18th December 2006
I'd have put money on rain, snow and/or ice playing a major part in the final Hondas-On-Track track day of the year at Brands Hatch, but to everyones amazement the weather gods were on our side and the 15th of December played host to a fantastic day on the Indy circuit.
The day was shared with Lotus and MG and ran as 20 minute sessions, limited to around 15 cars on track in each session. After the usual briefing everyone scrambled to their cars for last minute checks. I was so convinced of the impending rain I brought the car with a set of 'wets' on, so I had to change back to my dry weather R888s. I've now done 3 track days on these Toyo cut slicks and they all still have a fair bit of life left, which is really impressive considering the abuse I've given them, and their relatively low cost.
Continue reading...
6th November 2006
The December issue of JTuner magazine has a 4 page feature on my car! I met with Matt and Craig at Brands in July and now the article has finally made it to print.
It's a little out of date (spec wise) and there are a couple of minor errors (the engine is a D16, not a B16) but it's all spot on otherwise, and Matt has really captured the spirit of what I've done with the car and what I've got planned for the future.
Continue reading...
25th October 2006
HUGE thanks to Hondas-On-Track for a superbly run activity day at North Weald airfield on Wednesday. Some 30 cars gathered for a damp and greasy day blasting around cones and doing everything you can't do on the roads.
We started out with a high speed bend which I struggled to get the hang of. My first attempt resulted in me drifting across the concrete, full opposite lock and full power (I'm sure it looked awesome)! The idea was not to cross a line of drains in the ground, which I did manage eventually, but the concept of turning in and not getting back on the throttle to steady the car really confused me. I had a lot of trouble with the front dampers hitting the stops on the rough surface, and damaged a wing as a tyre caught it (excuses excuses).
Continue reading...
9th October 2006
Exactly 2 years ago today I collected the Honda from my friend Alex. It's been a great 2 years, the car has changed a lot over that time and I've enjoyed every minute. This year in particular has been fantastic and hopefully the next will be even better, if I can keep it out of the barriers!!
Here's a small selection of images that show a brief history of the car while I've owned it...
Continue reading...
7th October 2006
My buddy Tony and I went up to Pumabuild in Birmingham today to get my brake discs skimmed. They have a very cool machine which will do the skimming while the discs are still in place on the car, thus making them perfect for my specific (dodgy) hubs.
I was a bit worried that the vibration I was getting was being caused by something else, but with the DTI attached it was pretty clear the discs really were about as straight as a £9 note.
Continue reading...
10th September 2006
I'm in quite a bit of pain at the moment; my back is a mess and my knees are bruised, but it was worth it all. Tony, Dave and myself went off to Lakeside Karting on Saturday to compete in a team based endurance karting event.
The last one we did was at a different circuit and we finished 3rd. We were all confident of a win this time around so we gave it our all. It was a standing start and we'd qualified 3rd, so as the lights went out I tried desperately to keep 4th place behind me, but into turn 1 I had to yield and let him past.
Continue reading...
12th August 2006
On the 3rd of August I returned to the Northamptonshire GP circuit to find out exactly how the car had improved during the year since my first track day at Silverstone in February (which you can read about here). Bizarrely the weather was worse this time around, but nonetheless it was a fantastic day and I was able to really enjoy the car.
The event, organised by Lotus-On-Track, was only a few weeks after the Brands Hatch evening so I was fairly happy with the car. However, although the handling was good at Brands I felt it was time to change to a more race orientated setup so I changed the springs around from 730lb/in front and 620lb/in rear, to 390lb/in front and 730lb/in rear. As odd as it sounds, it's very close to the setup the CRX Challenge cars used to run. It does take some getting used to though!
Continue reading...
17th July 2006
Well I think I am nearly there with the car. The last couple of weeks were pretty crazy with getting things finished in time for Brands Hatch on Wednesday, but it all came together in the end and it was a fantastic day!
First of all my new Toyo R888s were fitted, then the brake fluid was changed and some fresh engine oil put in. I was going to leave it at that, but Daz at Rare Import Parts called me...
