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And IDFC, who had a bad wreck in their Civic while racing at Watkins Glen last spring, unveiled their new CRX Si build. As they opened the door to their trailer to unveil the car the first thing I noticed was a huge hood. I mean, there are hood bulges and then there is this hood. They have a K24 engine, shoe-horned into the engine bay, that is mated to a five speed transmission.
Make no mistake. That is the rad, not an intercooler. This beast is built to meet the ChumpCar Canada rulebook and defines the heart of ChumpCar. Four friends started off with the Civic, ran at CTMP 1.5 years ago when only one of them had ever driven the track (See their Civic in ChumpCar World Series at CTMP). Another, an oval track racer, was excellent on the left turns! LOL! Actually, he was great everywhere and his nerves of steel from oval track series meant he really dices it up in corners. The other two driver's gained their experience on the fly.
Fabrication with hand tools is the key to this build. It's sick! They ran extremely well all weekend long.
One of the most trick parts of the IDFC CRX Si is this amazing screwkey! I have no idea how long it took to make this, but when I saw the screwdriver in the instrument panel, I had to pull it out. And it was the key!
Initially they made me promise not to take pictures of the engine bay. Once through tech and running I was granted permission, but wasn't able to make it to the car. Needless to say, it looks great. With 260,000 kilometres on the engine, it does use a bit of oil! But it gave the BMWs a run for their money on the Andretti Straight!
And especially in the corners… even under the BMW sign! However, they couldn't outrun this next BMW.
