The Civic is finally back!

After 10 months without the Civic, the car is finally back! It took longer than expected, and I missed the beginning of the track season, but the car is finally home. Choo finished up the last details and the car seemed to work well from the very first test drive. We drove it around for a while on the street and I drove it home in a traffic jam, and all systems seem to be working. 

Although I haven't had a chance to try it on track yet, I still have some preliminary data. The main thing I was wondering: will it feel as fast as it was with the H-series? It is subjective, of course, but seat-of-the pants, it feels as fast, although I would not say faster. The point of installing this engine was not to make more power, it was to have a reliable setup. 

The transmission still feels really nice, which is good because I was not sure how things would change with a 6-speed cable operated tranny instead of a 5-speed rod-actuated one. I have a final drive to make the gearing more aggressive, but I am wondering if I will even want to install it now, since the ratios seem really nice. The shifter is also several inches higher than it was before, which is actually nice, since the shifter is closer to the steering wheel. 

The driveability on the street is slightly less good than before, as there are certain RPM's and loads where the engine does not seem happy, as it bucks a little. This is probably because it is not tuned yet and we just used one of the default engine maps that came with the K-Pro ECU. It's not that bad, as you can just choose another gear if it acts up (there are 6 choices now!). 

The other change is the steering ratio: I now have an Integra steering rack. I went from the least aggressive of the three racks for this generation (Civic unassisted) to the most aggressive. On the street it doesn't really register, we'll have to see on the track. Finally, Choo noticed that the reason my seat was so loose is that some bolts had fallen out of one corner of my seat bracket. I fixed that up and the seat is nice and tight again. The next step is to take the car on track... stay tuned!