Gen 5 Prelude

This is my 97 Prelude SH.  My first new car when I bought it in the summer of 97, and served me well for over 250,000 km.

At first my car stayed relatively stock for the racing I do (You can read about that here).  But eventually I stepped up to super stock and modified the car to fit the class.

For those of you that have been following my car I've finally done it.  I've ditched the VAFC in favour of a 1" rear anti-roll bar.  I couldn't be more pleased.  The car is running smoother than ever and might even be faster (it held it's own at a drag day that my club held).  The one conclusion I have come to is that a VAFC is absolutely pointless unless you spend the cash and get a real pro to dyno tune it for you.  The rear bar hasn't really made the car terribly loose, but I can now put down a little more power (the car is much flatter under hard acceleration when exiting a corner).  You also can't argue with results.  I had a 100% win record for the 2003 season.  That's right I won every Solo-2 event I showed up for in the both the CASC-OR series and the WOSCA summer series.  This isn't something I'm likely to repeat, so all the better that I should get my mug in a mag!  That's right, I appeared "Grassroots Motorsports" on page 24 of the November 2003 issue.  You can see it here.

For the record the downfall of the mighty Prelude was the H22 oil starvation.  I forgot to check the oil before a winter event and spun a rod-bearing.  Lacking the money for a rebuild I sold the car as-is.  Apperently it was successfully rebuilt by it's new owner and is still running strong.  All the go fast goodies have now moved on to two different Preludes.  Sadly I suspect they will never see slalom duty again.

Feel free to e-mail me any questions you have about my setup.  There's an email link at the bottom of this page.

Articles

• Power Steering Fix for Solo-2 Racing

• Custom Driver Seat Lowering

• Coilover maintenance cleaning

• Brake dust shields removed (to allow better cooling, how-to article coming soon)

• Hawk HP+ brake pads

• Ford Heavy Duty Brake Fluid (cheap, easy to get and higher boiling point then regular DOT3 fluid)

• AEM cold air intake

• TEIN Type-HA adjustable Coilovers  Check out my new coilover cleaning article here

• ST 25.5mm rear sway bar.

• SPOON front Strut Tower Brace.

• Custom Made rear Tower Brace.

• LEAF racing harness.

• Sparco Evo-2 Racing Seat, with custom mount.

• Momo Competition steering wheel for racing events (my favourite mod!)

• Lowered Driver Seat (click on the link to see my how-to on this mod, pictures to come)

• Clear Side Markers

• Clear Front Turn Signals (Home Made)

• Painted Brake Calipers (I don't actually recommend this one because I think this might be part of my braking problems.  That is that I am boiling the fluid at lapping days.  NOT fun!)

• Mesh Duct Covers, for factory fog light location (Home Made, instructions coming)

Prelude Related Links:

• The Toronto Prelude Club  This is a group of Prelude owners in the Toronto area.  All model years are welcome.  I'm a member and also frequent the web board here.  The TPC has grown to become one of the largest Prelude clubs in North America (if not the largest).  Members not only talk online but regularly meet up all over the GTA for any kind of social activity.  Not to mention that most of the members are fairly knowledgeable and can answer a surprising array of technical questions.  Although if you have a question about ATTS or shocks then you're better off emailing me.  Trust me.

• NTPOG  the North Texas Prelude Owners Group.  I can't say much more about this site than awesome.  Lots of good how-to articles.  Most of the members autocross as well.  This is the site of the famous Gen5 camera mount.  A must see.

• PreludeOnline.com  The last remnant of what used to be Honda-Acura.net  A great site for all things Prelude with more forums than you can possibly surf every day.

• www.Prelude.org  This is the Prelude Fan Club.  All generations and based in Japan.  An excellent site, but being able to read Japanese would help.

• Turbo H22A  A nice page on a very well done turbo Prelude with Mugen body kit

• Eldon Doucet  Eldon's page is riddled with links a few of which I've included here.

General Honda Links:

• Honda-Tech.com  This is just a web-board, but one with a lot of knowledgeable people on it.  Be warned that they're not overly friendly to newbies, so do a search (or 3) before you post a question, and read ALL of the forum rules before posting.  I don't frequent this board.

• Hondaracing.ca  A Toronto based board for Honda enthusiasts.  It showed promise, but alas it doesn't see much traffic

• The Complete Import Links  A great page with links to all the major manufacturers and retailers.

• HADA  The Honda Acura Drivers Association.  A Toronto area club that focuses on racing.