Project Budget Integra - Tech

We added a rear suspension tower brace DME. The brace is made from extruded aluminum with steel mounting brackets. The DME bar comes with all the hardware needed so that a bar can be installed on lower model Integras that did not come with a front bar. The rear bar will require some trimming of interior panels.

We added a rear suspension tower brace DME. The brace is made from extruded aluminum with

More Bars?!
The last bolt-on suspension additions came from Design Motorsports Engineering (DME). We added a rear aluminum suspension tower brace. The piece uses thick gauge steel brackets and a ribbed aluminum extrusion for the bar section. We really didn't need the front bar since the GSR model Integras come already equipped with a welded stamped steel brace. The DME rear-bar will be good since the open cabin hatchback design of the DC2 makes for a flimsy box structure that can use some additional strength.

Wheels, Tires, and Hardware
The most important part of making anything handle is tires. Keeping in mind that we're using a slightly softer suspension, we decided to use a less aggressive tire than our standard R-compound formula. Matching the amount of grip to the stiffness of the suspension is important since super sticky tires will overpower the suspension and make the car roll and pitch too much, and commuter tires on race suspension won't have enough compliance for the tires to even try to grip, making the car slide everywhere even more than the stock suspension would.

The largest wheel we could properly fit tires on and make fit inside the Integra's wheelwells is a 17x7.5 inch wheel with a +43 offset. The guys at 5Zigen USA suggested their GN+ line of light affordable, yet reasonably strong wheels to fit our budget and street car criteria. These were wrapped with a set of 215/45/17 Bridgestone Potenza RE070 (UTQG 140 A A) tires, the most tire we could manage without pulling fenders. Considering this is the tire used on the Subaru STI, Honda S2000 CR, Honda NSX-R, and Nissan's GT-R (albeit in differing compounds, sizes, and constructions,) we felt that this would be a fair tire to compete against other bone stock front drivers on. The tires also better reflect what readers would choose for their own daily drivers based on price, wear, comfort, and grip.

Performance
So, it's off to the track with our new Project Integra. Using just the 5Zigen wheels and Bridgestone tires, we baselined the car in the quarter-mile, 80-0 braking, and the all-important handling and grip test, the Figure Eight. We went back after installing the updated suspension and aligning the car on the same wheels and tires and repeated all the tests. We took 1.5 seconds off our Figure-Eight lap times and increase the lateral grip by 0.11 g's. That's about what a stock MAZDASPEED3 runs. Not bad for budget parts and 10 years of tuning experience.