yargk]

Great questions and I can certainly share my learnings, although I am not a pro.

I have to agree that the most important aspect is balance. When you see a fast car (Like GT3 Cup) with a big wing, that probably means that car would be an oversteer machine without it, or with a smaller one.

In general, I prefer cars that oversteer and rotate easily. The CTR in stock form, is very neutral, so I started changing the rear sway bar to help with the rotation and it did.

When I bought the JRZ coilovers, I chose to use stiffer rear springs. That, with the stiffer RSB in a square setup, provided a very good balance. Then I decide to try a staggered setup 275/245 and it was too much, so I had to soften the sway and shocks to balance the car.

With that info in mind, I was preparing for the GTA SLB and from my experience with wings, I knew it would change the car behavior drastically. Since I would only have the wing available to me the day of GTA, I brought 2 tire setups to the track. I started running the square setup with no wing and did a 1:55.5. Then I decide to try the wing, but I didn't use the square setup, since I knew it was going to understeer. So I went back to that setup I said it was too much oversteer. The wing overcame that unbalance and provided some hint of understeer on high speed corners and the car was rotating beautifully on low speed corners, which is what you want. I was faster (1:54.8) and was able to hit 106mph on a high speed turn that I was doing 100mph max without the wing....

When I went to Laguna Seca last month, I wanted to use a set of slicks on square setup and knowing the car was going to understeer with the wing, I didn't bring it with me. Funny part is that I drove to Laguna on my staggered setup and did the 2 first sessions with it. The car was oversteering like crazy! I put the square setup with slicks and the car was perfect again.

The other point is that the JRZs are incredibly responsive to adjustments. 1 click makes a big difference, so I use it to balance the car, but there is a limit without compromising other aspects.

I now plan to add a front splitter and re-test the square vs staggered setup to see which one works better with the wing + splitter.

In summary, yes, the Voltex wing makes a big difference and will change how the car drives, and you will need to compensate for it in some shape or form (rear sway bar, springs, shocks, tires, tire pressure, splitter etc...or a combination of several of these factors), but once you get the balance right, the car will be faster!

I hope this makes sense.

Yes, that does make sense. I agree that balance is key to safely being fast and my own plan for my other track car was to increase mechanical grip in the front and aero grip in the rear. It's encouraging to hear that you did the same in the CTR.

Just FYI, what I was saying in my first post about people being too concerned with balance referred to those who weren't considering balance of the whole system, but thought that aero on its own had to be perfectly balanced (equal downforce front and rear, or rather, proportional to car weight distribution)

 

[Stig_jdm]

Great write-up! I actually purchased the Eibach 25mm RSB as an impulse buy (Black Friday sale lol) but haven't installed it yet. I'll probably put it up for sale since I'm a noob driver and need to learn to drive my car as is before doing any further suspension mods. Currently my only suspension mod are Eibach Pro-kit springs.

The Eibach RSB is a good addition. Set it to soft and get used to it. I really liked how my car handled with just the RSB. In fact that's my setup on the video mentioned in the article above. Stock suspension with RSB, 18in wheels and tires.

Yes, that does make sense. I agree that balance is key to safely being fast and my own plan for my other track car was to increase mechanical grip in the front and aero grip in the rear. It's encouraging to hear that you did the same in the CTR.

Just FYI, what I was saying in my first post about people being too concerned with balance referred to those who weren't considering balance of the whole system, but thought that aero on its own had to be perfectly balanced (equal downforce front and rear, or rather, proportional to car weight distribution)

Exaclty, it's the whole system.

 

[DPL8]

The Eibach RSB is a good addition. Set it to soft and get used to it. I really liked how my car handled with just the RSB. In fact that's my setup on the video mentioned in the article above. Stock suspension with RSB, 18in wheels and tires.



Exaclty, it's the whole system.

What setting do you have your swaybar in ?

 

[Stig_jdm]

What setting do you have your swaybar in ?

I'm running on full stiff.

Sponsored