Which car?

[Sijray21]

Alright, i'm going to open this up for discussion just b/c i'm bored at work and i've been thinking about it.

Right now i'm in a situation where i have two cars in front of me:

the civic and the dub

and i was curious as to what would be a better car to make the HPDE "hor"

The dub needs a lot of work, which i'm not as familiar with as my honda. But i'm in love with both cars and willing to learn to work on the dub. I also feel that the maintenance on the civic will be less, and parts easier to come by, then the dub (assumption).

Original plan was to make the mkII the daily to reduce costs on insurance, gas, and taxes while making the civic the secondary car and as a track car.

the '99 civic si has 127.5k miles on it (well maintained)
the '86 gti has 128.7k miles on it (planning for a vr6 swap when i get the tools/time/funds)

I'll be graduating from college in May as most of you know so hopefully i'll get a nice enough job to pay for most of the expenses. So far i've been using the Si mainly for reliability, that's why the gti has very few miles.

the civic weighs 2,552 lbs curb with full interior
the gti weighs an estimated 2,380 lbs curb with full interior.

Factors with this decision:
Insurance costs for daily driver
Maintenance costs
keeping the gti at all costs


The main thing i wanted to do was basically make the GTI to the way i want: vr6, body side moldings, suspension, and a paint job, with other slight modifications...etc (i will be doing this regardless of which one i track), then just using the civic as my toy (well both would be my toys) on the track....essentially a cosmetic beater.

Here are pictures and current mods of the cars:

-GC coilovers
-kyb shocks
-front/rear camber kits
-skunk2 SS
-exedy organic clutch
-skunk2 rear tie bar
-track wheels with azenis on them



-TT exhaust with borla muffler
-tear drop wheels that need to be painted


i also have several sets of wheels for track/winter/daily for both cars since they both have 4x100 bolt patterns, i just need spacers for the vw if i want to put anything more than the stock +38et

what do you guys think of the situation?

This kind of came about after the theft because i'm having thoughts of selling the civic after the insurance gets it back to me....just a thought.

Thanks for any opinions :thumbup:

edit: correct me if i'm wrong, but if i were to take the civic to competition after all the HPDE's...a long time from now...it would be in HC3 and if i were to take the dub it would be in Small Bore. Just trying to set things up if i were to keep both cars for the long-haul.

[damnit458]

I say you use the Si for HPDE. With the dub as your DD I would assume your gonna have to pay a lot less for insurance, and as you stated maintenance on the Si will be less.
You may as well just go all out and strip the hell outta the Si -_-

[Mike]

it really all depends on what insurance does with the civic... if they wreck it i'd buy it back and make it a track car. if they repair it i'd keep it as a DD for now (you probably don't wan to hold on to a theft magnet forever) and track the gti.

i honestly think the veedub would be more fun for you on the track, but won't the vr6 motor make it incredibly front-heavy?

[.RJ]

track the GTi - spend the $$ to get it ready (bushings, bearings, brakes, suspension, tires) and have fun with it, you'll leave less on the table if its a cheaper pos car you dont care about tearing the front bumper off of.

[Sijray21]

i honestly think the veedub would be more fun for you on the track, but won't the vr6 motor make it incredibly front-heavy?

yes

that's another reason, but i didn't want to bring it out here. I was entertaining thoughts of adding the 1.8t to the engine bay (slightly lighter), but when i researched the costs of putting it in it over doubled the costs of adding the vr6. Unfortunately there is little weight to be found near the back of that old dub, so i think with any engine, other than the 1.8 sohc in it right now, it'll be front heavy. I'll do more research with the weights of the engines though.

[Mike]

is the current motor just not enough? i'm sure you could probably find a nicely prepped newish motor for pretty cheap, lotsa people race those things.

[Sijray21]

is the current motor just not enough? i'm sure you could probably find a nicely prepped newish motor for pretty cheap, lotsa people race those things.

Power's about 85whp, it's not too bad, but coming from 56whp more it's significant, lol. The torque down low is nice though. Another solution would be to slap on a turbo to the current set-up, some people do that. Before i'd either get another cheap motor or rebuild the current one.

[Dave]

track the SI

[ScottyB]

track the SI

i concur. you're more familiar with that car, so when something inevitably breaks at the track you can fix it faster and easier.

everyone goes off at the track at one point or another. now i know anything can happen just driving down the street, but can you put the dub in harms way at a track on a frequent basis?

[Mike]

can you put the dub in harms way at a track on a frequent basis?

i would think it'd be easier to part with than the civic... easier to repair too.

[ScottyB]

can you put the dub in harms way at a track on a frequent basis?

i would think it'd be easier to part with than the civic... easier to repair too.

in Jay's original post he didn't make it super clear, but did point out he's not parting with the dub at any cost. that car holds extreme value to him personally, so i can't see him putting it in high risk situations very often.

and although the dub might be easier to repair for someone experienced with dubs, i don't think jay has done any really involved work on it.

[Mike]

i'd imagine everything he has done to the civic carries over to the dub for the most part. the dub is also a much more simple car. if it holds great personal value i think it's all the more reason to get in touch with it on the track. it's REALLY difficult to completely destroy a low powered FWD car in DE.

[Sijray21]

it does hold a great personal value to me. The one thing i did find out is that it's pretty much held together with phillips head screws...4 to take out the back seats and 4 to take out a door panel. Dunno what i'll do yet, but i'll continue to think about it. I have about 5 months to think while i chill at school and before i actually get a job of some sort.

i like the thoughts though, keep them coming

[NTIman]

I don't think it would matter which one is tracked. However, i would be tearing into the veedub to familiarize myself with it as well. I'd rather know about a lot of cars than to know a lot about one type of car. It may be a little harder to work on than a honda,but thats the fun of cars to me,being challenged a bit.

[Chris]

it does hold a great personal value to me. The one thing i did find out is that it's pretty much held together with phillips head screws...4 to take out the back seats and 4 to take out a door panel. Dunno what i'll do yet, but i'll continue to think about it. I have about 5 months to think while i chill at school and before i actually get a job of some sort.

i like the thoughts though, keep them coming

do you have plans to track a car this semester? I would think the SI would be more fun on track with the mods you have, but its also more reliable as a DD. Maybe track the dub and autox/DD the SI until you can afford something else.