Project Hazmat '09 Honda Civic Si

Today on free E36 M3 I got for hazmat.. 

Posted the photo of the crazy GTi last weekend... it had brake ducting hoses.. Buddy wanted new ones cause old ones have seen better days... 

Picked them up tonight! 

One isn't too bad but the other will need to br wrapped with tape to keep air flowing through it. 

No real performance value during the challenge but will let me track the car this summer before the challenge! 

Free leftover parts from friends' projects are a wonderful thing.

In reply to Daylan C :

Yep. 

Not having to pass emissions on the GSR is kind of a big deal. That allows you to take things quite far and still street drive it. Of course, it might be that Hondata lets you tell the state that everything is kosher regardless of reality. 

just replying to keep up to date on this thing...

looking good!

Once upon a time, I was looking at buying my second motorcycle - a Honda vfr f2.  A dream bike for me, it came in two colors and I found two for sale, one of each color.   I looked at both and couldn’t decide which one I wanted.  I had always wanted the white but the dark blue one was awesome in its own right 

so my dad told me to flip a coin.  I protested but he said it wasn’t to make the decision.  Rather assign the white to heads and blue to tails and flip.  I was to simply assess my reaction to the result.   Was I happy or disappointed with the result - THAT was what I was looking for. 

So maybe try flipping a coin??

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Not having to pass emissions on the GSR is kind of a big deal. That allows you to take things quite far and still street drive it. Of course, it might be that Hondata lets you tell the state that everything is kosher regardless of reality. 

This is certainly part of the dilemma. Hondata will let you lie about the emissions situation and GSR being more than old enough to drink alcohol means free reign on mods. I should load all my 90s Honda parts into a van with FREE CANDY painted on the side.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Not having to pass emissions on the GSR is kind of a big deal. That allows you to take things quite far and still street drive it. Of course, it might be that Hondata lets you tell the state that everything is kosher regardless of reality. 

I can install a Hondata S300 in the Integra ECU... so there's that... 

Here is the situation as Erik and I have discussed it today... 

The GSR sedan is a unique car and this is the first one I've ever known about. There were probably (almost surely) thousands made over the years. But it's unique and I don't imagine many still run today. As a honda fanboy this car checks a lot of boxes.. I've owned a B series honda before and I loved it. Financial constraints and some poor decisions on my part led me to sell it. 

The 8th gen civic is a wonderful car. Much more normal car and that's the thing... while very few come up for sale even close to double the hazmat price. They're readily out there if I want to own another one in the future. 

But of these 2 cars.. Only Hazmat makes sense as a 1 car.. I can't get rid of the focus under the GSR plan.. It's just not a good idea to only have a 25 year old honda. 

I need to decide what I want to do long term.. And I know this. There are long-ish term financial implications of owning either car... 

This is the battle raging in my head... 

I must have  missed the part where this car replaced the Focus as both daily and track toy. I thought you got this so you didn't risk your daily at the track.

In reply to Daylan C :

It's about not risking a car I owe $20k+ on at the track. If I went down to just hazmat I'd be looking for a 2nd car to get as the project gets less streetable. 

I want to eliminate car payments eventually. 

In reply to spacecadet :

Ah. I definitely agree with that line of thinking. 

I tracked my a daily a bit until I got to the point of wanting to do expensive uncomfy mods to my daily as well as beginning to reach that point where my track habit could impact my ability to get to work.

So, I bought a 30yr old Mustang. I could have gotten something newer,  it wouldn't have been what I wanted but, it would have been easier when parts shopping. Also, I figured that I wanted to live a little and that, sometimes, when you can do it without screwing yourself you look back on making a less "safe" choice as a good decision. Or, let's be honest, it could turn out terribly. I think the idea of flipping a coin and guaging your reaction to the outcome would be beneficial here, to help you do some soul searching for what you really want.

In reply to Error404 :

I've made emotional and analytical decisions to get rid of cars. 

Getting on track with the civic can be done very affordably and I'm already knocking important items off the list. 

The emotions tell me to get the integra, but the analytics support the civic by a large margin.. I had a lower shock mount bolt hole strip out on my EF near the end of my ownership. It was annoying trying to source a "new" one. 

Walk through the STS grid at a national scca autox event and you'll see what I fear. Cars that are missing trim pieces because the part or a mounting clip breaks, Either way it's something that's now unobtainable. The GSR will suffer from this being only 4 years younger than me and a more limited production car. 

