The Solo II Nats have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we’re done playing with our Civic. This past Friday, we ran the car at a test and tune session at Central Florida’s Orlando Speed World, our local drag strip. The weather was cool, but definitely on the humid side. (Welcome to Florida.)
Our first run proved to be the quickest, the car covering the quarter mile in 16.151 seconds at 86.53 mph. A 15-second run is out there; now we just need to find it. Even though the car wears a Honda badge, it felt nothing like the CRX Si and Integra Type R we have previously run. More torque, a short red line and lots of negative camber made things a little tricky.
Here are our time slips:
run 1: first real run in the car
run 2: wheel hop top of first gear
run 3: felt quickest, but wasn’t
We redid the Civic’s suspension for the fifth time today. After Nationals, the constant pounding of 550/900 lb./in. springs have taken their toll on the GRM staff members, and the car isn’t being used as much as it should be.
So, we moved the 550 lb./in. springs to the rear, ditching the coal-cart springs and replaced the fronts with 425 lb./in. springs. The result is a much more behaved, yet still firm car on the street. Less hop, pitch and convulsions over weird pavement features and concrete joints. We’ve only noticed a slight increase in body roll…but not as bad as it was before the switch to Ground-Control coil-overs.
We’ll be at the Florida State Championships in Ft. Myers, Fla this weekend to see if the revision has dulled the Civic’s handling any. After that event, we are mulling over different venues for our mini-minivan, where it might be more competitive than it is currently in STS autocross action.
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