Sponsored
Fknweasel
Member
- First Name
- Aaron
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2022
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 12
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Car(s)
- 2023 Integra Platinum White Pearl A-spec Tech
I took mine to the Tail of the Dragon over the weekend.
Not necessarily autocross. I kept VSA enabled and had no issues. Car did extremely well with the FK8 group I was running with.
Not necessarily autocross. I kept VSA enabled and had no issues. Car did extremely well with the FK8 group I was running with.
Ghs737
Member
- Thread starter
- #3
I ran my first autocross with the Integra today. Overall impression: it is a great car, but the driver could use some work. It takes me some time to learn a new car. I autocrossed my last car for many, many years. I was really tuned into that car. I knew how much I could push in different course elements. The Integra is still front wheel drive, like my old car, but is has so much higher limits in cornering, acceleration and braking. And it is longer and wider too. I really need more seat time to be able to learn the limits of the Integra and to get my distance from cones dialed back in.
First my car setup. I stayed very conservative in wheel and tire size. The wheels are Borbet type W, 18x8 with +50 offset(all stock size). Note for those not familiar with SCCA rules for street classes - the wheel diameter must be + or - one inch from stock. Width must be stock dimension. Offset must be within 7 mm of stock wheel offset. I purchased Falken Azenis RT 660 tires ( a 200tw tire). I kept with stock size, 235/40 x18. The stock Continental tire has a sidewall that bulges out in cross section and then does a little curve before it meets the wheel rim. The Falken is almost dead straight from the edge of the tread to the wheel rim. The sidewall is very stiff on this tire. The Falken has about a .6 inch wider tread patch than the stock Continental of the same size. I did NOT have TPMs sensors installed in the new wheels. After about 10 miles of driving they throw up a warning on the dash about a tpms issue. I ignore it. When I am ready to start a run I defeat the VSC (see below).
My local club runs using SCCA rules for car classing and modifications. As far as I am aware, the SCCA has not yet classed the Integra. Since the mechanicals are all based on the Civic SI, which is classed as G street, my club had me run in G street.
Initial launch I did without any wheel spin. Then a shift into second, where I stayed for the rest of the run. Second gear really seems to come on strong around 4,000 rpm. Which is exactly what I needed for this course. It has good punch out of slower corners. Second gear tops out around 53-54 mph. There was no need to shift into a higher gear for today’s course.
I used individual mode - which I set everything to Sport mode except for engine. I left the engine mode in Normal. Sport mode makes the throttle pedal seem like an on/off switch. I find Normal mode provides a fast enough response , but it s a progressive response which allows better throttle control. I left the auto idle stop on Off mode. I will probably experiment with these setting at a future date, after I am more comfortable in the car while on an autocross track.
The VSC, (Acura’s stability and traction control) is totally defeated by doing the “pedal dance” - see other forum topic for details. I found no trace of intervention in a slalom, high speed sweeper or sharp changes of direction. The car stays very flat in transitions and sweeping corners also.
It was a fun event. I learned that the Integra is indeed a car that I can run in an autocross and come away smiling. My club has a practice event in mid August. At a practice event drivers get many, many runs so you can experiment a lot. I still need to dial in my tire pressure’s and work on placing my wheel close to a cone - especially on the right side of the car.
The one thing I found about the Integra that I definitely do NOT like is trying to shift gears on my way to an event with a large water bottle on the cup holder. You have to be a contortionist to shift gears. My water bottle is too fat to fit in any of the door pocket cup holders. The one in the rear center armrest can hold the water bottle, but only the bottom few inches. With the bottle full of water it would fall out of the armrest cup holder in a few blocks. Coming away from my first autocross with the cup holder being the only negative is a very good result. I look forward to many more events.
First my car setup. I stayed very conservative in wheel and tire size. The wheels are Borbet type W, 18x8 with +50 offset(all stock size). Note for those not familiar with SCCA rules for street classes - the wheel diameter must be + or - one inch from stock. Width must be stock dimension. Offset must be within 7 mm of stock wheel offset. I purchased Falken Azenis RT 660 tires ( a 200tw tire). I kept with stock size, 235/40 x18. The stock Continental tire has a sidewall that bulges out in cross section and then does a little curve before it meets the wheel rim. The Falken is almost dead straight from the edge of the tread to the wheel rim. The sidewall is very stiff on this tire. The Falken has about a .6 inch wider tread patch than the stock Continental of the same size. I did NOT have TPMs sensors installed in the new wheels. After about 10 miles of driving they throw up a warning on the dash about a tpms issue. I ignore it. When I am ready to start a run I defeat the VSC (see below).
