2010 Rallycross Pilot

[hondamaint]

We have been working a LOT on getting our pilot ready for Rallycross. It had 1025 miles on it when we started tearing it apart to modify. Here are a few pictures we took today. We still have a lot of work to do. Stuff like lower it, get more - camber , change the seats out and we may add a roll cage. Lots of other stuff but as for now it is coming along pretty good.


No these are not the tires and wheels we will use.


Still cleaning everything up some.


Lots of room for spare tires.


Inside.

It will move again under it's own power now and after Christmas we will work on the suspension.

[Jedi1]

There are two words that come to mind. Word one = Damn, word two = Skippy! You have my number. If you ever need any help with it just give me a ring.

It's looking good!

[hondamaint]

Just thinking, is a welded diff. a good idea for this project or not?

[Jedi1]

I've done allot of reading about this in the last two days. It doesn't look like a good idea. Is there anyone in the power train department at the plant that you could sit down with and go over the intended use? A good LSD would be great, but I think a completely locked FWD diff will cause some pretty severe issues with the car just not wanting to turn correctly.

[Shea Serian]

I've done allot of reading about this in the last two days. It doesn't look like a good idea. Is there anyone in the power train department at the plant that you could sit down with and go over the intended use? A good LSD would be great, but I think a completely locked FWD diff will cause some pretty severe issues with the car just not wanting to turn correctly.

+1 to Yoder. I agree.

This is why wrx's have better turn in on the dirt than STi's. Wrx's use a viscous coupling and are 50/50 split front to rear powertrain with mechanical internal lsd's and the STi's are all electronic. For some reason the computer does not like low traction environments.

[edtype1]

Well....it depends if your hauling the Pilot to events. You'd be tearing-up diff's like crazy If your not. Welded wont give you the results your looking for running RX. Like Shea said, LSD would be your best bet. Now on the other hand, if your running tarmac events(road racing, TT, & maybe hillclimbs) the welded diff will give you results. You'd have to change your driving style, because it would be allot different feel. Definitely check with your Honda R&D team. If you don't have one there in Lincoln, email Maria Bruen in the Columbus,OH Honda R&D team. She's one of the R&D engineers that rallycross Ohio Valley region. They had a couple Civic entered with the same In-House benefits you guys have down here. She's also on Facebook....Hope this helps...

[hondamaint]

We hope to use the Pilot in rallycross and also some track stuff. LSD as far as I know is not avaible for our transmission.We could have one made and may look into that later on but for now we are on a tight budget so LSD for now is not an option.Tearing stuff up is not that big of a concern because we have plenty of parts. I was just wondering because I understand it will hurt turning some but as it is we will have a 3400lb 1 wheel drive car. The good thing is we can do both and test to see what works and what does not. Transmissions and axles are easy to come by so it really only boils down to the work to change it out. I was just thinking the extra traction may be worth what other issues we may have. Thanks for the quick response and wondering if any of you guys have ever tried a welded diff. on a FWD car and how was it ? Real world experience is what I would love to hear about because I have my opinion but it is not based on real world experience like you guys may have.

I will e-mail Maria

Sean-No one in the power train dept. would be of any help to us, Bradley would be our best source of information inhouse . We just do the motor and the Georgia plant does the transmission. And I am sure they have no experience doing anything like this. We are pretty much on our own to test and see what works.
Thanks

[Jedi1]

If you can weld one up and then test it at the plant then I say go for it. The worst case scenario is that it doesn't work out well and you pop another open one in there.

[hondamaint]

If you can weld one up and then test it at the plant then I say go for it. The worst case scenario is that it doesn't work out well and you pop another open one in there.

This may be what we wind up doing but time is the main thing now as we want to get it together and running as soon as possible. We are going to have replace the steering rack because it is hosed up somewhat and thought it would be a good time to replace the transmission while we have the sub frame dropped,kinda kill 2 birds with one stone.

[Jedi1]

Makes sense to me. Let me know about the tubing when you pick it up. Also le me know if you want to get the cage done as I need to give him a bit of lead time.

[hondamaint]

Leaving in about 10 minutes.

[Jedi1]

cool. Let me know if I need to get Q ready for the car.

[JohnW8]

Looks to me that vehicle has a high rollover potential to be a track vehicle. Just saying it look like a pretty high center of gravity. There is a formula for the track verses height ratio out there is SCCA tech land. If a vehicle is higher than X.X it's a no go for racing purposes. Check the rule book!

[Focus]

in another thread they said it would be about 1000lbs lighter than stock and "a little lower." There is always some trickery with these guys. (Rules are rules, though)

[hondamaint]

Looks to me that vehicle has a high rollover potential to be a track vehicle. Just saying it look like a pretty high center of gravity. There is a formula for the track verses height ratio out there is SCCA tech land. If a vehicle is higher than X.X it's a no go for racing purposes. Check the rule book!

I agree in stock form you are 100%correct I did check the formula and It WILL fall well below the line on the scale of the chart .The chart is width vs height formula and at least we are starting out with a wide vehicle. Current weight 3460lb and we are working on the "lower" part. Besides that is why we will build a roll cage for it just incase.


It may wind up being a pig but the company gave it to us and said here you go build what you can but you have no budget. Will it be fast, I am guessing no but will it be fun? I am sure the answer will be YES!!!!