NEW! NEW!! NEW!!!

Just got back after sending the block to ERL for 2 months.  Finally going to be able to put this 2600cc motor together for the customer who wanted the big cc; more than his current K24A motor.

Here are some pictures

Cylinders bored and honed to spec (with secret pistons that i cannot show you) and mains align honed.

As this FD2 is still rather new, not that many companies are making suspension that are tried and tested.  In all honesty, I would rather opt for a European brand suspension which I am familiar with.  But my regular supplier who supplies to some of the European race team still does not have anything available.  I guess an off the shelf part will suffice for now.  Pretty sure it will be better than the stock suspension.

 Here are some pictures, enjoy!

RG box of goodies

Top mount and suspension components

Bestex Springs

F & R Spring rates as tested by factory

http://www.hondata.com/reflash_07_jdm_4dr_ctr.html

We are glad to be associated with Hondata for this product.  Before this product was launched, Driven was tasked to do some testing for the FD2 Type R ECU.  Countless hours were spent on the dyno and tuning to achieve what we got now.  The Hondata FD2 Type R Reflash!  Great power gains, and good fuel economy.  That’s what it is all about.

I finally did it!  I beat Yak’s quickest time (well, just barely) in Sepang.

He did it in his EG with K20A, and i did it in my DC5 with K20A too!!

Well, it wasn’t a all smooth sailing trackday.  I too had some share of “mishaps”.

Busted tires!

But it was lucky we had some hindsight and brought along 4 more spares, or else, we can kiss goodbye to the trackday.

Going to do some new alignment settings to the car, and hopefully be back with some improved timings!!

Thanks for reading.

P.S  I want to say thank you to Eric of Avantgarde Mechanic who was helping me throughout the event.  With changing of tires, checking tire pressure, adjusting alignments, suspension and all the necessities that a good track mechanic will take care of.  I highly recommend them to anyone who needs any work done to their Hondas.

Does this look familiar to you?

Oh well, perhaps not… it is not everyday that we see a smashed up head from an over-rev situation. This is clearly a case of valves (intake and/or exhaust) and pistons hitting each other, leaving behind a mangled heap of metal.

Anyway, this happened to a customer who bought a used Euro R and have been driving it for 2 months now. One evening, I got a call from him and he said that his engine has seized and was unable to start the car. After much troubleshooting or whatever that could be done over the phone, I realized what he meant was that the engine will not even turn over when he tried to crank start it. We had no other choice but to get the car tow back to the workshop and take a look at it the next day.

When we had the car back at the workshop, we tried to remove the spark plugs so that we can insert a scope to have a peep at what is wrong in there. 1 of the spark plug would not even come loose. HONG KANG LIAOS. This time owner is going to pay A LOT TO FIX IT.

So, immediately, we gave a call to the owner to find out what the actual scenario was that could have caused a case of engine failure as such… Now, here is where it gets interesting.

Excerpts from conversation with car owner, AKA 2 stroke motorbike racer:

I was driving happily along the highway, then this EG Civic come and push me, %^&*. So?! I gave chase chase la, cannot be that my K20A lose to his B16A right? Then we play till about 170km/h like that, but I still cannot overtake him. So I drop my gears, FROM 5^TH TO 3^RD gear, so that will have some more power to overtake him. (WTF!! Whoever taught you to drive like that?! You think you playing Daytona Arcade games!??!) And then, I hear some noise from engine, then engine seize already. Like that time my bike never put enough 2T like that. #$^#$&!!!

After hearing the story, I really don’t know if to laugh or to sympathize with him. But I hope this will teach us all something. That is, there is a proper traveling speed for the right gear vs engine RPM. Dropping of gear is not equal to “power boost button” that is going to propel you ahead and reel the front car in.

#$^%&^%*

After the arrival of the FD2 type R, we got all excited and everyday has been an adventure going through our catalogues.  Suddenly we have all become kids in a candy store.  If we have been given a blank sheet on how we can modify the FD2, or what parts we can choose to buy.  I am sure we are going to tick all the boxes that the menu offers.  Pretty much like our weekly Dim Sum session at Asia Grand.  Prawn dumplings, Peking Ducks, Zhar Leong!

Anyway, since we were going through the available catalogues, we just thought we’d order whatever Cusco had to offer for handling.  Basically, whatever additional braces that were available were ordered.  I have to say that I am really glad with our Japanese supplier who delivered them in a timely order.  I guess it is always good to have your supplier’s dabbling in the same car as you!

The goods

Please do not ask me which bar is for what part of the car, i have not figured them all out yet.

One bar that i managed to figure out (and fitted) for sure!

Oh, and you might realize that there is a K&N air filter kit fitted.  That was fitted in a bid to test how the short ram vs cold air intake will work with this engine.  We also had a temperature sensor fitted within the heat shield to log temperatures on hot day, cooler temperatures, and when the car was on the move with a proper cool air scoop routed to the filter.  This damn filter is loud!  Really screams when VTEC kicks in, and the car pulls hard.  I will try to get a video of this so you can hear the aural pleasures for yourself.

