Justin’s AP1 Build… Part 1
It has been a rocky couple of months for Justin’s S2000; we last let off with Justin putting in some work to the car’s appearance in an effort to add his personal touch. In doing so it was a race with the clock which ended with him barely finishing in time to debut the new look at the Honda Craze meet.
Satisfied with the new look, Justin could now sit back and start to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Or so he thought, this was short lived as he was involved in an accident after the throttle stuck putting him in an unavoidable situation. Fortunately he suffered no injures but the car wasn’t as lucky. Today, we’ll take a look at the damage done to the car along with the process involved to getting it back on the road in its pristine state.
For those who may want to view this build from the start I’ve provided the link below:
Justin’s AP1 Build… Introduction
After the damaged panels were removed Justin snapped a few photos. Luckily the car received no suspension or chassis rail damage but the radiator support and left side under fender would require some repairs…
Saddened by this but still eager to have the car back together, Justin assessed the damage and promptly got the ball rolling to have it repaired…
A look at the repairs to the front as they were in progress. Justin was able to source a headlight and fender locally which made the entire process somewhat easier…
On top of the fender and light that needed to be replaced, the hood was also damaged beyond repair. After some searching locally, Justin was able to get a slightly damaged carbon hood which worked out quite well…
In the process of fitting up the bumper to test the fitment on the panels…
This was a success and the fitment was just where Justin wanted and it was time to move forward with the next stage…
Not sold on the idea of having a fresh front end which may not blend well with the remainder of the car. Justin decided to strip the car down and have the entire thing painted…
A look at the car fully sanded and prepped for the paint stage…
Blown! A shot taken in the booth of the S2K where it was left to bake after a fresh coat of white was applied…
Unfortunately, as a result of the collision, the radiator suffered serious damage and would require a replacement…
The Koyo unit was working exceptionally well for the period of time Justin had the car, wanting to maintain the same level of cooling he replaced it with a new one…
Between the accident and the bodywork stage the wheels received some curb rash. Being a very meticulous guy, Justin wanted to return to the streets better than he left, and had them resprayed going a step further by applying some Traklite decals…
With the car fresh out of the booth, Justin brought it home and tore it apart to begin cleaning the underbody and suspension components…
Justin was completely blown away because up until this point he had no clue the level of upgrades which were made to the suspension setup. Thus making the packaged deal he got all the more worth it, especially with the track focused plans he has in mind for the car. With all this work already complete, Justin can focus his attention on racking up some seat time…
The car came on a set of Ohlins Road and Track DFV coilovers which are said to be an exceptional balance between performance and comfort. Going along with these is a Megan Racing upgraded rear sway bar and upper control arms with camber adjustment…
Still not finished with the rear end, a set of EVS Tuning spherical toe arms were added for further adjustability. Not pictured are a host of Cusco braces used to improve rigidity and steering response…
Much like the rear, the front end received a treatment of Megan racing upper control camber arms along with an upgraded sway bar. A set of extended Buddy Club Racing lower ball joints were also added to the mix of things…
With the wheels removed you get a better look at the 4 pot Stop-Tech big brake kit with slotted rotors. The wheel studs have also been swapped out for a set of ARP extended units…
A look at the freshly painted wheels fitted to the front end…
In the process of adding some detailed touches, Justin went at the Mishimoto oil cooler an applied the signature logo with a coat white paint…
A view with the front end fitted back together where you can see a glimpse of the oil cooler tucked behind the front bumper…
Under the hood, a few changes were made to the intake setup by extending the pipe and moving location the filter. A duct was ran from the front bumper within the wheel well up to engine bay providing a cold air feed to aid with lowering intake air temperatures…
As for the interior, Justin made a few track day focused upgrades…
The most notable change was the addition of race harnesses, that will keep both Justin and passenger firmly planted in there seats while making some hot laps…
An extended carbon shift knob was added to the OEM shifter…
With the extended knob, it would align the shifter with the Personal wheel making it easily accessible when going full tilt…
The final note worthy addition was an AEM oil pressure gauge for him to safely keep and eye on whats going on…
With everything currently checked off the to do list, Justin snapped a few exterior shots as the car was now ready to hit the streets after a few months hiatus…
Along with getting the car back on the streets, Bushy Park announced they were hosting the first track-day event after the Covid-19 pandemic. Fortunate enough for Justin the car was back and in fine working condition to hit the track…
A few shots taken in the pits upon arrival at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit…
Justin as he makes a few adjustments to the racing harness in preparation to hit the track for the first time since owning the car…
A few shots captured by Michael Alleyne as Justin put in some laps…
To recap on the days activities, it was a good first outing for the car giving Justin an opportunity to get a full feel for the car around the circuit. Justin was absolutely blown away by the handling characteristics of the S2K chassis taking part in a few track battles. He was finally able to put the Ohlins suspension and Stop-Tech brakes to the test and the results were exceptional.The intake setup he went with proved to be efficient and worked well with minimal heat soak. The KoyoRad was amazing and the car saw zero signs of overheating and maintained temps within the recommended range.
The entire experience allowed him to have more accurate knowledge of where the limits are in terms of traction before oversteer. This allowed Justin to build a level of confidence that he could never gain by simply street driving the car. With that said, Justin believes he left a few seconds on the track due to lack of grip. Going in he knew the Westlake RS tyres wouldn’t be up to the task of delivering fast lap times, especially given the stretched fitment in place. This restricted him throughout a few sectors on the circuit causing his lap times to suffer. Using the Race Chrono app, Justin was able to gauge a ballpark figure as to where he stood in terms of lap times. Through the app there was a clear indication that under some adequate footing the lap times will drop. The sole purpose of the track day was to shakedown the car so he can identify both strengths and weaknesses. With this knowledge gained Justin can accurately gauge what would be necessary moving forward with this build.
