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LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/17/13 8:38 p.m.

Episode I – Introduction, Vehicle Delivery, Continental Mounting, etc.

Hello, I’ve been a longtime lurker on these threads, but rarely post. Anyway, about 18 months ago I started working for Honda Transmission Manufacturing in Russells Point, Ohio. We make most of the automatic transmissions for Honda and Acura products in North America. One of the great benefits of working for Honda is the Honda of America Racing Team (HART). The team is broken up into three groups that compete in Continental Tire Challenge (road racing), NHRA (drag racing), and SCCA Solo II/ProSolo (autocross). Last season was my first on the autocross team and I campaigned a 2002 Honda S2000 in STR, quite poorly actually. This season, I’m switching to front wheel drive, which I have a little more experience with, and will be preparing a 2013 Honda CR-Z for STF.

We received the car this week. It is a 2013 base model, which weighs a little less (no navigation) and is a little less expensive than the EX trim.

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(Pictures are with the HPD B-Spec Suspension installed and older Acura TL wheels we use for pushing it around)

Right now the plan is get a set on BFGoodrich Rivals, 225/45R15 (they’re quite scarce at the moment) and mount them on the widest wheel allowed in class (7.5”). I’ll save some money of wheels for our rain tires, Continental ExtremeContact DW, 205/50R15, by just using the stock wheels. To push the car around the shop and to drive it to events, the team had some Acura TL boat anchors wheels lying around. I went ahead and dismounted the OE tires and replaced them with the rain rubber.

Remember this space as I’ll be updating as we throw parts at the car and start having some events. Plans include, HPD Fit B-Spec Kit (shocks, springs, camber bolts), alignment, lighter wheels for our BFGs, intake, header and exhaust with dyno results, weight reduction (seats, rails, etc.), test & tune sessions at the Transportation Research Center, custom sway bar fabrication and tuning, and a host of event reports.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/17/13 8:38 p.m.

Episode II - Tentative Schedule

If you want to stop by and take a look, here’s a tentative schedule for our season.

4/21 - NWOR Regional #1, Chrysler Toledo Machining, Perrysburg, Ohio

5/5 - NWOR Regional #2, Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio

5/19 - NWOR Regional #3, TBA

6/1 - SCCA Match Tour, Grissom AFB, Peru, Indiana

6/9 - NWOR Regional #4, Chrysler Toledo Machining, Perrysburg, Ohio

6/29 - NWOR Team Challenge, Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio

6/30 - NWOR Regional #5, Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio

7/13 - OVR Regional #6, OSU Ackerman Lot, Columbus, Ohio

7/14 - OVR Regional #7 – Governor’s Cup, OSU Ackerman Lot, Columbus, Ohio

7/27-28 - SCCA ProSolo, Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio

8/3-4 - SCCA Championship Tour, Wilmington Airport, Wilmington, Ohio

8/11 - NWOR Regional #7, Chrysler Toledo Machining, Perrysburg, Ohio

8/25 - NWOR Regional #8, Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio

9/3-6 - SCCA Solo Nationals, Lincoln Airpark, Lincoln, Nebraska

9/22 - NWOR Regional #9, Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio

10/13 - NWOR Regional #10, Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio

Feel free to stop by and see the CR-Z and check out some of the other HART cars!

(NWOR = Northwest Ohio Region SCCA)

(OVR = Ohio Valley Region SCCA)

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/17/13 8:39 p.m.

I'll be adding some pictures... I'm not good about stopping and taking pictures, but I'll do my best.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/17/13 8:46 p.m.

Episode III – HPD B-Spec Suspension Install, Camber Bolts Install, Corner Balance, Alignment

This week, we got the HPD Fit B-Spec Kit suspension parts installed. The entire kit isn’t Street Touring legal, and some of the kit (due to B-Spec rules) isn’t the ideal either. For that reason we only ordered the dampers, springs and camber bolts (only got two… I think when you order the kit comes with four). The dampers are made by Bilstein and are custom valved to match the Eibach springs HPD picked for the Fit. It probably isn’t perfect for the CR-Z, but the Fit is pretty similar, and we wanted to see how it would work, plus it seemed pretty “Grassroots” way to improve the car for pretty low cost.

Parts! Beautiful piles of parts!

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I didn’t take great shots of the install, but this guy did a pretty solid job.

The rear is pretty simple, the HPD Fit B-Spec Kit (hereafter “B-Spec Kit”) includes two Bilstein dampers, two helper springs, and two Eibach 6” tall, 2.25” diameter, 350lb springs. And a crap top of Eibach stickers; no Bilstein stickers though. Curiously the rears came with installation instructions for a generic Bilstein front strut… that didn’t match the fronts we received. You also get an adjustable spring perch, and a pair of needle bearing that aren’t really needed for anything.

We put the car on a lift, because race shop. Start by taking off the wheels. To get to the top of the rear struts, you have to pop some little panels out. They aren’t bad at all to remove, just insert a screwdriver into the tab and pry it out.