We also had some bucket seats that came in.

New batch from Bride.  Very updated FIA production label.

Removal of Steering wheel airbag.  Lightweight is important!  Or perhaps, life is less important.

MOMO Champion, my favourite aftermarket wheel.  Lots of red stitches, just like the type R wheel.

And a little Honda Access Type R Phone sling for the purist in me.

finally!  the arrival of our new test mule.  with all the noise going on about the new civic FD2, we couldn’t ignore it further.  is it as good as all the reviews made it out to be??

we always hear that the car is raw, and noisy.  but after collection of the car, it isn’t that bad.  in fact, it is pretty much a good road going car.  soft suspension, etc etc.  must be too many moons of driving on bilsteins, DMSes & ohlins suspensions that made me immune to jaring rides.  suddenly, driving the FD2, is akin to sitting in the toyota crown.

 so, as usual, i have to do something stupid, have to test out when i will run out of gas!

 i drove it till the fuel gauge went complete blank!  and yet i still could drive the car… i am kind of busy this week, have not had time to test how many kays i can do before i hit rock bottom.  someday, i will do it; i.e. being stupidier.

so first few mods to do would be to settle the alignment and sort out the standard brakes.

 putting the car on the alignment machine tells us that it is way out.  we got weird alignment settings all around!  it was like honda japan did not bother to adjust the alignment to within spec as they had to produce as many type Rs as possible for the large demand all around the world!  we actually got -3 degree of camber on the rear L, and -1 on rear R.  Farrr Outtt!  we did not expect this from honda… or maybe the car was being throw around in handbrake turns and clipped a couple kerbs before delivery.

anyway, nothing a few suspension geometry components cannot solve

2 camber bolts for the front, 1 on each hole of the knuckle.  till we get hold of an offset bolt hole suspension lower casing and camber/castor adjustment strut top mounting, i guess this would suffice.

skunk2 rear camber arms, a cheap solution for the rear camber adjustments.  love the gold color here!

for the brake pads, we wanted to put on a set of the new ferodo DS1.11 after hearing them touting about its new siloxane technology, blah blah.  but it could not come in time, so we just settled for the regular DS2500 for a combination of road and track use. 

we put these in; both F & R, and there was already a marked improvement over brake feel.  it has consistent brake feel throughout its operating temperatures and good modulation.  and LOTS OF DUST!

Stay tuned, we will be updating the mods we did on this car and also how it performs at the track.

This article was contributed by close friend and customer whom we did the MME together as a team.

Trackdays Trackdays and more trackdays. It is getting a bit boring. So one day a few of us sat down over coffee and thought. Hmm…why don’t we do it properly for once? And hence, we decided to do this:

The Petrona Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race. It is an 12 hours FIA approved race with competitors coming from all over the world. There are international touring car drivers, Ex F1 drivers, Rally drivers and then you have us J

The team is made up of:

Team Manager: Joel Cheong from Driven

Chief Mechanc: Eric from Avantgarde

Logistic Manager: Ken from X-Factory

Drivers: Dean Ong, PK Yong, TY Yak

Few good friends whom without them is not possible at all: Weijie, Weitun, Crew from X Factory, Crew from Avantgarde Mechanic

Sponsors: Leading Edge (Hong Kong), Tint Auto (Lumar), Driven Singapore

The Preparation

We started the preparation 4 months before the race. It was a hell lot of work to do. What I am presenting now does not do any justice to the amount of work put in by everyone. Nevertheless, here you go:

Taking the engine out

The 1JZ in the foreground is Joel’s engine that went into his Drift Spec Cressida, whose passion lasted for all of 5 mins. hahaha

Reworking all the wirings again with some fancy warning lights

Beautiful interior huh? Transparent Arcylic lights up beautiful at night

Rollcage and External Fuel Surge Tank. The entire car was also seam welded to make sure the brutal drivers don’t break it.

Now that everything is put together. Its is time to go racing!

Can you all listen to me for once???

Our umberlla Girls, I wished. Oh well….

And these are the people we share the track with!!! They can be quite intimidating in the dark and to make it worse I am a bit blind at night.

Anyway, before race start, everyone gets to walkaround the pit and here we gather our first smiling picture of the day. It has been really tiring and the race has not even started

Race started. 3 teams to a pit. We shared the same pit with ST Power Singapore and a Malaysian Workshop. We learnt quite a bit from our neighbours who are seasoned MME competitors. Let’s look at it this way; ST power could swap an engine on their competing EVO in less than 2 hours. 

How did it go?

Joel thought I might have stage fright, so he made Dean the first driver to start the race. I am 2^nd and PK is 3^rd. Our aim is to finished the race for exposure and experience sake. Next year we will come back for the trophy.

