So, let’s have a look at the things we’ve done to it so far in preparation for its inaugural outing. Firstly, we turned our attention to the suspension. We purchased the car with an air ride system so the need for a set of coilovers that were able to withstand the rigours of track use and suitable for the road was paramount. Enter Yellow Speed Racing. We’ve utilised the ever reliable Dynamic Pro Sport kit on the BMW. Not only will this firm everything up for the track, but it’ll also retain OEM-like comfort for the road too. Johnny, co-director of Tegiwa, is super impressed with these coilovers out on the road!

To allow for increased adjustability on the geometry side of things, Hardrace offered to help us with a set of camber and toe adjustable rear arms as well as upgraded trailing arms. This makes for increased adjustability so we can dial in the setup of car to exactly where it needs to be for the track. A big shout out to Area Motorsport who not only fitted the aforementioned parts, but also provided us with a track geometry setup too.

Secondly, we maximised braking performance with a set of Ferodo DSUNO brake pads. DSUNO are the latest heavy duty racing material from Ferodo Racing and has replaced the DS2.11. They’re already race proven in GT, touring car, & rally so we’re excited to see how they perform out on track. We’ve used a set of Ferodo DS2500 pads on the rear to help provide a bit of extra biting force too.

It goes without saying that safety is our number one priority whilst setting fast lap times. So we installed a SW Motorsports bolt-in half roll cage with a rear seat delete kit. This will keep us safe should the worst happen. Inside the cockpit we’ve replaced the OEM seats with two Cobra Nogaro bucket seats complete with supporting hardware. As we know from our Golf GTI build, these seats are perfect for the road but provide plenty of stability for track too. Keeping us strapped firmly in place are Schroth Clubman 6 point harnesses.

To comply with Time Attack regulations we’ve also used a Tegiwa heavy duty towing strap that fits a plethora of BMW’s. Another stipulation of competing in Time Attack is that the car must have a fire extinguisher. This is taken care of by Kap Industries with their fire extinguisher bracket and a Protrust Firesense 2.4 litre handheld extinguisher which is mounted neatly underneath the passenger seat.

Our good friends at Garmin kindly helped us out with their super popular Garmin Catalyst that are taking the market by storm at the moment. This is mounted neatly on the dash so we can see where to improve, check our timing and also when we can take it easy. At Tegiwa we’re massive fans of the Catalyst, and in Time Attack when timing is everything, this is an absolute no brainer when it comes to gathering data and driver improvement.

We’ve swapped out the Rotiform OZR wheels with a set of flow formed 2Forge ZF6’s. These will help to reduce unsprung weight whilst also standing up to the thrashing they’ll endure over the kerbs. We’ve opted for a square setup with our wheels utilising an 18×9 setup at all four corners. For racing, we’re required to use a Pirelli tyre, so we have Trofeo-R 235/40/18 up front with 255/35/18 on the rear. Out on the road though, we’re using the latest performance tyre from Michelin with their Pilot Sport 5’s. The PS5’s that we’re using are a 235/40/18 on the front with a 265/35/18 on the back.

In terms of power, the car was advertised as being mapped, however, it was apparent that this wasn’t the case after a dyno tuning session with Ti Motorsport. It was clear an off-the-shelf remap that was marketed with these figures was being used as the car made a lowly 350bhp, just 15 horsepower more than standard. If you ever needed proof that flash maps aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, then this is it. With a custom Ti gearbox and engine map, the car now boasts a staggering 443.8 horsepower with 451.6 lbs. ft torque. This means that the ZF gearbox now boasts manual characteristics whilst also having a better torque capacity.

This power figure is achievable through the help of an uprated fuel pump, a Tegiwa B58 downpipe and a Milltek resonated cat-back exhaust. A massive shoutout to Milltek Sport for getting involved with this build, we can confirm it sounds absolutely mega and the carbon tips look the business!

We’re excited to get the M240i out on track and put in some hot laps in the Club 2WD class! Make sure you stay tuned to our socials to see how we get on over the weekend.

Over the years the Tegiwa Fast Fleet has seen many cars come and go, with some special builds along the way too, including our Honda NSX and BTCC DC5. Now, when we let our cherished FK8 go earlier this year, the plan was always to replace it with something else that was suitable for track duties, but more importantly it had to be rear wheel drive.

After searching through the classifieds for a couple of months waiting for the right car to pop up, we came across this immaculate BMW M240i. Equipped with a plethora of upgrades already, and sporting BMW’s now legendary B58 engine (which also features in the A90 Supra), this was the one for us. So, here it is, the latest car to the Tegiwa Fast Fleet!

Why are the wheels wider than the tyres?

