We knocked off the rest of the items on our to-do list this evening:
Washed and waxed? Check.
Numbers on? Check.
NASA stickers stuck? Check.
Tools and gear packed? Check.
Gassed up for the trip? Check.
We’ll get some GRM signage on the car tomorrow, and then we’re pretty much ready to go.
We did some more work on the CRX last night, changing the oil and installing new brakes. Since we had a tough time finding some track-ready pads for the stock HF calipers, we upgraded to Si calipers along with the larger, matching rotors. Both pieces bolted to our uprights. (We’re pretty sure they’re Si pieces.)
The HF and Si versions of the CRX used the same master cylinder and proportioning valve that year, so in theory there wouldn’t be any surprises. Now we could install some easy-to-source Hawk HP Plus brake pads. After doing the work, we followed Hawk’s bed-in procedure for the pads.
We also changed the oil last night, and today we picked up our numbers from Hawkeye Signs & Graphics. Tonight the car gets a bath.
The CRX got a little more attention tonight in its preparation for its HPDE debut. First, some photos. It’s been a while since it had its picture taken. It’s now rolling on some Rota Beats.
We also took a real look at our air filter, and it was pretty gross. (Scroll down to see it.) It’s basically a no-name open-element affair. The grassroots thing would have been to clean and re-oil it. The really grassroots thing was to replace with another one that we had here at the office. We figured this move saved us some time so we can get back to editing the next issue.
Finally, we cleaned up some of the under-dash wiring. There were some speaker cables laying behind the pedals, and we figured that wasn’t the safe setup for a visit to the track. A few strategically placed zip-ties made things much neater.
Tomorrow’s project: brakes.
After sitting in an auto cocoon for way too long, the CRX has been moved to the front burner. How’d we do that? Easy. Just registered for a NASA HPDE track event that takes place this coming weekend at Roebling Road. That phone call got us moving.
First thing to do was make the car mobile. We loved the weight savings provided by the little Braille Auto battery, but it wasn’t happy sitting dormant for so long. The original-style battery is now back under the hood. Sure, we may be giving up some max performance, but at least the car now starts when asked.
The next big project was to get rid of the world’s worst steering wheel. The car came with some cheese-o aftermarket place hooked to an equally lame quick-release hub. Apparently someone else also detested this piece, as the hub bore the scars of a removal attempt.
Yeah, the wheel was on there tightly. Guess they never heard of a steering wheel puller. The half-hour spent going down to AutoZone for the puller and Lowe’s for some hardware was worth the trip. A few turns of a ratchet put the offending steering wheel hub in our hand.
In its place went a retro Momo Benetton wheel. We were looking for something cool and different and found this NOS wheel online. Price was about $150, which is really a great deal for a new Momo wheel. The hub came from LTB Motorsports, and the whole things went together as planned. This was Thursday evening’s project. (By the way, props to LTB for shipping the wheel so quickly.)
On Friday, the car got a new suspension. While the latest and greatest isn’t required for an HPDE event, our car had some suspension issues including positive camber at one corner and a serious clunk. We figured it was best to start here. Out when the old, in went a set of beautiful Progress coil-overs.
Since the Progress rear shocks are designed to work with 1989-’91 lower rear arms, we had to replace our stock 1988-spec pieces. SPC makes some nice aluminum pieces that fit the bill. They also have provisions so we can mount a rear anti-roll bar. We also installed some SPC adjustable upper arms at the same time.
Everything fit perfectly, and the ride is actually pretty darn good. We’ll give a full report once we put on some miles, but initially we’re really happy.
The clunk? A previous owner had fitted a camber kit up front, and one of the bolts had failed. Fortunately the seller still had the stock Honda piece. Geoff Thompson aligned the car, dialing in zero toe out back and 1/32-inch toe-in up front. We now have -.8 degrees of rear camber and -1.2 degrees of front camber.
Now we need to do the brakes. Turns out that really no one stocks decent pads for our HF calipers, so we’re upgrading to Si calipers and rotors. Hopefully that will be Tuesday or Wednesday’s project.
Back a few years ago, Ed Senf tuned quite a few GRM project cars. He’s like the god of air/fuel ratios. Well, Ed got a little busy with some topflight World Challenge and Koni Challenge teams, and we can’t hate him for that. If anything, we’re proud of him.
We saw Ed the other day, and he checked out the CRX. He says it’s the perfect candidate for a Hondata ECU conversion, but first we need to move from the JDM computer to an American-spec OBDI setup involving the ECU, distributor and some wiring. Looks like we’ll be back working with Ed in the very near future.
Our CRX has been sitting a little dormant in a very un-Honda-like manner. Turns out that the car wouldn’t start one day. While checking all of the connections, we remembered something the seller told us: One of the battery cables may have a bad terminal.
