Is this too wild a honda build for kiwis?

[Bill Pearson]

I know you NZeders are into motorkhanas. There's vids on You Tube to prove that. But have any of you seen a purpose built motorkhana special made to run on both dirt and tar - let alone one built from Honda parts?

Well let me excite your imagination with a look at mine:

Built 2006 and raced by Bill Pearson of the MG Car Club Newcastle
Outright Club Motorkhana Champion 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006.

What is a motorkhana?
A series of six to eight low speed tests around flags, designed to test the acceleration, braking and general manoeuvrability of vehicles and driver skill. They are conducted on tar or dirt, with event layouts drawn from a set range of designs. Most are run in forward direction, but some include reversing and others drifting. Driving errors like hitting flags, going the wrong way or not finishing properly incur time penalties.

This Special:
was made from a damaged 1991 Honda Civic manual ED sedan bought for $150. The donor car was chosen because it had FWD, fully independent suspension, carburettors rather than fuel injection (easier wiring), and a small front sub-frame which located the power steering rack and lower suspension mounting points. Anyone who's worked on Civics will recognise the componentry.

The stock engine, gearbox, drive-train, plus front and rear suspension were stripped from the car and assembled on the garage floor. A steel tube frame was then fabricated to join all the components together. This car gets very dirty at times, so the frame was powder coated and the floor drops out for easy cleaning. I sculpted and made the fibreglass bonnet and special seat myself, the latter being designed to hold you really firmly, yet allow you to swivel around so you can look backwards when reversing. Total cost: around $700.

Mechanical Features:
The rear frame was made to narrow the back track by around 40cm from the stock front track. This makes 180 and 360 degree turns effortless, and prevents hitting a flag with a rear wheel once the front one is past it. There are four foot pedals. The extra one operates just the rear brakes. The clutch is dumped as soon as the car begins to roll and the left foot placed over the extra pedal. Being Civic based the car has independent suspension with double wishbones front and rear, but frame design allows for a huge amount of adjustment. Minimum ground clearance provides low centre of gravity and anti-roll. Wheels are designed to run at four degrees negative camber to overcome tyre distortion in extremely tight cornering.

Driving Techniques:
180 and 360 degree turns can almost be made in the car’s own length, with one foot on the accelerator and one on the rear brake pedal. The wheel is given a quarter turn without backing off the throttle. A soon as the car starts to turn the fourth pedal is applied, locking the rear wheels, whilst at the same time more power is applied to the front wheels to pull the car out of the turn.

Driving experience: Like being in a go-kart on steroids. Everything happens so FAST you've really gotta concentrate to not overdrive it.

Soon after I built this contraption I bought an '94 Civic hatch with a blown motor to use as a backup rally car, swapping out the engine and gearbox from "Ninja" into the EG, but leaving my special under a sheet for three years. But I've just bought a new donor car to rebirth thid baby with a bigger motor and an automatic gearbox. Standby for more pics and building shortly.

[Matty]

That's pretty kewl. We have our own wild stuff too, track down doo0t!doo0t!'s build threads

[K20Rtune]

Looks mint. Subscribed! keep it up!

[BUMP]

Why didn't you make it rwd?

Seems you could've had a lot more fun with it?

[Leon]

Yup, there used to be specials like this one around "back in the day".

But for the top level of competition here, you've got to run a production vehicle. So you'd be able to dominate all your local events in a special like this, but then you'd have to leave it at home if you wanted to enter the Nationals.

"Bump", front drive dominates RWD in motorkhana competition. So if you build to win (rather than fun), front drive is the easier method to build a winning vehicle.

[tysonzane]

Looks impressive and alot of fun. Yeah front wheel drives rip up motorkhanas, always have, always will (there are a couple of exceptional drivers that get close to bucking the trend on some of the more open flat out courses though).

He says it all with the whole lock the rear wheels and keep your foot flat and just ass drag the car 180* in a blink of an eye .

We're right into our gymkhanas down here and there are a couple of 'home built specials' but this is a pretty serious piece of kit. Nice .

[Leon]

oh ... any video footage of this car in action? Keen to see that!

[doo0T!doo0T!]

I want a turn!

