'12 Accord coupe K24/manual, smash or pass?

   I've been living the suburban dad life with a 5th gen Explorer as my DD while yearning to get something fun with a manual transmission that's cheap and autocross legal. During my daily search for said unicorn, I stumbled upon a '12 Honda Accord coupe that's local to me. I've been googling but, have yet to get the straight poop on what suspension/wheel/brake goodies interchange between this and it's more performances oriented brethren. I am far from a Hondaboi so, any info/experiences you could throw my way would be greatly appreciated.

What's the price/miles? I have no direct experience but I believe the 8th gens were not loved overall.

Pros: Last double wishbone front accord, ex should make okay power by grm standards
Cons: Heaviest, widely spaced gears

The 9th gen had much better spaced gears and seemed to be underrated dynoing within 10-15 hp from the crank rating, but are rather expensive in these covid times and have a strut front
The 7th gen I'm partial to,  Seth's Traccord should be good inspiration. It still suffers from really long gearing. 06-07 recieved a slight power bump.

As I have a 1st gen TSX in the garage, I think it's a better starting point if you plan on taking bits from other hondas. The gearing is much better in both generations and has a bit more power in the upper revs compared to similar accords.

149,000 miles and $6,990 list price.

Thanks for the link to the Traccord!

Somehow I missed that one.

In reply to lnlds :

Are transmissions or gear sets plug and play between them? 

I like those a lot. Honestly, I would just put better aftermarket suspension on and maybe some wheels & tires then probably call it a day. Nice mid-size coupe, kind of a class of car that doesn't exist anymore.

I don't remember if that's before or after the K24 went to the integrated exhaust manifold which really reduces the amount of power mods out there, but I don't think the aftermarket for them is huge regardless.

In reply to The_Jed: 

Consider adding this civic si to your list too https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/54134fe8-4f66-4761-871b-4f7126322563/
Seems like you have pretty slim pickings where you are in terms of used cars.

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter)
I know for the 7th gens the transmissions are compatible.  The "ASP3" which came out of the  euro-R with LSD is the easy button to a good transmission or you can swap out the 8th gen civic si gearset which would get you the same result in the lighter tsx transmission casing. 

I'm unsure about the 8th gen accords.  The engine blocks should be the same they're both k24z3's with the integrated manifold but I'm not sure if there are any incompatibilities with the casing or mounting points. That being said a tsx transmissioned accord ex seems like a pretty compelling budget fun option. 

In reply to lnlds :

I agree 100% that a Civic EX coupe should be considered as well.  I came very close to buying a near twin to the car you pictured but I had convinced myself that it had have a manual transmission.  I have permanently entered that car in my " I regret not buying it " book.

I bought an '11 LX 5-speed brand new.    Since it was since 1997 that I had a manual it was a Japanese BMW to me.  I loved the car. 155,000 miles x 6 years.    

Probably too heavy and not enough torque/hp but I was Mario Andretti shifting thru the gears.  I'm a tall guy and I thought it had a ton of room.  
 

If I were shopping for an 8th gen Accord coupe with a 6spd, I'd really want to find one with a J35, not a K24.  The J35/6spd is coupe only, 4 doors only got the K24 / 6spd (or either engine and auto). 

The_Jed said:

149,000 miles and $6,990 list price.

If it passed the standard used car checklist without any major issues I'd buy it without hesitation.

lnlds said:

In reply to The_Jed: 

Consider adding this civic si to your list too https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/54134fe8-4f66-4761-871b-4f7126322563/
Seems like you have pretty slim pickings where you are in terms of used cars.

 

That's a good call. Just for fun I went and looked around some more for these, it's INSANE what clean ones are selling for. A lot of them have asking prices approaching the original MSRP.  

Keep an eye on the oil level. I wanted a four door Accord and test drove a seventh gen 5MT with oil consumption issues. From what I read, it's a problem with K24s that few in the swap community seem to want to talk about.

I liked it otherwise. I'd probably try to get one with the V6 if I was after a coupe.

The 8th gen is quite a bit larger than the 7th, for better and worse.

Datsun310Guy said:

I bought an '11 LX 5-speed brand new.    Since it was since 1997 that I had a manual it was a Japanese BMW to me.  I loved the car. 155,000 miles x 6 years.    

Probably too heavy and not enough torque/hp but I was Mario Andretti shifting thru the gears.  I'm a tall guy and I thought it had a ton of room.  
 

Your pic is making me shed a tear for our departed '09 EX with the manual trans.  When it got totaled in '14, my wife insisted on a non-MT car, since it was her daily driver, and was at that time slugging it out every weekday in stop-n-go traffic 

In reply to lnlds :

The pickings are very slim indeed! Thanks for the link, I'll have to carve out some time to look at that one.

All I have to say is Mrs Noddaz has a 2007 Accord 4 door A/T with the ka24.

It surprises me how well that car moves along.  

In reply to Slot car guy that wants to race real cars but fails :

Enthusiasts only seem to go nuts over the hotter K24s in the TSX but I always thought the milder, torquier variants would be a great budget swap into an EP3 Civic hatch. Big 2.4 with a fat torque curve in a little hatch would be a lot of fun, and they run fine on regular gas to boot.

   I pulled the trigger on it. It's so ooo nice to be back behind the wheel of a "sporty" (and quick for me) car. It's nine years old and has 150,000 miles but it drives like new (at least to me). 

   That's one obstacle removed between me and getting back into Autocross.

:)

In reply to The_Jed :

Woohoo! Is CCSCC in Rantoul the closest group for you?

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

   Once in a blue moon there is an event at the municipal airport in Pekin which is a bit closer to me than Rantoul but, CCSCC are the only group I know of within about 100 miles that host autocrosses with any sort of regularity. 

   I really like how this car drives. I wish I would have bought one years ago!

In reply to The_Jed :

Nice!

Whenever we make another trip to IL I want to time it so I can make it to an autox.