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Acura Integra GSR Customizing and Modifying
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'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
Now about the 15" wheels vs. 17", it's all personal preference. You know how we feel about bigger wheels and especially heavier ones. Physics laws are not on your side when you go up to 17" unless you buy some SSR Competition or other light forged aluminum wheels :-)
There are many advantages to having 15" wheels and one of them is 15" tires are always cheaper than 17" ones. With 50 series tires (15") you also have more rubber to protect your rims from coming in contact with the road. With 40's, your rims have very little to seperate them from the road and the wheels will be more prone to dents.
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
I will likely need more time to get accustomed to the new feel than my wife will. The Integra is and will be much different than my Mazda pickup that I drive every day!
In other news, I got my Azenis in today on the Heliums and love every bit about them both. The entire setup tipped the scales at about 31 lbs while the-ahem-loved 195 T1S's on the GS-R wheels weighed about 30 lbs.
After going through a set of 195-60-14" Dunlop D60-A2 tires on my 14x5" steel wheels on my Civic (back in '98), I purchased Borbet Type-T (2 of my 14" steelies were bent after a big accident I had) 14x6" alloys from tirerack, along with the same Dunlop D60 195-60-14 tires. The 6" wheels made an unbelievably big difference over the steel ones. The car handled much better and I had much quicker steering response. It held the road better and the tires didn't squeal until much later compared to the 5" rims. Of course the alloys were a little lighter (about 1.5lbs) but the biggest difference I think was made by the extra inch of rim width.
The 14" steelies would be a good idea to use in the winter with snow tires if you get bad winters where you live. They 're also 15.5lbs which is the same as GSR wheels. See if you can find a set of used GSR or '99-00 Si wheels and put some 205-50-15" Azenis on them. Bottom line, try and go with a 6-7" wide rim. 5" rims are not a good idea if you want "to focus on handling". Even with 195 tires, you won't be getting the most out of them.
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
While we 're talking about tires.. I was on this very winding country back road last Sunday coming back from my parents' house with old R tires that are pretty much shot. All of a sudden this Bimmer is on my butt. He kept up with me until about 85mph but he was no match for my race tires (and suspension). I could not believe I was doing 105mph on this road with many dangerous curves. The most I had done with my RE730s before was about 95 and that was at their limit. The car and the tires held up well as I was passing cars on the right lane like they were standing still. I could now feel the difference of the new 22mm Comptech sway over my old 19mm. Would you know after the road straightened out, I had slowed down to 65, and the Bimmer finally catches up, slows down, looks at me like he wanted to go at it again. I ignored him and he proceeded on doing 90 or 100mph to show off (wow, like grow up). I only enjoy pushing the car at the curves and turns now and I hadn't done that in a while (on the street) so it felt very good.
BTW, called up Ground Control today. I wanted to get 450F/450R springs all around. They 're back ordered on those. So I went with 475F/400R because they were out of 475R and out of 425R, so I said screw it, I 'm not waiting till Aug.19th or a month by the time they ship to me.. and I ordered the 475/400. 3day shipping so I can have them installed next Saturday. I made the appt. already. So I 'm excited. I haven't really done anything major to my car in over 2yrs..
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
Hope you enjoy your new springs.
While we 're talking about tires.. I was on this very winding country back road last Sunday coming back from my parents' house with old R tires that are pretty much shot. All of a sudden this Bimmer is on my butt. He kept up with me until about 85mph but he was no match for my race tires (and suspension). I could not believe I was doing 105mph on this road with many dangerous curves. The most I had done with my RE730s before was about 95 and that was at their limit. The car and the tires held up well as I was passing cars on the right lane like they were standing still. I could now feel the difference of the new 22mm Comptech sway over my old 19mm. Would you know after the road straightened out, I had slowed down to 65, and the Bimmer finally catches up, slows down, looks at me like he wanted to go at it again. I ignored him and he proceeded on doing 90 or 100mph to show off (wow, like grow up). I only enjoy pushing the car at the curves and turns now and I hadn't done that in a while (on the street) so it felt very good.
BTW, called up Ground Control today. I wanted to get 450F/450R springs all around. They 're back ordered on those. So I went with 475F/400R because they were out of 475R and out of 425R, so I said screw it, I 'm not waiting till Aug.19th or a month by the time they ship to me.. and I ordered the 475/400. 3day shipping so I can have them installed next Saturday. I made the appt. already. So I 'm excited. I haven't really done anything major to my car in over 2yrs..
