The Traccord - 2003 Honda Accord Coupe

About 10 different things going on at once with the car, but the splitter is the big one. It's pretty big. 

Adding more brackets. The rope is not permanent. 

It does look cool. 

And it's strong enough to stand on which is the universal "good enough" for splitters I hear. 

I took it for a drive around the block. Got up to 60mph. Hit all the big potholes. It didn't scrape or fall off. Success!

looks like you're trying to give becky a run for her money in crazy pants ;)

apexanimal said:

looks like you're trying to give becky a run for her money in crazy pants ;)

A GRM shirt and pink flamingo PJs should become the official GRM outfit. 

The standing shot is my favorite 

apexanimal said:

looks like you're trying to give becky a run for her money in crazy pants ;)

The difference is bravery. My pants don't go past the mailbox. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

It does look cool. 

And it's strong enough to stand on which is the universal "good enough" for splitters I hear. 

Looks like the pax side needs to shorten up a bit.  Make sure to also test out beside the headlight for weight... ~70#s either side.  If it deflects too much away from the bumpercover it might be worth it to move those L-brackets further outboard.

In reply to sleepyhead :

Well, that was before the L brackets were on and even now the height is pretty variable. Just assume everything is "rough prototype" until it's on track. The plan with this one is to get it the proper height with the proper fasteners and then drive around and see if it can be reasonably driven on the street without ripping off and otherwise destroying the car. If that is successful then it will get some final shaping and beautifying. 

This is my first splitter. I'm making it up as I go along. 

Interesting data point from a conversation Spacecadet and I had. 

My CTS-V wagon was 4450 lbs empty and had 556hp at the crank for about 7.65lbs/hp and it was terrifying. 

The plan is to get the Accord down to about 2700lbs road weight from it's factory 2900ish lbs. Honda will sell me a new Type R crate motor for $6500 (for sanctioned racing, but let's ignore that) and a basic premium Hondata tune on the stock ECU gives 353hp for a power to weight ratio of 7.65lbs/hp. 

Coincidence or fate?

Two things going on right now. The first is the wheel stud issue. I was hoping I could trim a bit off the flange and get them to pop out and back in in the front. No such luck. 

Luckily it looks like the axle nuts are going to be nice and at least on this side the axle slides out with a gentle tap of the hammer. This is important because I need to press the hubs off knuckles to replace the studs. Not enough time to tackle that today. 

What I did do is stop by Home Depot Racing this morning while out shopping to get more supplies. 

Some quality time with the plumb bob and marker following the body line in the bumper. 

Screws and edging and all of that. These screws are actually too long and stick out the bottom but they're what I have on hand. 

And a six inch slab of poly sheeting. This needs to be trimmed to fit the height profile of the bumper and the height is a bit variable until I get the rest of the supports sorted so I just tacked it into place on the ends. Once the height is set it will be trimmed to follow the body line and painted black if it seems sturdy enough for the job. 

Looking at this now, with the edge trimming in place, I think we want to take advantage of the "no rules" aspect, and "cut less away" from the splitter and pick up more "wing area":

I'm a little limited in what I can draw digitally... but basically, make the splitter closer to square with maybe a 6" to 9" radius at the corner

also, looking at this... the car is definitely taking on some "bulldog" proportions.  I wonder if adding some "visual weight" to the rear would be beneficial?  One way would be to add something that'll encourage the air to go around the rear tires and not interact with their flow (which in the "top and front" part of the wheel is actually moving forward).  Maybe not go quite as high as I've drawn here.

Two questions will need to be answered through testing.

1. Is it possible to drive around like this for 8k miles and not rip the splitter off. 

2. In this configuration, do we need more downforce, or are we already at the point where we are front heavy from an aero standpoint. 

Once I have the first splitter done, making another, even just for testing, is an afternoon project. What I need to do now is get this one done and start driving it ASAP to see where the answers to the above questions lie. In general though, good insight and some stuff I hadn't thought about. Thanks. 

  It looks like something along the lines of the side sill extensions on an NB1 Miata - or something just a bit larger - are what you are proposing.  

Had a free morning so I attacked the wheel studs. Everything came apart nicely except for the wheel speed sensor. Going to need a new one of those. 

