[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by F150

I am not sure how comfortable you are, but I hope they use genuine parts and don't cut corners and come up with some jugaad work with constant niggles.

Fingers crossed. Good luck bro, keep us posted. I think you should have some friend in BLR to constantly check the progress. I know you are in MAA.

So as I mentioned earlier the car was in Dakshin Honda, where they sourced all the required parts. They quoted almost 20-30 days for the job, so the car with all the original, dealer sourced parts was got back to RRP's workshop, where they plan to do it in around 10 days.

Feroze was down in blr on saturday, he will go again. I shall visit Blr around first week of January.

Any T-bhpian heading to RRP's workshop, if you can check on my car, I would be very grateful.

[dinu2506]

Bhuvan, I had been to RRP yesterday for some minor work on my Civic - fixing back the original catcon and end can (selling the car).
I saw your Civic there and work was in progress. From what I could make out, the car seemed to have taken an impact at the top side of passenger A pillar. The windscreen is also shattered at that point. The structural damage seems to be on the passenger A pillar and the nearby area of the roof. But does not seem extremely serious and can be brought back. The engine bay does not seem to have taken any impact and looks good. I could not see any turbo parts on the engine apart from the BMC intake and blow off valve. Your angel eye headlamp seems to have gone. One of the RRP guys came to me and asked where I got my angel eyes from and how much did it cost, so looks like they are trying to source it.
Yesterday, they were removing the dashboard and when I left, they had completed that.
So, Bhuvan, to me, looks repairable to OEM standards, not to worry. If you need more information, please feel free to PM me.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

Bhuvan, I had been to RRP yesterday for some minor work on my Civic - fixing back the original catcon and end can (selling the car).
I saw your Civic there and work was in progress. From what I could make out, the car seemed to have taken an impact at the top side of passenger A pillar. The windscreen is also shattered at that point. The structural damage seems to be on the passenger A pillar and the nearby area of the roof. But does not seem extremely serious and can be brought back. The engine bay does not seem to have taken any impact and looks good. I could not see any turbo parts on the engine apart from the BMC intake and blow off valve. Your angel eye headlamp seems to have gone. One of the RRP guys came to me and asked where I got my angel eyes from and how much did it cost, so looks like they are trying to source it.
Yesterday, they were removing the dashboard and when I left, they had completed that.
So, Bhuvan, to me, looks repairable to OEM standards, not to worry. If you need more information, please feel free to PM me.

Hi Dinesh,
Thanks a ton for the update. What you have said is more or less in line with what Rrp and Feroze have told me. Also, all the pictures I scrutinized also told me the same story. Great to have it validated by you.
The whole turbo kit, engine was absolutely unscratched. Turbo kit was dismantled before sending it to the Honda workshop, as all the modifications would have come in the way.
I have given them the number of the guy in Delhi who got my angel eye headlamps. I don't understand why they are still dilly-dallying and looking for other sources.
Am guessing the dashboard was removed to facilitate replacing the windscreen.

On another note, why are you selling your civic ?

[dinu2506]

Glad to have been of help. Hope your car comes back to its glorious self soon

Originally Posted by bhuvan_prasad

On another note, why are you selling your civic ?

Selling, yes, it is with a heavy heart since it has been my trusted companion for many years of totally trouble-free service. As they say, all good things have to come to an end. I'm going in for an X1 and unfortunately my baby has to give way for the new kid on the block.

[bhuvan_prasad]

As I mentioned, Feroze was at RRP, yesterday. All the parts have come, and they are replacing everything.
Next weekend is what they are saying.
I am going to go over to Bangalore next weekend, pick up the car, and drive it back myself.
The Hawk HPS front and rear brake pads have arrived, so will carry those along and get them fitted at RRP.
Greddy full auto turbo timer version 2, has reached my friend in the US. Will get that end-january and fit it. Till then will manually idle my car for 30seconds irrespective of how hard i drive.
Also, have got hold of a small paint bottle - http://www.amazon.com/Habanero-Pearl...6716542&sr=8-8
This is with me already. Will use it to cover the fine scratches here n there.