We’ve already stamped our identity on in the form of a TE61WA number plate and sun strip, but you’d be forgiven for wondering why it’s sat so low and has got wider alloys than it has tyres. Well, that’s because we’ve not given it the Tegiwa treatment yet, but we’ll delve into that a bit later.

The car is currently sat on Air Lift Performance suspension, which literally drops the car onto its backside courtesy of 4 air bags located on each corner of the car. It’s also wearing a set of Rotiform OZR with stretched tyres, again, ideal for turning heads at a show (if you’re into that kind of thing) but not great for putting in hot laps around Oulton Park. With the ride height raised to a more sensible level, it helps to give an idea of what it’s eventually going to look like once the air ride is taken off.

As you can see it also a smattering of carbon goodies already including a front splitter, wing mirrors, diffuser boot lip spoiler and M4 GTS spoiler. We’re not totally overwhelmed by the double spoiler situation happening on the rear, so we’ll most likely be removing one. Black kidney grills make for some nice contrast up front whilst the blue wrapped v-bars are a nice touch by the previous owner too.

What have we bought the car for?

Last year we carried out the ultimate track day tyre test, putting several track day orientated tyres through their paces on our Civic FN2. Due to the success of that test, we thought we’d carry out another tyre test, but this time with a bunch of different tyres and a RWD car. We’ll bring your more information about our latest tyre test in the following weeks, so make sure you stay tuned for that!

What are our plans for it?

We’ve got a whole host of upgrades planned for this car already and with the straight six, turbocharged B58 engine producing 335bhp, things are going to get a whole lot spicier very soon!

First on the cards, of course, is to replace the air ride system with a set of Yellow Speed Racing Dynamic Pro Sport coilovers. These will help to retain comfort for the road but also stiffen things up and reduce body roll on track too. To help improve adjustability, we’ll be adding a host of Hardrace upgrades including rear camber, toe, and trailing arms.

We’ll then be upgrading the exhaust system with an aftermarket down pipe and cat-back system to unlock a few more ponies on the way. An upgraded fuel pump will also feature which will allow us to run more power on pump fuel before we treat it to a Ti Motorsport engine and gearbox remap which should hopefully see us above 500 horsepower!

An Apex Wheel Stud Conversion Kit will then be installed on the car, the perfect upgrade for a set of performance wheels. As we plan to track the car, we’ll be replacing the cast monoblock Rotiform wheels with something a lot lighter and up to the rigours of track such as the popular 2Forge ZF6. Of course, we’re going to be needing quite a few sets of wheels as we plan on testing at least 5 different sets of tyres on our next test!

SW Motorsports have supplied us with a bolt-in half roll cage, that will keep us safe should the worst happen out on track. We’ll be utilising a Corbeau bucket seat sub frame so that we can install one of our favourite seats in the shape of the Corbeau Nogaro seats to hold us firmly in place. Keeping us held firmly in place in our seats will be a set of Schroth Clubman 6-point harnesses, these will allow us to concentrate on driving rather than slipping and sliding around the OEM seats.

We don’t need to worry about the brakes too much as the brakes are the same as both the F80 M3 and F82 M4. However, we’ll be upgrading to a set of Ferodo DSUNO brake pads which will provide a higher friction output and ultimately more stopping power.

What’s next?

We’ve already booked our first track day for the M240i, which co-incidentally happens to be on the same day and track as Rob Baker in his MK7 Golf GTI, so that’s sure to be a good battle out on track which we’ll document. Make sure you stay tuned to our blog as we document the build and bring you more information on the ultimate track day tyre test V2! As always you can find the full catalogue of images over on our Flickr Page.

Where it all began

No stranger to the Honda brand or Time Attack, Mike’s passion for the marque started with a Civic EF that he planned to transplant a B18C4 lump from a Civic Aerodeck VTi. However, that never came to fruition as he later acquired a Type R EK9 that we’ll talk about shortly.

Those that have followed Mike’s progress throughout the build will know that the car is in fact an EJ9, which means that it’s the same chassis as the legendary EK9 Type R but left the factory with a lack-lustre 90 horsepower 1.4 D-Series engine. As we previously mentioned Mike had the pleasure of owning a Civic Type R EK9, something that many of us Honda fans can now only dream of. He didn’t mess about with it and a turbocharger soon found its way onto the car, ripping out the original B16B power plant and replacing it with a B18C4 lump that kicked out a reliable 310 horsepower. It’s no surprise that Mike has since returned to his roots and spoke about how at home he feels in the car and enjoys the more balanced handling characteristics that the EK platform offers as opposed to the more tail happy EP chassis.