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
A good buffing would probably bring some more shine out of the paint, but there 's severe spotting and fading mostly on the hood, roof and hatch/spoiler and I don't think buffing is going to help much. The sides are not too bad but not like new either. I should 've taken better care of the exterior
I think I 'm going to race tomorrow to see if I can make the suspension worse so when I go to the shop (a Honda race shop in NYC) next Sat. they can diagnose it better
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
I recently bought a cover for the car since it is not driven daily now. It is made of NOAH fabric, and I have been quite pleased with it.
Is the car already white? If not, you'll need at least one extra coat of paint for coverage.
A quality paint job for the whole car might run as high as $2500, if not higher. There are lots of man-hours involved for surface prep and buffing to make it look right.
Or, you could give an old buddy from a Vo-tec class $500 and a six-pack and not care how it looks when it's done.
Warped rotors can occur from normal heating and cooling, especially if they get drenched with water when hot. I ruined a set of rotors on an '88 Dodge Ramcharger that way, but Dodge trucks of that time had lousy brakes anyway.
Get a set of good aftermarket brake pads for your Integra. Axxis Ultimates ($62/pair), Hawk HP+ ($75) or HPS ($50+) or Porterfield R4S ($99 expensive). A set of Brembo OEM diameter rotors ($28ea only! + ship.) will help against the slightly more abrasive aftermarket pads which dramatically will improve the stopping power of your car and make it safer. If you need links and vendor info let us know.
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
The only way you'll get rid of the dings and larger paint problems you decribe is thru the use of body filler and correct surface prep.
greddygtr -- Yes, aftermarket pads make a huge difference! Unless you're doing tons of road-course racing, you don't really need a full-blown Brembo kit. Just get the Brembo OE-sized rotors Harry mentioned. Those are some tough rotors for way less than the OEM part.
If you want quicker brake response, you could always get some steel brake lines. They're pretty inexpensive, and work as advertised.
You might have an easier time in the long run if you get a 6"-wide 15" wheel, and put some 215 or 205/50-15 tires on.
http://home.att.net/~soloII/j0244/
The SCCA one I have also but not on the car. Been contemplating whether I should put in on the car when I race only..
I don't like stickers that much but they tend to look good when you 're racing.
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
If the profile/sidewall is too high (60 and higher) and lacks sufficient reinforcement, you'll be rolling over all the time when canyon-blasting.
Seriously, when you consider the (very noticable) performance benefits of going with a wider 15" wheel over a 14", the minimal weight penalty and expense of 15's doesn't amount to much.
I do believe though, that you won't be much disappointed with the Falken Azenis even in 14" flavor, because they have superior traction compared to what you now have, so it may work out ok. Another thing is, the 195-60-14" tires will be sticking out of the rim more than normal and they don't look that good on a 5" rim. They 'll fit but they will look oversized (wider) on 14x5" rims.
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
1) They stick. Keep in ming I have only driven on the Kumho street tires and Toyo T1-s. I bought one of those garden pump misting things after hearing from others that they can get a bit greasy with repeated runs (hello, they are not r tires). I sprayed the tires after almost every run for fun, but in the runs that I did not spray, no problem. The hottest runs at the track actually produced steam off the tires. My brother and I co-drove my car at the long autox and we were running almost back-to-back without any problems and the surface was horrible (lots of gravel).
2) You can feel the stiffer sidewalls in the corners as well as at all times. Your car will ride stiffer with them.
3) You will run completely different tire pressures. When the rear is loose, drop the front pressure and vice versa. For tighter autoxes, I liked about 38F/32R, for longer courses 36F/34R, and for the track 38F/35R. These are all what I can remember from my warm temps (not hot). I really should start keeping track of them on paper.
Also, I think I may have warped my rotors and it actually happened after my last track run. I didn't do anything different, either. I always turn on the heater, pop the hood, leave the car running for a couple of minutes, and roll the car back and forth. Now, for some reason there is vibration in the brake pedal feel, the pedal is spongy, goes deeper, and almost feels like I suddenly have an overactive ABS system. What's up?