[m4ugr8]

Hi Bhuvan, its sad to read what happened to your car in the end. After so much excitement for the delivery a news like this is shocking to say the least. Hope RRP is able to fix your car back to OE standards and deliver to you what you have been waiting for two months.

If you need help sourcing the angel eye headlamps give me a call, I shall be source something or the other for you in Delhi.

One question why are you getting Hawk pads ?? RRP sells Mintex pads, that is what I had on my car.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by m4ugr8

Hi Bhuvan, its sad to read what happened to your car in the end. After so much excitement for the delivery a news like this is shocking to say the least. Hope RRP is able to fix your car back to OE standards and deliver to you what you have been waiting for two months.

If you need help sourcing the angel eye headlamps give me a call, I shall be source something or the other for you in Delhi.

One question why are you getting Hawk pads ?? RRP sells Mintex pads, that is what I had on my car.

Hi Manan,
I've got my fingers crossed about RRP fixing my car back to OE standards. Let's hope 2013 has some good news in store for me and my car. I have given them the number of the guy you had shared with me. If you have an updated contact please do share it.
Hawk HPS brake pads cost me less than what HASS charges for OEM brake pads, plus they offer 25% better stopping power, so I decided to go with these itself. I don't remember exactly but i think the Mintex pads were very expensive.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Went down to Bangalore over the weekend to check on my Civic. Visited RRP's facility on Saturday afternoon. My civic was in the paint booth. All the body work was done to OEM standards and the whole car is being repainted the same shade. Must say, the finish looks very nice. They will fit the dash, seats, windscreen, turbo kit back this week and tune it using the dyno and hopefully be ready by the weekend. I've asked for a non-turbo and a turbo run. Target is 200whp with the turbo. Dropped over the Hawk HPS front and rear brake pads for them to fit.

Also got to drive around RRP's demo turbo civic a fair bit. It is the MD Dinesh Reddy's car which has been turbocharged, got tein SS suspension with the EDFC, mintex brake pads and 205/55R16 Advan Neova's.
The only downer(big one) being that the car is an automatic Civic. Trust me, if you have an automatic Civic and are thinking of a turbo, I would not recommend it. It is just not worth it.

I drove it around for 30 minutes and had empty stretches where one could floor the car. The A/T box is thoroughly confused with all the increased power. While is it definitely faster than a stock Civic AT, I doubt it is faster than a stage 1 MT Civic in the dash from 0-100. There is so much lag from the transmission, and even at the redline the shifts are very slow. Plus an AT with a FFE is painful if you ask me, as because of the lack of a direct linkage from engine to driveshaft, you at times get a lot of noise, and are not really going anywhere. My estimate is this Civic AT would do 0-100 in 9 seconds, not faster. Sudhir told me it dyno'd at 185 whp.

The mintex brakes had good bite and definitely better than OEM. Shall compare it with the Hawk HPS pads on my car, once I get my car back. I was playing around a lot with the suspension via the EDFC. Switch from softest to stiffest and you can feel the steering get tighter and give a more direct feel. The ride is quite good even in the stiffest setting. With the softest setting the ride with the 16"s is almost plush. I could not corner really hard, but the car definitely seemed much more pushable and direct during quick direction changes. Went over a couple of speed humps and not bottoming out, scraping etc. Seems a good mod. Will take a call on this after I get my car back and drive around a bit after upsizing to 16's.

I was driving with 3 other passengers and no AC.

[frankmehta]

I've been a silent follower of your exploits since quite a while. I was praying that the car would not be damaged much by the accident and I am happy to read your report about it. Best of luck with your project and hope you enjoy the car as much as possible!

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

I've been a silent follower of your exploits since quite a while. I was praying that the car would not be damaged much by the accident and I am happy to read your report about it. Best of luck with your project and hope you enjoy the car as much as possible!

