CRX Makes Its Track Debut May 20, 2008
It was an ambitious plan: Prepare a 20-year-old CRX for a NASA Southeast track event in about a week. Add in some magazine deadlines plus some travel for work, and it was a tall order. Well, we made it.
As planned, we left for Roebling Road Raceway this past Saturday morning. (Yeah, the event had already started, but we had Police tickets for Friday night.) We arrived around lunchtime, unpacked the car, bolted on our Nitto race tires and visited Tech.
We made it through Tech with no drama at all (everyone was so nice there), cleaned the windshield, checked the oil and waited for our next session.
The car was a dream to drive on track. There were no handling ills, braking problems or other quirks. In fact, we made it through five 20-minute sessions that weekend without one problem. We never even rotated the tires because we didn't see any wear. We never added any oil. The brakes were awesome.
Between sessions we'd just check the oil, clean the windshield and torque the lugs. That was about it. We noticed some coolant inside the left-front wheel well after our final session, but we think the overflow bottle just burped since the temp gauge never showed anything abnormal.
At the end of Sunday's action, the car made it back to Florida--a four-hour trip once stops are figured in--with no problems. It's a bit buzzy on the highway, but fortunately the CD player works and we remembered to grab some Metallica.
Fuel prices are a big concern today. Roebling Road is about 215 miles away, and by our math we got about 26 mpg on the trip. (Not bad considering we were turning 4500 rpm the whole way there.) On track, we used a little less than five gallons per hour of track time.
We still have a to-do list, as the car can definitely use a harness. We ran a CG Lock this weekend. It helped, but we were still sliding about. (The car has custom vinyl-covered Si seats.) We have a Kirk Racing roll bar on the way to help with harness installation. The roll bar should also help if things ever go horribly wrong.
We also have new brake hoses on the way. Goodridge was out of braided lines for our application, so we ran the stock rubber hoses. They looked fine when we did the brake work last week, but while mounting the street tires for the drive home we noticed a nick in one line. Goodridge lines have been ordered from The Tire Rack and should be here soon.
Since we don't know the history of this engine, a new timing belt is in the works. While we're doing that we're also going to replace the engine mounts. We believe they're the old Place Racing mounts, and they're not the most comfortable things out there. Some HASPORT mounts should make the car a bit more comfortable around town. There's also a slip-fit connector in the exhaust system that needs to be replaced with something a bit more solid.
There are also some cosmetic issues to address. Some of the trim needs to be repainted, and we need to repair the climate control's face plate. We also need a right-side mirror. Basically this is all minor stuff.
Sputter, Sputter Jun 22, 2008
After running like such a champ lately, the CRX started missing while at cruising altitude. It would clear up once under load.
We did some research, and looks like our P28 ECU should have two oxygen sensors, one for cylinders 1 and 2 and another for 3 and 4. We think we just have the one sensor, but we just started working on this problem. At a minimum, looks like we'll move the Hondata ECU swap to the front burner.
Nicely Balanced May 10, 2009
Our CRX has returned to the front burner, as the engine work has begun. First, a disclaimer: We're not trying to make our track car faster, but there was some weirdness that needed attention. The speed limiter was limiting our performance, and we seemed to randomly encounter misses at cruising altitude. The car would also throw a check engine light for no discernible reason.
The fix was an ECU redo: a Hondata computer tuned by Ed Senf. The swap took place at Atlanta's Balanced Performance Motorsports, a friendly facility located not too far from Road Atlanta. They also have one of the nicest dyno cells around.
The installation also required converting the car from OBD0 to OBD1 specs, meaning we also had to swap the distributor. Locash harness adaptors made everything a plug-and-play operation. Look for the complete story in the magazine soon, but here are some teasers: Yes, there was some ECU weirdness, as Ed was genuinely surprised that we completed a track day without burning a valve or piston.
CRX Heading Back to the Track Sep 4, 2009
Time to move our CRX back to the front burner. We just signed up for next weekend's NASA track event at Palm Beach International Raceway, so we have a car to prep. We have a few parts to install and some cleanup to do.
Would you like to join us?
What Is Behind Us Does Matter Sep 9, 2009
Sorry, but we're breaking the first rule of Italian driving: What is behind us does matter, especially when on track.
Even though our CRX HF was originally delivered with just a left-side mirror, it now has a matching one on the other side of the car. Thanks, Dave Hardy, for the hookup.