EK9 Handling - What parts actually make a difference


J

jay_k

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Guys,

Im kinda using my brothers EK9 on track when i feel like it, and tend to make improvements which he doesnt mind, but have to remember he uses it as a road car so need to keep a balance, even though very little amounts as he commutes to Uni with me.

I added the following onto the car:

KU36 Tyres
Eibach Springs
Brembo Blank Discs
YellowStuff Pads
RBF600

The above made a good difference over stock in my opinon. Its also got15x7.5" TE37s, so i run 205 tyres, the previous owner had the bigger offset on the rear, i have since swapped them over so its effectively wider at the front, this has loosend up the rear abit more but its balanced enough.

Im upgrading the front pads to either CL's or DS2500s, but thinking i should do the rear as under braking it might lighten up the rear too much if the front brakes are alot sharper than the rear??

X1 bucket seat and a smaller 330mm steering wheel, along with Energy shift bushes are going in to make the drive more involving.

What other tweeks and would better the car but yet keep it balanced for road and track? Things that make a small difference, and a big difference, soley to handling, braking etc.

Thoughts?
 
Geometry.

I got my car setup from 0.1degree toe in at the rear to 0.1degree toe out and the front set to 0, made an awesome difference to the response and took away alot of potential understeer.

Also put some washers in the rear camber arms to straighten the back wheels up a tad more to help reduce the grip the rear was holding which improved the turn in alot.

Only you and your driving style will know you want from the car, what's wrong with it in your opinion?
 
New dampers. OEM ones would be fine with those springs and a lot better quality than a lot of aftermarket stuff.

Alignment as mentioned.

Rear ARB makes a huge difference on the lower spec models, though probably less so on the EK9 as the standard one is fairly hefty.

jay_k said:
Im upgrading the front pads to either CL's or DS2500s, but thinking i should do the rear as under braking it might lighten up the rear too much if the front brakes are alot sharper than the rear??
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Good thinking. The rear brakes don't contribute a lot of force, but they do affect the handling in several ways, which often get ignored.
 
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Good call. The car Geo hasnt been checked or changed. I did try high pressures whilst turn in response was good, understeer once heated up was too much.

My driving style is rusty, been a few years of track and my heal and hoe and left foot/trail braking is pretty poor, I have a race instructor friend giving me a day of instruction next month to sort all this out.

Generally the car (only driven it around the ring) felt good, the steering response felt alittle soggy, the driving position felt as i was sat on top of the car rather than in it.

The backend was a fair bit lively under braking especially if it was bumpy. The highspeed corners balancing the throttle it felt like the dampers could have helped being stiffer, thinking Koni's but then for it not to be too hard for the road. She does sit quite arse up.

Oh i felt VTEC engagement at 5000 would have helpped as it felt dead below VTEC (this has kinda been resolved by a new head gasket lol)

Im not complaining, its a great car, stock it did a 8:50 round the ring no problem with a bust headgasket and rusty driver like me, just seeing if there were any ways to make it better without ruining it, if that makes sense.
 
You have to bear in mind, Honda did a brilliant job making a combined track and road car as standard with the EK9 and DC2. There's not a great deal of room to improve it in both aspects without heavily compromising it as a road car.

Just get everything refreshed, don't go over the top with anything and get the seat time in.
 
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Kozy said:
You have to bear in mind, Honda did a brilliant job making a combined track and road car as standard with the EK9 and DC2. There's not a great deal of room to improve it in both aspects without heavily compromising it as a road car.

Just get everything refreshed, don't go over the top with anything and get the seat time in.
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I agree. I want to make sure the car remains a good road car also. My brother last night text me he was looking at new LCA's, for a reason I do not know, yes they look good from the rear with a tie bar but i cant see any other reason.

ITBs, ECU, Mfactory GearSets are all on his/my menu if we use the car next year on track rather than my ATR or a dedicated Track car. I can agree with them.

I think once you start making changes, the bug bites and before you know it, you've ruined a perfectly good car.