The nut on top of the shock inside the hatch (behind the panels) will have to be removed (note that this is holding the twist beam up, so it will remain in tension as you remove it). You may need to use an Allen key to hold the bolt on the top. We did not. Take care to not drop the washer under the nut down inside the car. It tries quite aggressively to disappear.

There is a bolt holding the bottom of the shock to the twist beam. Removal is straight forward. At this point the stock springs should pretty much fall out. You’ll need to salvage the rubber part on top of the shock and put it onto the top of your new shock. For the springs, you’ll again reuse some of the rubber hardware, but you’ll also want to trim off the little tabs because they get in the way of the new smaller diameter springs.

Assembly is the reverse of assembly; be sure to reuse the stock washers and rubber grommet/washer dealies. The B-Spec kit came with new nuts, so use those instead and discard the originals. Or save them to trade for food after the zombie apocalypse, whatever floats your boat. Put the shock back in first; taking care that you don’t drop the washer down into the bowels of the CR-Z. It can be retrieved with a magnet, but not conveniently or without swearing. We got to do this twice.

Next up was the front, this too was very straightforward. Starting in the engine bay, remove the nut on the top of the strut. You don’t need to worry about compressing the spring because there is a second nut below that is holding the top hat on and is bearing the spring load. Once this is off, move to the wheel well and basically, unbolt the strut. This requires taking out the two 19mm bolts that hold the strut to the knuckle, the 12mm bolt that holds the brake line to the strut, the 14mm bolt that attaches the sway bar drop-link.

Once the strut is out, you’ll need to put on your spring clamps to unbolt the second nut on top of the strut. Once it’s off, you’ll need to retrieve a little rubber nubbin thing to assemble with the Bilstein strut.

Then assemble your Bilstein; again straightforward.

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Again, assembly is the reverse of disassembly. Make sure everything is good and tight. After installing the camber bolts, I set the ride height, then got the car on the scales to corner balance it (with driver). We still have some weight reduction work to do, so this will be in more or less constant flux.

Next we got the car on the scales, and this is what we got:

LF: 813 lbs RF: 731 lbs LR: 503 lbs RR: 548 lbs

Total: 2595 lbs Front: 1544 lbs, 59.5% Rear: 1051 lbs, 40.5% LF-RR Cross Weight: 1361 lbs, 52.4% RF-RR Cross Weight: 1234 lbs, 47.6%

Then we remembered to pull out the tool kit, floor mats, other random easily removable crap; getting us down to:

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LF-RR Cross Weight: 1318 lbs, 51.1% RF-RR Cross Weight: 1260 lbs, 48.9%

With the driver, Front-Rear balance improved slightly, about 1%, cross weight was unchanged. We still have some weight reduction work to do, so this will be in more or less constant flux. Unfortunately, we didn’t weigh it before installing the B-Spec Kit suspension, so I’m not sure exactly how much we save here. Maybe 5 lbs in the rear and 15lbs or so in the front.

Next, I got it on the alignment rack and got to work. I was able to get -0.3° (L) and –0.4° (R) camber. This was quite disappointing, as the in-spec range is -1.0° to 1.0°. Another team member found some crash bolts hiding in the shop, so after those were thrown in camber was up to -0.6° (L) and -0.9° (R). I think there will be some eventual slotting of the struts and maybe camber plates and if we can source some.

Nashco
Nashco UberDork
4/17/13 11:19 p.m.

I'll definitely be watching this space, I have a thing for hybrid racers! :D Are you planning on any mods with the electric bits? As far as I can tell, this is wide open for easy power gains since software only can give huge power increases.

Probably a dumb question, but are you using the 6 speed or CVT? I didn't notice above.

Bryce

tpwalsh
tpwalsh Reader
4/18/13 7:15 a.m.

Yep, I'll definitely be watching this.

Next, I got it on the alignment rack and got to work. I was able to get -0.3° (L) and –0.4° (R) camber. This was quite disappointing, as the in-spec range is -1.0° to 1.0°. Another team member found some crash bolts hiding in the shop, so after those were thrown in camber was up to -0.6° (L) and -0.9° (R). I think there will be some eventual slotting of the struts and maybe camber plates and if we can source some.

I'd address this as soon as you can, strut suspension and less than a degree of camber is no good.

petegossett
petegossett UberDork
4/18/13 8:04 a.m.

Awesome! I really like the look of the CR-Z, and hope you guys do well with it.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH UltimaDork
4/18/13 11:48 a.m.

Also want to know if you're using the CVT or 6spd and if you're doing EV mods...this could be really interesting!

alfadriver
alfadriver PowerDork
4/18/13 11:53 a.m.

I'm interested to see if the B-spec suspension is good enough for autocrossing- the GRM B-spec Fiesta didn't do so well on the Bspec springs, IIRC.

tpwalsh
tpwalsh Reader
4/18/13 1:12 p.m.

Ohh and as a note, your car is almost exactly 400lbs heavier than my 91 CRX Si.(Bone stock save for a set of Koni Sports)

Datsun310Guy
Datsun310Guy UberDork
4/18/13 2:40 p.m.
GameboyRMH wrote: Also want to know if you're using the CVT or 6spd...........

he said he works for that automatic transmission plant - I wondered too if it is the stick....

