Project Honda Civic EG: Part 4

With Project Civic looking mean and clean, we desperately needed to address the suspension and brakes. Tired shocks suspended in sagging springs bounced the hatchback down the freeway like a basketball, while offering practically zero roll control-- factory anti-roll bars number zero. The stock rubber bushings were more used up than an aged Vegas starlet--cracked, compressed and generally useless. The worst slalom number ever recorded by SCC shouldn't belong to a double-wishbone Honda, but it does.

Of no help were those little round pieces of granite that someone sold the previous owner as tires mounted on wheels best suited for a stroller.

Our plan of attack was four-fold: Get new shocks and springs, add anti-roll bars front and rear, replace every possible bushing with polyurethane and put fresh, sticky meats on light wheels.

Suspension
Installation of an Energy Suspension master kit requires that you have access to a press, torch and tremendous stores of patience. Half the time it felt like we were trying to press Fat Albert through a keyhole.

We suggest you presoak all items for at least a day with penetrating lubricant; installation pro Ken Nord advocates the use of AeroKroil penetrant, available via the company's Web site. For the rear trailing arms, rather than press out the central bushing, Energy suggests you burn it out with a torch. We burned, cut, cursed, bled and ground our way to a rubber-free housing, though our experience isn't indicative of usual customer experience.

For the Stage 1 suspension, we planned on a simple performance shock/lowering spring combination that would be cost-effective and perform well. We heard about H&R Spring's new Cup Kit, which includes infinitely rebound-adjustable Koni shocks specially valved for H&R Springs. Priced competitively with buying shocks and springs separately, this matched set offers the advantage of a package designed and tested to work well together. Moreover, the spring perches use a snap ring to allow some ride height adjustment.

For anti-roll bars, we were attracted to Ground Control's 22mm adjustable rear bar for several reasons. First is the extensive experience Ground Control has with making Hondas handle well. This piece is beautifully made, offering CNC-machined components for close tolerances and Delrin bushings for squeak-free use. Most impressively, the bar offers infinite adjustability in stiffness and preload.

Crucial to the successful design of the Ground Control bar are the brackets which help distribute the load on the Honda subframe, known to tear with some aftermarket bars. The bar was designed to replace a factory rear bar, which our DX did not have, so we scavenged the proper bolts from our magic Honda bolts bin. To complement the rear bar, we slapped on a stock front anti-roll bar identical to the non-VTEC Integra bar.

For wheels and tires, we wanted those that were strong and light, as always. Sixteen-inch SSR Competitions from the Tire Rack with 205/45R-16 Toyo Proxes T1-S tires fit the bill. The Competition, like all SSR wheels, is constructed with semi-solid forging technology. As a result, our 16 x 7-inch wheel is very strong, despite its 11.2-lb weight. Morever, the anthracite-colored center will complement the carbon fiber pieces on our car, as well as do a great job of hiding brake dust. The high skidpad numbers we've seen on the Toyo T1-S and large number of sizes made specifically for compact cars made them an easy choice.

With stronger legs and a new pair of shoes, we returned to the slalom. This time around it went 70.4 mph, a full 9.4 mph faster than before. This performance puts it in a very small group of cars that break the 70 mph mark. The car pulled an unimpressive .87g on the skidpad going right, and a far more respectable .93g going left, which means we need to spend more time dialing in our suspension and hunting for bent parts. There's plenty of handling prowess to be gained by toying with the shock, alignment and rear anti-roll bar settings.

The general amount of sloppiness felt everywhere in the suspension is gone with the Energy Suspension bushings in place, and turn-in is far crisper, though the sloppy steering is still troublesome. The H&R Cup Kit proved a great setup for a street car, returning impressive numbers but a well-damped and comfortable ride, even on sketchy surfaces.

Brakes
Well-wrought brakes are a necessary attribute of any vehicle claiming hot rod status. A blessed union of a solid, linear pedal, massive stopping power and complete resistance to fade make driving any car so equipped a joy, whether on the way to church or storming down a mountain.

The stock brakes on Project Civic inspired about as much confidence as a used car salesman. The tiny front discs with drums in the rear were so haggard that driving the car became a gamble of whether you would wear a blue Honda to bed that night. In the great tradition of Honda hybrids, Honda Auto Salvage provided us with the rear trailing arms and integral disc brakes off a CRX Si to replace the stock drums in the rear. The braking advantage gained with rear discs offsets their slight weight penalty. Morever, although we upgraded the stock discs with Goodridge braided lines and EBC slotted rotors and Greenstuff pads, with the proper spindle in place, future monster brake upgrades are a cinch. In the front, however, we went for the full monty with Wilwood's big brake kit. While hybrid options are available for larger front brakes, the Wilwood brake kit offers massive braking performance and extremely good value, so we decided to start there.

A larger master cylinder will displace more fluid with every inch of brake travel, requiring less pedal travel to fill the calipers and take all the slack out of the brake system, a plus with the added rear discs and larger front brakes. JDMHondaparts.com supplied us with a 15/16ths master cylinder, an appropriately larger brake booster, and a proper proportioning valve for rear discs from a JDM Integra SiR front clip.

With the Wilwood kit, a huge increase in brake torque occurs with a 12.19-inch rotor--2.69 inches larger than stock. The billet aluminum four-piston calipers weigh a mere 2.7 lbs. each and come fitted with ARP bolts. One of the most frequently used aftermarket calipers in domestic racing, the Dynalite II offers the added advantage of having a tremendous range of pad compounds available for purchase, at less than half what most compact enthusiasts pay for a track-specific pad. As well, running brakes with a much larger heat dispersion capacity and greater overall torque allow you to run a much less aggressive pad to obtain superior braking performance.

Some assembly with this kit is required. Brake hat and rotor need to be attached via hex head bolts, and properly torqued with Loctite. The bolts come pre-drilled for safety wire, which keeps tension on the bolts and prevents them from backing out. With the rotors assembled, bolting on the brakes was a cinch. We routed the brake lines using zip ties to clear all moving parts.

With the rear trailing arms loaded with fresh bushings, it was time for new brake hardware, as the used pads and rotors were consumed. The Progress Group suggested EBC pads and rotors for reasonably priced, high-performance stock replacement units on the rear.

To complement the braided lines included with the Wilwood front brakes, we procured a set of DOT-legal Goodridge braided brake lines for the rear. With the amount of track use planned for the car, it is essential to remove factors that can cause a soft pedal, like expansion in stock rubber lines.

The DX stock brakes were deteriorated to the point that we could not even perform an instrumented braking test for fear of not having any brakes to drive home on. With the Wilwoods and rear discs in place, however, Project Civic stopped from 60 mph in 131 feet. Unfortunately, our stock system was so dilapidated that we were unable to do baseline tests for comparison. While not unimpressive, this stopping distance in no way describes what a pleasure these brakes are to use, with a linear, firm pedal and absolute resistance to fade. Given the range of compounds available for the front calipers, desired braking performance is only a pad choice away.

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