Along with the good also came some bad, the car made it through the event unscathed taking the grind like a champ. However, the following day Justin noticed a loud noise coming from the rear and upon inspection realized it was the CV joint. Prior to coming into the track day, Justin knew this could be a possibility as it’s rather common to occur under heavy track abuse. Rather than replace with another OEM spec CV joint, the plan moving forward is to place an order for some upgraded axles.
That brings us to the end of this post, thanks for taking a look. Stay tuned for the next post when we get into the necessary upgrades to satisfy Justin’s thirst for performance.
All-Wheel Drive EG9 Build… Introduction
Back with some new content, I’ll be bringing you guys along for the start of an amazing build. Anyone associated within the automotive scene in Barbados knows you can’t go very far without hearing mention of Bally; from the guys on the street all the way through several forms of motorsport. He was and still is very much involved in tuning and engine building for several platforms selected to compete in a variety of racing be it drag, circuit or rallying. His portfolio is heavily populated with varying manufacturers over the years; however, with a large volume of Hondas and Mitsubishis dominating the racing scene in the last few years, that’s where most of his focus has been. After spending a large amount of time both researching and working on them it wasn’t long before he took the plunge and built his own version of each.
A few year back he was fortunate enough to come into possession of a pristine condition Evo IV in bone stock trim. Over time he turned this into one of the fastest Evos competing in B.A.D.D‘s 1/4 and 1/8 mile events on the island. With this feat accomplished, Bally was now at the crossroads in relation to the direction of the build moving forward. He was torn because he knew to go any faster a few key things would need to change. Achieving the power was the easy part but being able to deliver it to the ground would start to become problematic. The Evo IV is built off the base model Lancer which restricts the size tyre Bally would need to run in order to be competitive. The option moving forward would be to cut and flare the car; however, in wanting to keep the car’s body lines original that would be out of the question. Having faced that reality, the car was pulled from competition and sat for a while making a few appearances on the street from time to time.
With the car out of competition it gave Bally some free time which led to another project, in came the Honda build. Bally acquired a EG9 Civic shell with plans of K swapping it. A high compression K24 was built and dropped into the Civic with the intention of drag racing. After doing some private testing, he found there was a serious fight to get traction given the power coming from the K Series motor. Coming from the AWD likes of the Evo this wasn’t very becoming and Bally shelved the project pending a solution.
Being a fan of drag racing, Bally followed the advances in technology with the introduction of AWD Hondas to the sport. Paying close attention to their huge success over a short period of time, pushed him to research more about the conversions. Having accepted that the Evo would never return to competition, it didn’t take long for Bally to be sold on the idea of converting his Civic to AWD. Not having any of these conversions done locally further motivated him to take on this new challenge.
Today we’ll take a look at some shots of the Civic as Bally moved forward to prepare the chassis for the conversion. In addition to this, I’ve included a few shots of Evo mentioned above which coincidentally served as the basis for this build.
The Evo IV after receiving some much needed go fast goodies while still maintaining its period correct appearance…
When it was time for drags, the car was fitted with another set of stock wheels wrapped in used rally tyres…
A shot taken at one of B.A.D.D 1/8 mile events held at the Bushy Park Circuit…
Captured in flight…
Time slip of the fastest pass Bally was able to achieve with the built 4G64 setup before retiring the car from competition…
After being involved heavily in the drag racing scene and not able to compete any longer, Bally had some time on his hands and opted to take on another project to stay busy…
In the form of a EG9 Civic which was already prepped to accept the K Series motor making his job a bit easier…
Unlike the Evo project, the high compression K24 motor that was built for the Civic was to solely to compete in drag racing and wouldn’t be driven on the street…
Having put those plans on pause the car sat for some time, until Bally made a decision to push ahead with the AWD plans for the Civic…
Signs of how long the car sat were visible throughout the bay after the all motor setup was dropped…
Such a vast difference after some cleaning; the chassis also received a fresh set of Hasport Performance motor mounts…
First up on his list of things to execute was the fuel cell; being predominantly drag focused the car would no longer require the use of the larger OEM tank…
Being able to weld and fabricate, Bally came up with a design for the fuel cell and quickly began to execute…
A look at the fully welded unit complete and ready to be test fitted…
Following the drag scene as closely as he does, the tank was relocated to the front behind the bumper in order run a more efficient system…
Next on the list was to get the interior in shape, the shell sat exposed to the elements without front windows until the AWD conversion peaked his interest. It was finally time to give it some TLC and Bally began to remove the sound deadening not only to shave some weight but also to make some necessary repairs to the floor…
With the sound deadening removed it gave him the opportunity to fully access the rust damage to some of the troubled areas…
In no time Bally had the areas on the floor patched along with the tunnel to properly mount the base plate for the swap shifter…
The car will now retain a fixed bucket seat, so it was necessary to fabricate seat brackets in the optimal location…
Having completed all the necessary fabrication work on the interior, a fresh coat of black was applied to the floor…
Bucket seat fitted along with the steering column, Sparco wheel and K-Tuned billet race spec shifter bolted in place…
Bally intends on using a gutted dash skin to give the interior somewhat of a completed appearance…
Closing out this post with a shot of the Civic in the garage awaiting the next stage in development. I would like to shout out to Sunshine Photography and Regal Imagery for aiding with some of the photos for this post. Thanks for taking a look and stay tuned for more on this project coming soon…
TDSAutoMag 