Grassroots Motorsports: The Hardcore Sports Car Magazine

That’s one heck of a sunset.

The Civic ran beautifully all weekend.

Thanks to Joe Elliot for this great on-course photo.

Click HERE for a full-sized whopper of the entire Hillclimb group. (Photo by Ashley Andrews)

Trusty Project 2002 Civic Si returned from the thrilling Wolf Ridge Hillclimbwith no scars and some new stories to tell. This was the first-ever event at Wolf Ridge, N.C., and from the wide-eyed hillclimb virgins (myself included) to the jaded pros, everyone was impressed with the hill. It was steep, challenging and proved quite safe despite its obvious challenges. Many said it was as thrilling–or more so–than the legendary Chimney Rock Hillclimb.

The hill was so steep, in fact, that the Civic Si could barely accelerate on the straights in third gear, and those tended to be the shallow parts. Fortunately, second gear was very well suited to the course, and the C50-compound Hankook tires provided plenty of grip. Even the lack of a limited-slip differential wasn’t hurting us too bad, the traction was just there. As our IN-CAR VIDEO shows, every time we hit the rev limiter it’s about time to lift a bit for a corner.

In typical Honda fashion, the Civic ran like a watch. We just added fuel and floored it for most of the weekend. We didn’t even really have to futz with the tire pressures once they were set.

After organizers got the rhythm of the brand-new event sorted out on Saturday, on Sunday drivers had just about all they could tolerate; we took eight or nine runs total before calling it quits. Our best time on the 1.6-mile course was in the 2:10s, respectable for a normally aspirated four-banger on such a big hill.

The centerpiece of the event was the beautiful Lodge at Wolf Ridge on top of the mountain. The area serves as a ski resort in the cooler months, and it really was quite beautiful. Event chairman Tony Wentworth and his team did a fantastic job of getting this inaugural event off on the right foot. It looks like they’re at it again, and there are already plans for another great event in August. Check out the Hillclimb at Eagle’s Nest for details on that one.

Loaded up and ready to go.

The Civic Si is loaded up and ready to scramble up the mountain at the Wolf Ridge Hillclimb. We bled the brakes, added some ones to the car (76 was already taken) and gave everything a quick once over, it seems to be in good shape. Now it just needs some more air in the tires and a fresh tank of gas, our checklist is standing by for this afternoon’s pack-fest. We leave tomorrow morning for the event.

Back in Black

Ford Racing and NASA have been working hard to get their new Spec Focus road racing series on a roll, and we’ve been invited to try our hands at the series for the NASA Championships at Mid-Ohio in September. We were originally going to campaign our H3 Honda Civic that we’ve been running in Honda Challenge, but the Spec Focus has more editorial value for the magazine; road racing Ford Foci sounds pretty Grassroots to us. That, and not having to tow a Civic for 16 hours is a nice bonus. Here’s a shot of the car we’ll be running, it should have some GRM livery on it by the time it hits the track at Mid-Ohio.

The Nissan Pathfinder and TrailerWorld trailer are a truly commendable combination for lugging a race car around.

The ducts and the Hawk HT10 pads have solved our overheating problems comprehenisvely.

The stickier C50-compound Hankook Ventus RSS race rubber gave the car noticably more grip than the harder C70 compound, although naturally they’re wearing more quickly (we’ve still got a few races left in ‘em, however). Our König Kolors wheels did the trick with style and fairly low mass.

Steve Vetter was kind enough to send in this photo of the Civic on track the day after the event. We had a great dice with Joe Lee Jr.’s Neon in Sunday’s Stinger race.

Chris Cobetto and the NASA Mid-Atlantic team really outdid themselves this year, as the stands were packed all over the track and people lined the fences.

This past weekend we loaded up the Pathfinder and our TrailerWorld rig with all the necessary bits for a NASA racing weekend in the Project 2002 Honda Civic Si. Not just any weekend, mind you, but NASA Mid-Atlantic’s annual HyperFest at Summit Point, W.V. The Hyperfest has been growing steadily since its inception and this year the turnout was really impressive; look for a complete write-up in the Nov. issue of GRM.

