My wife's 2012 Accord LX and its autocross trials and tribulations!

Hello all.

Been a fan of GRM magazine since I discovered it a couple of years ago, and been an even bigger fan of the forum once I stumbled onto it. Major car nut who is currently saving up to have a sweet competition car of his very own.

This isn't going to be the most exciting build thread on the board, as it starts off with a mundane vehicle and I don't have any intention of sinking much more money into it...I suppose this thread is just to chronicle its autocross adventures until I acquire a more suitable car for my motorsport activites! This car was given to my wife and I as a wedding present in Aug 2012 by my father-in-law. Since then, its done over 20,000 miles going from state to state for my medical school rotations, family visits and my recent move to Akron, OH. Along the way, it found itself participating in 5 autocross events and other instances of spirited driving that some would argue it had no business being a part of. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm and small budget have led to a few upgrades and tweaks to make it more enjoyable on any autocross course.

The car did its first autocross event completely stock. It is a 4 cylinder/automatic sedan on steelies/hubcaps. Can't seem to find the pictures from that first day, but all you have to imagine is a stock Accord wallowing around an autocross course in NY and you'll get the general idea. After a day of subjecting the stock Dunlops to pain and suffering beyond their comprehension, I thought I'd buy myself an early graduation present...a set of Evo X GSR stock Enkeis (18x8.5 +38) and a set of Hankook RS3s. Specifically, 235/40 up front and 225/40 in the rear.

Also swapped out the brake fluid at this point for ATE Super Blue (this wasn't a mod for autocross, so much as just something to do because it was fun? I dunno.)

Went back out and testing the tires on some windy roads upstate with a friend...:

Ended up going forward and doing 4 more autocross days on the new tires, including one day where the car did 20 runs between my younger brother (who wanted to try his hand at autocross for the first time) and myself. Need to take pics of the tires now to document the wear.

I am sure many of the seasoned autocrossers on this board can imagine what the car is like. An image of the Titanic comes to mind. The car wanders around the autocross course with all the grace of a drunk elephant, but the tires make it at least moderately amusing. The tires are wearing pretty quickly (I suspect the weight of the car and my exuberant driving style have a lot to do with this), but I'll still say they were worth every penny (even on this car). I plan to attend more sessions close to my new home (Akron, Ohio...would love to meet local GRMers!) and document in this thread as I go along. Comments and critiques of any kind are welcome!

Welcome to the forum! Always nice to hear about someone getting into autocross for the first time and enjoying it.

If you'd like to limit tire wear a little bit, you could look into getting a performance alignment. If the suspension is adjustable, dialing in as much negative camber as possible will really help with wear and improve cornering, usually with little downside for driving on the street.

Where in NY were you? I grew up in upstate.

In reply to JohnyHachi6:

Appreciate the welcome! I actually grew up in Long Island...that day we took a drive up to the Bear Mtn area for an autocross event, but it ended up being canceled due to the weather. We made the best of the situation and found some twisties to conquer on an early Sunday morning!

The suspension on this car is bone stock, but I've toyed with the idea of getting adjustable camber hardware to see if itll help the wear on the tires...will have to look further into it!

Welcome!

Neohio SCCA will be running three more events this year, the next being August 11th. http://neohio-scca.org/solo/solo-events/

Also somewhat close by is MBRSCCA, which runs out of Erie, PA. We use Lake Erie Speedway as our home track, and our next event there is July 21st. http://mbrscca.com/index.php/solo

Don't feel too out of the loop for driving an odd car, I usually autocross a stock fullsize wagon.

Hello stock autocross Accord brethren! '97 5-speed Coupe here. We have a couple of people that autocross Accord's in my SCCA region(NWOR). I think OVR operates in your area, and with the amount of autocrossing you do, get an SCCA membership!

Protip: 09+ TSX stuff should work on it, too. I'm salivating over the Koni FSD's at the moment, attempting to figure out how I can get them to work on my '97, if at all. Design is pretty close, but it seems the rears are a bit too short to work.

LOL - I drive a 2011 LX 5-speed for my sales job. I never thought I would see an Accord Gen 8 on GRM. I will be watching this thread....thanks.

In reply to Hoop:

Thanks for the info! I will def take a close look at those links and figure out which events I can attend in the coming months...I'll be sure to look out for any wagons and introduce myself if I find you!

In reply to beans:

I got my SCCA membership a few months ago in anticipation of participating in many more events now that I have graduated school and have an actual income!

I've also looked into some of the CL9 TSX parts for this car, but I am focusing on carefully balancing how much I put into this car for fun vs how much I put away for my next car (want to save as much as possible to get into something with a manual/RWD!) Good to see another Accord autocrosser!

In reply to Datsun310Guy:

LOL well it seems your daily is already one step ahead of mine...at least you've got the 5spd! I never thought I'd be autocrossing our wedding present, but I couldn't let an entire summer go by without participating in some events, so here I am!

