[balenopower]

Superb execution. The car looks fantastic. I just dont agree with your choice of alloys but other than that i dont think one can have a beter sleeper than this.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by balenopower

Superb execution. The car looks fantastic. I just dont agree with your choice of alloys but other than that i dont think one can have a beter sleeper than this.

Thanks. Surprisingly you are the only one so far to have not agreed with the choice of alloys. To be frank, I barely saw too many designs, was more particular on the size, PCD, tyre brand etc. and since the tyres had already been sourced, did not want to wait. Liked these among all the alloys my Michelin dealer had, so on they went.

[kutlee]

Hi, any long term reviews of your car? how is ht brakes holding up?

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by kutlee

Hi, any long term reviews of your car? how is ht brakes holding up?

Hey,

Car is doing great. 60,000Kms almost done and 7 years is over, hard to believe !!
Drove her down from Chennai to Hyd for my wedding November end, and the car was actually used in my baraat too (only after the driver got a long lecture on how it is to be driven, and with me sitting in my sherwani beside him)

Brakes are good, still bite hard and shed speed like crazy, discs show no uneven sign of wear given the high performance pads, but it is too early to tell. Got the turbo timer attached (pic below). It is set at the 30 second preset, or one can just turn it off if one is driving in the city below 2500 RPM's.

Will do an oil change once i drive back to chennai. FE in the city is around 8KM/l and on highways is 11KM/l(decently spirited driving). Surge in Hyd starts a little later at around 25-2700 RPM because of the altitude.

[kutlee]

Hi that is pretty reliable setup. I have changed pads to mintex and seems to be much better than stock nissin. I am sure it will be totally different animal down at sea level. I have kept my turbo timer off mostly. On highway I plan my break and slow down for about 10 mins or so and bring down the temps.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by kutlee

Hi that is pretty reliable setup. I have changed pads to mintex and seems to be much better than stock nissin. I am sure it will be totally different animal down at sea level. I have kept my turbo timer off mostly. On highway I plan my break and slow down for about 10 mins or so and bring down the temps.

Sorry for the late reply. Thought I shall reply with an update and a few pics. I'm sure the mintex pads will be far superior to stock Nissin.

I don't find much use for my turbo timer, as in the city one is hardly on high boost and the drive within the colony before parking ensures a good enough cool down for the turbo. For highways well, just idle the engine for 20s. The timer is something I would not recommend wholeheartedly.

Car, touchwood, is still faultless. Changed oil to Mobil1 0w-40. Used a K&N universal filter for a brief while before I cleaned and re-oiled the BMC(with a K&N recharge kit). Messed it up the first time with too much oil, did a more careful application next time around. Engine definitely prefers the BMC, K&N was quite sluggish between 1-2000RPM. This might be because the BMC is a DIA and is closed, ensuring no hot air pickup, plus the K&N was quite close to the bonnet, possible not picking up as much air as possible.

Did a Chennai-Nellore-Bangalore-Chennai trip recently in the peak summer heat and the car did not skip a beat.

Few Pics of the car below. Hard to believe its almost 8 years old with 64,000Kms on the clock. Enjoy.

[diffuser]

Hey Bhuvan,

That's a very well maintained civic you have there (Y). I've gone almost the same way that you have. Used low mileage Civic with a full Automech exhaust and Hawk brake pads for now. The current clutch is very rough and I'm thinking of getting an Exedy stage 1 clutch in a couple of weeks. Any feedback on the difference in city driving? A slightly lighter flywheel might go in too (still in the research phase).

Cheers
Balaji

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by diffuser

Hey Bhuvan,

That's a very well maintained civic you have there (Y). I've gone almost the same way that you have. Used low mileage Civic with a full Automech exhaust and Hawk brake pads for now. The current clutch is very rough and I'm thinking of getting an Exedy stage 1 clutch in a couple of weeks. Any feedback on the difference in city driving? A slightly lighter flywheel might go in too (still in the research phase).

Cheers
Balaji

Thanks Balaji. Hope the Automech exhuast is treating you well. The car my free flow got transferred to suffered a slightly cracked header, hence asking you. Overall, I feel the red rooster exhaust is of higher quality than automech, based on my experience with the Civic.