Previous Experience

Mike will be the first person to comment on how relatively inexperienced he is in a competitive motorsport environment. He’s no stranger to the track though, but by no means a seasoned pro either. Mike recalls his previous 5 track days with his mates in his daily driven Fiesta ST and Honda Civic EK9 (in standard form).

The bug to compete all started when Mike built a Type R Trophy spec Civic EP3 as a track toy. After 3 track days in the car, Mike was given the opportunity to enter into the ‘Run What Ya Brung’ Time Attack class at Cadwell Park and that’s where it all began. He was then given a guest drive in the eBay Fiesta ST at Brands Hatch in the Pocket Rocket class, which lead to him taking the plunge into building his very own Time Attack car and a full season entry for 2021!

First things first

Mike’s first port of call was to address the underwhelming power that was apparent from the get-go. You’d be hard pushed to find an easier, more reliable way towards a better power-to-weight ratio than with an engine swap, especially in a Honda as many engines drop into each platform with minimal work. Rather than go for a B16 that the EK9 came equipped with, Mike opted for the popular K20 engine that’s found in the Civic EP3. There are a few reasons why this was the engine of choice and one of those was that parts are much more accessible for the K-Series and it’s much easier and inexpensive to build an N/A 250hp K20 than a similar spec B-Series. At the time of writing this, Mike was very quick to make sure that I stressed how much of fan he is of the B-Series though!

The Engine

The power plant in question is a K20A2, which is the UKDM engine found in an EP3 rather than the K20A found in the JDM Integra DC5. The car makes use of relatively simple bolt-on mods including a Skunk2 Racing Ultra Series Intake Manifold, Skunk2 Racing Tuner Series Drop-in Camshafts, 550cc Grams Performance Injectors, Tegiwa K-Swap Exhaust Manifold, Tegiwa 70mm Throttle body and a GReddy 3” Catback exhaust. This means the K20 screams all the way up to 9,000rpm through the 6-speed gearbox, which as you can imagine sounds absolutely incredible at full chat! The car is managed by a Haltech Platinum PRO plug-in ECU, that was mapped by legendary Honda tuner Jesse Halford from J.Cal, and now produces a very reliable 249.9hp.

The Transmission

Talking of the gearbox, the transmission was treated to a re-fresh with new Genuine Honda hub slider and synchro, JDM 4 5 6 gear set, Spoon Sports 5.1 final drive and a MFactory Plated limited slip differential that’ll provide maximum attack at the apex.

Often the case when it comes to race cars, is that they’ve been insurance write offs or endured high mileage before they’ve ever seen a track. Mike’s car couldn’t be further from that if it tried. What he’s done here is essentially a full nut and bolt restoration before the go faster bits were added. The car had been treated to a full respray prior to Mike’s ownership so it certainly wasn’t rough around the edges to begin with. Whilst Mike was stripping the car back, the engine bay, underside and arches were all treated to a coat of fresh paint too, which meant he could focus on enjoying the car rather than having to worry about rust issues further down the line.

The Suspension

When modifying the EK chassis, it’s not something that you can just throw a catalogue of parts at and expect it to improve as Honda already perfected the balance and handling. As mentioned before, Mike’s knowledge and previous experience came into play and he upgraded the suspension with a set of Yellow Speed Racing Premium Competition coilovers that were specifically designed for racing and heavy track use. As well as a range of Hardrace and Tegiwa suspension components, Blox Racing Spherical Bushes were fitted too so that Mike could dial in the car to suit his driving style.

The Brakes

Yellow Speed Racing were the flavour of the day when it came to braking too, with a 4-piston big brake kit that makes use of a 286mm x 26mm brake disc. The rear brakes saw Mike go for a fresh set of Genuine Honda calipers with Pagid discs and Ferodo DS2500 pads. A Tilton brake bias lever is mounted inside the car so Mike can increase and decrease the rear brake bias at will.

Wheels & Tyres

One thing that I love about this car is its wheel fitment, with 15” x 8J JR29 wheels wrapped in a chunky 50 profile Pirelli P-Zero Trofeo R semi slick tyre for maximum grip. As if one set wasn’t enough, Mike has 3 sets of wheels! Another set of Japan Racing JR29’s are  used for testing with Nankang AR1 rubber and Rota Force’s make in appearance during wet weather and make use of Pirelli’s Cinturato P1 tyre.

The Interior

Not much of the original interior remains, as it’s very much a case of function over form with only necessary parts and equipment installed all in the name of safety and weight saving. There’s one trick bit that stands out straight away and that’s the Acuity 4-way adjustable shifter. A popular name in the Honda world, Acuity are one of the main sponsors backing Mike this season and a plethora of their goodies can be found on the car.

