Photo by Sam Draiss Photography A whole nine years have passed since we published the first installment of our Building a Honda Prelude Racecar series. And thanks to enthusiasts like you, these old articles still receive hundreds of views every week. While the advice and recommendations in these early articles are still relevant today, some of the products mentioned are no longer available or have been supplanted by better options. So, I thought it would help to put this quick list of updates and errata together for those of you who may be building a Honda Prelude Racecar in 2024: Classing The US race classing landscape has changed dramatically in the past 10 years. Most new club racing classes now rely on power to weight ratio or bracket racing style lap time-based classes for their race groups. This is a good thing for owners of 4th and 5th gen Preludes, who traditionally had to fit their cars into classes where they couldn't get their cars light enough to meet minimum weight or couldn't reach power targets with the stock H23A1 or H22 engines. We now recommend choosing a class which allow for cars to be competitive with a minimum weight of 2500 lbs or higher (with driver), and a target power output of 180 hp to 250 hp. Those figures should be attainable for the average club racer. Suspension While we at StudioVRM are still fans of Tein's tanky twin-tube suspension dampers, they are becoming harder to find. Ever since Tein's non-rebuildable "Z" dampers became the focus of their aftermarket coilover business, they have made fewer and fewer suspension dampers that are actually suitable for track use. Because of this reality, we now have to look elsewhere for budget-friendly coilover options. We now recommend looking at the following options when choosing budget-friendly race coilovers for your Prelude racecar: Redshift Suspension valved BC Racing Coilovers Shaftworks Motion Control Suspension (MCS) While slightly more expensive than the budget-friendly dampers on our Prelude, the budget options from these three vendors should perform similarly or better than what we use today. The silver lining is that the cost of durable, spherical bearing conversions for our Honda control arms have come down dramatically in the past few years. We now recommend skipping the polyurethane bushings kits and going straight to spherical bearings, even on street cars. We also recommend running higher spring rates than in the past. Part of this is because newer dampers do such a good job of managing low-speed movement in the shock that there are fewer penalties to running stiffer main springs. The other is due to another reason, which is mentioned further below. Brakes Thanks to the low cost of track-capable aftermarket calipers and rotors, most racing classes now allow the use of aftermarket brake calipers and rotors. This is great news for those of us with 4th and 5th gen Preludes which, due to the size and weight of their base chassis, will often end up running with a race weight north of 2500 lbs. Our budget recommendation for Preludes with larger (17" or 18") wheels is the FatFour Customs Acura RL brake kit - a sturdy big brake kit that combines the 4 piston aluminum calipers off of a 2005 Acura RL with redrilled rotors from a Nissan 350Z. While this kit is heavier than most of the Wilwood-based kits out there, we have found it to be a more rigid and fade-resistant setup. As far as brake pad compounds, we still recommend the Raybestos ST-43, ST-45, and ST-47 compounds for the front and ST-77s for the rear calipers. However, The ST-45 and ST-77 compounds are still on an extraordinarily long (6 to 12 month) backorder due to ongoing supply issues. If you need something on a more urgent basis, we would recommend looking in the Carbotech or G-Loc brakes catalog for a suitable substitute. As for cooling, we now recommend skipping the traditional metal hose brake ducts and using vents in the bumper to encourage more airflow to the wheel well to help keep the front brakes cool. This is partly because routing large diameter brake hose is so difficult within the Prelude's cluttered wheel wells, and partly because you can cool the brakes, axles, and shocks with much smaller openings in the front bumper. Engine Due to a lack of spare parts, we were forced to switch from the affordable Honda H23A1 non-VTEC engine to the more high-strung H22 VTEC platform in 2023. And while having access to a greater variety of off the shelf parts is a welcome change, it is hard to ignore the fact that H-series engine cores are no longer as cheap or as affordable as they used to be. Yes, Honda K series swaps are a popular and common option for street cars. However, the K swap mounts for the 4th and 5th gen chassis