project::1991 JDM CRX

NaCl not MSG

After a successful season of running with the Rod Riders land speed racing club, the folks at Hondata wanted us to build them a second team car. Doug, co-owner and chief tuning guru there had a JDM (NZDM?) CRX in which he set a land speed record in his native New Zealand. Doug's CRX had sat in a friend's lot ever since Hondata came to the U.S. Unfortunately, his beloved CRX was so badly beaten that we had to find another chassis to start our build. Luckily we found a likely candidate at one of the local JDM motor importers (it was even black like the O.G.). Surprisingly, the almost 20 year old design of the CRX body has a very low drag coefficient (rivalling even the Honda Insight). Also, by using the 4 passenger (2+2) JDM CRX, it fit into the SCTA competition coupe class. Miriam, Doug's better half, being the future pilot of this new car, was assigned the duty of stripping the interior, removing the insulation, paint and underbody sealant from its chassis. We here at AfterHours advocate (require) this type of enthusiastic owner participation in our racecar builds. We have found no better way for the new driver to completely bond with his/her new ride.

Racing puts great demands on the driver and his/her comfort should not have to be compromised. The racecar needs to be like an extension of his/her body. The driver shouldn't ever have to think about where the controls are. The build started with the fitting our driver to the vehicle, which necessitates choosing the seat, steering wheel and shifter. Class regs dictate the cage configuration. The cage we built for the CRX is legal for 175-249 mph. We also used our trademark chassis gussets at all critcal attachment points.



The body and aero remain pretty much stock except for the front airdam. The motor is a 2.0l K-series with modified Kinsler ITBs built by Joe at Prototype Engineering. IPS K2 camshafts are the preferred choice and used exclusively because of their superior profiles, quality and performance characteristics. The custom airbox was fabbed out of fiberglass by Steve Ritchie Designs. Because of the low hoodline on the CRX and the length of the ITBs, we had to fabricate the chassis attachment points for the motor mounts. We mounted the motor/trans assembly as low as possible and tilted it forward to facilitate the intake system and modified radius rod suspension . The motor side aluminum mounts are from Hasport.

For N/A applications, the exhaust system is also very critical. We always work closely with the motor builders to determine the specs for the custom headers fabricated by us to achieve the optimum flow for every application. We used 308 stainless steel tubing in a stepped tri-y design and merged collectors for this build. And, of course, a Hondata K-Pro is meticulously tuned by Doug to control all engine functions.

The start of the first season was meant to get Miriam some experience driving the car at speed and get her licenced. Little did we know that she would take to it so fast. She set three new records at Bonneville this year. G/GCC 178.584mph, G/GCC 187.077mph (broke her own record) and G/GALT 183.718mph. Her top speed (one way) was 189mph. Needless to say, she got her licence and is doing very well, thank you. We'll see what next year has in store (200mph N/A??)




The 2009 season resutled in a second place finish for the CRX in the points chase (Husband Doug's RSX was #1). Miriam set