EJ's '99 Accord Project

11/11/05 - Addendum - Just a note to follow-up on some old business. I eventually DID find the broken weld on the Magnaflow exhaust - you had to tap the one end of it in order to hear that it was broken. I contacted Magnaflow about, and they said if it was broken then they would cover it - simply return it to the place where I purchased it. I contacted the seller, and they gave me RMA info. I eventually received a brand-new exhaust system in return, which I was able to sell for $350. Not a bad investment on a part used for 2 years, huh? That's why vendors who offer warranties on their products should get your money. There's no way DC Sports or HKS or anyone else would have covered that problem. Gotta love Magnaflow.

My 2 years of EVO ownership have had its ups and downs, but I must say that I don't regret my purchase. The EVO is a fantastic car to have in any competitive situation, but it is fatiguing in daily driving. The car became a handful after the addition of an Exedy twin disc clutch, replacing the stock clutch that wore out after 16k miles. I've come to the realization that it would have been best to keep a daily driver and then get a fun car, if your budget can handle it. Mine couldn't at the time, but it's the best way to go. I'm looking at getting back into the Honda fold with either an RSX-S or a Civic Si.

1/4/03 - So long, good friend... I traded the Accord in on a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII - a "Blue By You" one, with a sunroof and a huge carbon fiber rear spoiler. You only live once, right?

12/23/03 - Larry's Foreign Auto removed the entire after-market exhaust system and put the stock pieces back on. They had a tough time with the O2 sensors, and had to rewire one of them. I told them to use anti-seize compound, and I bet they didn't. In looking at the Magnaflow pipe that supposedly had the broken weld on it - I don't see any broken weld. So the rattle is now an official mystery. My guess would be perhaps the Random Technology cat, but nothing appears to be wrong with any of the components. Not sure how to reveal that when I go to sell the parts.

11/19/03 - Now the decisions begin... I took my car in for the 45K mile service, and mentioned I had noticed a metallic rattle that had been coming from under the car the last few months, only appearing under medium-hard to hard acceleration. To me it sounded like the cat had a loose part. The diagnosis was a broken 'B' pipe on the exhaust system. Specifically, it's the pipe that comes out the back end of the middle resonator chamber. The pipe is welded to the resonator and the welds have failed. I've sent emails to Magnaflow and Husker High Performance Exhaust to see what warranty options are available. But the real question comes to whether I'm really going to trade this car in come Spring or not. I'd really like to, but now that I'm 40 my sensible side is attempting to wrestle the controls away from my young and petulant side. It's a coin toss as to who is going to win. I could just put the stock exhaust system back on, absorb the costs for that (about $120), and attempt to either repair or replace the B pipe portion, then sell the whole lot on eBay. Or, since the rattle isn't bad at all, I could just leave it on the vehicle and sell it or trade it in like that. Trading it in isn't a bother to my conscience, but I certainly wouldn't want to sell it that way without revealing the issue. The dilemma with the stock exhaust is - once it's on, the fun factor of that car just dropped by a power of 2, so why not just strip the other parts off of it and sell them. That's fine if I can unload the car quick and get back to a fun vehicle, like my ghostly vision of a Lancer Evo. But if I can't pull that off, I'm in for a dreary upcoming summer of either skipping my autocross events or attempting to autocross the car in mostly stock trim - the Neuspeed springs and sway bars are staying put. Dang, having a boat load of money drop in my lap would make these decisions all that easier....

