Phantasm Racing Street Wars 1, 3/13/11

There's a lot of smack-talking that occurs among the import tuning crowd. "Yo, bro, my B20/VTEC EG hatch could walk all over your H22-swapped EK hatch."  Sadly, these are not the type of discussions that can be settled on the street, because that's illegal. So local drag strips spend a lot of their weekends hosting drag racing for street cars.  This was the case the other weekend - local import speed shop Phantasm Racing hosted their first Street Wars event of the season.  As with any import drag racing event, there were some wickedly fast cars - and also some loud slow junk.  I'll be skipping the loud, slow junk and showing you a mix of pictures and video of the good stuff.

SE-R, Civic, Civic, Evo, Integra, Civic... F&F extras or import drags?

I met up with some friends at the track (which is about 90 miles outside my hometown of Raleigh) who brought their cars to drag.  Seeing as how I have a 4-cylinder Accord with 0 modifications to the engine (metal cable bushings and a short shifter don't count) I didn't bother.  But also seeing as how there were a number of cars running in the 17's, maybe I will next time.  Anyhow, while my two friends who were racing didn't bring especially fast cars (a Prelude with bolt-ons and  MkIV Jetta VR6 with exhaust), a friend's dad brought the big guns out to the track - a Dodge Charger SRT-8.  This one's stock except for a Predator flash-tune and a 180° thermostat, but it still layed down 13.4's like clockwork all day long.  Which is pretty damn impressive for a 4,200lb sedan.

Yes, the plate says 12SEC4DR.  Best of 12.97 so far.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=698i8u-ne7Q

Look, everyone says you don't have to do a warm-up burnout if you're on street tires, but when you have a Charger SRT-8, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  It's too pretty not too.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTysHgskl3A

A good clean launch results in a 13.5 second quarter above 100mph.  There can't be an easier car to launch than an SRT-8; just brake torque it up a little bit and keep the throttle pinned.  Here's what it looks from inside the car:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Bkyt8iZ1I

My, what a long header you have.

The basic formula for making a Civic a quick drag car is pretty simple: take the lightest chassis, and stuff the most powerful engine in it you can.  In this case, it's an EG-chassis Civic hatchback (1992-1995) where the single-cam D-series 1.6L has been thrown aside, replaced with an H22A - the twin cam valve-lift screamer from the upper spec Preludes.  This is more than double the power this car originally had right off the bat - a jump from 102bhp to 220bhp for a JDM-spec H-series.  How does it fit?  Well... sort of.  The mounts are aftermarket Hasport units, and the transmission is actually from an Integra GS-R.  An H2B adapter plate is used to fit the close-ratio GS-R (B-series) 'box to the Prelude H22 motor.  This is a combination that with basic bolt-ons and a decent tune will run high 12's in the quarter mile, all motor.  This one wasn't stock, of course - the header is so long that an aftermarket half-width radiator is fitted to clear it.  Below you can see this hatch running a nice-looking Integra LS (the hatch is in the far lane.)  This thing is quick!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mizh_P4Keps

Now, the great thing about the EG and EK chassis Civics is that you can stick almost any Honda engine in them, as we've seen before on Carthrottle.  This red one here has a K20A2 under it's hood, which is the engine you'd normally find powering an Acura RSX (or Integra to our foreign friends) Type-S.  The K-series offers similar power output to the Prelude H22A motor, but it's all-aluminum so it's lighter.  Interestingly, the K-series rotates the other way as older Honda I4's, so the exhaust manifold and intake manifold are on opposite sides of where they'd normally be on a Civic of this generation.  This combination makes for a damn quick car before you start modifying it...  which you would.

What, no nitrous?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYejzsgAGwQ

The K-swapped Civic is in the right lane.  For an all-motor 2 liter car, this is pretty damn quick, no?

Now, thankfully these even't aren't all Civics and Integras.  That would get boring VERY quickly.  Some genuinely exciting stuff showed up, like this lemon-yellow turbocharged Honda S2000 that was clicking off mid-12 second runs all day long.  I later spotted it broken down on the side of US-1 on the way home to Raleigh, but let's not split hairs: this thing is quick.

Don't eat the yellow s2now!

And here is the same S2000 getting shown some taillights by a seriously quick first-generation Integra off the line.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ0Cy9Kcaec

Serious drag cars forgo bodywork to fit huge tires.  It looks goofy, but with this much rubber on the front you can really get the car off the line fast.  This Civic Hatch also had a JDM H22A under the hood.

Grrrr!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au0Sy6fg1uo

Speed holes?

Looking quite serious from the back; are those wheels from a CRX HF or something?  Can anyone identify them?  Really cool 80's rims. (They're Mugen CF-48's; thanks to reader Ian Rafferty for answering this about 5 minutes after posting.  +5 cool points.) Also, I'm guessing the holes in the bumper eliminate an negative-pressure area under the bumper, because they can't reduce weight enough to be worth drilling your bumper out in 5 spots.

"Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow..."

Sadly, 3SX Performance didn't make it out to the track for the event - too much work to do - but there was one VR-4 there.  And while i'm not fond of the Steelers paint scheme or the Pep Boys fog lights, this car did light up all four tires in the burnout box and proceed to run a high 11-second quarter mile.  Check out how fast his launch is!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFhj5OZ91lc

Two Jet dragsters made it out for the event - and as you'd expect, an 1,100 pound car with the equivalent of 5,700bhp firing out the back with no traction limitations is an exciting spectacle to see going down the drag strip.  I understand it's a fairly rare occurence to see two Jet dragsters going down the track side by side.  All I can say, is that my ears will perhaps never forgive me for this.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29RsdSOGw1Q

These two MazdaSpeed3's (first-generation on right, happy happy second-generation on left) were going at it one on one all day.  The red first-generation sounded quite modified and was making quick work of the blue one pretty consistently.  As a side note, I just helped a friend of mine find and buy an MS3, and there should be a test drive review coming up on that shortly - something to look forward to!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VGzvC-1QKE

I'll finish off the video coverage of Street Wars with this Fox Body Mustang - which was the fastest car there not powered by a Jet engine.  This footage shows the warm-up burnout, as well as the violent take-off this car does.  Check out the side-dump exhaust in the front bumper!  Insane.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDlOkUSfZ5Y

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfP48nFeFnA

On the way out, I took a walk through the pits trying to capture some of the cars at rest.  Some of these cars arrived on trailers behind big trucks; others drove to the track, raced, then drove home.  I've got respect either way.

Turbo Miata is always nice.

As is a turbo Fox body Mustang.

80's RX-7's are always better when you rip out the Rotary and stuff in a 6.0L Corvette LS2 V8.

Dueling Supra's.  The black one has ~850whp on a stock clutch.  Yikes.

Buschur Racing's 850awhp Evo drag car.  Only made 2 runs before breaking.

They might not be pleasant to sit in, but it's still hard to go faster for cheaper than a BPU Neon SRT-4.

I was wondering all day why this stock-looking new-gen Civic Si was running high 13's instead of mid 15's.  Turns out it's probably that Jackson Racing supercharger!

The next event in the Street Wars challenge is this April - maybe I'll bring the Accord to the track and show these guys how it's done.  Then again, maybe not.