Ill get more pictures of the whole car soon. The meatiness of the set up is just soo good to look at lol.

 

Before getting the wheels on I had to take care of a few things:

- New Z1 Studs and 10mm spacers
- New Rotors - 4 track days and the old ones were done for
- 75mm to 66.1 hub rings




Z1 Studs Went in Easy

New Studs, Rotors, 10mm Spacers, and Hub Ring.

 

A few M's trailing behind.

Sike, trying not to hold them up.





A few set up changes this time around:

- Square 275/40/18's MPSS's on 18x9.5 +45(+35 upfront with 10mm spacer) Enkei PF01's.
- Tanabe Comfort-R Coilovers 10k Front/9k Rear.

Car felt good, but I didn't get a clean session until later in the day. Outside temps hovered around 72 degrees. Oil temps saw a high of 246 degrees and water temps of 216 degrees. Oil temps still get higher than I'd like with 34 row oil cooler. This was also the first time I timed laps in car using a Racebox lap timer. Worked well with predictive timing and for under $300 I'd recommend it.

 

I'm going to start racing soon and I have probably a stupid question for you: Before getting on a course how do you learn the best lines, or is that something you just figure out as you go? I mean I'd probably just fire up Gran Turismo for that course lol.

 

Lol not a stupid question at all. I used YouTube videos to learn track lines. There are also plenty of guides out there online to learn from as well. I haven’t played video games in years but I’m sure a sim would be very beneficial.

 

Honestly, read as many books as you can about driving technique. It takes a while to sink in and learn to balance your car at the limit on a track because it is completely different than street driving. I have been doing track days for about 20 years and I am still learning.

Watching youtube videos will help you learn the basic line for most cars, but you will probably learn more seeing the tire marks on the track to find the racing line and feeling how your car transfers weight and grips on the track. The videos you see online will be a car that accelerates, brakes, and handles differently than your car so try to use the videos just as a rough guide.

When you get to the track have a good instructor ride with you to help you and learn as much as you can from him/her and ask lots of questions. No question is a stupid question if it keeps you from doing something stupid on track. Pay very close attention to the instructors when they are trying to teach you something new.

Focus on driving smooth and feeling the weight transfer and where the grip is in the car under braking, cornering, and accelerating. Don't worry about being fast. Learn to drive smooth first and the speed will come. Better braking inputs and cornering will lead to faster lap times much quicker than adding power, which is what everyone incorrectly assumes will give them better lap times. Being able to balance your car at and just over the limit takes time, but it will always allow you to pass the guy that just adds power to his car.

 

Thats a really nice G! I actually dig your old prelude too, i used to love that body style of the mid 90s prelude (93-97 i think?)

Curious if you have tried running Bridgestone Potenza RE71R, i think you'd prefer them over the pilot sports. I imagine they grip better once hot and don't fall off as quick at high heat as the pilots will. I just bought my second set because i absolutely love them for lapping days. (Dry track conditions, i haven't run track wet on them so no comment there)

Try a set someday and see how they compare to your pilots after your 3rd lap. I find they really start to grip by mid 2nd lap and by the time you are on your 4th lap+ they just feel glued to the track.
You can get back on the throttle early and push hard enough to the point you are expecting the back end to kick, but it doesnt! Im running 245/40/19 on the fronts and 265/35/19 on the rears on the factory coupe sport rims, may try a square and beefier setup later when i grab a set of wider rims.

 

Hey, Thanks! Yup 4th Gen Prelude, (92-96) here in the US. It was my high school daily back around 2006.

I haven't had the RE71R's on the G unfortunately, but I have zero doubt they would perform much better in every aspect than the MPSS's. While there is more grip now with the 275's, and I can carry more speed on higher speed turns, they don't feel nearly as confidence inspiring as the 245/45 Indy500's I had previously. From what everyone says online the MPSS's are a SOFT tire and I have to agree. The Indy's have a stiffer sidewall design and it is very noticeable on track.

