What's the weight of your cf mirrors?

 

Just the mirror without the panel? I can weigh one later for you when I get home.

 

Just a mirror and a mounting arm.shipping weight said 1lbs but,i don't know if that right. thanks

 

I am sorry RP, it slipped my mind. I assume you don't need it anymore.


On a side note I forgot to post that I kept track of my mpg on the trip to kc. I averaged between 28-29 mpg. I am happy with that considering the last trip I recorded much lower numbers. I did have steering wheel vibration when I recorded the low numbers and am thinking that is why.

I haven't done much work to the car since the meet besides replacing the axle boots again. The clamp had been over tightened and ripped holes in the boots. This was my 2nd time replacing the boots on these new axles and hopefully the last.

Now I just need to get the car ready for tirerack on the July 21st weekend. Other than that just saving up money for more mods. Everything from now on is gonna be very pricey. Custom header, custom exhaust, custom roll bar, and front bbk to come in the next year or 2. Lot of things to look forward to.

 

 

I stumbled across this 5th gen prelude race car build thread when doing research on the koni 3011 and 2812 shocks. This is a great build and interesting thread to read. Thought you guys would enjoy it.

http://www.preludepower.com/forums/s...d.php?t=346954

 

Atleast my thread has 1 viewer left.

 

I've been following for over a year sir I love it , keep updating .

 

This build is amazing, went through all 29 pages .. gives me motivation to start a CL Diet.

 

Im still lurking.

 

daily

 

So I paid over 300 to have my rear coils rebuilt again. I just have to wait for them to ship back. Hopefully they work fine this time.

I am sitting at the tire shop now waiting for an alignment. Giving my car to the shop makes me so nervous. I really need to do my own alignments.

I have been waiting an hour now since my scheduled appointment and they have yet to begin on my car.

 

This is painful to watch. This guy can't even handle the clutch and get it up the ramp and is ruining my clutch.

 

A buddy of mine works at a tire shop and he pulled up a gt500 mustang onto the ramp. He kept chirping tires however because he wasnt used to the 600 something lb of torque. Glad I dont work in a tire shop or else id feel the pressure of not owing a customer a new clutch. Just pray for the best and complain if something is wrong, especially with the wait youve had.

 

So before installing a front camber kit I could only get negative .5 camber. After waiting for 2 hours they tell me the car is done. I asked for -1.5 camber in front. When i looked at the sheet my front camber was listed at -.9 and -1.4. I asked him why and he said that is max camber that can be achieved. He even said that the .9 side was maxing at -.7 and he had to do sonething to the camber bolt to even get to -.9. On top of this I said I wanted max positive caster. My last alignment had caster at 3.2 and 3.3. Now my caster is 2.7.

It seems like I wasted time and payed money just for them to make it worse, grind my clutch, and take it for a joyride. I am pretty pissed.

Can anyone explain how I can get -.5 camber without a camber kit, yet when I install a camber arm that says it adds -1.5 or -2 they can only max it at -.7? Sonething doesn't seem right.

 

I went and checked the box the ingalls control arms came in and the part numbers are listed as #39203 and 39204. According to xlr8 site, where i bought them from, that should give a range of -2 to +1.75.

Hmmm is it the shop or my car that is the problem?

 

98% the shop i'll bet. Most everywhere i've been except one person that was recommended by a friend has screwed up my alignment big time.Mostly young clueless kids. One was even too lazy to take off the front wheels to adjust my ADJUSTABLE ingalls upper ball joints. Classic!

It sucks you lost your money, but I would write it off and go somewhere else who knows what they're doing

 

You are correct. It is the shop that is the problem. I inspected my camber arms and there is plenty of adjustment range left.

I only went there because I have had a lifetime alignment there for many years. I know a better place that I will use from now on, but they do not offer lifetime alignment so it will get pricey.

The guy who worked on my car looked like he was in his 30's.

I also noticed I have a rear brake pad issue that I just noticed today when installing APR wheel studs. I will post pics and info once I get the pics uploaded.

I changed the oil and went with Eneos 5w30 with a K&N filter. Previously I was just using mobil 1 extended perf and oem filters.

 

Wow! I'm sure glad I know an old school front end guy. I dread the day that he decides to retire. Then I will be in your boat.

 

APR wheel studs installed.



