ITR 97-0202 Build

What is up dudes. Most of this is going to be copy and paste. Future updates will be added as they come. For now, I just try to drive this turd as often as I can.

Copy and paste:
So my local forum, NWP, and the OG ITRCA all went down so I lost a bunch of pics and exact updates of how my caR became what it was.

So, from the beginning I think I had found the CL add in the ITR master list of caRs for sale as we have on this new site. The Shell was in Dallas which is about 10 hours from me. My roommate and I loaded up his truck with a buddy’s trailer and set out to go pick heR up after I sent a deposit. On the way we had some set backs but got everything taken care of.

Got heR loaded up January 5th 2014:

It was a cold drive back. Some picture in the middle of no where when we stopped for fuel:

Finally 24 hours later we were home:

She came with a bunch of junk that the seller thought was good, and ended up being completely worthless. I will skip all the details, but I tried to sell some of the junk to make some funds back:

Some pictures after the first wash:

The bay was unfortunately shaved, which I would have never done, however I was not going to let this turn down my opportunity to get a 97R which I always wanted.

Took the tail lights off to have look behind them.

And finally tucked away next to my daily.

So the interior had some carpet that was all patchy and spots were missing, so I pulled it out and threw it away. During that process I took the dash out as well and found the wiring mess left from the shaved bay stunt. Oh it was terrible.

This:

Lead to this:

This was the other side with same treatment under the tape:

I also took this time to test fit a knock off Bride with buddy club seat rails I had.

So fast forward a lot through cleaning up the wiring and removing and replacing sections as I could from a 98 Ls harness I had from my wrecked daily and I finally got somwhere.
Got a CJs tucked engine harness during the summer of 2014, and had him plumb it through a Ktuned shift cable plate.

Got the engine dropped in Octoberish 2014. 96-97 spec B18CR

Because a bunch of pictures went missing with photbucket being dumb, and old phones breaking I am going to jump forward a lot to where the car is mostly complete.
Engine finally fired up in summer of 2015 after getting everything else needed.

Ditched the whale dick for a Top Fuel piece:

Sold the OEM wheels, got some Volk TE37 15x7 +35, UKDM tails, Spoon axle back, and Moogen wang.

Felt great to actually move the car on its own power in summer of 2016. I battled the break tuck for every and literally had to end up replacing everything over the fall of 2015. After that I started collecting suspension components that consist of PIC P2 coilovers, PCI spherical front camber arms, hardrace bushing kit, hard race rear camber and tow components, and about $200 worth of new OEM bolts. Getting heR aligned literally for the first drive besides around the block of the house.

Picked up SIRG corners at some point. Cruised it to an old historical town near me.

I never leave the hatch open and the one time I did while working on the caR up on jack stands I opened the garage and the garage door caught the Moogen wang and ripped it off. So thats why in this pic and the previous the OEM wing is back on. Cruised it to my downtown area.

My first track event at my local track:

First track event started off excelent and turned into a nightmare with the caR cutting off more and more the more I drove it. Figured bad gas was in the tank, found out one cylinder was not firing so we pulled the injectors and the little caps were clogged. The tank was basically empty so I filled it up with fresh gas and just before the next track event engine started cutting out again. Decided to pull the pump and discovered the entire tank was full of rust. Like an unreal amount of rust in the tank… Great. Bought a cheap one off ebay, it fit, fuel gauge float/sending unit did not fit so I capped that section off.
First fill up of the new tank:

New tune with clean gas now. Maxed out at 195whp but had to back it down to 173whp for my class. No clue on the Tq :frowning:

Second track day, finally no issues and caR did great.

Drving home with another Moogen wang and CheckerdSports Ti exhaust:

That concluded the 2016 year, and now onto 2017.
I am bad at taking pictures so I do not have any of the season opener at my local track. This was in March 2017. CaR was doing great, tires were not. Next track day of the season was in May, buddy had some 15x8 +35 57DR wheels on 225/45 NT01s that he let me make payments on and made a world difference at the track. Oh and my track experience has been an Ej1 coupe on Neogens, and my daily Integra on Ecsta Xs tires. So I did not jump straight to an R compound.

Once I made this tire change I started winning in my class, and the miata guys were getting pretty pissed (they are my buddies). One of those buddies has been building an Evo for GTA SLB finals at Button Willow and found out two weeks before that it was not going to make it. Him an another buddy took their miatas apart to build the best one they could out of both of them. I went to GTA with them, and it was an amazing event. Even though my buddy knew the miata was not going to be a contender at GTA, it was really good for him to get the experience on Button Willow for when the Evo is ready. So the following weekend after GTA is my local tracks final SuperLap. Great these dudes put the best of the best between their parts, and now are going against me a week later.
Screen shot from my local Superlaps instagram page. Feel free to follow it!

It ended up being a great event with a huge turn out from an Arizona group that drove over 4 hours to get here.

Chopped bumper that needs more chop and paint soon. The CheckerdSports Ti exhaust.

Little three car chase with me @ the 1.45 mark from another buddies Ef hatch viewpoint:

Us talking shit of who was going to go first into the hot pits for the hotlap runs.

My miata buddy went first but we were in the same run group. He beat the lap record of 1.22.9 for our class with 1.22.6 in the CW direction. Then I came through and beat him with a 1.22.5! It was a really awesome way to end the season.