Regarding the clutch, skip stage 1. Unless you are doing drag races etc. on a regular basis I'd suggest get a Exedy stock replacement. My stage 1 is really nice when it comes to launching the car, but it takes lot of learning and patience to smooth out the shifts, rev matching etc.
For a stock car, I don't feel it is warranted at all. Also, a lighter flywheel will be good, but your revs also will fall faster when you are shifting, so you will need to shift that much faster, or heel n toe.

My car is doing good. 65k Kms completed, got engine oil changed to Mobil 1 0w-40 , and got two Mobil1 oil filters from the US, which i fitted onto the car.
Bought a g-tech pro(http://www.gtechpro.com/rr_fanatic.html) for 0-100, quarter mile, dyno timing.
Car is currently doing 9s runs from 0-100 as I am loosing power from 5-6500RPM. Nothing a tuning session can't fix though. Will go down to RRP soon and get this done. Reliability is still good.
Attaching a few pics below.

[Nikhilb2008]

Your car looks lovely!!

I think more than 0-100 times, the driveability of this car will be insane! Any gear, any speed, put your foot down on the throttle and it will pull like a locomotive. That is the best part of any TC'ed petrol engine.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Your car looks lovely!!

I think more than 0-100 times, the driveability of this car will be insane! Any gear, any speed, put your foot down on the throttle and it will pull like a locomotive. That is the best part of any TC'ed petrol engine.

Thank you so much Nikhil! The mid-range is the best part, and the biggest change from the stock civic which till 3500RPM doesn't really get going.

Your post reminded me of race-day at MMST since we bumped into each other, so thought I shall mention it.

Took the Civic for her first race day at MMST in May. Was curious to see how she'll behave on the track. They were running only the short loop of the track by the time I reached.

1.) Power - I had excess of it. Given the torque I could have done the whole lap in 3rd gear. But I was gunning it and keeping the car between 4500-6800RPM. So 2nd gear in a few curves. Was easily able to overtake the other cars - balenos, vernas, palios, 2008-10 IJTC cars. The power on tap would have been nicer for the full track, rather than this short loop.

2.) Handling - the 225 section PS3's were given a good workout and were howling at all the turns. I was maintaining a racing line, and they held up well. When the speeds were too high they sometimes would get into a 4 wheel drift. Managed to catch it couple of times, except once on C1, when the rear wheel went onto the dirt, and the car spun. Since the suspension is stock, and I was pushing the car really hard, I had a lot of body roll. Regular track usage definitely warrants TEIN's.

3.) Braking - The mintex up front and hawks at the back were splendid. Combined with the grippy michelin's I could brake late, and shed speed quickly.

Car held up really well despite the 10odd laps. No over heating, no power loss, no brake fade and I drove back home just normally.

Also drove a petrol swift with 185 section A-drives and TEIN's. The suspension upgrade meant that this was much more easier on the limit, and more predictable than the civic. The 1.3L engine also was lovely on the limit. Had a lot of fun in this too.

[blahman]

I've been following this thread lately and its been a pleasure to read it.. I've been contemplating on going on the same route as you and turbocharging my civic as well.. I had visited Red Rooster a few days ago and he have me a quote of 4.5 lakhs and promised to double the BHP output my car currently would make on his dyno.. My friend suggested I visit Race Concepts as well in Bangalore before I give in to the temptation.. I saw a red Civic there and I instantly recognized it to be yours.. I was surprised to see it being worked on and Mr. Joel (the head tuner) said that he's replacing the turbo with a much bigger one since RRP had done a bad job with the build and the performance wasn't as good as what he'd be capable of doing.. I understand that every parent would portray his child to be the best (in this case Mr. Joel claiming that he could out build RRP), but I would really love to hear from you that if it's better to skip RRP and go to Race Concepts for the build.. Did you face any reliability issues with the RRP turbos? Could you please share your experience as to why you chose to swap the turbo from RRP to the one with Race Concepts.. You'd do me a huge favor advising me on this.. Thanks in advance