[DRFTIN]

"Bump", front drive dominates RWD in motorkhana competition. So if you build to win (rather than fun), front drive is the easier method to build a winning vehicle.

but why?
i like proving this theory isnt always true in my silvia. its way to big really but its always very competitive

[Leon]

A theory doesn't have to *always* be true ... but looking at the national championship motorkhana results in modern times, front drive micro hatches tend to dominate. There are some stunningly competitive MG Midgets around too, but they still tend to get dominated by near standard Honda City's.

[Lith]

Thats pretty sweet, nice work

When I saw that (and your comment on it being too wild for Kiwis) I couldn't help but think of this: WRX STi-Powered ATV | Car Advice | Reviews

[DRFTIN]

A theory doesn't have to *always* be true ... but looking at the national championship motorkhana results in modern times, front drive micro hatches tend to dominate. There are some stunningly competitive MG Midgets around too, but they still tend to get dominated by near standard Honda City's.

yeah i know almost every nz champ over the last 20 years has been in a mini of some sort. they have also all been from chch, does that mean north island drivers cant win?
just my thoughts, feel free to disagree

[kiwi pauly]

...............quietly counting to 10

[tysonzane]

...............quietly counting to 10

.... From a long line of mini / micro FWD, gymkhana winning family .


FWD simply 'work' in gymkhanas, thats all there is too it. I've seen MR2's do very well and win courses that are more open but thats with a very skilled driver. If you have any doubt, I suggest entering in a hot hatch FWD and then a RWD. See whats easier to drive and which one has the higher result .

Just one of those things, RWD make better drift cars and 4WD's make better rally cars - doesn't stop me trying to buck the trend in a FWD rally car though , so i can appreciate what you're trying to say.

[Bill Pearson]

Hey - great to get quick responses from you NZedr's. Knew you'd rise to the bait!
I think fwd is quicker than rwd in m/ks because when you keep the power on it pulls you round the course, rather than pushes you as with rwd. This translates into less sliding when you're trying to accelerate. FWD cars also snap faster 180 degree turns in reverse because you can keep the power on to flick the nose right round where you want it to point, which is why I just LOVE front end throws.
Here are some pics of what inspired me to build "Ninja". This red piece of crap was built (I use the term loosely) by a friend of mine from a Honda Shuttle. I donated a mk1 VW Golf rear end which he narrowed. It was even rougher to drive than it looked - but despite this I had so much fun in it at two meetings I decided to build a well designed one myself.


Here are some pics of me running my B20 Frankenstein V-Tec in a tar motorkhana. I laid so much rubber in the Knights stadium carpark the neighbours complained and we lost the venue. I was not just smokey but won my class too. Trouble was we got two runs at each event and once I'd got a clean run.... well I don't need to join the dots do I!




---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 PM ----------

Ok - so back to the main feature - rejuvenating Ninja. When we left my beast it was under a sheet for 4 years with no motor & gearbox. I bought a cheap 1988 Prelude with a 2 litre SOHC auto for a transplant, deciding a slushbox would better handle the extreme torque to weight ratio of this "car", plus give me one less pedal to operate. The Prelude has a front cross member that holds the front lower suspension tie rod bars, and it just unbolts from the car. This - together with the many differences in the new engine - meant I had to cut the chassis right off at the firewall and build a new front frame to accomodate it. I'd kept the entire loom and ECU for this Efi engine, and even found a wiring loom online to download. However despite all this my two friends (who are Honda trained mechanics), couldn't work out the wiring. They'd chopped the loom to pieces, so things just sat still for another year.
The boys unsuccessfully trying to wire up the Efi:

Then another statutory write-off Prelude came up at the salvage auctions.

I'd dismmissed it because it had carbies, but the next morning the penny dropped and I realised life without Efi would mean I could get Ninja's heart beating by myself. It cost me $200, and I on-sold the mint 1984 baby for $200 (with just 187,000kms on it), to another mate who runs an old Prelude ex-racer of mine in the Juniors class. So I had a free engine & gearbox!