JAhmed wrote: In reply to beans: I got my SCCA membership a few months ago in anticipation of participating in many more events now that I have graduated school and have an actual income! I've also looked into some of the CL9 TSX parts for this car, but I am focusing on carefully balancing how much I put into this car for fun vs how much I put away for my next car (want to save as much as possible to get into something with a manual/RWD!) Good to see another Accord autocrosser!

Rear sway bar! I love my Progress unit. I'm sure when I get decent shocks on the car it'll really come alive.

Also, It's insane how many parts are swappable between various chassis's. I bet you could get a big FWD TL sway bar for about $50 from Acura, new. Probably 5+mm larger.

Why did you go with a staggered tire setup? (235s in the front and 225s in the rear)

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/showthread.php?t=33923

I'm sure there's other options, but it's only about $70 and probably a little improvement.

... but if a=b and b=c, then there's this tasty morsel: http://www.progressauto.com/products/searchType/vehicleSearch/year/2010/make/Acura/model/TSX/productID/598

Sky_Render wrote: Why did you go with a staggered tire setup? (235s in the front and 225s in the rear)

because heavy fwd?

In reply to beans:

Hmm appreciate the input. I am going to have to take a closer look at the TSX OEM bar...at that pricepoint its hard to argue against it...I'm just afraid that once I do that, I'll descend down a slipperly slope and end up with a wholeeeeee lotta money dumped into this car!

In reply to Sky_Render:

I was kinda intrigued by all the FWD stagger race cars running around and thought I'd give it a mild try. My last autocross car (a 99 Prelude) was always on a square setup, so I thought this time around I'd play around with different sizes. I suppose that a bigger differential between front and rear would've been more effective, but given that the wheel is 8.5" width and the car has a pretty long wheelbase, I stayed a bit conservative on tire choice.

In reply to Matt B:

Lol yessssss

So a small update...while I wish I was the brave soul who continued to beat his wife's Accord to death on the track, my wife became tired of her car disappearing on the weekends only to come back covered in rubber and taped numbers.

So I went ahead and acquired this.

It shall be beaten with the same enthusiasm that the Accord saw. I thought about selling my Evo wheels/tires...but I have a sneaking suspicion that I may just bring the Accord back to the auto-x course one day...for nostalgia's sake :)

So what Accord parts are for sale?

LOL none...the car didn't have much to start with...just ATE blue and the wheel/tire combo. One day, when I have driven the WRX so much that I take it for granted, I may hit an autocross with the Accord again just so I appreciate my new car more.

New car had 700 miles on it, so I decided it was time for an autocross session.

I sucked.

I miss autocrossing the Accord...

That is all.

JAhmed wrote: I miss autocrossing the Accord...

You don't hear that often.

She's BACKKKKK...

So this thread is almost 2 yrs old now, which is stunning to me...how time flies. A quick update as to what has been going on with my automotive adventures: - After 16 months of fun, I traded my 2013 WRX in for a 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk in November 2014. This was secondary to many different reasons, but mostly because: a) I'd become bored with the WRX, and wanted a 2nd automatic car that my wife and other family members could easily use in a pinch b) I'd never had an SUV before, nor have I ever had a domestic automobile...felt like trying one out. c) I decided to stop spending so much money on the WRX in order to better distribute my finances into other things (the lease price on my Jeep came out so similar to my WRX that it made a lot of sense for me).

I'm happy to have experienced the WRX, and loved the car to death, but have decided to practice some delayed gratification and am currently saving money towards a Porsche product as a third car. Of course, in the meantime, I needed something to keep me entertained during the summer autocross/track season...hence the return of my wife's Accord to active duty.

The car is back on its Evo wheels and Hankook RS-3 tires for the summer (yes, I am daily driving on them...YAY), and now has a few inexpensive suspension upgrades thrown at it...namely, a TSX RSB and H&R springs. After a fresh alignment, the car is much more of a blast than I had originally anticipated. For your viewing pleasure, I've included pictures below:

It still isn't even remotely the quickest car around, but its hilariously fun to toss around at both the autocross course and the various on/off ramps I encounter on my daily commute. As always, questions/comments/concerns are welcome!

TL sway bar eh? I didnt realize it fit when everyone talks about the tsx unit. Is it any bigger than the tsx rear bar? My girlfriend has an 08 coupe that needs more roll resistance

Whoops...sorry about that. Was talking to someone about the TL bar on the 9th gen Accord and brain-farted that into my post...it is indeed a TSX rear bar, corrected in my original post.

In reply to chiodos:

Check out the Progress unit for the TL's. It should fit all accords from the 6th-8th gens if memory serves correct.

JAhmed, some TSX Koni FSD shocks should fit that, I'd be all over them if I had a 6th gen Coupe like I originally wanted.