10/19/03 - Last 2 events of the Boston BMWCCA season. 10/4 and 10/18 were the last 2 events of the autocross season. 10/4 was a nightmare for me on several levels. The non-BMW's were on the long course, and this course was very difficult for me to read. It was far too long for me to memorize, so I had to rely on reading it, but that was proving difficult as well. All 3 morning runs resulted in my times being disqualified because I was "off course", meaning I went around pylons on the wrong side, or missed going around pylons altogether. Plus it was cold and rained - miserable weather to have to stand out in a field and run to get cones in. My rain jacket turned out to not be so waterproof, so I ended up with wet shoulders and neck. At lunch, I decided I needed to try to figure out where I was going off course, or else the day would be a complete disaster for me. I finally found it - after a set of gates, there was a long empty space before the next set of gates, and I was confusing cones from the other direction for ones that were in my lane. Once I got those out of the way, my afternoon runs actually counted. What was really disappointing was that because of the rain, my times would have been much closer on this long course than other events, but because I didn't get a qualifying time in the morning, my times for the day wouldn't count for the event. Not that I was prepared to beat anyone, but so it goes.

The 10/18 event allowed me to finish the season on a real high note, by accomplishing 2 goals I had set for myself after watching other cars run through the courses:

Goal 1 - drive aggressively enough to actually hit a cone w/o being completely out of control. While working the course, you get to see how people and their cars behave on the course, and you'll soon learn that being competitive is a combination of 2 things - the car and the driver. Having just one isn't going to make up completely for the lack of the other. In my case, it's probably a deficit on both those items. The Accord is never going to be much of a threat on the autocross course, and my skills are very raw and desperately need some driving school polishing to begin to get competitive. To that end, I've noticed that even the best drivers will occasionally hit a cone during one or more of their runs. I'm so busy trying to keep the car from plowing that I rarely reach a level of aggressiveness where I'm knocking cones over. Besides, with my lousy times, I can't afford to pick up the 2 second penalty that a cone imposes. So the idea is to get a decent run in first, and then with that insurance in the bank, try to find that fine edge between the fastest time and being too fast and losing time. My problem has been I've been far too cautious in the beginning, so I end up picking up time throughout the day, rather than getting the fast time within the first lap or 2 and then really pushing it to see if I can better it any. On 10/18, the non-BMW's were on the short course, which is easy to read and easy to memorize. The fast parts and the slow parts are obvious - much more obvious than the long course - so the learning curve is short. Add on top of that we've driven this same course before, and it becomes even easier to reach your zenith quickly. I did that by my 2nd run, so it was time to really let it all hang out. On my 3rd run, I hit a cone while coming in too fast on a slalom - a notorious weak spot for my heavy Accord - so I could finally shake the monkey of "You're not aggressive enough" off my back. That was the last cone hit of the day for me, but I still pushed the car as hard as it could go.

Goal 2 - hit the Accord's rev limiter on the course at some point. While working the course, you'll often hear cars (mostly Miata's and WRX's) hit their rev limiter. This is because the course is pretty much designed to be run in 2nd gear, limiting upper speeds to around 60mph, and because a shift to 3rd requires too much time to be effective on a course as tight as these are. My poor Accord, plowing as it goes, rarely can afford to begin to approach speeds where the rev limiter comes into effect. If you aren't familiar with the term, the "rev limiter" is a function of the engine management system to prevent the engine from revving above its appointed revolution limit, otherwise known as the "red line". The rev limiter, detecting the engine has hit the rev limit, will begin to stop sending fuel to the engine in order to prevent it from blowing up and sending pistons through the walls. This action results in an odd staccato sound from the engine, making a "zip-zip-zip-zip" noise, where the quick pause in the "zip" noises is the fuel being shut off and the rpms falling back below the limit, then the "zip" noise is the engine getting fuel once again and carrying the revs back up to the limit, all in a very short period of time. This is known as a "hard" rev limit. A "soft" rev limiter will simply reduce the fuel so that there isn't a stutter in the engine, but it simply is incapable of revving. My Accord has a red line of approximately 6300 rpms. In 2nd gear, my Accord will be traveling at approximately 62mph at 6300 rpms. Having learned the course, I was able to get on the gas much earlier than previous times, and was rewarded by the sweet sound of the rev limiter kicking in while approaching the first optional slalom cones. Yes!!! It made me feel like I had arrived - as dumb as that sounds. Please note - don't try this at home! On the autocross course, the rev limiter kicks in for maybe 2-3 seconds, which isn't harmful to the engine, but one should definitely AVOID this situation in normal, street driving.