Thanks a lot for your prayers and good wishes. I was quite relieved on seeing the car with the body shell all intact, and shimmering with the new paint job. Should have the car, looking as good as new in a weeks time. To say I'm counting down the minutes to when it will be ready would be a gross understatement.

[bhuvan_prasad]

Alright folks, after what has seemed like an eternity, with so many ups and downs and stress and heartburn, my Civic has finally come home!! Thanks to all of you guys who have been following this thread and helped me out in Bangalore. This is a long post, so please get comfortable in your chair.

So, in a nutshell, was it worth it? To be honest, after about 2-3 months into the project with RRP taking time to source parts like the windscreen beading etc., I was really regretting my decision to go ahead with this turbo project. Fast forward to yesterday with me gunning the car from Bangalore to Chennai via Chittoor, and all that was erased within a jiffy and I was grinning ear to ear, patting myself and the car on the back. So, YES, I am extremely happy at this point, and it was worth the money, obviously would have been SO much better if all the mishaps didn't happen.

On Tuesday Mr. Leelakrishnan told me that the work is done. I was in touch with Kayaan, the head tuner at RRP and he was just finalizing the part-throttle mapping, which would be done by Thursday. So I took the day off on Friday and booked myself on the morning Shatabdi from Chennai to Bangalore. As luck would have it had a waitlisted tatkal ticket, though the agent said it would get confirmed. Barely slept that night, and around 4AM i checked the tatkal status and voila, confirmed. A sign of the good things to come perhaps?

By 11:45 I reached RRP's facility. My car was being pressure-washed and then was going to be polished/waxed/interior cleaned. I as usual kept hanging around on the floor,checking out the other cars. Had lunch with the RRP guys itself in their office. By around 3:30PM, car was all shining and ready to roll. Test drive time. This was it. I buckled up in the drivers seat and Kayaan with his Toughbook connected to the Haltech ECU in the dashboard, buckled up in the passenger seat.

The roads in and around RRP don't have much traffic, but are quite narrow and now really large straights. Anyway, off we go. First impression is that the Exedy clutch is a fair bit harder to press because of the larger pressure palt, but connects so nicely, no mushiness. I expected some lag, but nothing, not even a trace of it. The car below 2000 RPM felt actually 10-20% sprightlier than the FFE+K&N Typhoon setup earlier. Also, it was as driveable as earlier. I could still pull it from 22Km/h in 3rd cleanly. There was some shuddering in 2nd between 1200-1400 RPM so Kayaan adjusted the engine to run a little richer and that was sorted. Found and empty stretch. Turned in and was doing around 20Km/h in first gear and I floored it. Tacho was around 2-2.5k RPM and the car took off, with us being pushed back in out seats. Between 3-4K RPM the torque was so much that there was wheelspin!!!! Shift to second at 6.5k RPM and no letup in the pull, we are making rapid progress and hit 90KM/h in no time, and I had to brake. It was very very fast, nothing like I have ever experienced before.

We get back to RRP, and I get the brake pads changed. No way I was doing a highway drive with the stock brakes. Hawks were fitted at the rear, and Mintex at the front. The hawk front pads I got from the US were a size smaller apparently. It was almost 5PM by now and I had to get back to Chennai. I did not want to do too much night driving so decided to stay in Chittoor, as I knew a decent hotel and the manager over there. Now comes the interesting part.

On the highway the car is effortless to drive. There is so much torque that you can upshift at 2500RPM in each gear and you will still be faster than all the cars on the highway. I've done a lot of highway runs and this car just makes overtaking a joke. 3rd gear, ambling along at 40-50Km/h and you cross over to overtake that truck, floor the throttle and . The way you shoot forward is staggering. You reach 100km/h before you even know it and the truck is a speck in the rear view mirror. Downshifting is also not at all required. At 80Km/h in 5th, you can easily overtake other cars, by just stepping on the throttle. It pulls like a big german diesel sedan, I kid you not. And the best part, the surge gets bigger and goes on till 7000RPM.