Regarding your brakes, it sounds like you do have warped rotors. Track events are extremely hard on brakes in general, particularly on the rotor and pads. I've heard of folks warping rotors in one long day of an HPDE. Using Brembo blanks, it's a relative inexpensive part to replace. It also sounds like you need to do a good bleeding of the brake system. A spongy pedal could be the result of cooking the brake fluid closest to the caliper during your track event, causing it to break down and acquire some moisture in the system. My guess is that replacing the rotors and then bleeding the brakes will get you back to where you want to be.
BTW, the guy that bought my '97 Civic DX put on a new GC coilover street kit and 22mm ITR sway bar. He wrote to me and in his own words said the handling feels go-kart like with almost no body roll, etc. He 's very happy. Today I was looking at the NASA results from a week or 2 ago and I saw that he came in first with my car (ex-car) in his class! He also owns a Type-R and usually comes in first with that. He 's a really good driver and better than me. I have never been able to beat this guy's times with my GSR. Anyway he was classified in the lowest class (NASA up here only uses 6 car classes and 2 race/cart classes) and he was up against other slow cars but suprisingly he was only about 2-2.5secs away from ITRs and Bimmers in much higher classes. Not sure what tires he 's using but they 're on the 14x6" Borbet wheels that were on the car when I sold it to him. In any case the car seems setup right and he won his class. I 'm proud of my old car :-)
My bad luck continues.. Last Saturday I went to a new race shop that some people from H-T recommended, to get the GC coilover springs installed. It turns out GC forgot to include the Koni inserts so we couldn't do it. We didn't find out about it until they had both front H&R springs/Konis off the car so I paid to have them put back on.
They did install the rear Comptech Tie bar and I had them change the MTF with Honda fluid which I brought with me. The shifting got slightly better but it still grinds when going into 2nd most of the time and 3d feels a little spongy. I 'm sure that 's because of all the racing I 've been doing and hard shifts for 3yrs now.
I didn't notice much improvement with the rear tie bar. I went racing the next day, last Sunday, and the car still snapped uncontrollably no matter how I set the Konis. I really miss my 19mm sway and the 22mm bar doesn't come close to it as far as neutrality and stability. The car is totally unpredictable even when thinking of easing my foot of the accelerator when the car is not in a straight line. The front seems to easily loose control too but I think that's because the Kumhos are shot. Can't quite figure out how to race this car now.. My times were still about 1/2sec. slower than usual (by comparing to other cars).
Anyway these guys at the new (new for me) shop were good. They immediately diagnosed my caster problem and pointed out to a front bent LCA on the side that I had hit the pothole. They also replaced all the LCA bolts in the back, plus a couple of Comptech bolts with better hardened steel #8. On the shock towners they used new nylon nuts and put anti-cease on most of the bolts when they put the front suspension back together. In the back when they installed the tie bar they had to take off the sway bar. What they did was jack up the hubs and brought them up even with the control arms like in a straight line. They then went ahead and reinstalled the sway bar and new tie bar and tightened everything down as well as the lower bolts of the shocks (forks). They said this was better for the endlinks and the LCA bushings so they don't get twisted. Maybe this made everything much tighter back there.. (I 'm trying to figure out the extreme looseness in the back - I even played with the tire pressures a lot, nothing helped).
They also inspected all the bushings and said they 're semi-ok but may need to be replaced soon because they look a little twisted and compressed but nothing major and more like regular wear & tear. I still want to replace all the LCA bushings front and rear either with new rubber ones or urethane ones.
I ordered a new LCA from A&H Motorsports with the bushings all pressed in, etc. ($198!). It just came in today so I 'm going back Saturday to finally get the GCs on and the front right LCA. I also got in the mail the 2 LCA bushings for the left front control arm that I had order like 10 days ago from Acuraautomotive.com. I 'll have them press these in as well so everything pretty much in the front will be almost like new and reinforced. Another weekend I 'll install all new rear LCA bushings and probably trailing arm ones too.