Gearheadotaku
Gearheadotaku UltraDork
4/18/13 2:56 p.m.

Didn't know Fit parts worked on a CR-Z. Learn something new everyday....

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 4:53 p.m.
Datsun310Guy wrote:
GameboyRMH wrote: Also want to know if you're using the CVT or 6spd...........
he said he works for that automatic transmission plant - I wondered too if it is the stick....

I do work for HTM, but HTM does not make the CVT product available in the CR-Z. Our car is mercifully a 6-speed.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 4:55 p.m.
Gearheadotaku wrote: Didn't know Fit parts worked on a CR-Z. Learn something new everyday....

They share a lot of architecture. That said, the B-Spec suspension doesn't fit great (rear ride height is maxed out and front is bottomed out and the car is barely level). We'll probably be swapping springs some this year, and will look into an upgraded suspension package in the future, but not this season.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 4:57 p.m.
alfadriver wrote: I'm interested to see if the B-spec suspension is good enough for autocrossing- the GRM B-spec Fiesta didn't do so well on the Bspec springs, IIRC.

I hadn't heard that, interesting.

Our first event is this weekend, so I'll get an idea if it is any good or not. In my brief drive of the car from one plant to another it felt quite good. Stiff, but not punishing. I'd say feels stiffer and more racy than the stock suspension on my 2011 MINI Cooper S, but not much. I wouldn't hesitate to daily drive it with this suspension.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 4:58 p.m.
tpwalsh wrote: Ohh and as a note, your car is almost exactly 400lbs heavier than my 91 CRX Si.(Bone stock save for a set of Koni Sports)

Dang, I would've thought it was more than that!

We still have a long way to go though... I'm not sure we'll be as successful getting weight out of it as I'd hoped. Time will tell.

alfadriver
alfadriver PowerDork
4/18/13 5:24 p.m.
LainfordExpress wrote:
alfadriver wrote: I'm interested to see if the B-spec suspension is good enough for autocrossing- the GRM B-spec Fiesta didn't do so well on the Bspec springs, IIRC.
I hadn't heard that, interesting. Our first event is this weekend, so I'll get an idea if it is any good or not. In my brief drive of the car from one plant to another it felt quite good. Stiff, but not punishing. I'd say feels stiffer and more racy than the stock suspension on my 2011 MINI Cooper S, but not much. I wouldn't hesitate to daily drive it with this suspension.

Here's the notes about the National- http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/project-cars/2012-ford-fiesta/solo-nationals-competition-recap/

It was interesting to see that, too.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 5:25 p.m.

I added some detail to the post about installing the HPD suspension... unfortunately my photos were too horrible to be useful. If stuff comes off at a later date, I'll take some new ones and update it again.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 5:34 p.m.
alfadriver wrote: Here's the notes about the National- http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/project-cars/2012-ford-fiesta/solo-nationals-competition-recap/ It was interesting to see that, too.

I share concerns about the softness of the springs. The HPD spring rates are 325 front, 350 rear. Thankfully, we have some 500lb springs lying around that are also a little shorter which will help our ride height issue as well.

alfadriver
alfadriver PowerDork
4/18/13 5:40 p.m.

Do you think that this class is kind of a B-Spec for autocrossing? Not that the springs are spec, but it's not far from the modifications that are limited in B-spec.

It's kind of an interesting class.

Have a good time! I wish you guys the best of luck!

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 6:43 p.m.

Umm... I dunno about the B-Spec of autocrossing. Though I think all the cars that are in B-Spec are in STF. Certainly many of the modifications cross over, but not all of them. I think actual B-Spec cars are in C Street Prepared or something similarly painful.

tpwalsh
tpwalsh Reader
4/18/13 9:21 p.m.
LainfordExpress wrote:
tpwalsh wrote: Ohh and as a note, your car is almost exactly 400lbs heavier than my 91 CRX Si.(Bone stock save for a set of Koni Sports)
Dang, I would've thought it was more than that! We still have a long way to go though... I'm not sure we'll be as successful getting weight out of it as I'd hoped. Time will tell.

Nope. I threw it on my scales when I had them out for my dp miata. 2176 with a few small items still in it but missing the factory airbox snorkel and rear fender lip trim.

LainfordExpress
LainfordExpress HalfDork
4/18/13 9:36 p.m.
tpwalsh wrote: Nope. I threw it on my scales when I had them out for my dp miata. 2176 with a few small items still in it but missing the factory airbox snorkel and rear fender lip trim.

Hmm... misunderstanding is obviously my fault. I meant that I thought the difference would be greater. As in, I thought the CRX would weigh less.

tpwalsh
tpwalsh Reader
4/19/13 7:07 a.m.

In reply to LainfordExpress:

Ahh. Don't forget mine is the heaviest crx, 91 Si. sunroof, rear disks, door belts, A/C, etc.

CGLockRacer
CGLockRacer Dork
4/19/13 8:04 a.m.

Very cool. I co-oped at the Marysville R&D offices and crewed for the Grand-Am (then Motorola Cup) team in 2000. It was a great experience.

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