My car, while not in the top of the pack, certainly had its best day of the year, and I'm very interested in comparing its times to those of some of the other family-style sedans that were in attendance: A VW Passat V6 4-Motion sedan, an Audi A4 1.8T Quattro, a Ford Taurus SHO, and a Nissan Maxima. I actually saw the Maxima lift a rear tire during the course of his runs yesterday - absolutely amazing, since he did it on all-season street tires! I would expect to beat the Maxima because of the tires he's using, but the other cars are certainly loaded with performance features far and above what I have, so if I can match or beat them then I'm feeling pretty good about the driver side of the equation.

Which brings us to the possible End of Project Accord. My appetite has been whet sufficiently over these past 3 years that it's no longer just enough to go out and enjoy myself on the course - I want to start to actually compete with the others. To that end, I'll need a vehicle that's capable of being competitive. The list I've come up with includes: Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, Acura RSX Type-S, Mazdaspeed Protege, Subaru WRX. I've test driven the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo - a great little car that's very exciting. 4 doors, with a useable rear seat, it brings a certain level of practicality to the table. However, I've watched 2 Lancer Evos run at Devens this year, and I can't say they are a lock for glory in stock trim. Seem to have a lot of body roll, and the tires would need to be upgraded as well. At a sticker price of $30,000, that's an awful lot to have to add a few grand more to in order to play. I've test driven an Acura RSX Type-S. Very nice driver's car, with a high level of interior refinement. The car seems small and nimble, but the luxuriousness of its interior seems to be at odds with the autocross warrior mentality - spartan equals light weight. Used ones are available for about $20,000, which would leave plenty of room for after-market items - suspension mostly. The engine is powerful, but you need to be in the upper reaches of the rev range in order to dip into the iVTEC power band - not a great setup in autocrossing, where your engine rarely gets that high up into the rev range (see the "Rev Limiter" discussion above). While it pretends to have a back seat, it could only be used in an emergency situation. The hatch back feature is nice, so it can carry some stuff, but if I was to cart around a set of tires like I do now, I'd have to get a small trailer. The Subaru WRX (either the base or the STi version) seems to be nice package, but once again appears to require some after-market tweaking before it becomes seriously competitive. The lone no-brainer in this group would be the Mazdaspeed Protege. This car comes from the factory outfitted with components custom chosen for autocross glory. The big mark against it, though, is the styling. It's not very exciting, and doesn't begin to bring the power to the equation like the other cars do. In fact, it has the lowest HP rating of the lot (170hp vs. RSX Type-S: 200hp, WRX: 225hp, Evo:270hp, WRX STi: 300hp). But it certainly is the most practical from a pricing and usability standpoint. The bottom line on the Protege is it reeks of econo-car. Good for the frugal side, but not good for the "Mac Daddy" in all of us. Current purchase incentives from Mazda have the price of the Mazdaspeed Protege down to under $19,000!!! Incredible.

So the thought here is to end the work on Project Accord, save any money for a new purchase, and perhaps even begin to revert the car back to stock trim for a trade-in situation. I might eBay the Accord, to see if it could be sold in it's current state of tune. That'll probably take place soon. In the meantime, I'll be eBaying some of the parts that I have not installed yet. I'll post some links to the eBay pages, and I might even get a list up here so that you can offer me something for them before they go on eBay.