Following our comprehensive brake overheating at CMP, we were eager to see if our brake ducts and Hawk HT10 pads were going to be up to the task of keeping the rotor and pad temperatures in check. First off, the HT10s bite like crazy right from the start and only get better as heat gets into them. We experienced zero operational fade all weekend, and no one came up to us complimenting our glowing rotors. The pedals started off hard as a rock and ended the weekend with maybe half an inch of squish, but a quick bleed ought to bring us right back where we started. The car now stops like a race car should, we were actually able to out-brake most of the Spec Miatas into Turn 1.

The ducts are a bit cozy on the inside of the wheel well where we were able to route them, so we took care not to turn the wheel all the way to the lock when cruising around the paddock. one of the ducts got a small hole rubbed in it, but a quick duct-tape fix (how often do you get to use duct tape on actual ducts?) held up for the rest of the weekend and showed no wear. We still have some spare ducting material from our original Racer Parts Wholesale 10-foot length should future replacement become necessary.

There were three large racing fields, and our home was the Stinger group, although we were the only H3-class entry. We put out the feelers and started remembering the track (we’ve HPDE’d at Summit in our Type R before), and started things of with a not-too-quick 1:35 best time in practice. We qualified about 1.5 seconds faster than that, and ran a quickest lap of 1:33.2 during the first race, and had a fun scrap with a black VW Jetta for much of the race.

For day two, we swapped the rear tires to the front, checked a number of things to make sure everything was up to snuff and headed out again. The Civic was super reliable and even fuel efficient all weekend, so much so that when USTCC director Ali Arsham approached us asking if we’d like to run in the USTCC race with the Autobahn group our only concern was that we had enough energy and Gatorade to survive back-to-back races. While the Civic isn’t prepared to the level of most USTCC cars, we actually got a jump on the fifth-place Audi A4 at the standing start (he had clutch problems). He got things going again and made it past us on the front straight after a while, but it was quite a lot of fun trying to defend the position. We were down to a 1:33.0 during the race.

In the final race, we had a terrific dice with Joe Lee Jr.’s Dodge Neon for most of the race. The Civic kept the lead, but he would have had us if he hadn’t overbraked Turn 1 allowing us to recapture the inside line and torque out of the corner. Traffic managment was a key issue, primarly when being passed by H1 cars running 10 seconds per lap faster. At least they’re loud so you can hear ‘em coming. During the race we were running the hardest we had all weekend, pushing the Civic to a 1:32.6 fastest lap. It’s still off the pace, but rookies have to learn somewhere. Now that we’re getting the hang of things, the desire for more speed will start taking precidence over the get-the-car-ready safety stuff in the modifications department.

We’ve filled up our Provisional Rookie License book with the CMP race and the three events at VIR, so it’s time to mail that in for the “real” license. Thanks to D and everyone at the event who helped us run this one solo.

You can find complete results at the NASA Mid-Atlantic site.

Our as-delivered Racer Parts Wholesale duct inlets, designed for use with 3-inch ducts.

A bit of Dremeling and we’ve got a more appropriately-sized duct.

We traced our template on the Civic’s bumper, changing our mind a bit and raising it up a few inches after triple-checking the shape of the bumper and the clearances inside.

Dremel: 1; Civic Si bumper: 0

Aluminum rivet washers on the inside prevent the rivets from pulling through the relatively soft bumper plastic.

Because of the curvature of the bumper the outside edge isn’t flush, but it’s also not going anywhere.

The RPW neoprene hose is designed to withstand temperatures of up to 350 degrees, and is very well made.

Four short rivets provide the flange for the hose clamp to work against.

The bumper side of things is now taken care of.

The front brakes on our Civic are getting too hot on track. Fortunately, the Honda Challenge rules allow for ducting to provide sweet cooling air to those toasty discs and calipers. There are a couple of rules that apply to our situation:
7.9 BRAKES
e) Brakes may be ducted from existing holes in the vehicle’s bodywork provided they extend in a forward direction (from brake forward). Auxiliary lights not listed as “required” items in this reulebook may be removed to facilitate brake cooling ducts.
7.10 BODY
A) 11) Two (2) openings may be cut in the front valence to allow up to a three (3) inch diameter duct leading to the front brakes only. Factory fog lights may be removed and holes used for brake ducts or left open.