EDIT - What do you think of Koni Dampers? Im yet to find anything better than OEM Dampers & Eibach springs for road, across DC2, DC5, EK9. KW Coilovers felts pretty good though.
 
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LCAs are utterly pointless. Pure bling. Same with the tie bar.

Agree with the ruining a car point. It's fun to do all this stuff and most definitely a bug but at the end of the day do you really end up with a better car, especially for all the money and trouble it costs? ITB's will be expensive and a bitch to tune, potential to kill your engine too. Gearsets are great on track but annoying on the road (try spending a week not using 5th gear, can you hack it?), track suspension again fantastic on track but horrid on the road. An ECU's probably pretty safe though, with a good mapper obviously.

I had Koni's, paired with Tanabe springs. Wasn't a great combo TBH, the springs were too low a rate and the Konis too stiff really, the back end tended to jack down onto the bump stops and it was a crashy ride.

I expect paired with a much stiffer, performance orientated spring they'd be fine, they are rated immensely well in the USA.

Spoon dampers and springs are absolutely superb for a dual purpose car IMO. They're designed for each other, and specifically for the EK9, and produced by the OEM. You rarely find that kind of a match with aftermarket stuff. It felt like a standard car, just slightly stiffer and with no bad manners at all.

Going pure track car is so much easier because you can just say **** it to all the compromises.
 
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Kozy said:
LCAs are utterly pointless. Pure bling. Same with the tie bar.

Agree with the ruining a car point. It's fun to do all this stuff and most definitely a bug but at the end of the day do you really end up with a better car, especially for all the money and trouble it costs? ITB's will be expensive and a bitch to tune, potential to kill your engine too. Gearsets are great on track but annoying on the road (try spending a week not using 5th gear, can you hack it?), track suspension again fantastic on track but horrid on the road. An ECU's probably pretty safe though, with a good mapper obviously.

I had Koni's, paired with Tanabe springs. Wasn't a great combo TBH, the springs were too low a rate and the Konis too stiff really, the back end tended to jack down onto the bump stops and it was a crashy ride.

I expect paired with a much stiffer, performance orientated spring they'd be fine, they are rated immensely well in the USA.

Spoon dampers and springs are absolutely superb for a dual purpose car IMO. They're designed for each other, and specifically for the EK9, and produced by the OEM. You rarely find that kind of a match with aftermarket stuff. It felt like a standard car, just slightly stiffer and with no bad manners at all.

Going pure track car is so much easier because you can just say **** it to all the compromises.
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My mates EK9 has breathing mods, suspension mods, bracing etc, but on the road theres no difference apart from the Spoon N1 blowing your ear drums apart. On the track, i think it would be marginal. Im trying to get my brother to spend his money on track days rather than mods.

Cost really isnt abit issue, if we want something and we justify it, then we usually get it. ITBs would only be for the sound to be honest, its simply down to my brother loving the noise they make. Ive told him to avoid cams etc for now and look at gearsets instead, as if he is doing a long distance trip he can use my diesel so not to bad. Not worried about the setup, have good expertise in friends to hand, so that makes it easier to do these things.

Yeah I agree for sure, just going all out track car, and one sensible road car is ideal. I might put my ATR as a dedicated track car but 500hp is abit much for my little brother to handle, hence we bought the EK9 so he could develop his driving skills.

I think the following points will be ideal for me to do now.

Bucket Seat
Smaller Steering Wheel
Energy Shift Bushes
Geo-Setup
Front / Rear Pads (something better than YellowStuff)
Check current bushes and maybe refresh.
 
setting up my car for track too..have the same questions.....been doing endless research on coilovers for my car..i drive a 4 door so defn. will be looking at a slightly higher spring rate for the rear of the normal setup...i've narrowed down to BC , buddyclub,skunk2..also heard alot about koni dampers and ground countrol springs...seems like a very popular setup with the us civic guys..anyone has tried these?thanks
 
No-one in the UK will have experience with Koni/GC as it's import only and very expensive.

It's HUGE in America though, you can't really go wrong if you can get it at a decent price.