When doing the studs, an issue was noticed with the rear brake pads. The pads aren't very old and still had a lot of life left on them. The issue seems to be water got in between the backing plate and the brake pad material where the epoxy is and they rusted apart. Good thing I noticed it before the auto-x. The negative is that I don't have enough time to source a good set of rear pads, so I had to go with some crappy generic ones. I hope they hold up over the weekend.

Here is the brake pad material section that separated from the backing plate. Anyone else exprience this before?

 

^
Are those OEMs?

My rear Hawks are getting low. I have not had/seen such a problem.

Could it be related to salting the roads in winter for you folks up there?

 

No, they are EBC reds.

I don't even drive this car in the winter and rarely ever in the rain. The only water it really sees is from washing.

 

Dam, I'd say that is mysterious, indeed.

BTW, did you ever cut that lexan for your sunroof? Or did you just settle for the 'test' material?

 

I was in the area helping my daughter move. Met Brian at this event to get a part for my car, and shot a few pics during his first two runs. Hope he doesn't mind me posting them here.

 

I still have the lexan and will eventually get around to using that instead. I am just being lazy I guess. I am gonna contact EBC and hopefully they will send me a new set of pads.

Of course I don't mind and am glad you took a few pics. I hope you enjoy the trunk springs.

 

I had a blast at the tirerack auto-x events. They used one course setup for saturday and switched it up for the sunday event.

My times weren't anything to really brag about. Kind of in the middle of the pack. I was faster than a stock FRS on sunday though(comment is just for you civic). He was on stock rubber otherwise he would have been faster. The cl can improve a lot, sadly I am the limiting factor. I would love to see what a talented driver could do with it.

There were some pretty impressive drivers there. If you just watch the cars running from standing next to the track or in videos that just does not do it justice. You really need to ride in a car to see how crazy it is.

Here is a pic of the tirerack facility.


My car in the parking lot before the event. I forgot to pack my number magnets so I just used tape instead.



The car that impressed me the most was this Ford Focus ST fully loaded. All he had done to the car was tires. I did not expect it to be that good and I have more respect for that car now. The driver was very cool and let me go for a ride along and gave me some pointers for fwd cars. He is a really good driver and damn did it seem fast and crazy from the passenger seat. I could tell I have a lot of improvement to do.




This genesis has over 500 hp and is pretty fast for a big car.


This is the fastest miata at the events. The driver is amazing.


This civic was the fastest car the first day and 2nd fastest the 2nd day. Another amazing driver showing that fwd can compete with anything on an auto-x course.



Here is a MP4-12C that stopped by for a few minutes to check it out. He was kind of an asshole and was bragging about how his car is faster. Wish he would have taken it on the course. He would have gotten smoked by cars worth 250,000 less.



I don't have pics of the car or driver sadly, but this driver impressed me the most. He was driving a 914 porsche. He was only there the 2nd day and was the fastest car. The thing I was impressed with is that the driver is 79 years old. I still cannot wrap my head around this.

I ended up losing control once and did a full 360 spin and backed it into the grass. I was able to not stall it and get running before a red flag was called though. He are my spin marks and grass marks.


Here are the other pics I took during the event.







I walked through downtown south bend to check it out a little saturday night.


This was in the hotel parking lot with a car cover on it. his thing was spotless inside and out. I was impressed even though I am not really a fan of american cars.

 

I forgot to charge my gopro and my memory card was almost full, so I was only able to record one run and it was not one of my faster runs. Oh well, atleast it is something. If you don't want to watch the boring staging area part just skip to 6:40. The only place I noticed torque steer was that U-turn finish part right before the end. You can kind of see it from the steering wheel.


I will make a shorter and more high quality version later.

 

Really liked the in car cam. It looks likes Sundays layout was a little more demanding.

 

Noone is interested unless it is a drag strip lol. No point in posting anymore. You can just check out my photobucket or youtube for updates. This forum is just the wrong one for me. Will post on grassroots motorsports instead.

 

Not to be a dick, but .. isn't this the 2nd time you've thought about leaving your own thread because of the lack of response?

Just because we aren't unveiling the red carpet for you after each update doesn't mean we don't appreciate what you're doing.

Keep posting ...

 

Just because no one posts doesn't mean people aren't following your thread. I, for one, check in pretty often to see what you're up to...but hardly post as I have nothing insightful to say lol. I browse grassroots forum too, was looking for threads on there from you but didn't see anything. What is your name on there for those of us that would still like to follow along?

