First, thanks to everyone who PhotoShopped the wheels onto our Civic. GRM message board regular SlickDizzy was the first to do so, so he wins the special prize: A piece of JDM vitamin C candy, purchased at the Tokyo Narita airport. Is that the best prize or what?
Our Civic’s clutch hasn’t been slipping, but it’s not perfect, either, as there’s some chatter present. We have driven worse, but we’d rather have a smooth clutch engagement.
SCCA STS rules require a stock or OE-equivalent clutch and flywheel, and our replacement parts from Perfection Clutch (http://www.perfectionclutch.com) just arrived. While we could have just resurfaced the flywheel, we figured that going with an all-new piece would just nip the whole problem in the bud.
Even though our clutch seems okay, if we have to tear apart the car to get to the flywheel, why not install a fresh, new clutch kit? Perfection Clutch says all of their kits are built to meet or exceed OE specs. The kit came nicely sealed in plastic, and we’ll break it open when we’re ready to do the install.
Our five-piece clutch kit includes the disc, pressure plate, throw-out bearing, pilot bearing and alignment tool. Retail price from PartsAmerica.com is $124.88, while the flywheel goes for $58.28. (PartsAmerica.com is the online store for Advance Auto Parts, Checker Auto Parts, Schuck’s Auto Supply and Kragen Auto Parts.)
In addition to their OE-replacement parts, the company also offers their Zoom high-performance clutches. The Zoom clutch for our car retails for $592.88.
And here are some of our Whiteline suspension products. Whiteline’s catalog covers a ton of different makes and models, but a lot of U.S. enthusiasts still think they only make parts for Subarus. Whiteline would like to change that notion, and their catalog can be found here: http://www.whiteline.com.au.
Whiteline tends to organize their parts as a complete package for each vehicle, so we took their advice and ordered a setup for our Civic. Here’s what we received:
Once we get our Konis, then we can throw everything onto the car. While the spring rates do sound a little soft, the people at Whiteline says to use the heavy bars to control the body roll, not the springs. We’ll try it out and see how it all works.
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