8/12/03 - Autocrossing with BMWCCA was a blast - and a nightmare. The Boston chapter of BMW CCA has a great venue and fantastic courses. Hats of to them for putting on a fairly well organized event. The course they had at Ft. Devens was the best site I've seen to-date; flat, wide-open, with concrete in great shape. The course was around 1 mile in length, which made it a bear to walk. Where I usually walk a course 6 - 8 times, I made it around this one once. We ended up getting 8 runs in - 4 per heat - and I had the course pretty much memorized by the 3rd run. Portions of it you could approach 60 mph, if you worked it right. I saw more than one car do variations on spins - 180's, 360's, etc. Exciting stuff, for sure. Now for the bad - the course was far too big to be safely staffed by the number of drivers that were in attendance. I ended up working the last station before the timing gate at the end, and had almost 150 yards of cones to cover. My runner's knee was throbbing within a dozen sprints to pick up cones, and the real torture began. With 4 runs per heat, work assignments lasted almost 2 hrs at each heat. The day was very warm, and the sun was blazing. Because I was new to the location, I really hadn't packed the appropriate supplies - something with an SPF factor over 30, preferably - so I roasted. In fact, at this date, my legs are STILL peeling. I arrived at the end of the day at my friend's house exhausted and sunburned, with a throbbing knee and a head full of visions of some of the sweetest BMW's and Porsches you'll ever see. My thanks to Christo T. and his wife for housing me the night before the event. I had so much fun that I'm going to do it again - August 16th and October 4th. I ran nearly 10 seconds behind others in my class, but then again my vehicle was sorely overmatched by almost all the vehicles in attendance.

You wake up still sore and sun baked from the previous day, so how do you recover? By heading out and doing it all over again at a different venue. This time it was at the Mazda "Rev It Up" event at Gillette Stadium in Boston, accompanied by my long-time high school friend Steve J. When I say "sun baked", I mean it was so bad that when I put on my Old Navy cargo shorts, I had to remove them and put my nylon cargo shorts back on because the Old Navy shorts were an inch longer, and the heavier fabric rubbed at my scorched calves and set them on fire with each step. Once I was back in my lightweight nylon shorts I was fine - sort of. We headed down I-495 to Gillette stadium and got there at the appointed time for registration. It was interesting - I was expecting a crush of people and total bedlam, but it was sparsely attended. I believe this was because we were in the few morning registrations, and the later day registrations wouldn't be arriving until their actual registration time. The lack of crowds was excellent because there were no lines to speak of when viewing the Mazda race cars, RX-8's, and other vehicles on display. We walked around a bit to get our bearings, but before you knew it it was time to sit for our chalk talk with Johnny Rutherford IV. He showed us a quick film on the Mazda 6's we'd be driving and gave us some general pointers about the competition, the cars, the course, and how to work the clinics for the day. We then headed out for the clinics - the slalom, the brake and turn, and the practice course. That's where we found moderate lines. It took about 20 minutes in each to get to a car and drive the clinic. By the way, I was impressed with the Mazda 6 vehicles they had on hand. Very smart looking, with Falken Azenis tires, Eibach springs, and other minor tweaks. Most vehicles were leather, and all were automatics. The 220hp Ford-sourced Duratec V6 wasn't blazing fast, but once the rpms got up it did haul pretty well. I could definitely take it as an Accord replacement without much problem. The clinics were all staffed by driving pros who had competed on circuits most racing fans would recognize. There were even some names here and there that sounded vaguely familiar. We just made it thru the practice course when we needed to go get ready for our first run of the day on the real course. We decided to study the white board drawing of the course for a few minutes, and I helped my buddy Steve map out his strategy - where to brake, where to go wide, etc. We also got to witness what I considered one of the funniest all-time moments in a presentation like this. We noticed a gentleman walking out from the prep tent, where you pick up your hair net and helmet, and get into his assigned Mazda 6. There appeared to be a large white bandage coming out from his forehead, and his helmet looked modified. I'm thinking "OK, maybe this guy has recently had head surgery and requires special equipment". So the oddly-capped gentleman gets into his car and starts strapping himself in. Then it hits me - he's got his helmet on BACKWARDS! This is possible because the helmets aren't full-face versions, so it isn't painfully obvious, but still - geez! One of the Mazda event workers peeks in at the guy to check his safety gear and to check him off for his first competition lap, and then we notice a small conversation take place, with the end result of the guy removing his helmet and placing it on correctly. So much for the head surgery theory! As we guffaw, I turn to Steve and say in a sternly serious voice "Remember today, as you go through this competition, no matter what mistakes you might make, no matter what faux pas you might visit on this hallowed event, you will not be able to pull off something that will make you look as stupid as that guy just did!" And I believed every word of it. We did our first runs, and Steve's time showed he was being much too conservative in the vehicle. I laid down a respectable time, but it was by no means going to win me a Mazda 6 - in fact, it was decidedly mid-pack for my 'Club Racer' status. We finished out the day doing a few more clinics, coming back and improving our lap times - but not enough to get us anywhere - , taking some laps in the kart racers they had at the event, and then test driving some of the other Mazda vehicles there. Best incident while test driving? As everyone stood in line for the vehicle they wished to take out on the test drive course (a fairly conservative cone-lined course that you might be able to get up to 25mph on at certain points), we hear this screeching of tires and revving of an engine. The workers call this guy in who had taken a Miata out, and started to threaten him with loss of credentials. His excuse for being very aggressive? "I thought this is where I practiced for the autocross competition." Duh!