Something tells me that the steering rack may be messed up in the front or that it could be a steering rack bushing that needs replacement because at last Sunday's event when the car was parked and I turned the steering wheel, I could hear a slight noise that was never there before. There was a slight abnormal feeling to the steering. I 'm hoping nothing is wrong with that and I 'm imagining things. It could all be because of the bent LCA, I hope. If this LCA doesn't correct the caster problem, and the car doesn't feel like it used to, I will not spend another dime on the car. I 'll sell it in a few months and buy my brother's ITR. If the car handles fine again and the wheel alignement is within specs, I 'll probably keep this car because I don't know if I want to worry all the time about thieves stealing the Type-R. Although I 'll probaly crack down and buy it :-) It 'll be weird driving a stock "Integra" again
Chem: I 've raced with the BMWCCA too. I stopped going because there were a couple of accidents where cars hit the curb and got really messed up because they didn't design safe courses. The people running the local BMWCCA club looked like they didn't know what they were doing and not too confident. I heard it's different now. It's good that you have more than 1 club in your area. You probably have a PCA club near you too. They 're all over the place. NASA is getting popular as well. Auto-x is getting more & more popular every year. In the last 3yrs I 've been racing I 've seen the membership and participants go up about 40-50%! Our runs have also been reduced by 20-30% too because of that too which is why I go to 4-5 different clubs to race. This weekend because of the NE Divisionals in MA, there are no events anywhere. I want to try out my new suspension so I 'm going to the only one around which our sister SCCA NY region club in NYC (Nassau Coliseum). It will be my first time there. It's about 1.5hrs away. I have also discovered that the Connecticut SCCA club is not too far away and only about 1hr or less. I 'm going there early September because noone else has anything going on because of the Nationals in KS. So this would make it 9 different auto-x clubs that I have attended in this region! They are:
1. PSCC my local SCCA club - NY Region (15min. away)
2. NASA NorthEast (50-55min.)
3. M-Club (private BMW club, 50-55min)
4. BMWCCA (1-1.25hrs)
5. PCA (Porsche Club, 50-55min.)
6. New Jersey SCCA North Region (1.5hrs)
7. WSCC - Westchester Club, goes by SCCA ru
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
www.imagestation.com/
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Just wait till I get the good pictures up
EDIT: I had to break up the picture links because they cannot be longer than 115 characters. To see them, you will probably have to paste them into your browser window.
I 'll probably be using Truechoice to revalve & rebuild my Konis.
Remember my competitor had 525lb springs? (plus LSD, 9lb flywheel, etc.) Well his Konis are busted! He 's getting them rebuilt and revalved right now! I expect mine to go very fast after I install the GCs tomorrow. I think mine are already on their way out. My car has seen a lot of racing and abuse with the last 55-60 autox- events :-) He has about the same # of events under his belt but about 20 of them were with his 525F/425R GCs.
I called Koni and they told me at least an 8 week turn around time!! Truechoice I hear is 2-3 weeks. I 'd rather get it done with Koni though so I think I 'll wait till the winter time when everything slows down.. Right now it's crazy because of the Nationals next month. There are not too many companies that do this, or good companies that are authorized and know what they 're doing to properly revalve and rebuild Konis so we have to put up with the long turn around times.
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
One last autox for the summer for me
What do you guys think about the Mini Cooper S?
Spring rate is the secrect in long sweepers or much stiffer Koni settings than what you normally run.
When I race with NASA & the M-club that design very fast courses (was in 3d gear the last time!) I have the rear Konis at about 90% stiff and the front almost 3/4! That's the only time I hold a good line and accelerate well in the big sweepers. Kind of screws me up at the slalom but they usually only have 1 small slalom at the end before the finish line to slow everyone down..
Anyway my new GCs are working out really well. I went to the NY Region at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, NYC and came in 8th overall out of 122 cars and PAXED 12th for the first time in my life! That's with a DSP pax factor of .820!
Check out the results if you feel like, go to the bottom for the overall raw & pax standings
http://autox4u.com/2002results/8112002nyr.htm
There 's a guy with a GSR there that dominates STS. He has 650F/600R GCs!! With Koni single adjustables and Falken Azenis. He had the Konis revalved for 600lbs before he got this setup when he had 450F/400R GCs. He was about 1.4sec behind me but had to leave after his morning runs. I 'm sure he would 've been faster in the afternoon. He 's always 1-2secs ahead of all the other STS cars!