The first part of the rule doesn’t really help us: our Civic Si has no fog lights, and even if it did, the holes on the outer corner of the grilles are right in front of the frame structure that holds the radiator in place, meaning our tubing would have to be fairly small to negotiate past this tight clearance. The second rule suits us perfectly; we’re allowed to cut two openings that allow for a three-inch diamater duct. It’s important to note that the rules don’t state that the opening must be three inches or less, only that the opening must allow up to a three-inch diamater duct. This opens the door to some nice purpose-made ducting pieces.

Our brake ducting materials arrived from Racer Parts Wholesale. We’re not surprised to be pleased with the quality, the ducting inserts are made of robust black plastic and the 3-inch duct hose is 10 feet long and really well made. We had priced some aluminum ducting materials at the Home Depot and nearly went that route, but these RPW components are designed for the rigors of racing and will hold up better in the long run, and the price was just a few bucks higher.

For the most efficient duct path, we had to cut holes outboard of the lower grille, which is where the bumper starts to curve backwards. Since our RPW duct inlets are fairly flat, this would mean a bit of a gap on the outside edge; it’s not going to look factory, but it falls well within the 20/20 rule of thumb (at 20 miles an hour 20 feet away you’re not going to notice ‘em).

First off we used our all-conquering Dremel tool to cut the duct inlets down to size. A reinforced fiberglass cut-off wheel sliced through the plastic with little difficulty.

Next, we measured the size of the duct inlet’s insert footprint and made a cardboard template to trace on the bumper. We did our best to cut inside the line, but we learned on the first duct that because of the curvature of the bumper we had a slightly larger hole than expected; we were still within the limits and the flange covered the hole with sufficient overlap, but our right-side hole was smaller still and the duct fit more snugly before riveting. Be sure to start small and go bigger.

To cut out a hole in the bumper, we switched our Dremel to a drill bit and cranked it up to 5. At maximum speed, the side of the drill bit slices through the plastic bumper with ease, although it requires a couple of steady hands since the bit will want to walk the dremel in the direction it’s spinning. You get lots of neat warm plastic confetti, so be sure to use eye protection (as you always should when using a tool that spins something at 30,000 rpm).

Next we started drilling 1/8-inch holes for aluminum rivets. Because we’re dealing with plastic, we put small rivet washers on the inside to prevent pull-through. The bumper’s contours prevented us from doing the spacing exactly even, but they’re in there pretty darn good and that’s all that we really care about.

We test-fitted our ducting hose and cut off a piece that was at least a foot longer than we’d actually need; we’ll do the routing soon.

Our first real snag was the low friction between the ducting hose and the duct inlet plastic. No matter how hard we tighened the hose clamp, we the hose would slide off the inlet with a slight tug. We tried removing some of the inner wire skeleton from the end fo the hose and folding the soft material inside to make a tighter seal, and while it helped some it wasn’t a real fix. We needed some kind of flange for the inlet plastic; our rivet gun provided the solution.

By inserting four very short aluminum rivets tail-end out relative to the duct inlet, we created a ridge against which the hose clamp could rest. In a happy coincidence, the ridges ended up being very snug against the inner diameter of the duct, so much so that the only way to slide the duct over the inlet was to screw it on using the inner wire’s track as the thread. With the ducts screwed on and hose-clamped down in place, we’re able to lift the bumper off the ground by the duct alone.

All that remains is to route the ducting as close to the brake as we dare. But the lure of delicious fajitas drew us away from the project at this stage, look for a final installment soon.

Maybe just a little bit outside the operating envelope.

This disc has seen more attractive days.

We have some Stillen discs lying around for the car, it would be a waste not to use ‘em.

It was obvious at CMP that the front brakes were getting hot, and with some new HT10 pads on the way from Hawk and some ducting material en route from Racer Parts Wholesale, we took a moment last night to pull the old pads and discs off the car. Looks like we got a little hotter on the inside than expected.

On both sides of the car, the inside pads had warped completely, bending the backing plates and tearing through the available pad material. The outer pads got toasted, but obviously the inner disc surface was a minature hell on earth. The car’s inner dust shields are still in place, and that was certainly not helping ventilation on that side; we’ll either remove them completely or transform them from dust sheilds to brake ducting brackets for our next event at Summit Point.

High marks to the ATE Super Blue for holding up to a thermal onslaught of this magnitude. Hopefully we’ll have things much more under control at future events.