Continue reading...
10th June 2006
For the last 2 months or so I've slowly been building up a collection of shiney new parts to fit on the car, to improve on the handling and get it ready for Brands next month. I kicked off last weekend by changing the springs around. I bought a new pair of 13kg (730lb) springs for the front, and I've moved the old 11kg (620lb) front springs to the rear for a much stiffer setup all round. Hopefully this will cure the remaining body roll problems I had at Silverstone and Llandow, as well as making the back end a little more lively!
Then for the past 2 days I've changed all the wheel bearings and studs, replaced the rear trailing arm bushes, replaced the rear calipers for ones that work properly, and finished it off with 15mm Eibach wheel spacers. Huge thanks to Tom and Neil at TGM for helping me out on Thursday with the bearings and bushes, deffinitely something I didn't have the expertise to do.
Continue reading...
16th May 2006
Pro: Had another great night out in Reading last night with the boys. I wasn't driving this week so it made a nice change to have a few beers.
Con: Had a little too much to drink. Slept ok until about 4am when my stomach decided it wanted to teach my kidneys a lesson. Stumbled into work (on time I might add) still not feeling quite right, and spent most of the day being quite grumpy!
Continue reading...
7th May 2006
What have I done. Honest to God, I am shocked at myself. I keep asking myself if this is the right thing to be doing, or if I've gone too far. But it doesn't matter now, I've officially crossed the line - I've bought a Volvo!
I was so fed up with driving the CRX home from Rockingham last weekend that I decided enough was enough, and I had to stop using it on the road. So the CRX is now declared as off the road, it has no tax, no insurance and now no number plates. The Volvo... it's a bit of a beast! A '97 P reg 850, with a 2.5 litre 5 cylinder engine, so it's quite pokey. It's a top spec model with leather, electric everything including drivers seat, climate control, "Premium Sound System" (written in gold, so it must be good) and even a factory fitted CD changer. And it was cheap! Wonderfully comfortable to drive, very smooth engine and it should be perfect for towing the CRX to track days and race meetings.
Continue reading...
1st May 2006
Weekends, that is. I feel pretty exhausted now but it's been worth it.
On Saturday I went to support Sara Church, Tom Gannon and Richard Gane who were all racing at Silverstone with TGM. Sara and Tom were doing a 40 minute race, sharing Saras' Civic Type R. Neither the car nor Sara had seen a circuit race before so nobody really knew how it would go! Tom got the car into 5th on the grid and was upto 3rd by the 1st corner. Then a thrilling battle between Tom and two MGs finally resulted in Tom coming into the pits for the driver change over, leading the field!
Continue reading...
25th April 2006
Ok so perhaps it wasn't the best idea to order my paint for my interior from Halfords, but I've always had good results using the spray cans. So I ordered 15 cans at the beginning of last week and was told they should be in last Friday. Friday turned to Tuesday, which was a bit of a problem because I was trying to get it finished for the show on this coming Sunday.
So today (Tuesday) comes and my buddy Dave calls me and gives me the bad news. Basically a cock-up somewhere along the lines means it wasn't on the order! ARGGG!!! The earliest it will be here is Friday or next week sometime. So if you see my car at Rockingham and think "wow that interior looks shocking", you can blame Halfords!
21st April 2006
Where to begin! The last 3 months have been pretty crazy so I'll try and summarise what I've been upto in this post. I will be making an effort to post more regularly from now on!
Well we managed to get the car ready for Silverstone. The brakes turned into a bit of a nightmare due to the supplied hoses being completely wrong, but we got there in the end. Silverstone made a fantastic circuit to test the car for the first time and I really enjoyed myself. Learned so much about the car and how all the bits I've done work so well together, turning it into something capable of keeping up with (and in some cases out-pacing) Elises and Civic Type-Rs! I did manage to spin at about 70mph into turn 1 (Copse) on my first lap, but I soon learned to be a little less enthusiastic! Plenty of pictures here and a video of a few laps here.
Continue reading...
