Team Hondata (left to right): Craig Corbin, Miriam and Doug Macmillan, Joe McCarthy, Sharo
Without solenoids, the only way to control bottle pressure is with a change in bottle temperature. A tightrope act begins. Ideal bottle pressure is achieved by balancing ambient temperature, electric bottle heaters, the sun's heat on the bottles (through the glass hatchback) and the application of wet rags soaked in an ice chest. All this occurs as the car is pushed along the staging lines, with waits of up to six hours.
The first run on the bottle is disappointing. The engine is running rich. ECU tuning had been carried out at sea level. Although the thin air of Bonneville's higher altitude and hot August climate was something Macmillan had allowed for, he had not been able to make exact predictions. The wideband O2 sensor had also failed, further complicating matters. Fine-tuning the mixture would have to be done the old-fashioned way, by reading the plugs.
Macmillan begins a process of pulling out fuel over the next several runs. Ten percent leaner per pass. The second nitrous pass of 182.9mph is good enough to qualify for the G/FCC record. But it's still too rich and there is knocking.
For the following morning's run, another 10 percent of fuel is pulled from the tune. Additionally, ignition timing is tweaked a bit to deal with the detonation. The run of 190.1mph proves to be the fastest of the week for Macmillan. The resulting record speed is 186.5mph. The team is elated, but Macmillan is reserved. Looking at the data, the plugs and the speed, an unspoken hope has been dashed-the car is not going to break 200mph. The numbers just don't support it.
The final record to break is Macmillan's pet: Fuel Altered. The toughest 2.0-liter competition in recent years has been in Blown Fuel Altered. Macmillan's desire is to equal that 200mph-plus record on nitrous without forced induction. The forgone conclusion is that it won't happen this year. But the question still has to be answered: how close can he get? The crew has high hopes. But when the car goes through the traps on the next run, it's nearly 8mph slower. Far worse than expected. Pulling the belly pan and going back to the stock nose for the ALT class was bound to hurt the car's aero, but nobody expected the RSX to be down 8mph.
Arriving at the four-mile mark where Macmillan turns out, the crew notices the car leaning to one side. The right front tire is completely flat. Mystery solved.
There's nothing like a flat tire to take speed down a few mph. Even with losing 8mph and all the air in one tire, the run is good enough to qualify for the record. The RSX is sent to impound with a third-mile speed of 183.4mph. The following morning's return run is just 4.5mph off the car's best speed of the week. And that's good enough for a fourth and final record of 184mph on the nose.
During a celebratory dinner that night, the accomplishments are tallied: two records at El Mirage, four at Bonneville, a best top speed of over 190mph and an average record bump of over 15mph. Not bad for a rookie season. But talks are already in progress about the next engine. The one needed to beat the blown class cars; the one that will earn Macmillan a red hat. The hat they give you for joining the Bonneville 200mph club.
| 2002 Acura RSX Type-S |
| Category | Old Record (mph) | New Hondata Record (mph) |
| G/GALT | 160.1 | 167.3 |
| G/GCC | 152.2 | 168.0 |
| G/FCC | 172.7 | 187.0 |
| F/FALT | 160.6 | 184.0 |
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Macmillan measures and records the nitrous bottle weights after each run. Knowing the depl
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A flat tire occurring at over 180mph really ought to look worse than this. Evidently, the
Beginnings: The Progress Honda Civic SI
Much of the current Honda scene at Bonneville can be connected in a 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon' kind of way to the Progress Civic Si. Progress Auto owner, Jeff Cheechov, was the first to take a VTEC engine to the salt for anything serious. He was the first to run the EK Civic chassis in classes previously occupied by larger, far less efficient cars. Cheechov was also the first to run a Hondata ECU in a naturally aspirated configuration, the first to get a Honda Civic over 200mph and the first to get a Honda production car driver (yours truly) into the elusive 200mph club. And, without a doubt, the only car builder to ever get a Honda named as one of Hot Rod magazine's 'Top Ten Hot Rods Of The Year'. The current 'world's fastest Civic' driver, Richard Holdener, first went to Bonneville driving Cheechov's car. And many of the current rules and technical safety specs for front-wheel-drive imports can be traced back to Cheechov's correspondence with the SCTA tech committee. Cheechov has taken a break from land speed racing, but it seems unlikely that we've heard the last from the Progress Civic Si.
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Hondata
2341 W. 205th St.
Torrance
CA
90501
3-10/-782-8278
www.hondata.com
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After Hours Automotive
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Prototype Racing
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