A Safety Devices 6-point roll cage fits neatly inside the cabin along with a RRS Grip EVO bucket seat and OMP harnesses to keep Mike firmly in position. Other safety equipment includes a RRS 4.25 litre fire extinguisher and a Tegiwa battery master cut-out isolator kit that’s mandatory in all competitive race cars. With weight saving of paramount importance, Mike makes use of a MegaLife MR-15 battery that weighs only a mere 2.1KG and is neatly mounted in the passenger footwell. A smaller 330mm Personal steering wheel finishes the cockpit off nicely and is mounted to an NRG quick release to make it easier for Mike to enter and exit the car more efficiently.

The Exterior

Moving onto the exterior of the car, you’re not likely to miss it out on track with its bespoke Williams FW10 inspired livery that was designed in-house at Tegiwa. Tsuki also features on the roof and boot, the character from the Tegiwa Honda NSX, which gives a gentle nod at the Civics JDM heritage. You’d be mistaken for potentially recognising this as a genuine EK9 and that’s thanks to its Tegiwa front and rear Type R style bumper lips.

You’ll be able to catch Mike in action in the Time Attack pocket rocket class as he enters his first full season in the championship. We’ll bring you his progress throughout the season so stay tuned to see how he gets on! In the meantime, you can check out his build series over on our YouTube channel and drop him a follow on his Instagram.

Mike sends a special thanks to the following people who’ve helped him get to this point:

• Tegiwa
• Acuity
• Haltech
• Skunk2 Racing
• Motion Motorsport
• Coilovers.co.uk
• Yellow Speed Racing
• J.Cal ECU Calibration
• Ultra Wraps

You’d be hard pushed to find something that gets the adrenaline going like the thrill of racing in motorsport. Even as a mere bystander it’s exciting to watch, as you imagine what it’d be like to pilot a race car and hit those apex’s at just the right spot to put in the perfect lap.

Well, you don’t have to imagine anymore, as we present the 750 Motor Club Tegiwa Type R Trophy Foundation Programme.

Why the Type R Trophy?

Let’s start by talking about the Type R Trophy itself. As you may be aware, there’s a huge plethora of club level championships out there so it might be a pretty daunting task when it comes to choosing what you’d like to race in. The Type R Trophy is one of the UK’s closest one-make hot hatch formulae, with all competitors required to run the same specification of car it gives the drivers a level playing field to prove what they’re capable of out on track.

It’s also one of the best value for money formulae’s too, with the K20 engine of the EP3 being one of the most reliable performance engines ever made and a single control tyre meaning you’ve not got to buy separate tyres for wet and dry conditions.

As title sponsors to the Type R Trophy, we contribute with giveaway raffles at every race weekend. Prizes can range from a pair of tyres to a set of brake pads, which is sure to help you out over the course of the season!

What’s the foundation programme?

The 750MC Tegiwa Type R Trophy Foundation Programme is new for 2021 and aims to provide an easy and cost-effective route into the world of motorsport. What’s more is that you don’t have to deal with the hassle of purchasing and building the car, as we’ll do that for you. Once you’ve secured your spot on the programme, we’ll do the leg work for you and keep you posted with updates along the way until we’re ready to hand the car over to you!

There are two packages available, novice and license holder, which one you choose will be dependent on whether you already hold a race license or not.

Let’s start by taking a look at the license holder package, this is for those of you that have already attained your race license. You’ll get your very own race-ready EP3 Honda Civic as well as entry for all rounds of the 2021 season from only £10,495 which represents excellent value for money considering that a decent EP3 will set you back within the region of around £4-£5k plus the cost of buying the parts to get the car to specification and then the labour to get them installed. The work will be carried out by a Honda racing specialist such as Area Motorsport, DH Racing or Motion Motorsport so you can rest assured that it’ll be built to the highest of order. Not only will you own a race car at the end of the programme, you’ll also get two addition MRF control tyres, a second set of brake pads (both front and back) and a pre-season track day included too!

No race license, no problem!

With the novice package you get all of the features listed above for a license holder with the addition of the Go Racing pack, which is the starting point for gaining a ‘Race Interclub’ license in the UK. You’ll also get an ARDS test, medical or eye test, and a full race kit too! With the cost of this package being only £11,995 this is fantastic and stress-free way to get into motorsport all whilst comfortable in the knowledge that you’ll have ownership of a race ready car at the end of it!

We’ve already had a number of competitors take advantage of this incredible programme, with work already well underway on this Nighthawk Black Civic to transform it into a potential race winning car!

Interested?

Interested in getting involved or want more information? Check out the foundation programme guide here, or get in contact with us to secure your spot.

It’s been a while since our last update – partly due to the circumstances that the world has found itself in due to the lock down measures, and partly because it’s been so long since we did anything on it, I’d completely forgot about it!