Had an awesome drive to Chittoor, stayed the night there and did Chittoor-Chennai today morning. Engines been great, touchwood. The sound of the turbo is sickening and the blow off valve sound is to die for. Videos and pics will come. Will scout around for the tyres now.

MOD's, please edit the title to The Rebirth - Turbocharged R18 Honda Civic

Just a teaser pic I took with my phone yesterday at RRP. As you can see, the front bumper has been cut at the numberplate area with a mesh so that the intercooler can breathe more easily.

[F150]

Congratulations buddy !! Did RRP took up the complete tab for repairing the car after the accident ?

Please add after market alloys, or you prefer the stock look ?

More pics

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by F150

Congratulations buddy !! Did RRP took up the complete tab for repairing the car after the accident ?

Please add after market alloys, or you prefer the stock look ?

More pics

RRP/Feroze took up the complete tab, including getting the aftermarket LED angel eyes headlamps.

I finalized 225/50 R16 Michelin Pilot Sport 3's with the Michelin dealer(Mahendra tyres) here in Chennai. About 11k a piece for 2012 second half manufacture, he had ready 2011 stock but he himself told me not to go for it, and that he'd get fresh stock from the depot. Smart 5 spoke black and chrome alloy with the disc caliper being painted red. Install will happen tomorrow. Getting 20K for my 4 Honda alloys + stock Bridgestone Turanzas . Will upload pics after this is done. Am charging my camera as I type.

The engine seems quite fuel efficient too. A rough calculation throws up the figure of around 11-11.5 Km/l for the Bangalore-Chennai run which I am very happy with.

[dinu2506]

Really happy for you. Its nice to see the car in top shape after the hiccups. Will eagerly wait for updates from you. Maybe its the shot angle, but the new mesh can do with a little bit better finishing. What were the dyno readings - before and after?

[bhuvan_prasad]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

Really happy for you. Its nice to see the car in top shape after the hiccups. Will eagerly wait for updates from you. Maybe its the shot angle, but the new mesh can do with a little bit better finishing. What were the dyno readings - before and after?

Thanks a ton. About the dyno bit now. RRP uses a hub dyno which churns out much lesser reading than roller dyno's. For example, a 1.2 K-series swift do about 55-60BHP, Civics do about 85-95 bhp, OHC Vtecs around 70 bhp. The difference between manufacture claimed figures and this is 25-30%.

My Civic without the turbo did 90bhp@6000RPM(with the exedy clutch + Free flow) and 12Kg-m@3400RPM of torque. The Turbo Civic did 148bhp@5800RPM and 23.75kg-m@3400RPM of torque. The plot is below.
So power has gone up by 1.65 times and torque has doubled.

Translating this with the manufacturer claimed figures, my Civic is putting out 215BHP(130*1.65) and 35Kg-m(17.5*2) of torque. I know that this is technically not the right thing to do, and purists may cringe, but what the hell, it makes me feel good, and it sure feels that fast.

Got my tyres changed to Michelin Pilot Sport 225/50 R16 with 16" Veloche 5 hole rims. Got the calipers painted red too. Did a short 6km drive with the new tyres and wow. Steering feel during turn-in's into a corner are fabulous and no more wheel spin in first gear when all that torque hits at 4000 RPM. The ride also was a pleasant surprise, I went over the bumps, speedbreakers, broken surfaces that I daily commute on, and it is almost as good as stock. I am really glad I went with 16" and not 17" which would have ruined the ride. Speedbreakers feel a wee bit harder, but broken surfaces etc. feel as good as stock tyres. With the windows down you can hear a slight humming noise from the tyre but I expected that and am fine with it. Very impressed with the Michelin PS3's. I really doubt I need a suspension upgrade. The mintex+hawk brake pads combo + these tyres are quite awesome. Anyway, will do a highway run and then decide. Took a few pics from my phone, so apologies for the poor quality.

The Dyno Plot
Chennai Civic Turbo.pdf

New Wheels & Tyres - The wheel well is nicely filled out now


Shaky pic. Red caliper + the Honda logo


Front view. Love the cutaway bumper which shows the intercooler lurking below