Topic: Student Drivers: Expelled
Our 1987 Honda Prelude of MarioKart Student Drivers unfortunately had an incident with a spinning car in NJ this year. The front end got pushed in significantly, and even though we were able to make it "good enough" to finish the race, I have not been able to get it straightened. I took it to a few body shops that had chassis machines, and they kind of just rolled their eyes when I asked them to try to get it straight again
Originally, the car was used in circle track, then used in one Chump race, and then in 2014, I purchased it in North Carolina and towed it to Boston area.
It did need some work, mainly some serious modifications to the roll bar. Fortunately, the roll bar was well built, in general, and eventually approved by Lemons. At Loudon in 2014, it entered its first race.
The engine lasted approximately one year, and in 2015 I did my first engine swap over the winter (with some help).
Since then, 3 races per year, the engine is still running well, and burns almost no oil. We did do a tranny swap also, in addition to a bunch of other stuff along the way. The main issue that we faced, was that it would break a hub at every race and there were no aftermarket sold, and barely any junk yard spares sold. Doing some research, we were able to swap to an Accord knuckle, axle, rotor, brake, hub set up. The Accord of that generation had bigger hubs and replacements are available new. And since, it has been running very well, except for the usual small issues that tend to come along.
But the Lightening track in NJ 2019 was not kind to it, it got "STRUCK"! With the help of some fantastic team mates, we got it to finish the race by pulling out the front end "enough"
Note: outside of left tire completely worn out, that started out new
But the alignment is too far off to get it to any acceptable condition.
So now, faced with a dilemma---
a) Buy a different prebuilt, ready to race car (but nothing out there really appealed to me....and certainly no Preludes up for sale...but the engine in the wrecked car is still totally good)...but might be a relatively cheap option?
b) Do a completely new, really cool build on something totally unrelated (expensive, and I have so many Prelude parts lying around now...what a waste it would be)
c) Get the same car, and just transplant parts ---which seemed the most cost effective solution (although a bit boring....). Its just that the engine is running so well, and I have 2 spare trannys, lots of wheels, plus so many other good parts. Unfortunately, these 2nd generation Prelude cars are getting exceedingly difficult to find now, especially in a manual tranny, fuel injected. Closest one was on the other side of the country. But....a Lemons friend a few towns over emailed me and said he drives by one every day to work, sitting next to some railroad tracks, in someone’s back yard covered in leaves....but automatic, and with carburetor. Seemed like maybe a good option?....supposedly body solid, starts right up...
So I went to check it out, but while running, a stream of oil came out from under the car....eh who cares? either easy fix? and maybe run it in Class C, or just swap in my fuel injected engine and change to my manual tranny (probably easier said than done...?), and keep going in Class B.
So $500 later, it sits in my driveway...
What have I gotten myself into....well, I guess I have all winter to fix it....
And maybe do another "Theme"...
(Certainly you're not going to see any speed creep here unless you have any great ideas)
Loudon, NH 2014 - Millville, NJ, Lightening 2019 (RIP)
New and improved: 1987 Honda Prelude Si (Opus #11) Pittsburgh, PA 2021 - ??
and finally won something, Class C Win: Loudon, NH 2022