[speedfreak]

Hi Dilip
Yes man, lets meet up. been ages.

@Cosmos

Answers.
1. Aren't you facing issues with clearance on bumpy roads and speed Brakers?
The car clearance is low i need to drive carefully or else i risk damaging the exhaust. I can clear almost every speedbraker in the city. I could just raise the height and be carefree, but i wanted my car low hence need to be careful

2. Does the car bottom out with 5 people on board?
Not tried 5 ppl at a time, but with 3 on board had no issues. Lets just say that my family members don't prefer sitting in my car lol

3. Does your suspension setup allow you to adjust the ride height? How much of an effort is it? Just a valve twist?
The suspension's ride height is pretty easy to change. one has to be careful to make sure all adjustments are identical. we need to loosen the lock ring and twist the suspension body. The valve adjustment is only for rebound.

4. How much did the (suspension + strut brace front, back, top & bottom) cost you? Just the handling package.
The handling package costed me 1.1 including instalment (about 2 years ago). Try getting in touch with Joel, he will give u exact details.

You said you want to upsize the TB and injectors.
1. What size do you plan to go for?
actually we have no idea what size the car requires. we need to play around with different sizes and settle on the one which gives us the best result.

2. Are you still not tempted to touch the internals? May be go for something with higher compression?
I am very much tempted to go all out, but due to the nature of my finance i need to pace my mods out. The present build itself has taken close to 2 years to set up and i am generally very picky about what goes in my car. An all out NA monster with Race concepts ITB's is a dream of mine from the start. Also, its a learning curve for me as i can judge how the setup responds to all the mods that we have done over the years.

3. Or is it that you plan to go FI later and would keep stock internals for now until you're done with all the natural horses what it can offer?
No FI period !!! I am an NA guy.

I loved the way Joel has done the intake plumbing [/quote]

[cosmos]

Originally Posted by speedfreak

Try getting in touch with Joel, he will give u exact details.

The present build itself has taken close to 2 years to set up and i am generally very picky about what goes in my car. An all out NA monster with Race concepts ITB's is a dream of mine from the start. Also, its a learning curve for me as i can judge how the setup responds to all the mods that we have done over the years.

No FI period !!! I am an NA guy

Karthik, thanks for patiently answering all the questions.

Yes, for the handling bit I will talk to Joel.

Really admire your perseverance and clarity on what/when and how you want to do things on your car.

This project has really shown what a well planned execution of modifications can achieve. I really shows that a really enthusiatic owner with a right tuner can take the car to heights with performance + handling. You have one faaaaast car, that handles well and can be a daily drive too. Cant ask for more. Good work guys, keep going.

Please do keep updating. We would like to follow the progress of the car.

[fieroid]

The car has a lot of refinements planned.
Right now we are looking at swapping out the injectors (which I have already ready - High impedence 280cc, already tested on my other car), the intake manifold to a larger custom one which I will fabricate as I find some time after the upcoming race, larger TB, a wilder profile cam etc. We will indeed time the car to see what it get to.
We have been very choosy with the parts and the mods that have gone in, since karthik has his own choices and so do I. The final target is to turn this into a really quick NA monster with full internals - which is being developed currently for street application. To suit the normal pump gas and not having to run on exotic fuel with all the fun to make it a clean 9000rpm screamer for a weekend or a trackday. All the learnings from our track cars make it straight to the street versions.
The suspension package is one of its kind and the handling sets both mine and karthiks car from the rest. Something most dont get to experience in anything else.
The suspension is a 3-way custom unit with spring rates set right after extensive tests. We have a seperate spring rate for track and street. Very soon we will also have camber and caster top-mounts for the front and rear.
The car has always improved at every stage and we have always tested the potential of the car at every stage to see where we stand.

Karthik, please post the latest acceleration video we took!

Cosmos - Gautham? lol

Joel

[cosmos]

Joel, Yes Gautham.

Only thing in my mind now is the suspension setup. Want to get it as soon as I can. Really liked the way Karthik's car handled from the videos. I've travelled through that road numerous times and I pretty much know how much of a boat OHC vtec is with "munjal showa".

With new exhaust i want a drive in Karthik's car.

