This page documents turning a "street" 1987 Honda CRX Si into an SCCA Improved Touring racecar.

10/96 - Purchased the car for $400 from a colleague at work. Car did not run. Symptoms indicated a bad timing belt. Took the car to Chuck's Service Center in Barre, MA (also home to CRE Performance). Chuck Noonan is a Honda guru in these parts. Car diagnosis - timing belt broken due to siezed camshaft! Chuck installed a new head ($1000). I also had him remove the ignition column lock (must be removed to race)

Installed Tokico "blue" shocks and a new radiator in preparation for BMW Club Driver's school. Turns out car also need tie rods, ball joints, etc. No track time in this car this year...

11/96 to 7/97 - Car is my daily driver as is

10/97 - Decide to go whole hog and race the thing. Cleaned the garage enough to fit the car in. Removed carpet and center console (sold!).

12/97 - Bought Kirkey racing seat. Removed headliner and interior panels. Cleaned and painted valve cover.

1/98 - Removed dash board, sunroof assembly. Car ready to get roll cage installed. Car taken to CFR Welding, Manchester, CT, for 8-pt weld-in custom roll cage.

2/98 - Picked up car from CFR Welding (total cost = $1500). Cage looks great. Began painting cage (kind of tough in an unheated garage).

3/98 - Sent harnesses to Simpson Racing for re-webbing. Re-installed dash (with a lot of duct tape and a little imagintion it may look like the stock dash in stock location I'm required to have). Received upper spring perches from OPM Motorsports. In trying to re-use the 2.5" diameter race springs I have, it looks like I won't have any adjustability - the car isn't quite low enough even with the shorter springs (OPM recommends 6" free length, mine are 8"). No matter, one less thing for me to worry about on the car.

4/98 - The parts keep rolling in! Received (via B.C. Imports) the half shafts, radius arms, tie rods, and shock bolts. Got my harnesses back from Simpson. For go-fast parts, I got in the camber plates and torsion bars (from OPM Motorsports). Rear sway bar and header are in process. Pulled left front shock, test fitted camber plate - the OPM unit bolts to the top of the shock tower and replaces the original upper shock mount. The revised mount should also lower the car a bit without sacrificing suspension travel. Removed manifold and down pipe in preparation of other parts (and to get them out of my way).

5/98 - Removed hood in order to clean the underside (minor oil leak over time causes a BIG mess). Also, time to dismantle the front end! Right side ball joint, tie rod, brake rotor all came out OK. On the left side, everything went wrong: one rotor screw seized, ball joint seized, lower are-to-radius arm bolts seized. Time for the cutoff tool and 3x the normal effort. Shift rod pin - seized, time to drill. All hardware WILL be replaced with new stuff so this won't happen again... Bottom end of motor all "wet" - likely need oil pan gasket and maybe rear main seal.

Bought hood pins (latch removed), Red Line MTL, and roll-bar padding.

Got some well used Acura Integra wheels (14x5.5). Will use these most likely with 195/55-14 Kumho tires, or 205/50-14 BFG R1s (new tires, old wheels in a concession to budget).

The transmission is out (finally)! Shift rod still attached (rusted pins do NOT just get driven out). Delays in getting the header and rear sway bar.

6/98 - Since I'm still working on the beast, it can't be done yet (sigh). Transmission on its way back in with new clutch, pressure plate, and throwout bearing. New torsion bars in. Still waiting on receipt of header and rear sway bar.

7/98 - Well, I should be racing by now, but to no avail. Received header, started re-installing front suspension. Re-painted oil pan. Wired up the kill switch. Bought some used Goodyear GS-CS 195-60/14 tires to go on some stock Acura Integra rims. Also picked up some 400lb. springs for the rear. Re-packed inner CV joints and installed driveshafts. Still a bunch of little things to be done (and still no rear sway bar).

8/98 - The car is now sitting on its own wheels (and almost looks like a SuperTouring car). Installed camber plates, cut up the old front strut bushing material to make spacers for the front shocks. Finished front suspension installation. Installed header. Re-installed seat, started harness install (using factory mounting location for the lap belts, cage-mount shoulder harness, and will need to drill the floor for the sub strap). Filled the transmission and motor with appropriate fluids (Red Line MTL and Mobil 1 respectively). Acquired some 7" free length, 400 lbs/sq. in springs for the rear. Rear suspension installation should go quickly.

IT RUNS ! ! ! Fired it up for the first time (with open headers). Started perfectly and ran fine. Not bad for a car that's been sitting since March with gas from October in the tank. The clutch even works (not bad for my first clutch job). Rear suspension is in. Looking to get an exhaust put on next week. Then all I'll need to do will be to bleed the brakes, find a solution for the window net, get an alignment, and adjust ride height (corner weight the car) and I'll be ready to go.