All the soft and Hard parts I need for the '09 civic will be available from Honda and junkyards for years to come.. Because the civic shares soft and hard parts with the plebian regular coupe models..

The canbus system means I can properly tune it for power no matter if it's a NA or forced induction motor.. And there's multiple supercharger kits out there that take the car to 300-380whp reliably... 

The B series engine is a good motor for what it is/was... But look at any top tier current honda time attack car and it's powered by a K. One Lap CRX, James Houghton's ITR. Will Au-yeung's 9th gen... 

Only place you see B series these days is in racing where K series are severely held back in one way or another. Honda challenge, STL and GLTC. 

Also.. The difference in curb weight between Hazmat and the GSR is less than 150 lbs. 

Wait, you want a street car, a track toy, and no loan payments?

Get rid of the Focus, and add the Integra and keep Hazmat. Hazmat can be track/street until the Integra is ready to take over the track duties.

Win/win? Or is your buddy only interested in a trade?

In reply to slowbird :

Buddy wants a trade. Both cars are worth more than I have in liquid cash. Also not that simple on focus. But that's a whole other conversation. 

In reply to slowbird :

I think part of the issue (and Spacedet can correct me) is that getting rid of the Focus will require extra money because the loan payoff is more that the car is worth. That doesn't mean the Focus was a bad idea, because it performed a VERY important role and did it well, but it does mean that Spacadet has to work his way out of the debt hole again. He's got his poop in a pile and has a good path forward, but that doesn't make any of the decisions easy. 

My thought is to figure the best way forward for the next 100k miles (which is two years for him) that let's him get to work, enjoy his car hobbies, and not eat ALL the money. 

Ah, yeah. Gotcha. In that case...

...tastefully(?) graft some Integra body parts onto the Civic? 

And I put this out there because I think this forum downplays the ease of having a "play car" for a lot of people. A $2k car isn't just $2k, it, that plus the tires/brakes/whatever it needs plus insurance (and a lot of you are young and $$$$$ to insure even on a crapbox) or a truck trailer. Then there is storing the car which is hard when renting and/or sharing a house. 

Hazmat was a GREAT deal but how it fits into all of that is a bit fuzzy. Spacecadet is the one who has to figure his way forward and in all honesty, he has some TERRIBLE enabling friends. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Growing up never living inside of city limits skewed the storage thing for me. First time I visited a friend's apartment I realized "oh so *that's* why having 5 crappy cars laying around isn't  normal for most people."

Mazdeuce is correct. 

I'm currently underwater on the focus. 

I was evaluating the possibility of pulling equity out of Hazmat and paying that off quickly. Still considering that option. 

I've been going round and round. On keeping the focus. Ultimately I decided last month I needed to get hazmat and then drive both for a bit. 

The focus performs its job fantastically. 

It has 53k miles.. It's been in my possession 19 months.. This is part of why I wanted another car. I need something not depreciating to put miles on.. 

Both cars do it well.. And the integra is a far more civilized car than my last B series track car in 2017. 

The integra was a no until I realized it would probably do well at the challenge and had some benefits over Hazmat. Mazdeuce is taking whichever of the cars is in my/his possession to the challenge and I might be coming along too. 

 I decided to publicly mention the GSR so you can all give me good and bad ideas. Clutch's ITR transmission fixes a large problem I have with the GSR. Having a helical LSD is huge. The other bits are cool... But don't help make the car more reasonable on track consumables.. 

It won't fit within the challenge budget but it's good long term. 

I think I did finally find a baffled oil pan for hazmat that's compatible with the K20Z3.... It's $600 but that seems to be the price to pay for how much of a PITA it was to develop.. 

So yeah... lots of ideas flowing here... 

Mazdeuce is proooooobably taking a car to the Challenge. If Spacedet was coming then I would shift commitment more. Me taking either car to the Challenge this year should be in about position 100 on the pro/con list. 

Spacecadet has to come so I also have to go so he has a backwards 3rd row seat to ride in on an autocross run.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Mazdeuce is proooooobably taking a car to the Challenge. If Spacedet was coming then I would shift commitment more. Me taking either car to the Challenge this year should be in about position 100 on the pro/con list. 

It's down on the list... it was just what got me thinking based a conversation with klodcrawler... 

I need to get hazmat into my possession and then I can make a better decision. 

Daylan is coming, and klodcrawler is coming, and I'm coming. You don't want to be lame and stay home, do you?