Cross Forum topic that I originally posted on the Roadraceautox.com forum. But after much thought, and change of direction of the build. This will be the new home. Anyway, the plan was to build this into a EP legal autocross car, but with much thought with the money side of my brain, and what I want to do... Challenge Build sounds much better. Its all about the smiles per mile to me.
So here with go!
November 2016:
It all started on Craigslist, like everything we do in this life does already. Was just looking around, and came up on a ad for a 1986 Honda CRX. The asking price was $500, so I offered the seller a partial trade of 2 R/C Trucks (Traxxas Rustlers), and $300 cash. I thought to myself... no way would he go for that. So the next day, I came home with the CRX. E36 M3... That was not planned at all, not even close. So now what do I do with this thing???
Well, I always wanted to do some autocross. With 4 good regions in a 3 hour radius, I would have a hell of a time doing that. And frankly, trackday is too expensive for my blood. So autocross it is. But what class??? Hmmm... Open the rule pdf on the computer... Hmmm, street is too stock, street prepared sounds weird, street mod is too much street, prepared sounds fun, mod sounds even better, but I would want a rear wheel drive car for that. So E Prepared we are going! And this is with zero autocross experience at all. So why not go in the deep end??? What can go wrong.
I get the car home, look it over. Look it over... look it over some more, and more, and more to come up with a idea on how to do this. The plan was to do it as cheap as I could. I mean CHEAP! The car as already missing a front fender, had a little bang up on the body and tiny amount of rust in the rear wheelwell lip. But for $300, I could care less. Its meant to be a fun autocross car, not a show car... at all.
Total Investment: $300
Sounds like how my 89 crx started. Or my last 3 attempts at challenge cars. Or my current...
Welcome to the forum!
If you're building for the challenge don't forget to include the value of the rc cars in the budget.
Looking forward to the build!
Awesome! I'm excited to see how this build turns out. Obviously, I'm a big first gen fan. :)
Cool! First car I brought to the challenge was an 86 CRX with a D16A1 swap, all the way back in 2005. They've gotten a lot harder to find since then.
Dusterbd13: Thanks for the welcome! This will prolly be the first of many challenge cars.
jfryjfry: The rc cars value was not much, basically a heap of parts. Honestly no more than $50, just got really lucky that the seller was into rc cars as well. When I picked up the CRX his shop had MANY rc toys in there as well.
ClassicHondaGuy: First ever Honda, and man... so easy to work on! But finding good parts for these are hard as heck.
eastsidemav: A swap would be awesome, but do not think its going to work out like that in the budget. My plans is very light car with lots of aero.
1st Week December 2016:
After having the car home, but no tools and too broke to buy some from my race fund (the car purchase drained that account right off the bat)... you spend a lot of time thinking about your attack. The wife mention early in the week that she wanted to go to IKEA to buy items for the new house. I thought, cool... a weekend trip to St. Louis. Have not done that in some time. So I opened the labtop and started surfing St. Louis region Craigslist. It must of been a sign... but within the first 2 lines was this ad on a Honda header. So I did some visual research, asked the guy what it fits and said should work on the CRX. So I said SOLD, but has to wait for the weekend... no problem.
I tend to have a bad habbit planning other activities within the wife's activities. She had no idea my plan, other than just be a happy guy. So we head off to St. Louis and told her that I had to stop by the airport to meet a guy. She, which I can understand hates Craigslist. Her head has all these bad ideas on what can go wrong. Me... I take life how it comes. So in short, I came home with this wonderful header for $25, and A LOT more $$$ of IKEA products.
Total Investment: $325
SkinnyG
SuperDork
3/30/17 6:26 p.m.
You can weld the integral rear sway bar solid, and cut off the guts of the bar itself, for a wack more rotation and less weight. Free.
NOHOME
PowerDork
3/30/17 6:27 p.m.
I admire people who can play this game on a budget. My shop door is like a vending machine that takes $100 bills to let you in to play.
Welcome to the hive. Don't hesitate to post parts needed in the 2017 for sale section of this forum. Lot of guys play with Hondas here and probably have parts laying around and.give generous prices for people building challenge cars.
Blake, I've for the longest time wanted to take one of these(kinda threddjacking here) and put the powertrain in the back seat (easier said than done perhaps). When I saw these rice rockets drag racing turning mid 11's with fwd....holy E36M3. I know you're focus is $2017 challenge,budget,etc. but...box flares....massive hairdrier.....roof scope 
That shoulda read SCOOP....oh and an obnoxious(WRC)roof wing
Ovid_and_Flem wrote:
Welcome to the hive. Don't hesitate to post parts needed in the 2017 for sale section of this forum. Lot of guys play with Hondas here and probably have parts laying around and.give generous prices for people building challenge cars.
I have tokico shocks, rear discs and a few other parts That I would see for FMV.
Mark
These things are fun. I helped a buddy do a JDM swap +turbo on one. It nearly proved to be a sketchy death trap, but mostly because it was too fast, too low, and had zero safety equipment.
SkinnyG: That is one of my plans for the build. Hopefully it will be enough where I would not have to fab up a external sway bar.
NOHOME: This is one of the few games I play. I hear what you are saying. For the most part, this build and hobby is being funded solely on Saturday overtime work. Which is excatly $100 cash. Work for a couple hours, get paid in cash and its gone before the new week even started.
Ovid_and_Flem: The 1G Hondas is a unique community for sure. It is a good amount of fun trying to find parts for these cars. And the people that have hoards of cool parts is what is awesome. Its like your finding a barnfind every time you talk to another Honda guy.
759NRG: Down the road (future), I would love to take on a major fab job that crazy. But once I get all the tools needed, just be happy what I have for now. Always searching for more!
nymayo: I (PMed) you regarding the parts. But can not figure out to see if I got anything back.
Crackers: A swap and turbo would be hellva fun! But everything around me on Honda stuff seems to be over priced to make it work for the challenge. Still searching tho!
Christmas Week 2016:
With becoming a husband and homeowner at the end of 2016, my father and father in law really went all out for me for Christmas this year. I never thought that I would have a race shop space of my own. After spending my entire childhood in my fathers race shop building dirt stock cars with him, its awesome to have a space of my own to do the same with my future child. Those where some great memories, and I want to continue that in the future. Man... this is getting rather cute and cuddly. Now for the cool stuff!
There is a story about a guy that did make one of these rear drive. He removed the front section of one car and mounted that into the back of his car, once he got it set up, he then removed the front engine. He also set up a turbo.
Wow, you got a serious deal with that header. The guy you bought it from clearly did not know what he had. The design looks a lot like a Chikara header which aren't the most sought after headers for these engines, but considering how rare these parts are getting... it's a header. Let me know if you need help finding parts. I have quite the stock pile for these cars and I also know a lot of people that have them as well.
In reply to BlakeSabo:
I did not get a PM. Contact me @ nymalo gmail.com