So for documentation purposes I am going to put a mod list

Egnine: JDM 96-97 B18cR
Skunk 2 header, CheckerdSports Ti exhaust
Top Fuel intake
Spoon oil pan

Interior: Auto Power 4 point bolt in
Bride Replica seat with Crow harnesses
90 pounds of ballast to make weight

Suspension: PCI front camber arms
Hardrace bushing kit, rear camber and tow adjusters
PIC P2 coilovers
Hawk HP+ pads with stoptech blank rotors
Stock ITR calipers front and rear
Spoon strut bars front and rear

Wheels: 15x8 +35 57DR 225/45 NT01s

ECU:Honda put down 195 but had to back it down to 173 for class rules

And that is what I am going to end it on. Trust me I am missing so many details, and this caR was such a pain in the ass to get together, and was still kicking and screaming when it was. So many times I wanted to quit the build, but luckily I have friends that keep me motivated, as well as the build threads that are now here and the old sites. I hardly drive heR out of paranoia, and it sort works because the caR always puts a huge smile on my face the rare times I do drive it and on the track days.

Future plans are to get an lsd (previous owner blew OEM ITR and did not tell me it was open diff until I had already pulled out the loan and drove an hour to pick it up) and a brand new set of tires as I have always had used tires. Really hoping to beat the record in the opposite direction in March for my class at my local track. I will be sure to add updates here, and feel free to ask any questions. Also I hope if I have any questions you guys do not mind providing me your input.

Thanks

Got some pics from the track day last weekend.

Some changes have happen since the last update. I went to GTA SLB again, got a wild hair and said “fuck it” throw some aero on. So home made splitter set up and wing. Airfoil was made by a friend that bought some sort of foam core already shaped, and then wrapped it in carbon fiber. End plates and wing stands were also home made.

I could not really tell that much of a difference but went 0.5 seconds faster… Could have been anything.

So during the splitter build shit was not lining up at all. I got in touch with a previous owner to inquire about potential damage from accident as I already knew it had a jdm front on it at one point during its life… Sure as shit the passenger side frame rail/bulkhead was replaced from the forward section of the motor mount. :clownshoes: Yay

(end of copy and paste)

Cannot wait to see what everyone else has been up to since the old forums went down!

8 Likes

This thread is an absolute BLAST, felt like I was there along for the build.

New Mexico or far West Texas? Hard to tell the difference haha

1 Like

Love the build! Great work on the car. Using it for what it’s intended to do :muscle:

3 Likes

Old update:
Wow, long time no update.

Last post I was inquiring about the different sides of my RTAs. Well come to find out when I picked up the caR it had the rear conversion using the 4x100 spindles. Unfortunately I had to find out the hard way. Me not knowing, when I did the hub/bearing assembly I used OEM ITR parts. With the 4x100 spindle, after years of abuse, the spindle sheared off one day at the track and I went for a wild ride as the wheel ejected.

Some track pics prior to failure:

Failure Carnage:

So after the failure, picking up a new 5 lug since rear RTAs are impossible to find by themselves, and trying to figure out what happen, I found out about the 4x100 conversion shenanigan’s. Low and behold, the new set up was the same shit FML. I went ahead and threw it on, used the Mazda nut that people said worked, rather than the OEM stuff that I mistakenly used prior and that is what is currently on it. Now, Honed Develpments sells their nut/washer assembly and I will mostly likely purchase that for piece of mind. With the sky rocketing prices of everything since covid hit, I was able to snatch up an OEM 32mm actual 5x114.3 set up as well that I have for yet another spare set up. :moneyburn:

Fast forward from 2019 to this past weekend.

The ITR sat for a while after that. Did not really lose interest, but lost interest in the market as I cannot afford now what things cost in the case of something failing again. I was able to sell the 3 good Rays wheels I had, and bought some Federal RS-RR tires just to get it rolling again. I wanted to show the caR off a little since it had been out for so long, that I went to a local track event this past weekend. It was so much fun.

Updates as of recent:
Timing belt, tensioner, WP 7/18/21
235/40r17 Federal RS-RR tires on 17x8 +35 Team Dynamic wheels

Annnd some pics from this past weekend:

Current update:
Been a while again since I drove the caR. Only thing I did was change the oil before hitting the track 3/26/22. The last time the car felt semi fast was a few years ago on the fresh Maxxis RC-1 Tires. This past weekend on the federals I was able to best my last previous best of a 1.22.507 with a 1.22.213.

I am still on the old used/tired PIC P2 coilovers. The front dampening adjusters have be seized ever since I got them. Some near future plans are to get the K-tuned Circuit double adjustables and tires to compliment them and see what I can throw down. As for tires I am thinking AR-1 or RT660s in the same 235/40r17 size. Any suggestions on the tires or even the coilover options be sure to chime in!

Checking fluids:

In the pits:

My friends have had their True Form team since 2003. We have been taking an Evo to GTA SLB at COTA the past couple years. If you do not mind checking out the TrueFormRacing Instagram page that would be coooooool.

Should have some track roller shots to post soon.

3 Likes

Very interesting on the broken spindle due to using 4x100 arms. Do you happen to know if it was caused by the “75% seating” of the bearing?

From what I depicted, I was unaware that converting 4x100 RTAs was a thing. So when I got the caR with the 5 lug on it already, I assumed it was ITR. Thus using the ITR washer and spindle nut when I replaced the hub/bearing assembly because what I took off did not look right (expecting ITR items). I am assuming that using the ITR washer/nut combo on the converted 4x100 set did not allow enough bite for the nut on the spindle shaft end eventually with enough grip from the hoosiers the end of the spindle shaft sheared off.

That being said, the replacement 5 lug I was able to find, was also a converted 4x100 set up. I found out all this information after finding/buying the replacements So I used the Mazda nut, similar to what now Honed offers, and have done 2 track days not but only on street tires.

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