[gotovato]

Hey all,

I'm new here. Picked up my 2007 SI coupe in August and have been enjoying it ever since. It was originally intended to be my fun summer daily while my main track car lost its motor early in the season. Being in Canada, Ontario, i only have like 5 good months to enjoy driving/track days and i was not about to sit the season out. So I bought the civic to fill its place in the mean time...this civic has already done 8 track days(between august and october) in my ownership..its gone through 2 full sets of pads and rotors up front...with the TSX setup lol...its safe to say i will be DRIVING this thing.

I have a pretty extensive build thread for my other car(mazdaspeed3) so i figured id start one here for the civic. Learned alot building/driving the mazda. Im sure it will be helpful here.

Which leads me here. The civic...even on stock suspension with intake header and an Etune ONLY was just that good on track. The chassis is better, the engine is better. The car overall seems just happier to be on track. Not to mention how freaking quick it is. I gave my turbo buddies a very hard time this summer with this little thing. Thats why it will now be my main track car while my other project goes back to street mode.

Mods as of now: Ktuned 3.5" CAI, skunk2 alpha header(stock header back with borla muffler), 50*vtc gear, rdx injectors, skunk2 radiator, TSX brake setup, competition 6 puck sprung clutch, tuned on hondata by Etunez, CMC delay delete, slave delay delete and progress 22mm RSB

next up mods: J37 TB with hybrid adapter, 07 TSX Cams, 3" Catback, Fortune auto 510 coilovers(ordered with 10k front 16k rear swift springs), wheel and tire package(get some 255's on this thing)

First track day with this car. Calabogie motorsports park. This was a blast

Competing in local time attack series "Ontario Time Attack"

Competition clutch failed on me...was installed by the previous owner and after seeing his instagram and how he drove...no wonder it failed on my lol. (my clutch on my other car failed earlier this season as well..i did 2 clutch jobs this year wooo)

these pads were Cobalt ER2 endurance racing pads....this lasted about 3.5 track days...the last track day i was stopping just on the backing plate...WHOOOPS
good to the last drop as they say...

Currently the car is just chilling. Ive parted out some of my "fancy" parts from my other car build and that will fund a few things on this civic. Over the winter i will be looking for a wheel setup for this thing, as well as maybe a head and block(for future motor build) otherwise that will be about it for now. Goal is to just get seat time with this car.


Not sure how many of you on here are into the road course but i will keep this updated as the progress continues!

 

[gotovato]

Join the 8th gen track and autocross Facebook group!

There’s a group?! I will join it!

 

[gotovato]

Fun parts ordered for the civic today. Should be here in the next few weeks.

we have a stagger set of konig hypergrams in matte grey. I have also gone with the stoptech c43 brake kit. This setup is all about reducing weight, extending pad and rotor life, and being cheap on consumables. The rotor rings are $99 per side to replace which is fantastic when you’re as brake heavy as I am.

Decided to go with hawk dtc-70 pads for the c43 kit. Those have been ordered as well. Can’t wait for my wheels suspension and brakes to show up. Some seriously nice parts coming in.

This bbk shaves 20lbs of unsprung weight per side up front. That is massive. The Konig wheels are 5lbs per side lighter vs the stockers. This should be pretty noticeable. Also went with the TL-s brake master cylinder. This should help when the brakes are hot and the pedal decides it wants to get longer. Having the larger master will mean it’ll take much much more abuse before soggy pedal happens. Awesome.

 

[gotovato]

parts are starting to roll in…
TL-S brake master for the civic
Wheels for the civic
Pads/rotors/lines for my other car

 

[gotovato]

Awesome! Can't wait to see all those parts installed!

Thanks man! Can’t wait for everything to show up lol

 

[gotovato]

I know what you mean! Im waiting on my EM1 clutch master and slave to show up. Can't wait to get that installed!

That’ll be a nice upgrade for sure. Deleting all the clutch delay stuff made such a difference.

 

[gotovato]

Awesome! Can't wait! This car is now my "fun" car that I drive just to drive. I do drive it on an almost daily basis with no destination. My daily is now a 2001 auto Integra that Im planning on manual swapping and giving to my daughter once she can drive haha! She's 12 now and LOVES teggys!

Haha sounds like a great plan. Now you can build the civic to whatever spec you’d like since it’s not the daily!

 

[gotovato]

True! I'm keeping my original plans for the car as I do drive it daily and want to keep reliability in mind. If the Civic was down and not able to drive, idk what I would do with my free time 😂

Funny you mention this. I bought my civic originally as a fun daily driver I could track while my actual track car was down(not having something fun to drive in the summer was killing me). Well now the civic is going race car and the race car is going to be the fun daily. Funny how that worked out lol

 

[gotovato]

That is funny how that worked out! What made you change your mind and want to track the civic vs your older track car?

