1995 Honda Del Sol Vtec - G-Games

6 Sixth PlaceFinal Score: 95.2 Pts.

Look at the stats: Eight of the 10 cars competing in the BFG g-Force Challenge are rear- or all-wheel drive. As a magazine featuring many FWD vehicles, we picked our RWD ringer, the RX-7 TT, and began hunting for a puller.

We decided on a Honda; the F1-derived, double-wishbone suspension offers a number of desirable handling traits not found on most strut cars. Of course, we needed a car that scoots and features a limited-slip differential. Frank Lin's del Sol fit the bill perfectly.

Saying Lin likes Hondas is like saying we merely worship Britney Spears. Well known in the Honda hybrid community, Lin has tweaked his del Sol since its purchase in 1995. The Honda seed was planted while reading about the joys of VTEC in Taiwanese car magazines around the time it debuted in 1988. In terms of design, Lin always liked the Porsche 914. When he saw Honda's small VTEC-powered two-seater, he knew his ship had arrived. The past five years found Lin abusing his del Sol at dragstrips, autocross venues and road race courses around California.

The first thing we liked about the del Sol was its complete ineligibility for any kind of car show. Lin chose function over vanity, reducing a comfortable two-seat cruiser to a stripped performer. The interior, gutted for weight savings, is bereft of all interior panels, sports exposed wiring, and is free of all luxury items like airbags. It can only be described as a bit ghetto.

Despite Lin's close ties to the hybrid community, the del Sol's powerplant remains largely unmolested, at least thus far. The head has never been removed from the block, meaning the impressive horsepower gains he has seen have been from bolt-ons. Without making horsepower claims, the screaming B16 makes enough power to pull the 2,300-lb del Sol to a best quarter-mile run of 14.3 seconds at 98 mph on street tires.

To facilitate smoother and faster ingress of cold air, Lin fitted a Thompson Engineering MegaTube intake, a 64mm throttle body from JG and a JDM Integra Type R intake manifold. Exhaust gases exit through a '98 JDM Integra Type R four-into-one exhaust manifold, which sports a larger collector than previous years. For track use, Lin fits a 2.5-inch test pipe and lightweight 60mm race exhaust from Z.Speed. Although the car is loud, it has a unique and satisfying growl rarely heard from Hondas.

Leaving room to grow, Lin ensures sufficient spark and fuel delivery for serious horsepower increases with a host of aftermarket components. An MSD 6A ignition box mated to a MSD Blaster 3 external coil fires NGK R plugs through Magnecor 10mm spark plug wires. A Walbro high-pressure 255 L/hr fuel pump moves fuel through a B&M adjustable fuel pressure regulator and RC Engineering 310cc injectors.

Most of the power gains can be found in the B16's head. Intake and exhaust flow in the combustion chamber are controlled by Skunk2 Street Profile cams working against Integra Type R outer valve springs and Portflow inners topped with Crower titanium retainers. Integra Type R lost motion assemblies-a spring mechanism that sits under the VTEC lobe pad and absorbs the lobe movement when VTEC is not engaged-replace the stock units. For tuning on and off the dyno, Frank uses Skunk2 cam gears; the intake is advanced by 2 degrees and the exhaust by 1 degree.

The key to extracting the highest specific output possible is the Hondata Stage 4 user-programmable ECU. With a laptop, Lin changes fuel and timing curves, adjusts VTEC and the factory rev limiter, and takes advantage of neat functions like launch control and full-throttle shifting.

Again, borrowing from an Integra Type R, a 1999 Canadian transmission replaces the stock unit, which features a limited slip-essential during our testing. With the number of different products dumped into his engine for testing, Lin chose a Clutchmasters Stage 3 clutch with a Kevlar disc mated to an 8-lb flywheel.

After subjecting his car to the tear-and-toss method of weight reduction, Lin found the stock brake sizes sufficient, replacing the rotors with cross-drilled and slotted units, and using more aggressive pads. Prior to his drive to L.A. from the Bay Area for the test, Lin sifted through his vast, Imelda Marcos-like collection of wheels and pulled out 15-inch Z.Speed RNR replicas. Judging from the bald-as-a-bowling-ball tires that came off the rims, Lin has no complaints about the slightly abused 205/50R-15 g-Force KDs now fitted to the car.

Despite the often expensive and exotic suspension kits available for Honda EGs, Lin chose both inexpensive and effective components. Skunk2 coil-overs allow the end user to select from a variety of spring rates, ride on KYB AGX adjustable shocks and rings in under $700 retail. The EG2 del Sol platform is the least rigid of the EG series, which prompted bracing both the front and rear strut towers. The front anti-roll bar remains stock, though many Honda road racers remove them, and the largest Progress Group rear bar, a 1-incher, ensures the del Sol swings its ass like J.Lo.

How did our little double-wishbone zinger do? Not as well as we hoped, but better than some of the more serious and more expensive machinery. More negative camber would've increased stick on the skidpad and a more aggressive alignment would've given it better balance through the slalom. Heck, the car still pulled .93 g on street tires, which is no small feat, and places it in exotic car territory.

On the road course, however, the del Sol really showed the overall efficiency of the package, beating both the second and third place cars-one a tube frame racecar and the other sporting more than 600 wheel hp-in the capable hands of our driver Rhys Millen. Millen described the car as handling like your typical well-balanced front driver, and was impressed by its quickness and braking ability. And the quick lap times he wrung out of the car from the first lap allude to the car's level of driveability.

The other magazines brought the biggest guns they could find. Our front driver, however, is a low-budget bucket and represents the cars owned by many of our readers. Though it didn't dish out the ass-whooping we were hoping for, Lin's car is a good illustration of how good a compact can get with lots of tinkering, off-the-shelf parts and sticky tires. -Jared Holstein