The interior has been stripped and a rollcage has been installed. One of the ways we know this is an older build is the cage is lacking a lot of modern features. The tubes for the A-pillar stop in front of the dashboard instead of extending to the firewall. The reinforcing plates on the floor are rather small as well. The seat is an (expired and well worn) FIA approved Recaro seat but has no head protection. For a racecar, this is a very simple build. The car still uses the original Honda steering wheel (which is way too big) and even the standard shifter and knob (which is way too small). There are no auxiliary gauges. I guess what you don’t know can’t hurt you? On the passenger A-Pillar tube is the electrical cutoff switch. A 6-point G-Force harness and a window net are also installed for driver safety. The harness has at least been properly anchored to the floor with backing plates and the harness bar is at the proper height to prevent spinal compression. The seat is also mounted to a custom bracket and Recaro’s double locking seat sliders.There is a single cross bar to support the cage in case of a rollover. The downtubes have no cross bracing either. The lack of additional bracing points to a cage that was assembled 20+ years ago. Even though we don’t plan on doing any door-to-door racing we will likely add some additional tubes to make this car safer in a crash and improve the chassis stiffness. From this angle you can see the giant Longacre rearview mirror which makes the side mirrors redundant. We also noticed a number of random parts and pieces that we can remove in both the interior and engine bay for reduced weight and improved simplicity. For example in this shot we can see lots of sound deadening tar on the floor, the protective cover for the ECU in the footwell, and the HVAC system and radio bracketing. All of this can be removed for easy weight savings. We also need to install the extra rollbar padding that is sitting on the floor. You can also see the discarded Borla muffler the seller tossed in. It will end up under the Civic if the tubing diameters are compatible.IT rules mandate no body modifications aside from a front airdam. We will definitely clean up the body a bit. During one of its last outings, this car got into an altercation with an old Mini and still has some battle scars. I don’t need the bodywork to be perfect, but less visible dings would be nice. The paint is pretty beat but it is serviceable. Looking over the car thoroughly we did not see any structural rust, just a few patches of surface corrosion on the floor. The wheels are factory Civic LX wheels. When we purchased it, the Civic was running some very old Yokohama A048 tires in, get this, 185/65-13. That’s right, 13” wheels baby.The front suspension is very tame. Ground Control Advance Design coilovers are the biggest modification. Tie rods, control arms, balljoints…all stock with no bumpsteer or roll center correcting parts in sight. The rubber in the bushings is very worn so we will have to replace all of the bushes with hard rubber and spherical bearings where possible. The brakes are the stock 9.5” discs, upgraded with Hawk Blue brake pads and stainless steel brake lines. The tiny brakes are why this car still has 13” wheels. The CX would not have come with a front swaybar, however a stock 18mm solid swaybar from a Civic DX has been installed. While we shouldn’t need additional roll stiffness a hollow bar offers some easy weight savings in the future.
A “Petty bar” is one that goes from a point high on the main hoop to a point in the passenger footwell. The internet generally agrees with this, though I saw one post that described it as reversing what must have been common practice at some point in NASCAR where the diagonal in the main hoop was low on the drivers side and high on the passenger side, leaving the section over the driver unbraced.
Following closely! My friend and I have a similar EF 2dr, with a D15b high comp vtec fuel injection engine We got to throw the original dual carb out as the class restrictions were CC only 🙂
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A “Petty bar” is one that goes from a point high on the main hoop to a point in the passenger footwell. The internet generally agrees with this, though I saw one post that described it as reversing what must have been common practice at some point in NASCAR where the diagonal in the main hoop was low on the drivers side and high on the passenger side, leaving the section over the driver unbraced.
Thanks for the clarification. I’ve updated this piece accordingly
Following closely!
My friend and I have a similar EF 2dr, with a D15b high comp vtec fuel injection engine
We got to throw the original dual carb out as the class restrictions were CC only 🙂
Any FB / IG page that I could follow?