My local club runs using SCCA rules for car classing and modifications. As far as I am aware, the SCCA has not yet classed the Integra. Since the mechanicals are all based on the Civic SI, which is classed as G street, my club had me run in G street.
Initial launch I did without any wheel spin. Then a shift into second, where I stayed for the rest of the run. Second gear really seems to come on strong around 4,000 rpm. Which is exactly what I needed for this course. It has good punch out of slower corners. Second gear tops out around 53-54 mph. There was no need to shift into a higher gear for today’s course.
I used individual mode - which I set everything to Sport mode except for engine. I left the engine mode in Normal. Sport mode makes the throttle pedal seem like an on/off switch. I find Normal mode provides a fast enough response , but it s a progressive response which allows better throttle control. I left the auto idle stop on Off mode. I will probably experiment with these setting at a future date, after I am more comfortable in the car while on an autocross track.
The VSC, (Acura’s stability and traction control) is totally defeated by doing the “pedal dance” - see other forum topic for details. I found no trace of intervention in a slalom, high speed sweeper or sharp changes of direction. The car stays very flat in transitions and sweeping corners also.
It was a fun event. I learned that the Integra is indeed a car that I can run in an autocross and come away smiling. My club has a practice event in mid August. At a practice event drivers get many, many runs so you can experiment a lot. I still need to dial in my tire pressure’s and work on placing my wheel close to a cone - especially on the right side of the car.
The one thing I found about the Integra that I definitely do NOT like is trying to shift gears on my way to an event with a large water bottle on the cup holder. You have to be a contortionist to shift gears. My water bottle is too fat to fit in any of the door pocket cup holders. The one in the rear center armrest can hold the water bottle, but only the bottom few inches. With the bottle full of water it would fall out of the armrest cup holder in a few blocks. Coming away from my first autocross with the cup holder being the only negative is a very good result. I look forward to many more events.
Leehro
Senior Member
- First Name
- Dan
- Joined
- May 9, 2022
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 140
- Reaction score
- 110
- Location
- Morrisville, NC
- Car(s)
- 2023 Integra 6MT
Great report, thanks for sharing! Out of curiosity what was the previous car you autocrossed?
Sponsored
2022CivicLX
New Member
- First Name
- Tom
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Threads
- 0
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Charlotte, NC
- Car(s)
- ‘22 Civic LX, ‘23 Integra 6MT, ‘89 Civic Si
Talking about awkward cup holders, my manual X3 requires you to be a contortionist to use the cup holder. Got years of practice with that now.
Ghs737
Member
- Thread starter
- #9
It will be good to have another autocrosser on the forum. Let us know how things go.
FYI - I found that with my seat in the normal position my helmet rubbed against the speaker that is above the driver’s head. You may want to check this before you go to the track and either adjust the seat lower or maybe put some blue painters tape on the speaker housing.
I use tire pressures of 37 front and 33 rear (cold). But am thinking of pumping up the rears more to reduce understeer.
Sponsored
Ghs737
Member
- Thread starter
- #12
I hope you had fun at the autocross. Keep at it and you will enjoy it more each run.
My car is taking me some time to get used to. I am slowly getting better. I find that I top out in 2nd gear a bit. I have started shifting to 3rd gear now when I hit the rev limiter and there is still a lot of fast corners ahead. When I get to the slower stuff I go back into 2nd (the rev matching helps a lot on the downshifting). The time lost shifting is more than made up by the faster speed on the rest of the course.
Normally we limit our events to 140 entries and have 6 runs each.
I am in Minnesota. Our season is ending with two events the first weekend of October. Sounds like yours is just starting. We don’t start up again the end of April/early May. My Integra is going into hibernation as soon as the snow flies.
A3REDT
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2022
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 50
- Reaction score
- 36
- Location
- United States
- Car(s)
- 2023 Acura Integra 6MT, 2015 Chevrolet Camaro SS 6
My dealer delivered mine to me with 40psi all around. I didn't think much of it until I chucked the car into a tight banked corner off-throttle near the Tail of the Dragon (think similar-style corner) area and the back end started to come around
. It'll definitely rotate with square tire pressures.I AutoX fairly frequently, but don't intend to run my Integra, I have a 2nd car that I typically use for autoxing that's a little more performance focused, and also not the car I need to drive to work Monday. But so far it has proven itself quite competent when I've found myself on entertaining back roads.
apexit53
Senior Member
- First Name
- Mike
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2018
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 194
- Reaction score
- 26
- Location
- Madison WI
- Car(s)
- 2023 CTR, 2023 Integra aspec MT
No autocross yet and thats what my new type r will be for. I do plan to try it at least once! Up here we have a solid G street class so it would be a great benchmark for the car.
new civics, new GTi, old civics, former national champs.
new civics, new GTi, old civics, former national champs.