Since our last outing at Oulton Park all the way back in February, we’ve since got another track day under our belts. We returned to Oulton the month after, in March, alongside the Tegiwa NSX and M4 GT4 for an open pit day.

We were greeted with typical March weather which was very much wet and cold. This did little for my nerves as I’d never driven the car in the wet, and I’d heard many a tale of ‘binning it’ in similar conditions. However, by the end of the day, the track had dried up, and with some much appreciated tuition from Luke, I’d found a new level of confidence in the car and was really managing to push on.

Again, the car performed perfectly throughout the day, providing many laps of K20 fueled fun. We’d managed to fit our Tegiwa 70mm cat-back exhaust prior to taking the car to Oulton, so we were blessed with a much nicer soundtrack this time round.

Latest Modifications

In addition to the exhaust, we’ve since had our Safety Devices 6 point roll cage, SPA 4 litre fire suppression kit and Tegiwa kill switch installed, shout out to Motion Motorsport for taking care of that for us.

We’ve got a neat carbon dashboard panel blank that we need to install next that will house the kill switch inside the car – thanks to the guys at racing circuits for sorting that out for us. If you’re after one, then drop them a message on their Facebook page and they’ll be more than happy to make one up for you!

It’ll be interesting to see if the roll cage will make much difference, if any, in terms of handling. We’ll find out in a couple of weeks as we head to Donington Park for an evening of track time. In preparation we’ve put a fresh set of PBS ProRace front brake pads in, along with some ProTrack pads for the rear. Plus, with the Type R Trophy calendar now rearranged it might be making a few more appearances than we expected this year!

We’ve just about managed to warm back up after spending yesterday at Oulton Park in the cold Cheshire wind. Although, with that being said, we couldn’t have asked for better conditions than what we were blessed with, as there was no rain and all the snow that we’d had over the previous days had all disappeared making for a perfect day on the weather front.

First Time Out

With it being my first ever proper track day, I was slightly apprehensive to begin with as I wasn’t really sure what to expect out there. So off I went onto the sighting lap to get a feel for the track and also the car too, bearing in mind that I’d never actually driven it before. First impressions were that it drives like nothing I’ve ever driven before; my previous cars have been fairly high-powered Fords and Audis to give you some context. The car went exactly whereabouts I wanted it to go and the diff inspired so much confidence as it felt like it’d pull me through the corner no matter what.

I then handed the car over to Mike, who has marginally more experience than me when it comes to track days, with a couple under his belt previously. Now I certainly wasn’t expecting what came next, and to be truthful I’m not sure he did either seeing as it was the first time that he’d driven the car post-build too. Not a single car managed to get past us, and we were literally flying past everything else out there on the track too, including some very expensive machinery in the form of a brand-new Porsche 911 and a Mercedes Benz C63S. Now, we’re not naïve enough to think that our car is actually quicker than these supercars, plus we know that driver skill and talent has a major role to play, but the car is certainly very capable when in the right hands.

Room For Improvement

With it being an open track day there was no timing allowed but if timing was allowed then Mike’s best lap would have been a 2:06:06 which is pretty damn fast compared to other times we’ve seen. We reckon that a sub 2-minute lap is achievable with another couple of seconds being gained when we switch to a set of Nankang AR-1’s from our 180 compound NS-2R’s and with a bit more driver confidence and no traffic.

Considering the car spent most of the day upwards of 6,000 revs, it performed without fault which is credit to its K20 power plant which are renowned for their reliability and why you see so many at track days throughout the UK.

The Standout Modifications

The modifications that stood out to us the most were the MFactory diff as it gave us so much more grip in the corners and brought so much confidence as well as the Yellow Speed Racing coilovers. With Motion Motorsport having given us an awesome track setup it really did handle above and beyond our expectations. Another standout modification which can often be overlooked were the seats and harness combination. As we weren’t getting slung from pillar to post in every corner and were firmly fixed in one position it let us concentrate on the track so much more.

We’ve now booked our next track session where we’ll be heading to Donington Park in the middle of May, unless anything else takes our fancy in the meantime. Hopefully we’ll have our Tegiwa cat-back and race cat on by then as well as our Safety Devices roll cage too, which I’m sure will give us even more confidence!

Since our last update a couple of weeks ago, we’ve handed the reins over to the lads at Motion Motorsport to take care of some of the bigger jobs that needed doing on our EP3.

Valve Clearances

Jake, who makes up one third of Motion alongside Dave and James, quickly got to work on the car, starting by removing the K20 ready to have the gearbox removed and the all-important timing chain and tensioner replaced as well as the valve clearances being checked.