23rd January 2006
Of we go into 2006 then, and what a fantastic year it looks set to be...
That is, until I started fitting my new Wilwood brakes at the beginning of the month. Honda decided that it would be a good idea to leave the connectors on the ends of the brake pipes exposed to the elements, so that 16 years down the line when someone needed to fit new hoses, it was going to turn into a complete mare of a job. So much so that I gave up and called Tom at TGM, who came and collected the car on Saturday.
Continue reading...
9th October 2005
First off some big news - I haven't written a car off for over a year!!! Get in!
It was this time last year that I collected the CRX and took it to the Jap Performance day at Santa Pod (it was the 10th last year). Which is exactly where I was today, although not running the car this time. It made a nice change to wander around and take pictures instead of running the car. The pictures can be found here.
Continue reading...
12th March 2005
Why is it that whenever I go to the Ferrari garage in Egham I always buy something I didn't intend to. You'll be glad to know my wallet was spared the £176,000 asking price for an immaculate F40, however it was mighty tempting! Instead I settled for this fantastic Lego model of a Ferrari F1 car. Shocked at my now poor Lego skills, it took me most of the afternoon to build it. Ah to be 12 again...
11th March 2005
It's not a series many people are familiar with, but the 2005 Britcar season is about to get under way and I was fortunate enough to be invited to the 'Press Test Day' at Silverstone on the 11th of March. Tom Gannon, who runs the garage where I take my CRX for all the seriously oily bits that need doing, has been racing for many years now with his brother Will and is currently entering a DC5 Integra Type R into the Britcar series. Unfortunately the car wasn't ready for Friday's test day but he did bring along 2 customer cars, an ex-works Honda Civic and a DC5 similar in spec to Tom's race car.
A very cold and windy Silverstone welcomed a huge variety of cars all hoping for success in the 2005 season, ranging from Ford Focus', BMWs of all ages and models, many different Hondas, Porsches, Marcos' and even a few Ferraris. For any petrolhead this was an eye-candy overdose, but it was the acompanying sounds that were the real thrill; in particular, a fire-breathing corner-munching red Ferrari 360 on a trailing throttle into turn 1, sounding more like a Band of Brothers episode as each lap passed.
Continue reading...
26th February 2005
The 26th of February 2005 saw the CRX-UK owners club head down to Millway in Andover for a rolling road meet. For those that don't know, a rolling road is like a tread mill for a car only the car is working the tread mill and not the other way around. The rollers are used to measure the power and torque developed by the engine and estimate the loss incurred through the transmission. We had a very positive turn out with around 15 cars at Millway, of which I think 12 were CRXs (no Del Slo's either!). All of the runners were VTEC Mk2 cars apart from my 16v, and I think everyone had a pleasing result all with at least the original quota of ponies. At least that means I had the best 16v result of the day! I made 137hp at the fly wheel and 112 at the wheels, which is spot on for a standard-ish engine.
The one exception to the fairly standard selection of CRXs was Marks SiR turbo. This car is something of a legend; currently producing around 300hp at the wheels, the engine has been designed with figures in the region of 500+ horse power! All of this, from a 1.6 litre twin cam VTEC engine. Madness.
Continue reading...
24th February 2005
This may become a regular feature because in all honesty, lots of things annoy me. Ranting is a great way to get it out of the system.
This week Britain has been 'battered' and 'frozen' by arctic conditions. There have been snow drifts measured in metres, schools closed, and many snow men built. The media has been doing a great job of telling everyone that it's snowing and to be prepared, yada yada.
Continue reading...
19th February 2005
Nearly 5 months on from when I registered this domain name, it's finally starting to take shape. The gallery (which if you've visited the site before, you will have seen) has been functional for some time now. But I've just got around to writing some pages which one day, I might fill with some text. How 'bout that.
The colours... well it was a good idea at the time to go orange, but I'm not so sure now. I'll probably come up with a few colour schemes that you, dear reader, can choose from. However bearing in mind it's taken 5 months to come this far, it might not happen over night.
Continue reading...
