Teague's NHB EP3

[Teague]

Hi all, thought i'd share some of the recent progress of my ep3. Brought it off a forum member on here with a fair few mods done already and it was a pretty decent base to work from mechanically, bodywork is okay but has a few battle scars! Brought it with the mindset of just driving it and not really doing much, that lasted about a month haha.

When i first got it home,







First on the list to do was eibach sportline springs, had these before and made a massive difference. Had these fitted along with getting a new geometry setup as it had camber bolts fitted but it was never setup properly. After this was done it made a huge difference



Next i had a track lesson booked at Knockhill in Fife, had typical ***** Scottish weather, it ****ed it down the whole time but was still great fun! Had the track lesson, learned so much about driving on track - anyone thinking about tracking their car I'd recommend getting a lesson first!

Car was pretty sorted out on the track, even the budget front tyres surprised me with how much grip they had when up to temp. Only issue was the brakes, constantly locking up the inside wheel on turn in and had some severe vibration when slowing from 100+ which was concerning to say the least!!

Had borrowed a GoPro but it decided to only film the last 20 seconds of me turning it off which was a shame, so only got 1 picture at the track in the paddock



Brakes were well past there best (note the glazing on the disc - there ****ed!)




Week after I decided to take it too Santa Pod, so much fun!! probably enjoyed it more than the my time at knockhill, but would love to try the track again in the dry.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4YgKCbUSJQ

Best time i managed was a 14.0 (the time from that video) but have lost the timeslip so heres my second best one of 14.1@102, excuse the shocking 60ft!!



When seeing family over in Somerset took it down Cheddar Gorge, one of the my favorite roads. Could see skid marks all the way up from the drifters haha




Next up was to sort out the brakes, got some new pagid front discs along with ate superblue brakefluid fitted. Along with a service which included gearbox oil and a hamp oil filter + new engine oil.

Finally have functioning brakes!!


P/X'ed the standard seats for a set of premier recaros, soooo nice!! had a set of dc2 recaros in my previous car but the premiers are far superior comfort wise.



Also picked up some new speakers as the standard ep3 speakers are the worst known to mankind! However still need to fit them




And finally today cleaned up the car and got a few pictures of how it currently stands





So current spec:

Premier Recaros
Eibach Sportlines
Camber arms & bolts plus FRSU by Automek
Ferodo DS2500 pads
Hel brake lines
Ported DC5 manifold and Cat
RM01A catback
Gruppe M
RBC intake manifold
K100 Tdi north mapped

Next on the list is:
Clean up the bodywork
Gearbox refurbish along with an lsd
Oem backbox to be put on with a new 2.5 inch midpipe

If you got this far thanks for reading!

 

[jimbothemagnificent]

Very nice car bud! You've got some real tasty parts there too.

I was at knockhill a couple of weekends ago playing with the legends and singleseaters. SO much fun. I've definitely got the bug now, hoping to get the EP3 on track this summer.

 

[Teague]

Very nice car bud! You've got some real tasty parts there too.

I was at knockhill a couple of weekends ago playing with the legends and singleseaters. SO much fun. I've definitely got the bug now, hoping to get the EP3 on track this summer.

Thanks! It was great fun, did you get to drive the singleseaters then? Jealous if you did! I saw them, looked like epic fun. I found the corner leading on to the backstraight really difficult, took me about 10 attempts to get the speed and line right. Was very impressed with Knockhill overall though.

If you do go watch out for the brakes but apart from that i'm sure you'll have a blast

 

[speedy chris]

Nice got some great mods too

 

[jimbothemagnificent]

Thanks! It was great fun, did you get to drive the singleseaters then? Jealous if you did! I saw them, looked like epic fun. I found the corner leading on to the backstraight really difficult, took me about 10 attempts to get the speed and line right. Was very impressed with Knockhill overall though.

If you do go watch out for the brakes but apart from that i'm sure you'll have a blast

Yeah, I got a good few laps in the single seaters and the legends. Both were great fun but I preferred the legends because they are super tail happy. Lots of slidey goodness!

It's a fun track isn't it? Every corner has a change in gradient so the weight is moving around as the level of grip is changing. Can't wait to try it in my car!

Are you planning on going back over the summer? It would be great to have another black civic to play with!

 

[mfnick]

That looks familiar! Glad to see you're enjoying it and still improving it mate.
I will say though, the geo was definitely set up correctly. I had it done by Stevie at Grinspeed as the receipt showed. I watched him do it too, maybe just wasnt set up how you like it? He asked me how I wanted it and what kind of driving I did and he set it up accordingly to my liking.
The budget fronts always surprised me too with their grip - when it was dry anyway.
Sort or get that back box changed as soon as. It'll feel a lot more responsive and faster without the restriction it'll be causing.
Ill be following this with interest.

 

[Teague]

Nice got some great mods too

Cheers man!

Yeah, I got a good few laps in the single seaters and the legends. Both were great fun but I preferred the legends because they are super tail happy. Lots of slidey goodness!

It's a fun track isn't it? Every corner has a change in gradient so the weight is moving around as the level of grip is changing. Can't wait to try it in my car!