Speaking of valve clearances, Jake told us that he’s never seen valve clearances that have been this far out before! It made sense as we could hear a tapping noise on idle, so we suspected there was something untoward occurring. From factory the specs should be 0.08 for intake valves and 0.10 for exhaust valves, however, our exhaust valves were 0.22 and the intake valves were at 0.12. We can’t stress enough how important it is to get your valve clearances checked on these cars, especially if you’re noticing a rough idle or poor performance.

Gearbox

The gearbox then came out so that Dave was able to give it a thorough inspection to make sure everything was in order and working how it should be. However, upon closer inspection he advised that we should change the 3^rd-4^th gear sleeve and hub as the originals had signs of wear and that we should also replace the clutch too as it would have needed doing at a later date anyway.

With the vital components checked and replaced, it was time for the diff to make an appearance. In this case it’s a helical MFactory LSD that we’re using to replace the factory open diff. One of the advantages of running a helical differential over a plated one is that you can install it and never have to worry about touching it again as it doesn’t have plates inside it that wear out and need shimming or replacing over time. We also changed the bearings and used Genuine Honda MTF 3 transmission fluid.

Lubrication

The oil sump then came off for a Clockwise Motion drop-in sump baffle to be installed, which is a pretty vital part if you’re planning on tracking your car. Like the title says, it’s a drop-in part so requires no welding unlike some other baffles on the market. It’s designed so that the oil pickup line is always encased in oil and able to deliver oil around the engine, preventing oil starvation. The gates on the baffle close when you make a turn to stop all of the oil ending up in one corner of the sump and leaving no oil around the pick-up line.

Whilst the car was in bits, we also decided to replace the OEM radiator for a Tegiwa aluminium rad. Not only is this unit noticeably lighter than the original part, it also cools the engine more efficiently too. We then replaced the engine oil with Motul 8100, replaced the oil filter and put in a fresh set of spark plugs too which should be one of the most essential things to do when taking your car on track. Jake had also noticed that our alternator housing had cracked, so we hunted down a second-hand unit to replace it with.

Geometry Setup

Motion then got the car on the ramp for a full track geometry setup to make sure we’re making the most out of our upgrades and we optimise as much grip as possible. Motion are one of the best in the business when it comes to setting your suspension up – Jake hasn’t earned the nickname of geo Jake for no reason! Seriously though, if you’re looking for a company to carry out work on your car, no matter how big or small make sure you drop them a message!

Away from the engine, Mike and I also put in our 6-point Raemco harnesses which we talked about in our last post.

Finally, we installed a couple of Tegiwa FIA/MSA towing eyes on the car just in case we end up getting towed to safety at any of our outings. When we took the front bumper off we did notice this tow strap that had been installed previously, strapped to the wire of the horn…

All that’s left to do before we head to Oulton next Wednesday is to put our Tegiwa quick release bonnet pins on as we’ve taken the standard bonnet latch out. Then we’ll be ready to head out for some track day fun! We’ll let you know how it goes in our next update so make sure you stay tuned.

With a few more late nights under our belt and many bloody knuckles later we’ve made some more progress on the EP3 as our track day slowly creeps up on us. At the time of writing this current update, we’ve got just shy of 2 weeks until the car makes its first outing at Oulton Park so time is now of the essence.

Bucket Seats

If you read our last blog post, you would have seen that we began to gut the car and strip as much of the interior as possible to make way for some lightweight bucket seats and a Safety Devices roll cage.

With that job being ticked off our list we could set about sourcing a set of seats for both ourselves and passengers. Weight played an important part to us when deciding on a set of seats. We knew that we wanted them to be as light as possible, thus, steel seats were out of the equation. Another factor that was prominent when deciding on what we’d go for was budget as we didn’t want to break the bank either. Taking these factors into account we opted for a Motamec GP-1 for the driver’s side and a Motamec Evo-One for the passenger’s side, both made of fibreglass. Both seats are FIA approved with HANS compatibility too, and they have a combined weight of around 17kg which is a fantastic saving over OEM.

In case you’re thinking that the GP-1 might be a bit overkill for the car and why didn’t we just go with two Evo-One’s, we wanted to think ahead and future proof in case we end up racing it competitively. The GP-1 incorporates a wraparound design which provides better neck and head protection and features a higher profile bolster than the Evo-One which gives better body protection should we find ourselves suffering an impact.

With Mike and I having a similar seating position, we didn’t need to worry about moving the seat so we strapped the seats to the Tegiwa fixed mount bases and side mount frames.

Harnesses

Whilst many people assume harnesses offer more security in the event of a crash over a conventional inertia reel belt, in which they’d be correct, they also help secure you in place when travelling really quickly out on track too. So, with good bucket seats and harnesses strapping us down, it allows us to concentrate more than ever on the task in hand without getting slung from pillar to post whilst doing so. We’ve gone for a set of Raemco 6-point harnesses to keep everything in order, which we’ll be installing later on this week.