I think my new GCs and the replacement of the bent control arm made me about 3/4sec. faster. I never had a raw rank of 8th out of 122 cars before nor had I ever PAXed 12th. So I 'm happy. The ride is kind of sucks. When I drove home from the shop I had them all the way up which was stock height (it felt like I was riding in an SUV, it was so high, I had forgotten how stock height feels) and the ride felt fine, almost stock like. I did this to see if they would settle at all. Nope, not 1mm. So then Sat. night I lowered them about 1.25" all around and drove around the neighborhood a bit. It wasn't bad but not as good as when they were all the way up. Then the next day I drove 60mi. to NYC, over NYC cracked and pothole infested roads and it wasn't pleasant! The lowering made the ride much worse because I drove over most of those roads coming back from the race shop at stock height and the ride was much better. So I think this tells me that the Konis cannot handle the lowering too well and need to be rebuilt plus revalved.
I wrote to Truechoice that rebuilts lots of Konis asking many questions like what they replace when they rebuild, how they revalve, etc. I finally got an e-mail back today and one of the things they said was that 475 is too much spring for the Koni Sports and that 400 is about the limit. They recommended that I should have them rebuilt and revalved asap because overtime there could be extenisve damage where I 'd need to get new shocks. Yeah but at $95 rebuilt ea. + $15 for revalve, that's $440 + all the shipping back & forth is almost the cost of new shocks!
One thing I have to say though, the higher spring rates didn't help with turn-in much, only on the sweepers. I don't feel they help in really tight turns. The car drifted if I tried to take tight turns fast, so I just slowed down (in a straight line, I still have much oversteer..) more before the turn and feathered the gas at the start of the turn carefully so I didn't push out.
Anway I 'm still getting used to them, the car and how the Konis should be set so I hope to get better & faster with it and find a happy medium with the Konis.
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
It also has to do with balancing the car.. = corner weighing! I 'm sure my car is not equally lowered all around and when I measured the distance from the ground in the front & rear there was 1/2" difference! With the rear being higher..
A lot of factors come in to play when auto-xing and to have a well balanced car. Talk to PROs and they 'll tell you that higher spring rates doesn't not translate to better or quicker turn-in. Soft springs give you the quick turn-in. Damping is also extremely important in auto-x, more so than in road racing. My Konis I have come to the conclusion are pretty shot. After 55-60 auto-x events and agressive street driving, they definitely need to be reconditioned (don't know about shortened.. yet unless I drop 2+") and revalved.
Don't forget I have higher spring rates in the front 475F/400R and with my inherent FWD characteristics the car was pushing. If I eased off the gas though, I could get the car to come around because I was running the shocks pretty much FULL firm in the back and about 80-90% in the front. Had I softened up the shocks in the front more I would 've gotten a little better turn-in because I experienced that with my H&Rs. The car is different now though so I have to experiment more. I don't expect much improvement though because the shocks are pretty worn.
The reason the ride got worse (still tolerable) after I lowered the car is pretty simple actually. BTW, the bumpstops are cut in half and I know I 'm not event touching them because I looked at them and they look just like when we cut them.. Before the lowering, I was getting the more shock travel so the piston traveled or got compressed a certain distance down into the shock body. Now it has to travel 1.25" deeper into the shock because it has a starting point of 1.25" lower. The shock internals may handle this extra travel deeper into the shock, differently than before especially because the shocks are not new and most likely because they cannot handle the 475lb/in. spring rate, they have an adverse reaction to the "too much" rate. Also the firmer I set them the worse the ride gets. Anything more than 1/2 firm (front or rear) the car gets really bouncy especially in the back and it doesn't feel good on the street, worse than with the H&Rs. I REALLY think it's because the shocks need to be revalved for the higher rates and rebuilt. They 're not properly damping the oscillations plus I have less shock travel now that the car is lowered. Before at stock height, I could tell the shocks were traveling more thus giving me a more plush and very tolerable, even comfortable ride. I hope all this came out the way I meant it and you understand what I 'm trying to say
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
My car is definitely a bit softer but sticks (sometimes on-off-on-off if terrain is not perfect). With the way I have set it up, I have to go in stupid fast and mess up in the turn to lose traction unpredictably. Even four wheel drifts (no, not rally-style
I am starting to realize more and more the importance of tires (!) and the matching of springs to shocks. My brother will probably spring for the same wheel and tire package as me.