6/30/03 - TYC tail lamps installed and Sparco Torino seat installed. The TYC tail lamps install went pretty well - it just took some planning and some patience. There are no instructions for the tail lamps installation, so you have to use your common sense. I've done other tail lamp installs, so I used my experience with them to figure out what to do here. I'm thinking of creating a quick how-to page on the tail lamp install in order to save people from the mistakes and not-so-great ways that I attempted things at first. Look for a new section on this soon.

The Sparco seat is in, but I'm not sure that I'm happy with it. It's been over a year since I first purchased the Sparco seat from a non-authorized vendor. First lesson learned: don't purchase Sparco stuff from a non-authorized vendor. While they may get you the stuff legitimately, if you run into problems with the items Sparco will only help you out if you are dealing with a Sparco authorized vendor. I believe this is because they have some problems with people bringing in gray market Sparco products, and actual Sparco knock-off products. My big problem was getting a seat base specifically made for my vehicle. That took from April 2002 until November 2002. Once I got the seat base, the weather wasn't good for working in the garage, so I pieced all the parts together and dreamed of spring. So April 2003 rolls around, and I take the newly obtained seat base out to the vehicle, remove the stock seat, and test fit the Sparco seat base. IT DOESN'T FIT. I contact OG Racing, my authorized Sparco vendor, and they agree to send a new base. THE NEW BASE DOESN'T FIT EITHER. Their are 4 mount points on the seat base, just like the stock seat - 3 on the floor pan, and 1 on the drive train tunnel. The floor pan mount points are fine, but the tab on the seat base that needs to match up with the bolt hole in the drive train tunnel is short by a good inch. OG Racing talks me into having it machined at a local metal fabrication shop. Kudos to Hacker's Repair for their efforts - 30 minutes of work and 90 minutes of pleasant conversation had me all set up with a new bracket. Karl Hacker is a genuine nice guy and was easy to deal with. He showed me around the shop and we discussed all sorts of things - mods he's doing to his new MINI, his racing days, current projects, etc. It was fun and reminded me of something out of The Andy Griffith Show, but in a good way. Karl hacksawed off the drive train tunnel mounting tab from the rest of the seat base, sanded off the powder coating on the tab and the base where he'd be welding, then mounted the tab and the seat base in my car. Once those two pieces were in place, he then measured for a separate piece of steel to bridge the gap between the 2 parts and to overlap enough for welding to each. That turned out to be about 3 inches. Karl then vice gripped the new piece to the seat base and the tab, leveled them, and then removed the parts as one large piece. The parts went to the welding bench, where they were all welded together. He then even sprayed some black enamel on them to make it look original. Very nice work.