SteamedHams
Senior Member
Took mine to an Auto-X yesterday. The wild thing is that the even was very empty, so we were able to go non stop all day.
That said, after about 15 straight runs the brakes would start smoking and I would have to wait a while to let them cool. I'm not surprised because even at 6/10ths driving in the backroads I was able to cook the brakes. The car is under-braked for sure; it's a shame the only way to get better pads on it is to do a BBK swap.
Some general thoughts:
Steering feel is great, turn-in is very quick and sharp, and the chassis is very stable through chicanes.
Power is...not great. I'm even on a 19psi tune (any higher and the clutch slips) and it just feels like it needs more oomph on the straights. I never got past 50mph, and was able to stay in 2nd gear through the entire course.
The LSD works well through the sweeping turns and 90 degree corners. However, on the hairpins the VSA cuts power and bogs the car, essentially nullifying the LSD. I wish I had figured out the "pedal dance" to fully turn off VSA. Ideally coming out of the hairpins I'd be able to get a bit more wheelspin past the apex to start building boost so that when I straighten the wheel, the motor is already in boost and making power. Instead VSA cuts the power, and by the time it finally feeds power back in I'm at a lower RPM and also have to wait for the turbo to spool up.
I'm running Pirelli P-Zeros in 235/35R19 because the stock all-season Goodyears are utter trash. I was able to pick up the PZs (not PZ4s) for about $170 a pop (almost half the price of a PS4S). I pity whoever pays full price for the PZs because they're pretty mediocre. Terrible when cold, and only good but not great when hot. Well well behind the ECS and PS4 which I contend are still the two best non-200TW summer tires.
This was my first time running a FWD car at an auto-x; previous events have all been with RWD and AWD cars. What I did appreciate is that I could progressively push the car harder and harder and not worry about spinning out. It was also nice being able to get in so many runs (got about 80 runs in) to experiment with different lines, entry speeds, and tire pressures. It's definitely a different experience; in all honesty I felt RWD is still more "fun", but that's not to say FWD isn't fun, just not as fun.
There were a bunch of Miatas, and I'm happy to say I could at least catch up to the NC guys. However, the ND Miatas were no joke. On the tight course one of the RFs was cracking off runs faster than the C8 Corvette guys. Super impressive. Incidently, there was also an Si that I followed behind that was just all over the place. Thought maybe it was on all-seasons; turns out they were running some Chinese tire I've never heard of...
That said, after about 15 straight runs the brakes would start smoking and I would have to wait a while to let them cool. I'm not surprised because even at 6/10ths driving in the backroads I was able to cook the brakes. The car is under-braked for sure; it's a shame the only way to get better pads on it is to do a BBK swap.
Some general thoughts:
Steering feel is great, turn-in is very quick and sharp, and the chassis is very stable through chicanes.
Power is...not great. I'm even on a 19psi tune (any higher and the clutch slips) and it just feels like it needs more oomph on the straights. I never got past 50mph, and was able to stay in 2nd gear through the entire course.
The LSD works well through the sweeping turns and 90 degree corners. However, on the hairpins the VSA cuts power and bogs the car, essentially nullifying the LSD. I wish I had figured out the "pedal dance" to fully turn off VSA. Ideally coming out of the hairpins I'd be able to get a bit more wheelspin past the apex to start building boost so that when I straighten the wheel, the motor is already in boost and making power. Instead VSA cuts the power, and by the time it finally feeds power back in I'm at a lower RPM and also have to wait for the turbo to spool up.
I'm running Pirelli P-Zeros in 235/35R19 because the stock all-season Goodyears are utter trash. I was able to pick up the PZs (not PZ4s) for about $170 a pop (almost half the price of a PS4S). I pity whoever pays full price for the PZs because they're pretty mediocre. Terrible when cold, and only good but not great when hot. Well well behind the ECS and PS4 which I contend are still the two best non-200TW summer tires.
This was my first time running a FWD car at an auto-x; previous events have all been with RWD and AWD cars. What I did appreciate is that I could progressively push the car harder and harder and not worry about spinning out. It was also nice being able to get in so many runs (got about 80 runs in) to experiment with different lines, entry speeds, and tire pressures. It's definitely a different experience; in all honesty I felt RWD is still more "fun", but that's not to say FWD isn't fun, just not as fun.
There were a bunch of Miatas, and I'm happy to say I could at least catch up to the NC guys. However, the ND Miatas were no joke. On the tight course one of the RFs was cracking off runs faster than the C8 Corvette guys. Super impressive. Incidently, there was also an Si that I followed behind that was just all over the place. Thought maybe it was on all-seasons; turns out they were running some Chinese tire I've never heard of...
Sponsored
Last edited:
Similar threads