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by blahman

I've been following this thread lately and its been a pleasure to read it.. I've been contemplating on going on the same route as you and turbocharging my civic as well.. I had visited Red Rooster a few days ago and he have me a quote of 4.5 lakhs and promised to double the BHP output my car currently would make on his dyno.. My friend suggested I visit Race Concepts as well in Bangalore before I give in to the temptation.. I saw a red Civic there and I instantly recognized it to be yours.. I was surprised to see it being worked on and Mr. Joel (the head tuner) said that he's replacing the turbo with a much bigger one since RRP had done a bad job with the build and the performance wasn't as good as what he'd be capable of doing.. I understand that every parent would portray his child to be the best (in this case Mr. Joel claiming that he could out build RRP), but I would really love to hear from you that if it's better to skip RRP and go to Race Concepts for the build.. Did you face any reliability issues with the RRP turbos? Could you please share your experience as to why you chose to swap the turbo from RRP to the one with Race Concepts.. You'd do me a huge favor advising me on this.. Thanks in advance

Hey. Thanks for the appreciation.
For starters 4.5 lakhs is a lot of money, and I think rrp is over quoting.
Yes, my civic is with Joel at race concepts. I was waiting for the whole upgrade to get done, before posting about it, but might as well now.
The thing is rrp had/has a standard turbo package for cars from 1.5-2 litres, and this package while it is reliable, is not the best for power and won't bring out the best in each car. My civic, for example ran the same Turbo etc as a sx4. I think they procured lot of stock of few items and pushed those items to customers.
My turbo civic has been very reliable, but after they turned the boost down it was not very fast. My 9.5s runs 0-100, only around 4psi of boost clearly pointed to the turbo build being very very conservative and not done fully right. All this while I've gone through countless r18 turbo threads abroad and 250whp is common on stock internals. But, the turbo is way bigger.

I also wanted to sort out my idle, ac issues. After the build rrp never gave a good response when I'd call them asking for a tunin session. Their head tuner kayaan left. I was looking for alternatives and found Joel. The good thing is here we discussed stuff and then finalised, unlike rrp, which was just a one way communication and parts being thrust on me.

Both rrp and Joel are capable of doing a turbo install. But you must be clear on your goals, and research, discuss on each part before going ahead. Feel free to PM me. I know I'm one of very few in India who has a turbo r18, and with this upgrade, I'm just hoping to improve things, as you all know how nascent the tuning scene in India is.

And just for everyone to know, my cars turbo and intercooler is being upgraded to that of an evo6. Should see 200+whp hopefully. Fingers crossed.

[blahman]

Yup 4.5 lakhs is indeed a lot.. The quote was only for the turbo kit.. Joel gave me a much lesser quote including Mintex break pads.. I guess I was just hung up on the halo brand value of RRP since I haven't really researched much.. I totally agree with you on the point that they have a standard turbo for most of the turbo builds. Got the same reply from them. That being said they are best at what they do and they have achieved a very respectable name in motorsport.

You sir, saved me a lot of money. People like you and GTO who share their experiences about the unknown are underappreciated. I will go to Joel itself for a January build if I can get my finances up to the required amount by then. Can't wait to read more about the outcome from the Race Concepts build. I'm sure it's going to be one heck of a car to drive. Thank you so much for your advice.

[kutlee]

I sat in this car after turbo upgrade. Car has decent mid range. Even with sticky 225 tires, it wheel spins! Could not explore top end power due to traffic. Once you have Wideband, you can watch out for lean spots and get it corrected. Part throttle can be a pain.

[blahman]

Err I'm not really that much of a technical guy. Also I have no idea what lean spots are. Bhuvan took me for a drive in it and I was holding on to my dear life. It was one insane ride in the car for me. Yes it was my first drive in a turbo tuned car and I might be overstating my expression, I just had my cheeks stuck from one ear to the another when I got off the car and I couldn't stop grinning for a bit. Dropping off my car in Jan with Joel. I hear the engine internals are getting upgraded as well, saw the car back at Joel's today. Can't imagine how much more it's going to blow my mind when it's fully done