I go to college this coming Wednesday. I will most likely not autocross for the rest of the year as I will be busy with school. Just now I totalled my racing costs--just registration fees for events, etc. for this summer--to be $1000. Money well spent, I think. Anyway, I will take my car to college for a couple of weeks and see if I need it. If not, I will let my sister borrow it for an extended period of time and she will sell her car. I just won't stand for my car to sit for days or weeks on end without being driven...I know that is not good on the car.
It is amazing how much I have learned in the one year I have had my car (bought July '01) and in this Summer O' Racing. So many mistakes, so many successes, and a lot of quality time spent with my brother--we did every event together.
With school and its responsibilities, I doubt I will have much time to waste on the internet with cars. I hardly have an urge to check H-T anymore because I really have learned all I want to...imagine that. If I do not have the time to check this forum in the future, I would like to go ahead and thank all of you for the knowledge and fellowship. Take care.
Regards,
Thomas
-Lexol leather condtioner and cleaner (two bottles) available at local Pep Boys, etc.
-P21S Carnuba Wax, 3M Hand Glaze= carcareonline.com
-Nice towels for waxing (that NEVER touch the ground or fabric softner) = Autozone, etc.
-Kumho ECSTA Supra 712 tires= try tirerack.com if not cheaper locally---good tires that are definitely a step up from the stockers, great in the rain, cheap, and good treadwear. Many other options, however (SO-3, RE730, Toyo T1-S, BFG KDWD)
-Integra Type R Rear Sway Bar 22mm (best single, inexpensive handling upgrade, sharper turn-in, less roll)= A&H Motor online site
-AEM Cold Air Intake (best inexpensive power upgrade)== coximport.com
Other than that, I would invest in decent gas (I personally like Chevron the best because of their additive package but really not a big deal), good oil (cheap to expensive: Halvoline, Chevron, Valvoline, Mobil One, Redline), good oil filter (anything made by Champion which can be labeled STP, Bosch, or Mobil One), and a decent tire pressure gauge (supposedly Camel makes a pretty accurate one--I like their $10 digital one).
Sorry, this is probably more than you wanted to know. I would highly recommend the CAI and sway bar upgrades as they will both transform your car.
You 're probably one of the most level headed 18yr olds I 've seen in a long time. You 're not allowing anything to interfere with your school and future plans. Had I been in your shoes I would 've continued to auto-x or race on weekends and during school recess. For that I commend you and I wish I were like you 10yrs ago (ok 18yrs..) when I was off to college. Luckily for me, I was driving old clunkers but would occasionally drag race at a light as many teenagers used to do back then.
I know you 'll do well in school but I 'll wish you good luck anyway.
I 'm glad Casey and I haven't influenced you enough and you decided not to race for the entire school year :-) It's a good thing you experienced those things early and probably got them out of you system..
You see Casey and I are married, so we can't go out as much with our friends to a bar or club and have fun, or do the things we used to when we were younger and single, so we substitute all that with racing! It's more fun anyway!
Have a good semester and don't forget to drop by and say hi! What are you majoring in anyway?
'06 Civic LX coupe
'11 BMW 335i coupe xDrive
'13 Honda Accord sedan (wife's car)
On another topic, have your wives ever expressed any interest in going to or actually driving at an autox? I've seen several husband/wife combos that have lots of fun co-driving a car.
As far as my car plans, I am planning to not put any more money into the hatch (motor swap if engine dies, etc.). Six or seven years down the line I would like to look into a Mini Cooper S, WRX, MR2, Miata, etc. car...something fun, under my means, easy to mod, decently reliable, and well-balanced.
Before I forget, here are the pictures from the last track event: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291517277
Had Dunlop W10 on before and a corner I used to take at 40 without squealing the Kumho’s are at full song at 30.
Kumho street tires: I recommended these for street driving for their price, treadwear, and effectiveness in the rain. Definitely not close to a very high performance street tire or race tire...trust me, I have driven on them. They are actually quite decent on a road racing course because once hot, they grip pretty well. For autox, they aren't so great because they never get warm enough in their 40 some seconds of action. At about $58 a pop for the Kumhos in 205/50/15 form, they are not a bad investment for many people. They will wear a lot longer than the Falken Azenis that I am currently streeting and racing on