Are you planning on going back over the summer? It would be great to have another black civic to play with!

Sweet! Pretty Jealous, would love to have a go in something that's track dedicated

Was definitely great fun, the gradient definitely makes it more exciting - far more gradient changes than any other circuit i've seen. Unfortunately not, i'm only up in Scotland from September - May

That looks familiar! Glad to see you're enjoying it and still improving it mate.
I will say though, the geo was definitely set up correctly. I had it done by Stevie at Grinspeed as the receipt showed. I watched him do it too, maybe just wasnt set up how you like it? He asked me how I wanted it and what kind of driving I did and he set it up accordingly to my liking.
The budget fronts always surprised me too with their grip - when it was dry anyway.
Sort or get that back box changed as soon as. It'll feel a lot more responsive and faster without the restriction it'll be causing.
Ill be following this with interest.

Yup still going strong!! got plenty of plans for it too
Regarding the alignment the car had either never be setup correctly in the first place or has been altered after it was done, unless your driving style was suited to driving round left handers!! It was slightly annoying as the eibach prokit springs wasn't on their either but not a major issue as i had planned to change the springs anyway.
Those rotella rapids or whatever they were called were lethal in the wet!! i got some eagle f1's to replace them but got them swapped around to wear out the budgets that were on the back which are actually quite good considering
Its next on the list of things to do, first need to source a new dc5 cat section as the current cat has shat itself after the trackday abuse. Not sure whether to put the oem backbox on or go for a custom style similar to a rm01a that solid fab does. That's partly the reason i took it to Santa Pod to see if it was causing a significant restriction but it trapped 102ish mph all day so it can't be a causing too much of a restriction
Hows the scooby going?

 

[mfnick]

Im surprised you got those times at Santa Pod to be honest! Before I did the mods I got a 15.2 so they did make a big difference Still think it will make it feel better when you do get the back box sorted. id go for a custom one with the same bore diameter.
Gutted about the springs and geo setup pal. What were the springs? They were fitted before I got the car and was just told that's what they were Definitely weren't standard - it was too low. As for the geo maybe after the few thousands of miles of driving I did after the FRSU it may have gone out. Thinking about it I actually had to get my Scooby done again even though the previous owner had done it too due to it being a bit off when I checked the alignment.
Stevie did say the bearing should be fine for a looooong time yet so that's good.

The Scoob is fantastic thanks! I wasn't 100% at first on it - in fact after a couple of months I thought I'd made a mistake but when weather had started to dry up and I got to really take it for a few good drives I was convinced and couldn't be happier. Just took some getting used to. It's a proper money pit though! Already spent more on it in these few months than the CTR cost me in the entire time I owned it - mods and all. Back box has ended up going on this too just have no luck!! A lot more noticeable on the Scoob though with it being Turbo. So I've ended up buying a brand new exhaust - not taking the chance on another 2nd hand one failing on me again lol. Getting it fitted next week

 

[Teague]

Car definitely had more potential than the 14.0 to be honest, that was with a 2.45 60ft. Going by the general rule of every 0.1 you shave off the 60ft its 0.2 off the final time, if i managed to hit a 2.2 60ft it would get 13.6/7. Defo need to get back there! Shocked a few people there too. Had 1 guy with a ep3 with all the usual mods, race header, rbc, mapped, tb, teg m etc and i was catching him topend after losing in the 330ft thanks to my launch (I blame the tyres!!), he was bemused when i told him what mods it had and wanted me too open the bonnet to prove haha. Yup will be going custom so to keep in order with the tune. Do you know if they tdi ported the cat part of the manifold? or was it just the 4-2 part they touched?

They still had the honda part number on them so were definitely standard. The geo setup was off on the front by an amount i'd be surprised it was just roaduse, did you have the subframe off at somepoint after the previous setup? that can cause the geo to be out. I'm not too bothered by it - afterall the main reason i brought the car was for the engine setup, which i am veryyy happy with

Nice glad your happy with it Christ i thought the ctr was expensive compared to my old car!! Good job its a second car ey!? I don't think i would be able to afford to daily one, fuel bill would be astronomical. About the fuel consumption what did you used to get? I've managed 360 to the tank but i swear the mpg has gone up since the cat removed itself

 

[mfnick]

Awesome! Sounds good mate. Unfortunately I can't say for definite about the porting, but I'm pretty certain they just did the mani 4-2 part. But like I say, I'm not 100% on that soz.

I honestly didn't know that about the springs pal, sorry about that! It definitely wasn't standard height though - I even started a thread on here asking about them. I'm glad you're happy with it though and to see your carrying on in basically the same way I was going to and looking after it . Don't know if TDi removed anything that may have effected it since I had all that work done there afterwards, but must have been a bit gradual as I didn't really notice a difference and just blamed tyres for everything haha!

Between 330 & 360 miles a tank sounds about right. Big difference to the 160ish I get now lol. Although it is a small tank and will still get over 30mpg on a run. Definitely glad I don't have to use it daily though, I wouldn't be able to afford it either!