Sunday I spent 2.5 hours installing the seat base and the seat/sliders/brackets onto the base. This turned out to be a very physically demanding adventure. The seat assembly weighs nearly 45lbs, so lifting a corner of it with one hand while attempting to put a bolt in a hole can be a challenge. I removed the stock female seat belt buckle from the stock seat and bolted it to the Sparco seat base. I hooked the wire from the stock seat belt buckle to the wiring in the floor pan so that the seat belt light would extinguish when I buckle up (which is every time the car is moving). Not all the seat base holes wanted to match up exactly with their floor pan counter parts, so some pushing and prodding was needed. The tabs from the seat sliders also didn't want to match their counterparts on the seat base. I finally was able to get all the parts together and decided to test out my creation. The seat slide forwards, but the seat WOULD NOT slide backwards. This was not good. I had to unbolt the seat base at the front mount points, and then the sliders would move backwards. Obviously something was binding, but I couldn't figure out what was causing the binding. It appeared that the seat base wasn't square with the mounting points once the seat itself was mounted to the base. Now I built the seat and its components during the winter in my living room, so I decided I might need to loosen some of these items (brackets, sliders, whatever I could) to see if I could get them aligned with how the seat base expected them. If you've ever worked on the underside of a seat, you know you can't see anything, and you can't reach under very well, so I ended up unbolting the seat base from the floor pan and tilting the whole seat and all components back for access. I loosened a few items, moved them as best I could, then rebolted the assembly together tight. Bolted the seat base back to the floor - and it worked both ways. Total time spent on the seat - 3.5 hours. I've noticed you have to pay close attention to the Sparco sliders - they don't seem to naturally lock into position, so you need to push on the seat and make sure the slider adjuster bar is pushed back down in order to lock it into position. This doesn't bode well for safety, but as long as you are aware of it, you can check it before moving. The stock seat belt seems to fit very well with the Sparco seat. However, depending on the adjustment of the seat, it can hide the male belt buckle and make it difficult to find over your shoulder. What I've done is when releasing the seat belt, I make sure the catch the belt on the left shoulder wing of the seat - that way it is in easy reach the next time I need it. Entry and exist from the seat are moderately difficult because of the high wings on the seat. However, the seat holds you ROCK SOLID during hard cornering maneuvers. I no longer have to use my knees to brace myself on corners, nor do I have to hold onto the e-brake during sharp maneuvers. The seat does its job. BE AWARE - the seat is extremely narrow in the hip area - I wear a 34 inch waist pant, and the Torino is pinching me pretty good. It'll be interesting to see if this seat cripples me on a drive out to Boston for a Boston BMW CCA autocross event and the Mazda Rev It Up competition at Foxboro. I'll give my final review after that trip. The seat is certainly fun around town, but it doesn't fit the wife very well so she's not enthused about having it in the car.

5/6/03 - Velox rims and Kumho Ecsta MX tires are great. The grip is excellent, and the overall look is excellent as well. I've rec'd a lot of compliments on them, and no more 'Where are your hubcaps?' questions, either. The polished lip sets the wheels off from the tires, and the gunmetal spokes keep the stealth look. The 17" tires have lost a bit of ride quality - probably from less sidewall flex - and it is noticeable, but not unbearable. I haven't been able to outdrive the tires - yet - but I'll try soon.

TYC Elegante tail lamps have arrived. I didn't even have time to put them up on the site as 'ordered' on the Mods page. I was looking for a replacement for my old Altezza style lamps that didn't pass inspection - I've noticed a lot of understated but sharp looking tail lamps on other Accords (no 6th gens) in the area, and I wanted to do something with mine. I started looking at the TYC lamps about a year ago, but didn't want to jump at them because of the price (around $230) and the looks - the 'Modena' style looks similar to the round lamps of a Skyline, but they are raised on the corner lamp, like a short soda can, from the surface of the lamp itself. These tail lamps are SAE DOT compliant, and have the all-important 'SAE DOT' rating molded right into the lamp. I'm guessing that in order to make that rating, TYC had to make the lens much more visible from the side than it would be molded flat, so they extended the lamp lens out to get the side view exposed to the bulbs. Unfortunately, this looks slightly odd - how odd I'll soon find out. They also come with some wiring harnesses and smaller bulbs - I'm guessing that these wires plug into existing bulb sockets, but I'm not sure since they didn't come with instructions. I've sent an email to TYC asking for instructions, and I'll post any response they send me. I'm also planning on posting pictures of these lamps, plus my Velox rims, soon. Look for a revamp of my pictures - now that I've got plenty of web space on Earthlink, I can host my own pictures.