Interesting thing about the wheel speed sensor. The front uses the magnetic strip sensors that the aluminum rear ones did. If the front of the car knows how to read these then it must be possible to tell the computer how to read them in the rear. I wish I was smarter about the ECU side of this stuff. 

At least in the front the hub itself is the outer race. Good to know because if the bearing eats itself in the future it's likely that a new hub is in order at the same time. 

Pressed one stud out and one new one in to make sure they would fit. Application lists are something like - All Hondas from 1998-13 - so it was good to confirm that things did in fact fit. 

The other four went in nicely, assembly is the reverse, I love my shop press. There is something very serious looking about long bullet nose wheel studs. Yummy. 

Nice fab work.  Is it possible/worth it, to put brake cooling ducts in the splitter?  And for frontal cooling, a mesh grille, instead of the stock grill setup?  Don't know these cars or racing them for that matter.  Just day dreaming.

As an aside, low cars with low hanging fruit = crunch factor.  Have to careful with speed bumps, driveways etc. You may just get lucky with the splitter over the course of your trip.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

At least in the front the hub itself is the outer race. Good to know because if the bearing eats itself in the future it's likely that a new hub is in order at the same time. 

On every other Honda I can find with this setup, and with my experience working on the 91 Civic Si STS car... and my 91 CRX Si... 

The outer bearing race may have come off WITH the hub, but the HUB is not the outer race.

the outer race came off on BOTH cars when i did front wheel bearings. I had to cut the race off of the hub on the CRX to reuse it, and on the Civic I had new Karcepts hubs to install so it didn't matter.  

That bearing is probably on borrowed time, if not already borked.... those bearings are not designed to come apart. 



 

If it's anything like my older Accord, that is supposed to be a sealed bearing and it should not have come apart. Having come apart, it's probably time to replace it. The hub is not the race.

Did you maybe skip the snap ring and tear apart the bearing when pressing the hub out?

Huh. That's good to know. I'll pull apart the other side tomorrow and have a look see. I was kind of expecting to tear apart the bearing and was surprised by what I saw but maybe I didn't look too close? 

Thanks again for looking over my shoulder. 

In reply to Dirtydog :

Seeing if the splitter is usable on the street is a big part of the car moving forward. Aside from downforce, the splitter will give me a place to grab high pressure air from the center below the grill to feed to the brakes. First it needs to get mounted in a way that works. Then it needs a couple hundred street miles. Then brake duct mounting, and finally aero tuning. In theory. 

I was talking to Mrs. Deuce last night about bearings and wheel studs and making the splitter work and she made the comment "Getting the Cadillac ready was a lot easier. And cheaper." 

Which brings me back to this picture from March of last year. 

This car on stock suspension was fine. A blast to drive, fast enough. Brakes worked well enough for the grip available. It needed shocks but had I kept stock springs and just put on a set of Konis I don't think I'd be in this mess. Not really a mess, I'm still having fun, but the cascade of things that happen when you add grip is well and truly a pain. What's weird is that all I'm doing is trying to make the car as effortless to drive as it was a year ago. Go to the track. Add gas. Drive home. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Honda will sell me a new Type R crate motor for $6500 (for sanctioned racing, but let's ignore that) and a basic premium Hondata tune on the stock ECU gives 353hp for a power to weight ratio of 7.65lbs/hp. 

 

For the sake of this build thread, I'm going to need you to keep repeating type R crate motor. Reason and rationality need to be ignored. 

If we can't have 76 Dino 308 GT4 updates, 353hp will have to do. 

Maybe you should do a run of little stickers that you can put next to bolts which might be removed for typical modifications- they could just say "don't berkeley with it!"

I probably need some of those.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Maybe you should do a run of little stickers that you can put next to bolts which might be removed for typical modifications- they could just say "don't berkeley with it!"

I probably need some of those.

I'd sign up for a few. I definitely need them. For everything i own. 

I could probably stop the cascade of stupidity by throwing away all of my 10mm sockets. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I was talking to Mrs. Deuce last night about bearings and wheel studs and making the splitter work and she made the comment "Getting the Cadillac ready was a lot easier. And cheaper." 

She's ignoring the purchase price of the Cadi... and the mental toll that this picture took

because this thing was as fast and capable, and would have been devastating to have crumpled similarly:

because, E36 M3 happens...