The Mod Bug Bit Us While We're [Im]patiently Waiting On Some Major Parts

We've started gathering (or, rather, hoarding) some parts while we're impatiently waiting on some of our major parts off backorder from a few manufacturers. In the mean time, the mod bug bit us again, of course, and we threw a couple of quick mods onto the shop FL5.

 

Drivability, Drivability, Drivability!

The first quick mod is a drivability mod. The FL5's throttle positioning is quite far away from the brake pedal and it makes heel-toe rev matching a bit more cumbersome and challenging, especially coming from our floor-mounted OE throttle on our track Cayman. We don't have big feet here, either, so when most people use the "side-foot-side-foot" of heel-toe rev matching, we actually have to be very literal and use "heel-twist-ankle-toe" method of downshift rev matching. If you've ever seen the Initial-D anime, this is what it looks like in reality for us:



We went with the ACUITY Instruments Throttle Pedal Spacer. It's an incredibly well designed and machined part that is so simple (relatively) and solves a common issue on this platform. The ACUITY Throttle Pedal Spacer (or more technically, Accelerator Pedal Relocation Bracket), helps resolve this problem by providing three unique new positions for your accelerator pedal. In addition to moving the pedal toward the driver, the ACUITY Throttle Pedal Spacer allows you to move the pedals closer together, laterally, to aid drivers with narrow feet.

It took about 5 minutes to install and we were off on a test drive. We chose Position B out of the three total positions to choose from, and it moved the throttle pedal 11mm up and 11mm to the left. This definitely felt more fluid when we were test driving and immediately felt the much needed throttle pedal position change when downshift rev matching and heel-toeing (we keep the auto rev-match system disabled though, out of preference). We highly recommend this throttle spacer to improve driving dynamics.

 

JDM, yo!

Do you remember when you were younger and growing up around JDM cars, how actual Japanese Domestic Parts (JDM) parts that are imported into the US will always give you that giddy and excited feeling? Maybe, it's just the nostalgia it brings, or the "rarity" factor (maybe combination of both?), but that's what we felt here when we wanted to dress up the engine bay a little bit with some bling factor. We went with a Cusco OS Front Strut Tower Bar. The CUSCO Front Strut Tower Bar is designed to increase chassis strength, eliminate body flex, vibrations in order to optimize the vehicle's handling. It's beautifully crafted and anodized in CUSCO Blue for lighting up the engine bay. It uses existing mounting location for a "bolt-on" installation.

It's just the small things, right? Of course, we're going to add more Cusco and other JDM goodies on our FL5 in the future.

We have the strut bar in stock and ready to ship on our site HERE and we also carry a whole suite of other CUSCO products as well.

 

AHH-CHOO!

In our last blog update, we mentioned that we installed the aFe Takeda Intake on our shop FL5 for a little bit more induction and turbo noise. Elevating that giddy excitement we mentioned above, we decided to also throw on a Turbosmart Kompact Blow Off Valve (BOV) for that hilarious and fun blow-off noise of owning a turbo car. Yes, we're still children at heart here. 

The BOV is a direct-fit high-performance replacement for the factory plastic unit. The Turbosmart Kompact BOV suits the new generation Honda VTEC Turbo engines found in the Civic Type R (FK2, FK8, FL5). It can handle high boost levels and is made of billet aerospace-grade aluminum with high-temperature seals.

We also understand that this may be one of those mods that are a touchy subject on a non-recirculated (vent to atmosphere (VTA)) unit on a MAF vehicle, but being data driven individuals, we validated with Alan Jackson (our tuner) over at Edge Autosport with datalogs that there was no ill-effects of installing a BOV on this platform. The logs didn't show anything besides a brief, momentary, in-between shift slight elevation of richness in the AFR; that's actually to be expected since it is a VTA unit (rather go rich than lean!). Otherwise, no other weirdness we've seen in the logs from Long Term Fuel Trim (LTFT) or Short Term Fuel Trim (STFT) feedback loops or targeted values being wonky. 

We have had this BOV in our FK8 as well for a few years now, and again, no drivability issues, no idling issues, no un-intended compressor surge or boost leaks, either. On our FL5, it has been no different in experience and we actually think for some reason, the FL5 with the Turbosmart BOV + aFe Takeda Intake is louder than the same mods on our FK8!

If you're looking for a fun BOV noise to pair with an aftermarket intake like the aFe Takeda Intake, look no further than the Turbosmart Kompact BOV.

You can find both the aFe Takeda Pro Dry-S Intake (black) HERE on our site, and the Turbosmart Kompact BOV HERE on our site; both are in stock and ready to ship.

We also have the aFe Takeda Pro Dry-S Intake (red) HERE.

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

Thanks for sticking around and we hope to reveal more of our shop FL5 build once we get some more fun parts delivered to our shop. Now to twiddle our thumbs again and hit refresh a million times a week hoping the parts will show up soon!