Bling? Mar 14, 2005
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While it's not a huge mod, our car recently got a new gearshift knob. While in Japan, we visited Carmate and took a liking to some of their Razo parts. Their new WR Spec Round Leather knob looked like the one for us. It weighs in at 240 grams (a little more than half a pound) in an effort to help the shifting process and is stitched like a baseball. The outside diameter is 47mm, about 1.88 inches.
Some may consider aftermarket gearshift knobs bling, but hey, this one feels good, looks good, and is more comfortable than grabbing a piece of threaded rod. Retail price is right at $40. (The part number is RA114.) Carmate has a U.S. Web site, and they also offer their no-frills knobs in resin.
Our Civic also changed its shoes a few times during the past few weeks. For some baselines numbers, we reinstalled the original tires and wheels: 14x5-inch steelies wrapped with some 185/60R14 Goodyear Eagle GP-H tires. What, never heard of the GP-H? That's because it was only available through Costco. (Seriously, looks like Goodyear makes several tires only available through the discount club.)
While the all-weather Goodyears were actually quite comfortable around town, they didn't set any records at the Ocala Gran Prix with 43.39-second lap averages.
Then we did a little upgrading, installing a set of 205/50ZR15 BFGoodrich Comp T/A KD tires mounted on hubcentric 15x7-inch Rota Slipstream wheels. The Rotas are light, as each one weighed 12 pounds, 14.80 ounces. Not bad for a wheel available for about $450 per set.
A little extra stick helped our Civic's performance, as average lap times quickly dropped to 41.44-second times. We still have much work to do, but it's nice to make a little progress.
Hurry up and wait Mar 15, 2005
Even though we're still waiting for our appointment at the paint shop, the Civic hasn't been dormant. We have been driving the car on a daily basis and autocrossing it when possible. Unfortunately our Feb. 27 event was rained-out, and we missed this past weekend's autocross because we were up at the Amelia Island Concours. We'll be back on track later this month, we hope.
While it's not a huge mod, our car recently got a new gearshift knob. While in Japan, we visited Carmate and took a liking to some of their Razo parts. Their new WR Spec Round Leather knob looked like the one for us. It weighs in at 240 grams (a little more than half a pound) in an effort to help the shifting process and is stitched like a baseball. The outside diameter is 47mm, about 1.88 inches.
Some may consider aftermarket gearshift knobs bling, but hey, this one feels good, looks good, and is more comfortable then grabbing a piece of threaded rod. Retail price is right at $40. (The part number is RA114.) Carmate's U.S. Web site can be found at http://www.carmate-usa.com, and they also offer their no-frills knobs in resin.
Our Civic also changed its shoes a few times during the past few weeks. For some baselines numbers, we reinstalled the original tires and wheels: 14x5-inch steelies wrapped with some 185/60R14 Goodyear Eagle GP-H tires. What, never heard of the GP-H? That's because it was only available through Costco. (Seriously, looks like Goodyear makes several tires only available through the discount club.)
While the all-weather Goodyears were actually quite comfortable around town, they didn't set any records at the Ocala Gran Prix with 43.39-second lap averages.
Then we did a little upgrading, installing a set of 205/50ZR15 BFGoodrich Comp T/A KD tires mounted on hubcentric 15x7-inch Rota Slipstream wheels. The Rotas are light, as each one weighed 12 pounds, 14.80 ounces. Not bad for a wheel available for about $450 per set.
A little extra stick helped our Civic's performance, as average lap times quickly dropped to 41.44-second times. We still have much work to do, but it's nice to make a little progress.
Sebring St. Patrick’s Mar 17, 2005
We took the Civic down to Sebring International Raceway yesterday for SCCA World Challenge qualifying. The on-track activities were canceled due to rain, but we still saw lots of friends and got some stuff done.
Despite the rain, the car--and our BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD tires--did well. BFG may say they're kings of the dry, but things didn't get hairy, and we never felt the car hydroplane, even when being passed by semi trucks or while navigating construction sites. We also didn't get stuck in the muddy parking lots.
We also kept track of our fuel economy. While it's sort of a straight shot down to Sebring, the trip down included plenty of traffic and stop-and-go driving. We also stopped an bought and umbrella.
We averaged 29.1 mpg while driving down to the track. Traffic was very light for the trip home, and our numbers were a little better: 30.7 mpg. Those numbers still don't match Honda's 29/36mpg figures, but we're not complaining, especially since we were generally turning at least 3000 rpm when at highway speeds.
We also spoke to former Civic racer Randy Pobst, and he said to call him next week for some setup tips. (He's driving two different cars this weekend, so yesterday he was running back and forth.) Randy claimed the 1992 IMSA Firehawk championship in an EG-chassis Civic. You can read his bio here: http://www.randypobst.com.
First Autocross on new tires Mar 25, 2005
This past weekend we ran our first autocross on our BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD tires. What a difference, especially under braking. The car now actually stops when the middle pedal is pushed. Turn-in and power delivery were also much better. We've said it before and it warrants repeating: Tires make the biggest difference in performance. So, how did we do? Well, the car handled great, but our editor/driver had some concentration problems. Not our finest hour. Still, once the car is done and a good driver is placed behind the wheel, the Civic should be fast.
We did get some no-so-great news regarding our paint this week, however. We had planned on getting the car painted by our local vo-tech school sometime this spring. Now we hear it may be August before they can do the car. Since the paint is holding up the rest of the project, we may have to turn to Plan B.
BMX and Klingon Foreheads Mar 28, 2005
The Civic was off this weekend, as we passed on a local Buccaneer Region autocross due to rain and prior commitments. While we didn't race this weekend, the car did transport us to one, as we attended the National Bicycle League's Easter Classic BMX race in Orlando on Sunday. Since this was an Elite Series and UCI points event, the pro class was pretty well stacked. Acura NSX driver Jason Richardson looked fast. Since we realize that not too many of you are into BMX, keep an eye on ISTV for details on the sport. (The site goes live next month, and fellow car nut, friend of the magazine, and retired BMX pro Craig Reynolds is involved in the project; speaking of Reynolds, he gets his new MINI Cooper S today.)
As usual, the Civic made the drive to Orlando and back with no drama at all. The car did a look a little different for the trip, however, as we finally installed our "street" wheels. We're going to save our BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD tires for autocross use, so we're now running the 205/50WR15 BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW tire. This is the second generation of the tire and carries the g-Force T/A KDW-2 designation at The Tire Rack's site; retail price is $99 each.)
The tires are mounted on our gunmetal 15x6.5-inch Rota Auto-X wheels. With a name like Auto-X, how could we pass it up? By the way, the Auto-X wheels are available from Wheel Dude for $475 per set delivered.
We have not given the KDWs anything near a full workout yet, but the initial impressions are good: sticky and meaty, although they're not the quietest tire out there. As expected, The Tire Rack's comments and testing back up this fact, although the tire does post some strong performance numbers for both dry- and wet-weather testing.