 

Just like AnthraciteTypeS, I follow it but I have not much to say because 1) Still gaining car knowledge so I don't want to sound too noobish around here and 2) I usually browse the forum on my phone and don't have the time to post.

The forum is pretty dead, yes. But those of us who are still here come to the people who still are doing stuff and we appreciate it. It motivates me at least to do something with my car instead of wondering if I should sell the car or not. brian6speed and yungone are two examples of why I still want to modify my car. You guys are both doing stuff people don't necessarily do with a CL.

 

Same here . I'm with all these guys . I am gonna do my tow hook just like you .

 

Yea you guys are right. I just get frustrated when threads about plastidipping wheels, etc get more posts. This is the last time I will mention it.

 

What are the stickers on the back of your car?
And I just changed my oil w/ 5w30 and a k&n filter as well!

 

I thought I would post a few things I learned from auto-x.

1. I need more negative camber in front.
2. When going thru transitions or around cones/corners it is good in a fwd car to tap the brakes to transfer the weight to the front of the car just before the turn.
3. Suspension tuning- The focus driver suggested for my fwd application to start with the rear at full stiff and the front at a lower setting. Then do some runs and up the front settings until you get it how you like as far as over/understeer. At tirerack I had no understeer issues, but my rear end really liked coming loose. Surprisingly for a fwd car my car is more neutral and tends to oversteer when pushed. I need to tinker with the suspension settings. I wonder what it will be like with zeals in the rear instead of my mismatched current setup.
4. People bring garden water sprayers to water down/cool their tires between runs. Not sure if I should do this. One thing I noticed is that my front tires were heating up fast, but my rears were still pretty cold after the runs. I wonder if having no weight in the rear is affecting this? Maybe I want different rear camber settings?
5. Taking my height into consideration, I think my seat is just too low for auto-x. It makes it harder for me to see the cones and I am not getting as close to them as I should be.
6. Monitor tires. You want to keep an eye on and check tire wear, pressures, and temps between runs. My star spec tires actually have markers on them that you use for wear indicators. If you haven't autocrossed the tires yet you can just eye the markers. If you have autocrossed before then you just chalk the tires between runs and see where the chalk wore off after the run and adjust pressures accordingly.

The following pics shows the triangle wear markers and also shows my tire wear after 3 auto-x events.



I need to buy a better tire gauge. I am gonna go with a longacre one. I also need a pyrometer to measure tire temps.

 

The top sticker says "team project x". Project X Customs is a car shop I have been using for the last 3-4 years. They do the work I don't want to do or don't have the tools to do. They also let me use their lift. I also sometimes will show/present my car with their group at auto shows. They also do car meet/bbq each year and usually one track event per year at autobahn club. It is a great shop and group of guys.

The 2nd sticker says "because racecar". I just put that on before the national meet for fun. People always ask why my car is gutted and why do it to a fwd acura. I am not sure how long I will leave it on.



I ran across these upper control arms for the tsx/accord. I wonder if they would work on the cl? The part numbers are similar, one thing I notice is that tab with the bolt is on the wrong side. CL part numbers are 51450-S84-A01 and 51460-S84-A01(can't always trust these part numbers though). The tsx part numbers are 51450-SDA-A01 and 51460-SDA-A01. I might just contact the company and see if they will fit or if they will make something for me. I can send in a oem control arm for them to measure.
http://store.truhartusa.com/product_p/th-h209.htm

 

I forgot to mention I got my rear coils back from endless. I will install those in the next week or 2 and hope they work fine this time. Fingers crossed.

The next auto-x events are Aug 10th and 11th in schaumburg. They are fully registered but I will go anyway and hopefully get in.

 

I had direzzas at my autocross and they did well , I can only imagine your star specs and setup to just be awesome .

 

How long have you been autocrossing? Was it in the cl or another car. I am interested in how it went/feedback you have.

The star specs are great street tires. A lot of people use those for autocross. The issue for me is the class I am in has no tire restrictions so I have to compete with cars on r comps and slicks.

I thought my car was amazing, but that is before seeing all the cars/drivers that are faster than me. Seeing how fast a stock focus st is on r comps kind of left me feeling gutted. All the time, money, and effort I put into my car just to get smoked by a car off the dealer lot.