Track Prep FN2R

[jyh888]

oil pan is not necessary if you keep your oil levels in check
mines done 65000km with a lot of track abuse with semi slicks and its fine
the FN2 sump is much better designed than previous K20s
oil cooler also not necessary unless you are doing constant 20-30min stints of hard driving
K20 comes with with a basic integrated oil cooler as part of the radiator

Thanks lukits, I would only be seeing track on a occassional basis so I doubt I would be doing constant hard drives. Btw you got pm

[jyh888]

Damn br3nny, your car looks agressive! Luckily we have trangular foglights lol if they were round it would look like we have empty holes! Looks very good though, ill do something similar :P
Btw what's n3rb mean?

[br3nny]

Damn br3nny, your car looks agressive! Luckily we have trangular foglights lol if they were round it would look like we have empty holes! Looks very good though, ill do something similar :P
Btw what's n3rb mean?

cheers buddy,everyone asks hahah its bren backwards...its a good way to kill 1/2 a day on the weekend, just have a drill .... sharp stanley and a small smooth file and some selley's all clear silicon (i find this one works best when theres water involved) handy

let us know how you go !

[EG5]

Keep up the good work

[jyh888]

Keep up the good work

Couldn't have done it without your help! Thanks again

[br3nny]

any future plans ??

[jyh888]

Thanks to all those who helped me with answering my questions regarding track preparation. I finally had the opportunity to track the car today at wakefield park open day, there wern't too many cars which meant I had more sessions and less presure from faster cars.

This is my first manual car and first track day, so i thought I would share my experiences and would be great to see any suggestions that would help me go faster! Being the first time on track, I was not very confident about the car at all as I have never pushed the car to its limits however slowly i gained confidence throughout the day.

The car is stock except for an injen CAI and I was running street tyres 225/45/17 on my 17x7.5inch CE28Ns. I felt that the car is overall very responsive especially during cornering however loses traction at front wheels very easily and understeers quite a fair bit. Running a torsion beam rear allows the rear to sit very flat through the corner, making it quite hard to get oversteer.
I tried to combat these problems by braking hard to shift weight to the front wheels, so the rear would lift up a bit and gain traction at the front --> this resulted in a little bit less understeer but a huge sacrifice in time. The brakes on this car are ridiculously shit and I really mean that, for a 1300kg car I think honda could have done better, but i guess we can only improve to make things better. The stock brakes absolutely gives you no confidence in braking, hence holding me back to go any faster. At the end of the day, my brakes are very spongy and don't feel that they could last much longer. So I have already ordered some Ferodo DS2500 brake pads, Goodridge stainless brake lines and will bleed and flush fluid with better brake fluid (thanks to JDMyard for sourcing this for me) which I will test out next track day (who knows when at this stage).

The car has very little corner exit grip most likely due to the lack of an LSD. Furthermore, the car does roll quite a fair bit during the tighter turns, my question is will a stock lsd from a dc5r or k20 gearbox be much of an improvement? Or should I be looking into aftermarket LSD's? And what the advantages/disadvantages of clutch type vs helical? And can anyone recommend coilovers for the fn2r for proven performance?

Overall my best lap time for the day would be in the 1.20s using my friend's lap timer, I think I can improve on this. Overall, it was a great day and great fun - i recommend everyone to go out there and try for yourself, you will learn more about your car after each lap and each session, definately will not dissapoint. Although I did witness a few unsightful events as my mates sti caught on fire and another sti with a blown head gasket

PS it was also very important to note that playing around with the tyre pressures made a huge difference in handling. At cold, they were set up to 33(front) and 36(rear). After a few hot laps, they rose to about 38(front) and almost 40(rear). I thought the pressure at 38psi the fronts were too high and so i reduced to 36psi and left the rears as is and i noticed much more grip at the front wheels. Another question -> whats optimal tyre size for a 7.5inch rim on track? Should i try 215 width tyres?

[SpoonS]

Glad you had a good first experience on the track. It'll only make you want to go more now

whats optimal tyre size for a 7.5inch rim on track? Should i try 215 width tyres?

I think (correct me if i'm wrong) it's 225 for a 7.5 rim.

[aaronng]

The car has very little corner exit grip most likely due to the lack of an LSD. Furthermore, the car does roll quite a fair bit during the tighter turns, my question is will a stock lsd from a dc5r or k20 gearbox be much of an improvement? Or should I be looking into aftermarket LSD's? And what the advantages/disadvantages of clutch type vs helical? And can anyone recommend coilovers for the fn2r for proven performance?

Clutch type work even if one tyre totally loses traction but is noisy, requires special transmission fluid and the clutch components have to be replaced every few years. Helical is quiet, works with standard transmission fluid, is maintenance free and doesn't wear out unless abused. Either way, LSD is a big advantage on the track.

Overall my best lap time for the day would be in the 1.20s using my friend's lap timer, I think I can improve on this. Overall, it was a great day and great fun - i recommend everyone to go out there and try for yourself, you will learn more about your car after each lap and each session, definately will not dissapoint. Although I did witness a few unsightful events as my mates sti caught on fire and another sti with a blown head gasket

Congrats. Going on track is fun and shows all the flaws in the car's set up. Did your mate run continuous hot laps and did not cool down? Or did he just have an oil leak which caught fire?

[lukits01]

The car has very little corner exit grip most likely due to the lack of an LSD. Furthermore, the car does roll quite a fair bit during the tighter turns, my question is will a stock lsd from a dc5r or k20 gearbox be much of an improvement? Or should I be looking into aftermarket LSD's? And what the advantages/disadvantages of clutch type vs helical? And can anyone recommend coilovers for the fn2r for proven performance?

annoying aint it? hehe
LSD choice comes down to budget really, you are already paying a small fortune for labor
so OEM torsen diffs are cheap and cheerful, aftermarket can be double the cost and plate types even more. Some kind of LSD is a huge improvement over none, and plate type another step up, obviously with the sacrifices in maintainability.

Look into AST and KW suspension for coilovers

[jyh888]

annoying aint it? hehe
LSD choice comes down to budget really, you are already paying a small fortune for labor
so OEM torsen diffs are cheap and cheerful, aftermarket can be double the cost and plate types even more. Some kind of LSD is a huge improvement over none, and plate type another step up, obviously with the sacrifices in maintainability.

Look into AST and KW suspension for coilovers

Extremely annoying...I think you would know exactly what i meant haha.
Since I won't be seeing track that often, maybe only a few times per year, I would prefer a helical type lsd and will most likely go for an oem k20 lsd since i can source them around the $500 mark.

From your experience, did changing suspension improve your lap times on your car? Why did you choose KW over other brands available? I don't much about KW, so please fill me in!
What are the spring rates on KW coilovers? And are they idependently height adjustable to spring preload? I also noticed that there are 3 variants available, what is best suited for daily driving and some track/circuit work?

[br3nny]

The brakes on this car are ridiculously shit and I really mean that, for a 1300kg car I think honda could have done better, but i guess we can only improve to make things better. The stock brakes absolutely gives you no confidence in braking, hence holding me back to go any faster. At the end of the day, my brakes are very spongy and don't feel that they could last much longer.

1100000% AGREE, very very shit indeed....you can't get any good feeling or confidence knowing your going to slow down enough !!!

The car has very little corner exit grip most likely due to the lack of an LSD

AGREE