1996 Civic DX - Import & Tuner Car - Lateral G

Unfortunately, the power capped off at just under 205 hp. Once it hit around 8,500 rpm the motor seemed to choke up where it was expected to pull hard all the way to redline. This was not a huge problem though. With the quality of work that had gone into the rest of the car we would expect any power issues to be straightened out before long. Besides, this car was not built to be a dyno queen. Its true test would be on the racetrack.

We brought the car to Willow Springs in Rosamond, Calif., for a thorough shakedown. There was an event being held by NASA, which included both a Honda Challenge race and open qualifying for the Super Lap Battle. While the car still needed a few more safety items to compete wheel-to-wheel, we could at least run it with the time-attack cars and compare lap times with the H1 class.

Horn's Civic was turning heads before it even made it off the trailer. It was by far the cleanest car at the event. The simple graphics inspired by the first Honda Formula 1 car, the '64 RA271, made it even more impressive. But, it wasn't until it went screaming down the front straight at 10,000 rpm that everyone really appreciated what the car was.

As the test driver, I had the best seat to witness what the car could do. The acceleration out of the pits was awesome. The sensation was amplified by the piercing note from the exhaust. Through my earplugs it sounded great. Watching everyone on pit lane cringe as I roared by provoked a cruel sense of satisfaction that only a true sadist could appreciate.

At low speeds the performance was phenomenal. The extreme lightweight allowed the nimble car to dart through the tight corners with amazing precision. The stock shifter with hard bushings made for a really positive action. There was no need to feel if it was feeding into gear properly like you need to do with a cable shifter. All I had to do was think "shift" and it was right there. Combined with the lightweight flywheel, blipping up and down through the gears was just cherry.

In the high-speed stuff, things got a little hairy. According to the telemetry the car was running through Turn 8 right at 120 mph. At that speed it was recording lateral G spikes of around 1.4. The back end would wobble a bit as it took a set. What may have been happening was that as the suspension loaded up, the rubber bushings were distorting. The rear trailing arm bushings were already replaced with bearings, but that normally only stabilizes the car under braking. These "wobbles" were happening under lateral loads. I think a car as built as that one would definitely benefit from spherical bearings in the control arms as well.

A few times the car really stepped out and required close to full opposite lock to catch. This was particularly challenging since the motor was running out of breath at those speeds. Another 20 or so horsepower up on the top would have made throttle steering out of those situations much more effective.

These perceptions of questionable handling aren't always accurate though. Sometimes it's just a result of a car that is going really fast. Only the data could tell us what was happening.

Our official best lap time was a 1:35.269. The fastest H1 time of the weekend was a 1:34.603, set by Michael Lee in a K20 powered DC2 Integra. This was really encouraging but before we could come to any conclusions we needed to get the car weighed. The minimum weight for a B16 powered H1 car is 2,100 pounds including the driver. With Horn in the car it tipped the scales right at 2,210. With me it was slightly more than that.