1991 Civic Hatch, Just For Fun

mazdeuce wrote: Yes, you can do what I've done. There are better ways. Safer ways. You have to think really hard about your strut brace manufacturer and whether you trust them. For autocross, it's fine. If the angle is ok, I'd recommend attaching the shoulder belts to the rear seat belt Mounts. I've done this before and I think it's a better solution that the strut bar.

Yeah I'll have to check into the seatbelt mounts in the back. I'm going to remove the rear seat any ways. A friend that has a Mustang has I bolts through the floor in between the seat back and bottom. I was just looking at an easy way to get them installed for the short term. The bar is bolted through the body in 2 places on both sides so it ain't going any where. As I said they aren't going to be used for more then holding me in the seat while sliding around cones. In a year or so it will have a cage with cross bar for the serious stuff.

Harness bars are a bad idea. I've seen a car roll at an autocross.

Woody wrote: Harness bars are a bad idea. I've seen a car roll at an autocross.

Woody it isn't a harness bar we were discussing. I have a strut bar in the rear of my Mustang and I was thinking about hooking the harness straps on it the same way Mazdeuce's are on his CRX.

Not trying to derail my own thread, but only lap belts are required for Solo, and my assumption is that the lap belt part of this harness will be properly secured to the factory locations. We're also talking about a hard top Mustang, if it were a convertible of any sort this rules would be different for very good reasons.

mazdeuce wrote: Not trying to derail my own thread, but only lap belts are required for Solo, and my assumption is that the lap belt part of this harness will be properly secured to the factory locations. We're also talking about a hard top Mustang, if it were a convertible of any sort this rules would be different for very good reasons.

Yes they would and sorry didn't mean to derail your thread either. I just thought that might be a short fix for me and wanted your thoughts.

I have a thread on here for my car if anybody else has any other comments on this. Again sorry Mazdeuce.

No problemo. A big reasons for build threads is the sharing of ideas. As long as you understand the limitations of using belts lke that, and you're ok with it, rock on. I'd still use the stock belts on the street if possible.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Yes to the stockers till it goes full on race stuff in side.

mazdeuce wrote: No problemo. A big reasons for build threads is the sharing of ideas. As long as you understand the limitations of using belts lke that, and you're ok with it, rock on. I'd still use the stock belts on the street if possible.

good idea since most "racing" harnesses aren't certified for the street

you can even get a ticket for using them instead of the OEM 3 pt.

In the last month I've autocrossed once (won STS, 32/138 PAX, still a lot to learn) and drove it to the store for groceries once a week.
On Friday I cut out and applied some new stickers and packed for the track.
This weekend was the last NASA weekend at TWS before the track it torn down and turned into housing. It was a terrible time for me to go with work to be done and leaving for One Lap in mere days, but I had to go.
I ran TTF (badly) all weekend and had a ball. I half spun into the mud during the first very wet session but drove out easilg, yay rallycross! It took me the rest of the weekend to figure out that four of the corners that I had to brake for when driving the V here could be taken flat in the Civic. Learning curve was huge.
75 miles each way to the track, 8 20 minute sessions and sleeping under the Texas stars. It was a good weekend. I only wish I got a few pictures of the car on track.

Pulled the car out of summer hibernation, washed it, and started removing the old livery. As long as it looked like it did, it was always going to be Phil's old car. I want it to feel like my car.

mazdeuce wrote: Pulled the car out of summer hibernation, washed it, and started removing the old livery. As long as it looked like it did, it was always going to be Phil's old car. I want it to feel like my car.

Looks awesome! Miss my EG.

Car with livery. Car naked. Friend is bringing his buffing tools over tomorrow to see how good we can get the paint before putting numbers and what not back on for the upcoming track day.

It looks fantastic naked. Leave it!

Good friend. Vinyl on the hood.
And all my 90's fake JDM dreams are coming true! Still need to work out a few wrinkles, but I'm amazingly happy with it.

Dusterbd13 wrote: It looks fantastic naked. Leave it!

You might be right. Washed, waxed, and cut these little guys to cover the trim holes. It's a whole different car. Just stay back 10 feet and you'll be impressed!

What did you use on the hood? I've been thinking about a fake carbon fiber center section on the daily.

$40 big sheet of cheap CF vinyl from Amazon. I have a bunch left over, what size do you need?

Looks great! I totally missed this car purchase and ownership log. Entertaining, as always

Track day! Hour and a half away at MSR-Houston. I only did Saturday because I had agreed to instruct for the Porsche Club autocross Sunday.
I had a good time. I stepped back to DE3-4 from time trials. TT is fun, but being a TTF car, I'm the slowest guy out there. This means I'm circulating at the back waiting for the fast guys to close on me at plaid speed. OK, it's not that much fun.
In the DE group I have a bunch of guys that are closer in speed. I'm doing some passing as well as being passed. I can watch other people's lines and braking points. It's a lot more fun.
I'm not sure I like the car though. I drive back and forth to events, and the car beats the ever living hell out of me. It doesn't have AC. It's loud enough that I have to wear ear protection. For 20 minutes at a time it's brilliant, then I kind of hate it. And then I pulled the numbers from the weekend off and this happened. I'm VERY grumpy about the car right now.

I found it too annoying to have a car that is brutal to drive to events and mine wasn't even that brutal. I think if you can tow it then a race car like that makes sense, but driving it for hours to get to places for autocross or even track time is just something that gets old really quick.

Yup. For me it has to be a good street car first, and then a fun track car. Because for every hour on track, there's ten in the street.

In reply to Harvey:

It's a trade off on what you can afford and what you want to do. I still drive my car even though it rides like a trailwagon. But I have to say I still have creature comforts on mine at this point. A trailer for longer trips is in it's future though.

I have a trailer, I just dislike towing nearly as much as I dislike driving the Civic. If I'm going to tow, I'll get a proper caged car and at least be safer for my troubles.

I saw a guy at autocross the other day who shoved a motorcycle-style exhaust silencer into his Civic. Not sure if that's something every aftermarket exhaust could do, but it might be worth taking some measurements and looking at sport bike catalogues.

After autocrossing the CTS-V a couple of times and the 911 a couple of times and leaving the Civic to sit I decided I needed to do something. Today I raised it almost an inch and a half and reset the alignment. A bit less camber at all four corners, but still over 3 degrees. The difference in ride is amazing. No more crashing over expansion cracks, no more scraping in the driveway. I can actually drive over moderate speed bumps. The car is useful as a car and I'm signed up to autocross it on Sunday. Ultimately it's probably slower, but I'm not anywhere near the limits of the car so that's not a huge issue. I do need new tires. It looks like I blistered a front at the last track day. It's not so bad I can't autocross it one last time, but I can't track it. Combine that with two worn out rear tires and I'm down to one good tire on the car. That'll get me through the weekend.