My new civic: “VTEC slow”

I normally don't name my cars, but this just fits.

I recently bought a 2008 civic coupe with the 1.8/5 speed manual to use for a DD. 
A friend had traded his 8th generation SI, so I got a good deal on some koni sport shocks, a fat progress rear bar and some Enkie wheels with 3 year old Yokohama A052 tires. 
 

I still have my ES Miata, but since I won't put a roll bar in it, I'm going to use the civic as an occasional track day and backup autocross car. 
 

Yesterday I got to try it out at the Firm, with an autocross event in the morning and a track sprint in the afternoon. 

Despite the leisurely acceleration from the little 1.8, I got second place in class finishes in both events. It needs some tweaking, and I'm asking for advice. 
 

First, I can't reliably hear the engine with a helmet on. This is a problem as I need that input to monitor engine speed. There's several considerations in choosing a change. 

• it's a primarily a daily driver and I don't want additional attention 
• a lot of hondas with loud exhausts sound awful 
• at the end of a long work day, a quiet drive home is good for decompressing 
• one negative characteristic in a lot of aftermarket exhaust is drone, really want to avoid that 
• don't want to spend a lot 

I'm considering a cut out between the resonator and the muffler. 
 

Brakes on the non-SI eighth generation civic are tiny. It stops well enough, but I really got them hot yesterday. A big factor in that was that we finished our lap in the track sprint with four consecutive 90 degree turns in the bus stop, then returned to grid with no cool down. I have a new set of Hawk HPS pads and Centric rotors on the front, the rears disks have about half pad of something unknown. Fluid is fresh Motul DOT4. I chose the HPS pads for the car's primary role as daily and occasional autocross with a few track events per year. 
 

Are there more heat tolerant Hawk pads that would still work for autocross? I change tires for every event, if the pads are comparable with the HPS pads it would be easy to change them. If only for this, noise and dust aren't a concern. 

While it wouldn't be class legal for street class autocross, I'm thinking about setting up some sort of a brake cooling duct for when I'm tracking the car.

I'd go with a cheap-o intake/filter on a stick for the engine noise. Sounds way better than exhaust on a Honda, and only makes noise when you want it to.

In reply to Run_Away :

Good suggestion, but not street class legal in autocross. I can do anything to the exhaust downstream of the cats, but the only legal change to the intake is a panel filter like a K&N. Have to keep the stock airbox. 

Unbolt the muffler and try it with just the cats? If you like it then maybe just swap to a lesser restrictive muffler.  I have my 4 cyl truck with the muffler "deleted" and its not super loud unless your flooring it between 3-4k rpm.  Also no droning. 

Vibrant muffler for ANY Honda. They are superb in noise cancellation while also giving tone. We used one on our Champ Car and its absolutely perfect. You can hear the exhaust but it isnt anywhere close to obnoxious or annoying.  We removed one catalyst, one resonator and one suitcase sized muffler and installed a 2.25" Vibrant muffler(with black tip...OOOOOO) and that is it. Sounds great at speed and for long periods of time. 

Here is the muffler we used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018036Y8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the brakes, make air deflectors out of the Porsche or RS3 plastic pieces. They are like $12-15 from FCP Euro and easily attach to the front control arms with zip ties. There are some people who have tested them on differing vehicles(including my Fiesta ST) and have found a 70-100F temp reduction in disc temps. Add in a set of Porterfield R4-1 pads, remove the backing plates and some fresh fluid.

GT3 ducts -$35 for both!
https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/PKGT3FRS.html
or the more expensive RS3 ducts
https://www.uspmotorsports.com/OEM-Brake-Cooling-Air-Guide-Kit-For-Audi-RS3-VW-MK7-GTI-Golf-R-8V0-407-811.html

We got a group from work to go to the drag strip together. A guy brought his DD Civic, I can't remember the year. When we got there he put his hands on his hips and one leg slightly further and expounded: "I'm going to go highway speeds!"

Took me a few seconds to get off the ground from laughing.

He went 80+ mph at the trap and had a ton of fun doing it.