Fortunately, we had some brand-new Stillen drilled discs lying around from when we first got the car, and it would be a shame not to use them up. We don’t usually opt for drilled discs, but since we inherited them with the car it’ll be a good opportunity to experiment with them, and if they do their part to keep the disc temperatures down a bit more so much the better.

Scott enjoyed a clean car and some fine weather on Saturday…

…while Per enjoyed slightly damper conditions on Sunday. CMP is notoriously hard on brakes, and we seem to have cooked the gray finish of our Volk TE-37s up front. Cool.

Project 2002 Civic Si survived its first weekend as an official race car at the NASA Moonshine Run in early May at Carolina Motorsports Park. Scott put in his first race as a Rookie on Saturday, and Per ran the car on Sunday in order to keep his competition license fresh. Both our drivers were new to the track. Our car is classed in Honda Challenge’s H3 category; the rest of the Honda Challenge crew were extremely friendly and welcomed a new car in their ranks. Indeed, the entire NASA atmosphere was light and fun. Thanks for the hospitality everyone!

CMP is an interesting track, half road course and half high-speed autocross. It’s also brutal on brakes. Our Cobalt pads resisted the temptation to fade, but the front rotors were glowing gloriously in the braking zones, and the freshly-burned finish of our Volk TE-37s tells the tale of high temps. While it wasn’t a problem at VIR in the cold, it’s obvious that some brake ducting is a new priority for the car for the warmer months. We also have some Stillen drilled rotors from when we acquired the car in its SEMA booth, and it would be a shame not to try them out.

Also on the future wish-list: A limited-slip differential would have helped the car considerably around the tight corners after the kink, and we plan on having a softer-compound tire mounted up before the next race to lower our lap times a bit. Due to the tight nature of CMP, the car felt quite heavy; we’re going to explore more weight-loss options as time and rules allow.

While it wasn’t the fastest car out there, the Civic was dead-nuts reliable all weekend, we bled the brakes before the Saturday race mostly out of principal and applied some Rain-X on Sunday morning (thanks Allan!) Scott went from a 2:05.658 fast lap in morning practice to a 2:02.574 during the race, finishing second in the H3 class. In wet conditions, Per placed second in H3 with a 2:17.666 fast lap.

Standing starts are a a blast.
H1 cars are FAST.
Chris Cobetto puts on a great show, on and off the track.

The GRM crew of Per and Scott are at South Carolina’s Carolina Motorsports Park for the Nasa road racing event this weekend. Look for them in the white #76 Honda Civic Si in the H3 class of Honda Challenge.

The plan is to have the rookie, Scott, in the car on Saturday, with Per in the car on Sunday. Good luck guys!

Sharp looking, fairly light, and easy on the wallet. We’re eager to get them on the car.

We need a second set of wheels and tires for the Civic, partly to have spares for unforseen circumstances and partly to mount a softer compound tire for a bit of comparison testing. König Kolor wheels are available in some wild flavors like Very Orange and So Yellow, but they also come in a tasteful graphite with a polished lip. Weight for the 15x7-inch wheel shown was 14.75 pounds according to our trusty office scale, and they can be found for a bit more than $100 per wheel.

The Civic going into hovermode for some brake bleeding.

Sporting some big honkin’ numbers.

With a NASA event at Carolina Motorsports Park just a few weeks away, we decided to take care of a few odds and ends on our 2002 Civic Si. First off, we bled the brakes.
Our Cobalt Friction Technologies pads are wearing very well and proved their worth lap after lap at VIR—ABS engagement was always just around the pedal-pressure corner, even at the end of a 45-minute session.

Our ATE fluid kept the pedal in its operational zone as well. We did one bleed during the SuperComp school and that kept things happy enough at the event, though we noticed things were again a little spongy as we loaded the car onto the trailer. This time around, we cracked open a fresh bottle of ATE Super Blue and, with the car on, gave each caliper a good 15-20 pumps. We’re back to our firm-as-new pedal feel.

Visually, we’ve made a few changes and replaced the small number panels with something more appropriate for the Civic Si’s mammoth doors. Also, since we now know we’re in Honda-Challenge H3, we had some class decals cut as well. Finally, some name/flag decals give driver information; you have no idea how handy that is when magazine editors are looking through pictures trying to find a partcular car.