I'm now a swinger and swapped with a friend at work, so we got to spend the night with each other's... vehicle. He wanted to see what all the mods did for an Accord, and since he had a nice looking 2001 BMW 325i, I didn't have to be asked twice. The impressions.....

2001 BMW 325i - this puppy has power, and plenty of torque. The inline 6 cylinder 2.5 liter engine is rated at 184hp & 174ft-lbs of torque. Power is on tap right from 1st gear as you pull off the line, and it just gets more exciting as you hit 2nd and 3rd. In fact, I never really got to experience 3rd all that much with the pedal floored - 2nd would have me going way over the speed limit on most of the roads I traveled on. Heck, I even had a kill the first 10 minutes of driving the BMW. I'll admit, I feel a bit guilty about this - it was a 6th gen Accord coupe. I liken killing a fellow Accord to cannibalism - but I have to be honest: it was exhilarating. Mashing the pedal, that time when I was in 3rd, pushed me right into the seat and had me experiencing power I've not felt in my Accord, except for some portions of 2nd gear (2nd seems to be the strongest gear that my Accord possesses). The pleather interior was very plush looking, although it was uncomfortable in that it was hot and didn't breath well on the driver's back. Driving position was comfortable, with much appreciation aimed at the adjustable thigh bolster. The clutch and shifter was very solid, and I had no trouble getting used to it. The ride was very comfortable - surprisingly so for a car that corners so well. This particular vehicle sported 2 simple mods - a cold air intake and a front strut tower brace. The down sides? Few - the cockpit felt a bit cramped compared to my open Accord. The blue tinted mirrors help keep glare down, but are distracting until you get used to them - I kept thinking some blue vehicle was alongside out of the corner of my eye, and it made me jump a few times. The other thing I didn't like was the sound - there basically wasn't any. My Accord has a less-than-subtle rumble when you stomp on the gas - but this Beemer does the job like a ninja: stealthy and deadly. I'd certainly take a look at a BMW next time around, no doubt about it. Adding up my mods to the base price of the car would get me close (very close) to the entry level 325i price.

1999 Honda Accord 2.3 EX sedan - "it corners very flat" was the sole compliment. The aftermarket springs, shocks, and anti-sway bars do help with body lean. But my friend was very disappointed to find that the ton of mods didn't punch up the 150hp and 152 ft-lbs of torque. To tell you the truth, after experiencing the BMW, I'm a bit disappointed, too. So much so, that I'm tempted to stop the installation of any parts that are waiting and to simply start saving up for a better vehicle. Don't get me wrong - this Accord is a fun drive, but only when compared to the stock Accord. There are now plenty of vehicles that have arrived on the scene from the recently fought horsepower wars that are just too far up the ladder for the Accord to reach. I enjoy my Accord, but now that I know what life COULD be like with other vehicles, my eye is going to start wandering a lot. You never recoup the costs of your mods, so it's best to just sit tight with what you got and save that money for use on the next vehicle. That's my game plan for now.

4/27/03 - Velox rims and Kumho tires are mounted for the summer driving season. I just got done switching the Nokia Hakkapelitta Q's (195/65R15 - skinny is good in snow) & my Honda rims (just noticed tonight they're stamped "Enkei" on the back!) out and put on my brand new 17x7 Velox VX-6R wheels with my brand new Kumho Ecsta MX tires (215/45ZR17). I was a bit nervous about fitment, going with a slightly wider tire than normal and having a new offset (42mm) on a new rim size (17"), but everything looks good to me. I took the car for a quick spin around the block and nothing rubbed. I'll burn up the streets a little and report back on ride-quality and grip soon....