And yes Karthik, Please post the video.

[speedfreak]

Hi Gautham,

Yes the suspension does make the car handle better. Any ways the acceleration video that Joel mentioned....

http://youtu.be/gYjd1emobtc

[speedfreak]

Well update time.

Been to the MMSC track last week of march. Drove the car down to chennai. Was a little worried as i was running a full dog box with a stage 3 (3 puck) race clutch and was on the stand alone all time as the car used to refuse to run on stock ECU. As expected, the car behaved well, no hic-ups at all.

I reached MMSC by 2 and i was all ready to take the car out. Out went the Enkei with BFG. I ran OE rims with very old 185/60/14 G3's on front and 195/60/14 XM2's on the back. Car was emptied out and my track day begun

Took an initial few laps to understand the behavior if the suspenison. Then after few final setting as adviced by Joel, along with a fresh tune up of the maps with the limiter set at 7500 i started pushing the car

Few observations from my side.
1. The gear box is beautiful. Its a piece of marvelous engineering. Never did i mis-shift, never did the gears feel out of place. The clutch just made the experience that much more sweeter and i felt very connected with my car. The experience of driving a car with a close ratio dox box has to be experienced by any enthusiast.
2. The 2 year old custom suspension really worked. I can make all the power i want, but if the cars handeling is not predictable, all that power is wasted. This is where the suspension came in. The car felt like a rocket. I had to just point and shoot and it used to respond.
3. Tyres. I need to get good stick rubber ASAP. The 14" were SHIT and they were the sole reason the car was showing slow laptimes. With sticky rubber we could have done some very fancy timing. well anotherday perhaps.

So, I drove around 14-16 laps, 3-4 laps a session and by the end of the day i had acheived a personal best of 2'16" sec. Joel in the same car managed 2'10". The car was as quick as few of the IJTC cars present at the track that day.

Then post track session, we left for bangalore. So the car did close to 700 Kms in one day and had nil issues. The car returned a low average of 12 kmpl total including the highway drive and track session. All in all, a sunday well spent

Sadly, in all this excitement we failed to take any in car videos. have few pics which i will upload soon.

[baddy]

I think i saw you guys when i was wrapping up my motorcycle session. Couldnt come over and talk as i was running to get some hydration from the HEAT!!! Anyways, my stock OHC non vtec did a 2.21 with 195 width 15" kumho tyres, automech exhaust and a lot of body rollfrom the munjal showa struts. a 11 second gap on a 3.5km circuit goes to show how much difference a well set up suspension and powertrain can make.

One question. Can you adjust the damping force on your custom shocks?

[fieroid]

@baddy - Yes we can the preload, suspension ride height and damping rate.
A car without suspension is the worst to predict and drive around on street and even for a trackday.

[speedfreak]

Update time
had participated in the recent drag event in coimbatore kari track. Drove down from Bangalore to participate in the street stock category. In order to enter, i had to remove the JDM d16 manifold and put the stock y7 back. Well I secured first place in both rounds and managed an ET of 15.98sec to quarter mile. For comparison, a 350Z managed a best of 15.3 at the same strip. The reason being that the strip was an inclined run hence most cars were slower by 1-1.5 seconds. So theoretically my car would have done a 14.9-15.2 on a flat surface which is mind blowing considering i am still running a stock engine.

Well over all a superb event. Joel's pro stock vtec managed a best time of 14.1 to a quatermile. was easily the fastest car on the strip, faster that an aston martin vantage. Well more on that later. Few pics




A video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=915eofjinKg

Cheers
Karthik

[speedfreak]

update.

Well the car was slowing showing her age. The body had a lot of dents and scratches here and there. The engine bay was very dirty, the previous body kit had made few holes on the running board which i was worried would rust up. Well, I decided to get the car to look good, was really worried as to which place i should entrust this job of painting and detailing my car.

Looked around for a while, got few painters to have a look at my car, got few quotes. That was when Joel informed me that he has started body work and paint as well. He had already started work on one car, and i told him i will decide once that car gets finished

A month later, the car was done and delivered. Spoke to the owner of that car and exchanged pics. The paint job was top class, the detailing process made the paint job stand out. So, i requested Joel to start the work on my car. Few WIP

Body work on the car












Engine stripped ! Joel decided to go all out and strip the engine and make the car a rolling chassis. the car was throughly washed and engine bay cleaned and all the muck removed. It took 2 days to get the whole engine bay cleaned.