There were a number of reasons for this change. The civic I took to the track once and immediately felt the difference. Chassis seems significantly more responsive to inputs to start. Not to mention the engine. The big thing for me was reliable simple track car. My other car is far more complicated, it’s turbo’d so high strung lots of heat and lots of maintenance constantly required. My little k series here did 8 track days this summer over approx. 3 months. All I did was change the oil lol. The civic seems happier on track, happier to be beaten on, handles better, and can be driven harder.

all of that said, my civic was almost stock for this summer. Once all the mods go on it should really be night and day. This ~195whp civic with bone stock suspension, skinny tires, and NO alignment came within 2 seconds of my 330whp big brake kit full suspension 255 wide r comp tire build in terms of lap time. That was enough to push me over the edge and make the change.

 

[gotovato]

Damn! That right there, shows how great this platform is! I wonder what the times will be after all the mods! You record any of your track time?

I have my personal best in the civic at my home track recorded. We’ll see how the time falls with the new mods. Adding grip and braking first. Power will come but I think just the brakes tires and suspension should be good for easily 3 seconds and if I can DRIVE, maybe more.

its impressive a sub 200whp stock suspension car was keeping up with all my friends and their 300whp+ built track cars. It’s almost like cheating lol!

For reference, some of my track footage

 

[gotovato]

Dude, that's awesome!! I subscribed to your channel! Nice driving! Makes me want to go out for a drive here. We have no track but we do have nice winding roads around. How do you record with all the speed, lap, and Gs, on there?

thanks for the sub!

I do enjoy a good back road cruise as well!! Being winter here now for the next 4 months I won’t be driving much. Just waiting impatiently for spring lol.

the data overlay you see on that video is actually footage from my buddies veloster N. He is using the garmin catalyst which is a lap timer/data collection unit that includes a camera.

the other overlays on some of my other videos are from my GoPro using the internal gps for some telemetry data.

I have a lap timer I use for myself but it’s nothing fancy.

 

[gotovato]

Well lately I’ve literally been weighing the options. Full race 3” exhaust? Or custom titanium exhaust. Price difference is about double but the weight savings with titanium is significant. With my other minor weight savings, if I went Ti for exhaust it would put the car down into the 2700’s. Wouldn’t take much more past that to get it into the 2600’s. Maybe I’m crazy but I think titanium exhaust will be happening this season!!

really wanna get rid of the crappy stock cat back.

 

[gotovato]

If you do decide to go that route, I cannot wait to see the pics and how it affects your lap times!

Yea I really think I’m going to go with the titanium exhaust. To hit the weight I want to with the car, without gutting the interior the Ti exhaust helps shave some good weight.

 

[gotovato]

Probably one of the nicest parts I’ve ever purchased.

Very very excited for these. The build quality is unreal. I was not expecting this.
Fortune auto 510 series with swift springs
10k front 16k rear

they include shock dyno graphs for front and rear. Build certificate is signed by the builder once, then the QA guy, then the final QA guy. These look amazing.

they are hand built to order in the USA. The valving and internal pistons are also built in the USA. Not just over seas crappy shim stacks.

Now just for my crazy stoptech kit to show up…

 

[gotovato]

Damn those are nice! What made you choose those spring rates?

Spring rates were decided based on the weight of the car, and the tire I’ll be running. The staggered rate will allow the car to rotate easier and it will help eliminate understeer but it will be very oversteer heavy. Going to take me sometime to adjust to the new setup that’s for sure.

 

[gotovato]

Couple of updates here as of late,


5.5 hour round trip for this great deal.

K20z3 long block with 70k miles on it. That’s like brand new for one of these fuckers. This is a spare for my car. It’s going to be getting some 9000rpm+ mods and some “it might see boost” prep but otherwise it’ll be stock.

SO clean lol. The valve cover underside is also CLEAN. This thing did not miss and oil change.

It’ll be getting valve train, ported type R oil pump, and arp head studs. That’ll support 9000rpm+ and a couple psi should that day come…

 

[gotovato]

Little update on this “spare motor”.

my Honda guy has more or less complied a list for me, most of which is on order currently.

arp head studs
Gasket kit
King bearings
Super tech springs and retainers
Type R oil pump
…
Forged rods and pistons…

it’s about to get exciting. He’s hooking me up on the engine internals so yea…it’s escalating. I’ll be starting to tear this motor down ASAP to determine the condition of the cylinder walls…if it’s in good shape we’ll hone it and send it with 86mm pistons and good to go.

forged rods and pistons will mean I can spin the motor well into 9000rpm land reliably…I cannot wait.

 

[gotovato]

Damn bro! How did you score finding that motor?! Congrats man!! Excited to see this as I have the same goal to get a spare motor and build it. Looking forward to seeing more updates!

Haha so it was listed on Facebook market place but the guy was way out of the city. Figured most wouldn’t be willing to make the drive so I did and it looks like I got a pretty good deal!
I’m going to pick up one more of these motors and just leave it assembled stock as another spare. Since I’ll be tracking the car heavily spare motors are great peace of mind lol.

 

[gotovato]

LOL that's awesome dude! Being in Hawaii, good deals like that are less likely to come by haha!

Yea I’m very lucky. It seems there are a ton of these cars around locally, and a ton of guys modding them/parting them out. Need to pick up a spare transmission still but those are going for more then the engines $$$$ wise lol. Crazy

 

[gotovato]

Ship one to me! 😜

If it was reasonable too I would! There are a few for sale locally right now. Must grab another lol!