[DRFTIN]

I laid so much rubber in the Knights stadium carpark the neighbours complained and we lost the venue. I was not just smokey but won my class too.

haha, thats the advantage of running these on the race circuit here, can leave as much rubber behind as we want. and with the semi slicks i use it does leave a lot of rubber behind with 400whp

i guess i should elaborate a bit instead of just saying rwd is best...
what i really mean is i think a rwd could possibly be built to be better, there arent really any cheap basic cars that do well out of the box like you can get in fwd.
with the right balance of power and grip you can place the car exactly where you want to with your right foot

hopefully the nationals will be on seal when they come back down to the south next year so i can show what my big whale can do. have beaten the national champ before so i know i can do it
of course it sucks on grass as i cant use the grip advantage, although i did manage about 7th place on grass a couple of years ago

[Leon]

you've beaten Brent Reddington in his insane City? (that being the national champ).

[Eluciv]

lol go the a18a

[RRM]

That thing looks like it is capable of delivering pure terror.

Props to you, Sir.

If the tranny is all stock then presumably it's still geared for 200km/h? (or whatever little old Hondas can do?)

[DRFTIN]

you've beaten Brent Reddington in his insane City? (that being the national champ).

ok so not the current champ. Steve Hall, who has won 5 times, he hasnt been up north to do the last few so dont know how he compares

[Leon]

I expect Steve and Brent are both hellishly good.

[DRFTIN]

quite likely, pity the island difference usually means we have a bi-annual north/south island championship
im not trying to stroke my e-penis and say im awesome or anything, im far from it. steve would thrash me if he used a decent car
just saying it can be done and trying to defend the honour of the rwd

anyway, back to Bill's car...
auto, really? most of the good drivers i know of use the clutch a lot to control the car in reverse in a fwd, you dont do this? and will it be able to shift between forward and reverse quick enough?

[NVMY R]

Lol, give up while you're still behind.

[MPOWER]

Holy shit that thing is AWESOME.

[Bill Pearson]

Several Australian Championship winning motorkhana specials in Oz are auto... the most notable being based on some old Renault. He has a tiny electric switch on top of his gear lever and can change from first to reverse literally in a "click". The Prelude box I'm using doesn't have "1" on the auto shift stick. This (and a quick blocky thrash) reveals the car starts in second gear. It only goes down to first when put in 4th and given a big right foot. But I've talked to my local Honda ace mechanic pro and he says it'll be easy to adjust things so it'll only go into first (and stay in 1st) and reverse. Having run an automatic Civic in motorkhanas I can say they are usually FASTER than a manual because you get very little wheel spin out of the start garage, especially if you have the brakes on and half throttle before you launch into the event.

Back to the rebuild. Having ripped the heart out of the 1984 Prelude and sent it on it's way to be turned into a race car by someone else (why would you bother), my next job was to remove the 2 litre A20 Efi motor & box out of Ninja. I did this by undoing all the mounts, shafts, plus the Prelude subframe lower cross members - and then lifted the frame up off it - as I'd designed it to do.


Then I rolled the chassis back out of the way

Next I lifted the unwanted Efi motor & box up out of the Prelude crossmembers.

Morning tea time - after which I dropped the 1.8 carby motor & box from the 1984 Prelude onto the crossmembers.
The only difference in the mounts between the two engines were the angle of the bolt holes on the mount bracket at the cam belt end and the mounts were different too. So I just swapped the bracket over from the A20A so I could use it's mount with no welding,etc. Too easy, and the carby JUST cleared the top cross tube by around 2mm!

---------- Post added at 10:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 PM ----------

Time for some cosmetic work. I hit the dull crinkle finish black rocker cover with 2 coats of paint stripper.
Now for some colour. I use aerosol engine enamel on every build. Comes in stacks of bright colours, is heat resistant, and needs no primer.

2 minutes with a buffer disc on my 4 inch angle grinder and


When I first built this special I used no engine mounts, bolting the engine and box directly to the chassis. This resulted in vibration at idle and no real advantages, so when I built the new front end for the Prelude motor I incorporated the factory mounts. However I always fill Honda original ones with Sikaflex - an industrial tubed rubber used to seal concrete pre-fab walls. It sets mega tough and turns OEM into solid rubber ones. I've even used it to put torn mounts back together and then raced on them. You just gotta give it a week to set out of the car b4 you put any weight on them.