3/31/03 - The snow melted (at least until today when we got another dusting), but now the venues have melted! Just when you think things are coming around for a great season - your new wheels and tires are coming together, you'll have a new LSD to try out, and your hardworking SCCA members have put together a great schedule for the season - it all falls to hell in a hand basket. Seems construction is going to knock us out of both our spots - the P Lot at the State Office Campus, and the old runway at Griffiss Tech Park in Rome, NY. I've got faith in our guys, but when they advertise in the newsletter they're looking for someone with professional negotiation skills, then I get a bit worried. We're a good group - well behaved, and very conscientious - but people tend to have some bad preconceptions of what we do and how we do it (yes, that includes you Mom). Let's keep our fingers crossed, otherwise it'll be a long, tough summer.

If the SOLO season doesn't get underway soon, then it won't make much sense to have a set of Falken Azenis tires sitting around, would it? I'd probably sell these rather than let them dry out for the year. They aren't the stock size for my car, so I'm not going to run them as summer tires - besides, that would be a waste for them.

Still need to get a hold of the garage that does my wrenching and see if they can get my Phantom Grip installed. Work has been a real bear and makes it almost impossible to make a few necessary personal phone calls during the day. It's nice to be employed in these times, but work is a lot tougher due to new people not being hired while more work and tougher projects come along.

3/6/03 - It's hard to see the upcoming season thru all the snow. My secret weapons I'll be deploying (planned) this SOLO II season will be a set of Falken Azenis Sport RS tires, sized 215/45ZR16. Why a different size than the recommended 205/55R16 tires? Well, I'm hoping there are some advantages in the numbers.

Diameter - These tires are actually a bit smaller in circumference than stock sizing for a 16" tire, 23.5" versus 24.9", so in theory they should act as a multiplier for engine power. At least that's what I read - I'm still trying to think it thru in common sense terms. Other things to be aware of in this situation - the speedo will run faster than you actually are, and the odometer will roll up more miles than you're actually traveling, so you wouldn't want to run this size all the time.

Weight - These tires weigh less than the stock sizing for 16", 22.8 lbs versus 23.3 lbs. A savings of half a pound per wheel isn't much, but it's something.

Width - These tires a slightly wider than the stock sizing for 16", 8.5" versus 8.3". I know two tenths of an inch isn't a lot, but wider IS better.

Stats on these sizes can be found on the Vulcan Tire Sales web site.

I'm interested to see if there are any fitment problems with these tires. The size isn't all that different from the original size, so I've got my fingers crossed that the differences are all good and there's no down side to this - no suspension rub, no camber changes, etc. I'll report on the fit once I get them mounted. I purchased them online from Discount Tire Direct because of their free shipping.

Phantom Grip - I need to make an appointment to have this item installed. I'm not anticipating any problems having it installed, but I have contemplated having my lightened flywheel and a new clutch (ACT seems to be the recommendation, or stock) installed at the same time. I'll probably let the clutch take one more season's abuse before replacing it, though. I'm thinking I'd be better off having the Phantom Grip installed now, since snow is still flying and there are better opportunities to feel the difference this should make. I'll report on the install process and the cost.

Another set of Rota Slipstreams - After agonizing over whether to get stock size 16" tires or not, I decided getting a different diameter tire would be a good excuse to pick up another set of wheels, preferably SILVER colored, in order to lessen the amount of complaints I get on my black wheels. I personally dig the black look, but I do understand how silver is a sharp look, too, so why not have another set? Since my Borbets are heavy, I've been keeping an eye out for a set of light weight alternatives. Centerline offers a new line of light wheels, but they don't make them in the bolt pattern I need. Velox has a new model line out that is ultra light, but they are very pricey, in the neighborhood of $350/wheel. Then I thought, the Rotas are cool, why not another set? The black ones have held up well in their first season, so I ordered another set in polished silver style. Problem is they're back-ordered until April. I'm not sure if I can/want to run my snow tires until then. So I'm still weighing my options on what to do there. The new set of everyday summer tires will be Bridgestone Potenzas S-03s.

2001 Journal

2000 Journal

Main Journal Page