The MPSS's felt like I was rolling over them a lot, even though I wasn't. I played with the temps some, and it helped but I don't still don't feel as comfortable on these as I did my previous tires. I think it is a combination of the soft side wall design and the fact that the 275's aren't the ideal tire size for performance on a 9.5" wide wheel. The MPSS's have a tread measurements, according to tire rack, of 9.5". If I recall correctly from an MotoIQ article you want a slight bit of stretch and the tire tread to measure -.5" the width of your wheel.

That's really awesome to hear about the RE's and I would imagine it rings true for most 200TW tires. Right now I'm looking at a set RS4's for their tire wear and life, but I'm also considering the Federals 595RS-R's for their ridiculously low price tag.

 

Oh those Honda days, only issues you would have was Vtec not engaging and main relay issues and axles. Life was much simpler back then.
Crazy how one piece JDM headlights now for any Honda compete with G headlights. Many, many things have quadrupled in price.
We used so many parts off the BB4 in the CB7. 5 lug, engine, trans, seats, wiring, etc.

 

Right! VTEC engaging issue's usually just required a solenoid gasket cleaning, main relay and axles were easy enough, and cheap enough, to do for even preventative maintenance.

I remember the black housing JDM headlights used to be a $300, but being a broke a high school student I opted for a set of chrome 1-pieces for $150. I opened them up, and painted them gunmetal. I loved the look before eventually getting a set of retrofits later down the road. There was certainly a lot of the CB guys on the prelude forums at the time, usually buying up parts lol.

 

I did and still do cluster conversion harnesses for the BB4 cluster into CB7s. Very nice cluster overall.I just was never a fan of the BB2 one even the JDM one.

 

I was initially signed up for another day at Laguna this past Friday but the weather wasn't looking too great. Not being comfortable I decided to switch up to a wet skid pad event with Fastsideways instead, which was being hosted the same day in paddock. It wasn't cheap but it was worth it as I have a hell of a lot more confidence in my driving ability now. The purpose of the car control clinic was to the get driver comfortable finding and driving at a cars limit, as well recovering when the slide gets too big. Essentially learning to go fast a little side ways. This was not a drift class, which I did a big "stupid" by watching a lot of "how to maintain a drift video's" lol.

I'm super bummed that I forgot my GoPro so I have no in car footage to review for myself. It would've been super helpful to hear Nik's instruction post event. Nik Romano, the owner, is a racer and phenomenal instructor. Here is his YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7m...WKBSDb4uv9CoUA

1st we started with a round about drill, focusing on feeling the car's push/understeer point, followed by playing with steering inputs and throttle modulation to see how each affect the pushing.
2nd was holding the car right before the understeer threshold and working on initiating power oversteer and CPR(Correct, Pause, Recover). I would summarize this as donuts around cones while working the steering angle to maintain the slide. That was really the first time I've ever gotten the car sideways on purpose, my eyes were going every where instead of my target until I settled down.
3rd we began trail braking, and holy crap is that effective at getting the car to rotate predictably! The drill had us driving towards a set of cones away at a 45 degree angle, inputing light steering angle, pausing, then very gently applying the brakes. Not enough to slow the car down but just enough to bring the backend around. Followed by steering inputs to carrying out of the corner.
Lastly, we put it all together on a short course.

I can honestly say with this car control course I went from being completely uncomfortable with any amount of oversteer to being genuinely excited about getting back on track and pushing the car with TRACTION OFF to find and drive at the limit! I've got a lot of work to do but man am I pumped.

 

Glad you are getting out there and enjoying the car man! These Gs sure are a lot of fun, arent they?

Your car is looking great btw! If you are ever in canada when our events are going on next summer, you'd be welcome to join us on a track day! Keep at it man 🍺

 

Thanks for the invite, appreciate it! I have some family in Canada but don't get to visit too often. If I remember, and you're near by, I'd love to swing by.

 

That driving event sounds like a blast! The best upgrade you can do to your car is the driver upgrade. Nice work. Learning to control the car at and just above the limit is a lot of fun. Also training the butt dyno for feeling where the weight is transferring in the car so you know where the grip is and how to drive are huge. Being able to steer the front of the car with trail braking into the corner and with the throttle on the way out to make the car dance is an awesome feeling too. Congrats!