So Dean went out, came back and doing allright. I took over after from Dean, I was really excited. My first time…..Anyway, when I took over, the water bottle fell off, I am going to die of dehydration!!! The ear piece fell right out of ear and now I cant talk to anyone!!! What if my tires fell off and I didn’t know??? The Proton Team Monster Lotus lapped me again and again and screamed passed me like I am standing still. Nevertheless, I lasted an hour, no one knew I am going back to pits caused there was no communication but I went back anyway, I need a Coke. Surprisingly, when I am back, they were waiting for me already!!!! YEAH!!!

PK took over went out and oh well…no comments

Dean took over again on the 4^th hour and drove for 35mins when it starts to happen. It drizzled. Dean continue to drive and came back almost at the end of the hour and told us the car felt weird. Anyway, I didn’t care, I jumped in and all hype up to go out and kick some ass. Helmet on, harness strapped and FUCK! Weird??? Dean said car is weird??? Car is fucked!!!! It doesn’t really want to move!!! Rev rev, gears on, clutch off, it still doesn’t move. Eric! Joel! Help!!! Everyone gathered and suddenly I felt like the astronaut in Apollo 13. Everyone has his or her own idea, that great! The fixed Apollo 13 and it came back, so I must have a chance to go on driving.  Drive shalf looks ok and there is fluid in the clutch pump. Look here look there, no clue L

Then someone was brave enough to make this conclusion without fear that a few grown man will cry. “The Gearbox is fucked” and oh no….we do not have a spare….

No spare!!! We have 3 trackcars in Avantgarde and we didn’t bring spare??? How can this happen to me??? I was so desperate that I thought, “there are so many EG in the carpark, can we steal one???”

We lasted 4 hours!!! That’s all!!! After months of preparation??? That sucks. I still had 8 hours to go. So me and Joel decided to do a pit walkaround and observed how other team does it. That pissed my wife off because I was away for 2 hours and she was walking all over the place looking for me. She thought I must have gone hidding because I was sad.

Anyway, we made an interesting observation: There should be no screaming and shouting amongst the team when your competing car comes into pitlane. Everyone should know what to do, do what is needed and signal to the rest of the team when it is done. Since when you see F1 Team like Ferrari screaming to each other when Kimi comes into pitlane. I am surprise that this happen in big team like Team Honda and Team Proton during MME.

What Went Wrong?

 Dean broke the LSD L We changed everything during preparation but not the LSD. We overlooked it. Here are some pics.

This article was contributed by a close friend and customer, hope it would make for an interesting read.

Having driven a roadcar on track for the last 10 years, it is time to get more serious. How about an EG Civic? Handles well, goes well and stop well. It has proven itself time and time again on track. So I decided to buy this:

Unfortunately I have been driving turbo on track and having anything lesser than 200bhp will be weird. How do I fix the problem? Give Joel from Driven a call. There is nothing he cannot fix J

What did he do to fix the problem? B16 high comp? B18C? B20? H22? Noooo, he did this:

Using HASPORT mount kit, some wiring effort and thinking through. The K20 from a JDM DC5 Type R was kitting into the EG. To top it up, there was a set of Crower cams, Euro R intake manifold and Hondata. It was making 210BHP on a 900kg shell and running on really cool DMS 50mm suspension. Now it is time to take it to track!!!

My first track outing in the EGK20.

Going up the tow truck.

Paying for toll

The car clocked 2.39s in its first outing. Damn it! Joel could do 2.36. I need to do something about it.

Maybe the car does better in the straightline. Let’s take it drag racing!!!
Let’s whack on some Hoosier drag slicks and see how it goes?

How did it go? High 12s in the quarter and a burnt bearing.

I have a problem, it cannot go round the track fast enough and it doesn’t even go straight fast enough and now I have to rebuild it L

Avantgarde, the guys who maintain my car in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia will sort it out.

Let’s take the engine apart

They port the K20 head

Before and After

Custom Made Extractors, arent they beautiful?

Wilwood Calipers from Driven. Who else knows their Wilwood better?

While we are at it, let’s give it a new coat of paint.

She is beautiful. We now have a set of Cusco 4 point cage.

The Boys in Avantgarde

We are ready. Time to hit the tracks again.

So how did the EGK20 do now? There you go J

2:32.99 around Sepang on the best lap. It would do consistent 2.34s around Sepang. The fastest I ever gone before this was on a 330BHP S15. The EGK20 is only doing about 233BHP now.

How fast is that? Let’s put it in perspective with this timesheet as a reference. Faster than a Porsche GT3RS, Exige S, Many other Evo and STI

Well, the car is sold now. I feel that I am not going anywhere with it. It is neither here nor that. It is not fast enough as a trackcar and it does not belong to the roadcar league. Time to start my next project.