Well presently the car is getting primered. The plan is to stay close to OEM as possible. Presently, with the strict noise limit rule, one can't afford to drive around a car with a loud exhaust. Looking for other alternatives ;-)

[chetanhanda]

Originally Posted by speedfreak

update.

Well the car was slowing showing her age. The body had a lot of dents and scratches here and there. The engine bay was very dirty, the previous body kit had made few holes on the running board which i was worried would rust up. Well, I decided to get the car to look good, was really worried as to which place i should entrust this job of painting and detailing my car.

Looked around for a while, got few painters to have a look at my car, got few quotes. That was when Joel informed me that he has started body work and paint as well. He had already started work on one car, and i told him i will decide once that car gets finished

A month later, the car was done and delivered. Spoke to the owner of that car and exchanged pics. The paint job was top class, the detailing process made the paint job stand out. So, i requested Joel to start the work on my car. Few WIP

Body work on the car


Engine stripped ! Joel decided to go all out and strip the engine and make the car a rolling chassis. the car was throughly washed and engine bay cleaned and all the muck removed. It took 2 days to get the whole engine bay cleaned.


Well presently the car is getting primered. The plan is to stay close to OEM as possible. Presently, with the strict noise limit rule, one can't afford to drive around a car with a loud exhaust. Looking for other alternatives ;-)

Awesome job ..
Going all the way , I'd love to see the results, post pics of the engine bay and the whole process if possible as it advances though various stages.

[speedfreak]

well the car is almost ready. Replaced few parts as follows
1. Rubber bushes and beadings
2. Steering rack
3. Tie rods
4. Brand new headlights and tail lamps

The car is getting its final stage of rubbing and polishing. Unfortunately due to my busy schedule, i am unable to go and see the car myself.

Few pics sent by a friend.

The cleaned up and painted engine bay


Slowly the parts are going in. Joel of Race concepts has actually galvanised all the nuts and clamps of the engine bay. So i am told it looks really nice. will try to get a better pic of the same.


The finished boot.

Paint wise, we wanted to stay OEM as possible. Hence i decided to paint the car back in Heather mist.

Will upload more pics as soon as i get them.

[bowser]

Originally Posted by speedfreak

well the car is almost ready. Replaced few parts as follows...

Wow, that is awesome!

I have a 2003 OHC Vtec myself but I'm worried that the vtec isn't working as it should. Do you know anyone in Hyderabad of Joel's calibre that I can contact to get my car checked out? All the vtec gurus appear to be in other cities except Hyderabad!

Looking forward to your reply!

[speedfreak]

Originally Posted by bowser

Wow, that is awesome!

I have a 2003 OHC Vtec myself but I'm worried that the vtec isn't working as it should. Do you know anyone in Hyderabad of Joel's calibre that I can contact to get my car checked out? All the vtec gurus appear to be in other cities except Hyderabad!

Looking forward to your reply!

Hi,
Unfortunately i don't know anyone that side. you can try the honda showroom to confirm if the vtec solenoid is working by using the obd scanner.

you need to take the car there. They will fix the obd tool to ur cars service port, Then with the scanner you need to go for a drive. now keep checking the scanner and when the car revs past 4500 the vtec should switch on.

This can't be done in neutral, car has to be in gear.

[bowser]

Originally Posted by speedfreak

Hi,
Unfortunately i don't know anyone that side. you can try the honda showroom to confirm if the vtec solenoid is working by using the obd scanner.

you need to take the car there. They will fix the obd tool to ur cars service port, Then with the scanner you need to go for a drive. now keep checking the scanner and when the car revs past 4500 the vtec should switch on.

This can't be done in neutral, car has to be in gear.

Thanks for the tip. Do you think I can alternatively hook up a multimeter to the VTEC solenoid and go for a drive? I can measure the 12V signal when it turns on or off.

Also, can you please ask fieroid if he knows any OHC experts in Hyderabad?