Steering Wheel

Next up was replacing the steering wheel with something aftermarket. Although there isn’t any real performance gains to be had with changing the steering wheel, it all comes down to driver preference. After trying a few out, we both decided on a Personal Neo Grinta Suede 330mm, with red stitching to match the car. We chose the suede over the leather finish as during summer the car will get super-hot when left out in the sun making it horrible to touch, and there’d be more chance of our hands slipping off the wheel with the smooth, leather finish. The 330mm diameter will also provide us with a better and quicker steering response too and we should reap the benefits when on track.

When replacing your OEM wheel for an aftermarket replacement it’s important to take into account a steering wheel boss too, in this case we went for a HKB boss kit.

Tegiwa Airbox

If you’ve ever been involved or owned an EP3 then you’ll with no doubt be familiar with the Tegiwa carbon airbox that is commonly found on these Type R’s. Not only do they provide an immense induction noise, they also provide for some excellent performance gains over the OEM setup. We’ve seen gains of around 5-10 horsepower on these cars before mapping and steady improvement in the mid-range RPM too. Plus, with this and the Tegiwa silicone intake and breather pipe it makes our engine bay look pretty jazzy now too!

Tyres

With our track day being in February, one thing is for sure, we won’t be able to guarantee the weather. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re prepared for everything. Hence, we got our standard EP3 wheels wrapped in some Nankang AS-2+ which are designed for maximum performance in wet conditions. Although, these might not be renowned wet weather tyres, we’re sure that they’ll perform way better than NS-2R’s in the wet should the heavens decide to open on the day.

Next we’ll be sending the car next door to Motion Motorsport as they install our MFactory differential, Tegiwa roll centre adjusters ball joints and adjustable steering arms, Clockwise baffled sump, Genuine Honda timing chain and tensioner, followed by checking our valve clearances.

We’re back after the Christmas break and have been as keen as ever to get cracking with our Type R Trophy build. Especially as we’ve bit the bullet and booked our first track day. We’ll be taking the car to Oulton Park in the middle of next month, so we need to get the car as prepared as possible for then!

Strip Down

First things first, in the name of weight reduction we gutted the interior and removed the premier edition Recaro’s to make way for some tasty new bucket seats that we’ll get to in a later instalment of this blog.

Braking

Next up was an upgrade in the braking department, this should be a major priority for anybody planning on tracking their car. We’re not saying go out and buy the biggest brake kit that will fit on your car, there’s some fairly straightforward and relatively inexpensive upgrades that can be done first. A decent brake fluid such as Motul’s RBF 600, HEL braided brake lines and good brake pads like the PBS Pro Track’s that we’re using will make a world of difference over the standard setup, plus, this costs a fraction of a big brake kit too.

Handling Upgrades

With the brakes taken care off, it was then time to move onto handling modifications. With the car being built to Type R Trophy regulations, a set of Yellow Speed Racing Inverted Premium Competition Coilovers made an appearance. Before fitting them, we doused them in a coat of ACF-50, an anti-corrosion spray. We rate this stuff very highly at Tegiwa, we’ve seen coilovers that maintain their shine after upwards of 7 years of use when ACF has been used! It’s really simple to apply too, just spray the coilovers with the spray and then get a cloth and work the compound into the product. Job done.

You might wonder why the TRT championship uses inverted coilovers. Well, it has more structural strength due to the significantly greater diameter, and because the body is upside down above the strut housing, it’s far more resistant to side loads than a conventional strut design.

Alignment

Mike did a pretty good job at guessing the ride height, but we’ll drop the rear coilovers to get rid of that old school ‘Saxo rake’. We’ll fit roll centre adjusters and steering arms before we let the lads at Motion Motorsport work their magic on the car with a full geometry setup ready for us to hit the track. It’s important to consider the benefits of a proper geometry setup after fitting coilovers as you’ve essentially knocked some of the components off-kilter and caused the wheels to sit at improper angles which can make the car drive terribly, much the case with our EP at the moment.

Next up on the handling front was a Tegiwa 24mm rear anti-roll bar. By running one of these we’ll improve lateral stability and minimise body roll too. This will stabilise the tyre contact patch for maximum traction in the corners and it’ll also help eliminate moderate understeer by improving the overall balance by the use of a proportionately stiffer rear bar which’ll give the car a more neutral feel.

