Japfest 2011

One of the biggest Jap car shows in the UK calender is Japfest, usually held at Castle Combe race circuit as was the case again this year. I was supposed to be on the DC5 stand however was unable to get my car ready for the day :(

Nevertheless it was an excellent turn out for the club with over 30+ DC5 Type R's on show, the largest get together of DC5Rs in the World outside of Japan. Impressed by the turnout, the organisers in an attempt to lure us back for Japfest 2 offered us free track time for that event. Guess who's signed up? :)

For some reason I was feeling a bit under the weather so didn't take many pictures. Anyway, here are a few I did take.

And last but not least a video from Reelmotion.

Mugen Gear Knob

Just a small update. I have repeatedly failed to get a new gear knob that I want. I started off with the Arc in satin finish which kept getting back ordered until they went bust.. I then found a seller who had the Blox Neo Chrome in stock or so I thought, he was still waiting on a back order like everyone else in the States so I cancelled.

I then came across a Mugen gear knob that I actually liked. You don't normally see one of these around as they're for the CRZ - Arrived today :)

Willans Harness

Yes I know I already have some harnesses but I was not 100% happy with them. Therefore last week I ordered what I had always wanted - A brand new Willans harness in custom white with alloy adjusters.
I was actually expecting them in a couple of weeks but they arrived today at the office!

Sandy@ Willans, you are a star!

Anyway, some pics.

Test drive

I popped down to TGM today to have a little test drive of my newly mapped car and to pick up my dyno graph.

Test Drive

Power delivery is so smooth. As well as there being more power, it just feels so much more useable. Exhaust noise although obviously louder than stock is actually a lot quieter than I was expecting, perfect for track; looks like the decision to go with the stainless steel version of the 60RS paid off :)

I don't know what the car sounds like from the outside but when Tom eased her down the ramp into the workshop, she sounded awesome.

Dyno Graphs

For reference, below are the dyno graphs from the rolling road day in December when my car was stock.

HP at the Fly

HP at the Wheels

After J's Mods and Mapping - HP at the Wheels

MASE'd

Mase of Mase Engineering has a reputation as one of the best tuners in the World. As such, the demand for his services is so high that he makes overseas trips across the globe a few times a year.

It so happened that he was in the UK for a couple weeks so I jumped at the chance to get my car mapped by him. The custom intake pipe that Tom had made up had arrived this week so onwards and upwards he sorted all my bits out ready for Mase to map my car

Custom induction pipe - Loving the red finish!

I unfortunately don't have the graph of the final power run (yet) but it made approximately 216 bhp at the wheels!
To put that into perspective, when my car was dyno'd at Surrey Rolling Road in December it made 181.3 bhp at the wheels and 216.6 bhp at the flywheel.

If we take the same drivetrain loss (I know this is not a terribly accurate way to calculate..), my car is now pushing out just over 258 bhp at the fly with stock internals!

I also believe the car can push out a tiny bit more power when the J's front bumper is fitted.
Reason being that the J's air intake utilises a scoop behind the font grill/bumper to collect air like so.

The J's front bumper has a much larger front grill that the induction kit was designed to utilise and fit exactly.
You can see the difference below.

The eagle eyed of you might have spotted that the oem bumper would cover up part of the scoop as its grill is smaller and not quite the right shape.

J's Intake and RBC

Quick update.

There are quite a few teething problems making the J's induction kit and RBC fit together:

• Inducion hose - You cannot use any off the shelf induction hose to mate up the throttle body and intake pipe. You can modify one and force it to fit but it puts too much stress on the air box. Tom was definitely not happy with this so he's asked one of his contacts to make up a custom one which will hopefully be spun up on Monday. 
• Aircon pipe - when fitting a RBC, you would typically move and remount the aircon pipe to the right. There is absolutely no way you can do this with the J's airbox in the way. A custom pipe will be needed that's more flexible. For the time being, Tom has de-gassed/blocked off the aircon, and taken the pipe off.
• Sensor cables extended - due to lack of room around the airbox and RBC

Note, if we had kept the PRC inlet manifold on, everything would have fitted perfectly. We're breaking new ground here (in terms of fitment) in the UK and I'm glad it's in Tom's hands as he doesn't compromise on quality of work.

Anyway some photos

J's Racing carbon fibre Tsuchinoko intake dominating the engine bay :)

Shiney shiney RBC inlet manifold

Inside the air box of the J's Intake

What I probably haven't mentioned before is that I have gone with full J's Racing breathing mods which would encompass the following:

• J's Racing carbon fibre Tsuchinoko intake (as above)
• J's Racing 4-2 Manifold
• J's Racing 2-1 Decat
• J's Racing C304 60RS exhaust
• And of course the RBC inlet manifold port matched to a true 70mm throttle body (not J's Racing)

The car wasn't on the ramps so I couldn't snap any full on pictures but I could of course take a few :)

J's Racing 4-2 Manifold

J's Racing C304 60RS exhaust

Brembo F50 Calipers and 2 Piece Race Disc Set Up

I might have mentioned that at some point I would upgrade from the Dixcels. Minimum upgrade would be a 2 piece floating disc/bell design but keeping the OEM brembo calipers. If I were to go this route I would most probably go with the DBA 5000 discs possibly mated with Hawk HP Plus pads.

Don't get me wrong, the Dixcel slotted rotors and Z Type pads are an excellent combo and I would recommend them to anyone. BUT, given the direction my car is going, one piece discs with OEM calipers don't really match up to the rest of my mods for example - Nitron NTR Race dampers, CE28's, one piece brake discs and oem calipers.....
You see what I mean? My car will be a show case of top notch components. And of course it will still be tracked!

So with the above in mind, I was having a chin wag with Tom today and it so happened he was thinking the same thing and so mentioned he had the perfect brake kit in mind. It obviously wouldn't be as aggressive as the TGM race car. For example if you just take the calipers, they run full on Brembo race calipers which have no dust seals etc etc. Additionally If I remember correctly they also run Hawk DTC-70 pads.

So what did he suggest?

• Brembo F50 Calipers
• 332x32 fully floating 2 piece race disc set up (FYI, DC5R OEM discs are 300mm)
• Our choice of pad compound to suit (most probably one of the Hawk Ferro-Carbon pad range)

I would probaby have to run spacers at the front but then we are doing that anyway due the wider J's front fenders.
It would take 3 weeks for Brembo to make up the kit (anodizing etc usually takes the majority of this time) and the calipers are only available in black (which I really like!). Anyway, these are exactly what the calipers will look like.

I think very late braking will be quite common for me on track! o_0