Honestly, I'd steer clear of all those coilovers personally, but plenty of people seem to like them.
 
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I think I have found the perfect compromise for track and road

All bushes rebushed with HARDRACE bushes
Front HARDRACE adjustable camber arms
Rear HARDRACE adjustable toe arms
NEW RTA bushes
New Anti roll bar bushes
New anti roll bar drop links front and rear HARDRACE
Spoon Springs
Low Mileage OEM shocks
Advan AD08 Tyres (Summer)

And a full geometry set up by Stevie at Grinspeed!

Lovely B road blaster, but also enjoys a slow commute or drive through town, on track its great, cocking the back wheel nicely and perfectly predictable

This coupled with a Hondata ECU (mapped B16B @164WHP), short 3/4/5gears and wilwoods makes it a scream to drive
 
You thought about a new LSD. Nice quaife unit or mfactorys atb? Super smooth and quiet like oem diff just more bias and better performing.
Bound to be a great mod!
 
Ashy C said:
I think I have found the perfect compromise for track and road...
Click to expand...

That sounds perfect!

If the dampers ever pop up second hand, snap them up!

The LSD is an interesting one. The Quaife in my EK was awesome, but you knew it was there when it was working, it really fought you through the wheel.

The OEM one in my ATR seems a lot more subtle, but then I've never really abused it like I did with the Civic (Never done an autotest/trackday in it) so I'm not really sure how it compares.
 
Ashy C said:
I think I have found the perfect compromise for track and road

All bushes rebushed with HARDRACE bushes
Front HARDRACE adjustable camber arms
Rear HARDRACE adjustable toe arms
NEW RTA bushes
New Anti roll bar bushes
New anti roll bar drop links front and rear HARDRACE
Spoon Springs
Low Mileage OEM shocks
Advan AD08 Tyres (Summer)

And a full geometry set up by Stevie at Grinspeed!

Lovely B road blaster, but also enjoys a slow commute or drive through town, on track its great, cocking the back wheel nicely and perfectly predictable

This coupled with a Hondata ECU (mapped B16B @164WHP), short 3/4/5gears and wilwoods makes it a scream to drive
Click to expand...

Sounds good, how are the bushes for hardness over stock? Much difference in Spoon springs vs Eibach?

Can vouch for the Wilwoods, put a set on my cousins Turbo ATR, they are very good. Do they fit under 15s? Also hows the brake bias with the higher front end capacity? Not sure on Spoon ride height but Eibach leave the arse in the air so much brake bias for the front wouldnt be good with our suspension setup.
 
Kozy said:
No-one in the UK will have experience with Koni/GC as it's import only and very expensive.

It's HUGE in America though, you can't really go wrong if you can get it at a decent price.

Honestly, I'd steer clear of all those coilovers personally, but plenty of people seem to like them.
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What coils ave u experienced and found to be good?
 
I thought the ride quality* from MeisterR's was very good on the soft setting.

Bloody unbearable on the stiffest too, if that's your thing.

If I was looking specifically for coilovers in that price bracket, they'd get my money. They're probably not a great deal different to the competition (BC/HSD etc) but then how much difference can you really engineer into a coilover? The feedback from buyers, quality of the ride and attention to detail that Jerrick provides are fantastic. You can't go wrong with them. :nice:

*Ride quality = grip. It's not an old man thing, a **** ride gives poor grip.
 
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Fantastic info here, enlightened me on a clearer path with my car.

Im in the process of turning my ek9 into a bit of a track toy. I'm currently using BYS Coilovers, there isnt much info floating around on these coilovers, has anyone here heard or had any experience with them, would I be in a better position changing them for another brand (Cusco, Tein, MeisterR, etc). I havent had the chance to track them yet as the cars sitting without an engine, but from the road testing I did before the motor came out was they seemed to cope very well, ride was good, but if there was any sort of aggressive change in road surface it would bump quite harshly then resume its decent ride, would this be due to it being set too hard or the ride height being too low? (I am unfortunately a bit of a suspension noob, trying to learn a bit more)
 
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