Wheels

When we got the car, it came on a set of OEM EP3 wheels, which we’ll use to run wet tyres, but it also came with a set of matte black Japan Racing JR3’s too. Like the OEM wheels, they’re 17” but slightly wider as they’re an 8J with an offset of ET35. This means we can run a wider tyre to increase the contact patch of our tyres. Fortunately for us the JR’s also came wearing some 235 wide Nankang NS-2R’s which we plan on using for the next couple of track days before we’ll eventually upgrade to some Nankang AR-1’s. The car definitely looks 10x better than it does on the standard wheels with the JR3’s filling the arches nicely.

Next on the big list of things to do before we head over to Oulton will be installing bucket seats, Raemco harnesses, a Personal steering wheel, Clockwise baffled sump and hopefully the MFactory differential too!

While most people are probably winding down ready for the lead up to Christmas, things couldn’t be more different for us as we’re just about to start our latest project. This time, it’s a staff build between, Mike, the resident web developer and myself, Dave, the in-house graphic designer. Welcome to the Tegiwa fast fleet, our 2005 Civic Type R EP3.

You might be wondering what the hell we’re going on about talking about a stock EP3 and fast fleet in the same sentence, which you’d be forgiven for as it’s got some big cars to look up to before we can start banding the word fast around, namely the NSX and M4.

THE CAR

So, let’s talk about the car as it stands. It’s a completely stock (minus the DEFI gauges) 2005 plate Civic Type R that produces 198bhp, at least that’s what it should have made when it left the factory. With the 2005 model being the last UK version of the EP3, they made some of the later models Premier Editions, which meant some extra goodies, from which this particular car benefits from. Red carpets, tinted rear windows and Recaro seats being the main difference that set it apart from your base Type R.

Surprisingly the car remains largely Milano Red, which is testament to the previous owner’s upkeep of the car. With it being 15 years old and having 134,000 miles on the clocks, the majority of Milano’s that we see turn into a faded hue of pink over the years, but not this one, fortunately for us. Generally, the car is in fantastic condition for its age and with an extensive history of servicing the Type R’s K20 engine should rack up plenty more trouble-free miles.

THE PLANS

I guess you’re wondering what our plans are for the car as there’s plenty of routes we could go down. A few people have asked whether we’re going to strap the Tegiwa turbo kit onto it and make some serious power, but after much consideration we decided against that and opted for a more track orientated build. Hence the title of the blog, we’re going to turn it into a Type R Trophy Championship spec car that we can have some fun in doing track days and maybe even enter into a couple of rounds in the future.

You might be asking why we decided to go down this route, well here’s a few reasons. Building the car to Type R Trophy regulations, should in hindsight, mean that we can sell the car as a race ready car ready to compete in the Championship. As the Championship grows more popular, it comes with an ever-growing market for these specification cars, so it makes sense to us to build it under these regulations.

Secondly, as the Type R Trophy is a cost-controlled formula, it means that all cars have to use the same parts which makes it a very even playing field and ultimately, the fastest driver wins, as everybody has the same spec car. This means that we can then benchmark our times on track days and see how we compare to the drivers in the Championship.

Finally, should we end up anywhere near the pace of the Championship, we might even look into getting our race licenses and having a dabble in a couple of rounds. Obviously, this won’t be a problem as we’ll have a car that meets the regulations so we can pay our entry fee and join the grid.

Working at Tegiwa, we see a lot of EP3 builds go down track spec paths, but not really in any direction as such, which is completely fine. However, the benefits of building it to comply with a specific championship is that you pretty much have a guaranteed price that you can sell it for when it’s done. In this case, clean and undamaged race ready Type R Trophy car’s start from around the £8,000 mark, which is realistically way more than you’d be looking at should you decide to bolt a variety of different mods on and then you look to sell privately.

THE BUILD

Noticeable mandatory parts that we’ll have to include in our build will be a Safety Devices 6-point bolt in cage, Yellow Speed Racing Premium Competition inverted coilovers, Tegiwa carbon airbox and 70mm cat-back exhaust, Clockwise Motion drop in sump baffle, PBS Prorace brake pads and a stage 1 race pack MFactory helical LSD.

We’ll also swap the steering wheel to something aftermarket and strip the Recaros out (which are currently for sale if you’re after a set) for some FIA/MSA bucket seats with harnesses to match. There might be a couple of final bits when everything else is done like a Tegiwa inspired livery and maybe some carbon goodies, but they’ll have to wait until everything is done first.

We’re aiming to do the majority of the work ourselves to keep costs down and learn a few new bits too, plus it gives a good excuse to participate in post work takeaways during the week! Should everything run to plan, we’re hoping that we can have the car done by the end of February/start of March, which will then stand us in good stead to make the most of track day opportunities during the summer.

Next on our to do list is completely strip the interior down which will keep us busy for a couple of nights we’re sure. We’ll bring you updates as and when we make progress, so stay tuned for more!