Turns out he was right.
The easy thing to do was just replace the clamps, which we did as a temporary fix. However, to install the clamps we had to shorten the cables just a touch. As a result, the wire that goes between the positive terminal and the fuse box barely reached. Since the car came without a battery tie-down, any quick motion would pull that wire loose, leaving the car without power.
The stock setup puts the battery right behind the passenger headlight, meaning it’s high in the chassis and way far forward. We’d call that highly less than ideal for a car with a front weight bias.
Traditionally, people would put the battery in the back of the car to solve that weight-distribution problem, but that raises a few more issues. For one, there’s all of that cable, which puts a strain on the electrical system and adds more pounds to the car. A trunk-mounted battery also takes up some interior space.
The new trend is to run a small, lightweight battery in the stock location. One of the lightest options is the Braille carbon-fiber race battery. According to our local postal scale, it weighs a svelte 7.5 pounds. It also only measures 5.5x3.4x4.2 inches. Its lightweight aluminum mount adds another 11.5 ounces to that total and is simply screwed to the stock battery tray. (Options for attachment include self-drilling screws or hex head bolts and nuts; we went with the latter and added some thread-locking compound.)
The whole installation went as planned, and the car started on the first try.
The seller of our CRX didn’t do the swap, so he didn’t know everything about the car—including which front brakes were on it. The B-series tranny isn’t compatible with the HF front hubs, but he didn’t know if the brakes were swapped, too.
Stock HF rotors are 9.1 inches in diameter. CRX Si pieces are 9.5 inches. When doing a track car, generally bigger is better.
While we could have just removed the rotors and measured them, we didn’t feel like entering a project that day. A few minutes with a scrap of cardboard yielded our custom brake rotor caliper measuring tool. It only confirms whether or not a rotor is 9.1 inches across, but it seems to work well.
Now we need to find some Si brakes.
Not much work occurred on the CRX while David was up at the NASA Championships this past weekend, but he did some recon and intelligence gathering while up there.
Things learned:
- This car is going to make a killer HPDE car.
- NASA’s Time Trial program looks like too much fun. Don’t be surprised to see the car run some events.
- HASPORT mounts are more comfortable than our Place Racing mounts. We hope to upgrade soon.
- If we ever go full-circle and prepare this car for wheel-to-wheel competition, we’re only an engine swap away from having a great base for a Honda Challenge H4 car.
In a highly unusual occurrence for a Honda, the CRX wouldn’t start this weekend. The starter sounded like it was spinning the engine just fine, but the engine wasn’t even trying to fire. We figured it was spark or fuel and checked all of our connections. Everything looked good.
Then we remembered something the seller told us: Every now and then the car would have trouble starting, and for some reason he figured it was one of the battery cable clamps.
They looked and felt tight, but we put a little torque to them—and the car started right up. Then we over-tightened the positive clamp and snapped it. Doh! A couple of bucks later for a new one and were back in business.
Long-term, we wanted to do something about our stock battery. For one, it’s heavy. It’s also positioned pretty high in the car and forward of the front wheels.
The traditional solution would be a battery box in the back of the car. While that improves the weight distribution, it also adds a few pounds thanks to the longer cables. It also robs us of some precious storage space.
The modern solution is a lightweight battery under the hood. We have a 6-pound carbon fiber battery from Braille Auto Development on the way. It’s 5.8 inches long, 3.4 inches wide and 4.2 inches high.
By the way, the head guy at Braille is Blake Fuller. We have known Blake since he was just a tike and have featured some of his cars in GRM. He was the guy with the infamous Sonny’s BBQ-sponsored Civic hatch that ran up Pikes Peak.
Braille offers several lightweight batteries, and you can see their Web site here: Braille They also offer lightweight battery tie-downs.
We also have a new Sparco steering wheel on the way, as ours just sucks. The Sparco wheel is covered in fake suede so we can be cool yet PC at the same time.
The faceplate of our climate control is also broken, which apparently is common with these cars. We figured that one from the salvage yard would be the answer, but then we saw this: quite possibly the coolest thing ever
We have talked to Todd, and we’re going to meet up during this weekend’s NASA Championships so we can get a plate.
We’ll post some pics of the new equipment once it arrives.
The CRX didn’t exactly come with great tires. One was corded and the rest were heading in that direction. None felt balanced.
As a quick fix, we threw on some wheels and tires we already had mounted. It’s amazing what a set of tires can do for a car.
We also weighed the car this weekend—kind of. While at the dump we took the CRX across their scales. With a full load of fuel, the car weighs 1960 pounds. We’ll get it on our proper Longacre scales soon.
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