IT STOPS ! ! ! Got the brakes bled, installed some roll-bar padding, and started polishing the car (amazing how much grease and dust accumulates from being in a garage). Scheduled for an exhaust installation at Lou's Custom Exhaust, North Reading, MA, this weekend. Harness installation proving to be a pain. With the lap belts mounted to the stock seat-belt mounts, I can't get the belts tight enough. Will need to move the mounts farther back. Good news is that the 5-panel Wink mirror I have will fit in the car. Just need to get some hose clamps to attach it to the roll cage.

9/98 - LET'S GO RACING! ! ! Exhaust fabricated and installed by Lou's Custom Exhaust, North Reading, MA (2.5 inch, with muffler). Harness and window net installed by Precision Auto Service, Holliston, MA (home of Tom Kelly and his ITE VW GTI). Replaced right rear brake line (leaking) and one rear wheel stud. Re-installed passenger seat and some interior trim (don't want any protests). Got tires mounted. I'll be bringing a tape measure to the track to do the alignment (no time to get it done here).

TOTAL TIME TO TRACK: 11 months since deciding on Honda as race platform.
MAJOR CAUSES FOR DELAYS: me - didn't spend enough time early on to get things done. This was partly due to my normal procrastination, partially due to intense business travel schedule early in the year.

9/98 - Post-race stuff: Replaced fuel filter. Looks like I dented a header tube in on of my "offs" during the rain race. Also looks like the seeping transmission fluid has turned into a leak (there was a nice puddle on the garage floor). New seals are probably in order (unless I broke something big time when I put two wheels off at turn 3 or turn 10).

To Do List:
DONE ! ! ! Well... I should put some gauges in the thing, but I guess that what I don't know won't hurt me (unless I put a connecting rod through the engine block).

I hope to have some picture documentation of this at some point!!!

Getting Ready for the '99 Season! ! !
Since seat time is the most effective way to get better, I figured that making the race beast more reliable for the '99 season was in order. Brought the car down to Hank Pacitto at HP Engineering in Narragansett, RI for an engine freshening (bearings, seals, rings), and for some suspension tweaking (fixing the stuff that I sort of Mickey Moused). Hank "massaged" the front strut towers and camber plates to get about -3degrees camber in the front, and added camber shims in the rear. He also installed an adjustable panhard rod and rear sway bar, bought from OPM Motorsports. Other little tweaks include a K&N cone filter replacing the flat panel and other associated air intake baffles, Hawk blue brake pads, an oil cooler, new radiator, and a real front-end alignment.

Getting Ready for the '00 Season! ! !
Four big things for the '00 season: Shocks, wheels, tires, and torsion bars.
Shocks: I'm going with Koni custom race-re-valved adjustable units. The fronts are double externally-adjustable and shortened, and the rears are single externally-adjustable.
Wheels: The 5.5x14 Integra rims are far from optimal, so I built the bullet and ordered a set of Circle Racing 7x13 aluminum rims. Their increased width and light weight (8 lbs. each) should help the car handle a bit better. Thanks to Mike Brooks of On Track Products for turning me on to these wheels.
Tires: Going back to BF Goodrich, I'll be trying out a set of 215/50-13 Comp T/A R1s. Should have a little more meat to them than the 185s I was running last year.
Torsion Bars: The pictures show it - WAY too much lean in the corners. Upgrading to 27mm torsion bars, up from 24mm. I'll have to see if this induces too much understeer. In which case, I still have plenty of bar adjustment, or I could increase rear spring rate - which I did. Went from 400lb.-ft, 7" free length springs to 500lb.-ft., 6" springs. The car was very tossable, particularly through turn 11 at NHIS which set me up for the front straight quite nicely. Overall effect of the new setup was a 5 sec./lap improvement at NHIS, 4 seconds at Lime Rock.

Getting Ready for the '01 Season! ! !
Only a couple of things to do - get the limited slip installed and look at Hoosiers. I'm running top 10 now, would like to get into the top 5. I should also get the car aligned and corner weighted, and maybe change the plugs and adjust the valves. Other maintenance will include new wheel bearings all around. Car is back at HP Engineering for the limited slip install, new bearings, and a re-paint (to fix rust and race-induced alterations). Sticking with the old BFG R1s - got a deal at Tire Rack for $75 each for the 215/50-13 tires - couldn't pass them up at that price!

April 19th - First race is two days away, and the car went into the paint booth this morning!!! Nothing like cutting it close - perhaps a "Wet Paint" sign is needed on the car. Should be ready for pickup tomorrow with a new limited slip and new wheel bearings.

Honda race photos

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