place the transmission in a position which puts the cv joints at an extreme angle. The load on those joints is so extreme that even top shelf racing axles (e.g. Raxles VIR axles ) will typically only last a handful of race weekends before breaking. At $800 per set, replacing these axles on a regular basis can get very expensive very quickly. While we do plan to continue with the H22 platform for the foreseeable future, we now plan to use race-prepared, sleeved blocks from our Technical Partner, Bad Guys Worldwide . The costs to build a sleeved block are still reasonable at the time of writing, and will greatly extend the life of the engines. This is especially important as many H22 engines are now so old that the FRM coated cylinder liners are starting to fail due to old age and wear. Differential and Transmission Limited slip differentials and aftermarket Final Drives have become so affordable and cheap that they are now among the first Powertrain modifications that we would make if we were building a new Prelude racecar. This is partly because most used manual transmissions tend to come with a fair bit of synchro and bearing wear, and should be inspected or rebuilt before putting into service in a race car. Fortunately, companies like MFactory / Synchrotech have made this very affordable for us Prelude owners, with several options available for rebuild kits, final drives, and limited slip differentials. As for what type of Limited Slip Differential to use, metal plate clutch pack LSDs have a decisive performance advantage over helical gear units, to the tune of about one second per lap on a 1 minute 30 second road course. However, even modern-day clutch pack diffs need to be serviced and rebuilt on a regular basis. For those of us who are not able to rebuild transaxles and differentials on a regular basis, we recommend a WaveTrac . WaveTrac diffs continue to offer an affordable, low-maintenance alternative to more expensive clutch pack differentials, and offer performance somewhere between a helical differential and a clutch pack differential. Aero Thanks to the increased flexibility offered by modern rulebooks, downforce-producing aero is both affordable and effective to the point of being almost mandatory. We recommend cutting your own splitter from 1/2" birch plywood and using quick release mounts and splitter rods from Professional Awesome Racing to mount it. PA's quick release mechanism and compression fit splitter rod design are clever, durable, affordable, and you can buy spare parts for them. The last bit is important as splitters and splitter mounting components tend to suffer a tremendous amount of wear and damage, especially as both car and driver become faster. As far as rear wings, we recommend looking at large-chord aluminum wings, similar to what is offered by Winglogic . Be warned that the Winglogic wings are not bolt-on aero pieces. You will need some fabrication skills and the ability to weld thin-gauge aluminum, and the ability to source your own uprights. However, as far as budget-friendly wings go, they currently offer the best balance between affordability and outright performance. One of their wing elements, a set of eBay-sourced wing upgrights, and a TIG welder to bring it all together will shave seconds off of your lap times for pennies on the dollar. Questions? Have a question about any of the info above? Feel free to reach out to us via our Contact Us form . Disclosure: The Bad Guys (AKA Bad Guys Worldwide) is a Technical Partner of StudioVRM.Racing , and have provided discounted engine rebuild services to us for our latest race engine build. StudioVRM and Roger Maeda are not affiliated with Tein, Redshift Suspension, Shaftworks, Motion Control Suspension, FatFour Customs, Carbotech, G-Loc, Raxles, MFactory / Synchromesh, WaveTrac, Professional Awesome Racing, Winglogic, or any of the other vendors mentioned here. Any of the parts purchased and reviewed for this article have been purchased at full price from our team's car development budget.

Header photo by John C Ernst Photography If you've watched or followed any racing series, you'll hear teams and commentators alike talking about "developing" their racecar as the season goes on. But what does that actually mean? Most racing games depict the process of developing a racecar using a modern-looking tech tree, where you can give virtual engineers a bunch of virtual currency so they can make your car accelerate harder, stop quicker, and corner better as the season progresses. It gives you the impression that you're investing R&D dollars into a team of researchers who are constantly inventing and building new parts that your mechanics will bolt onto the car. And while there is an element of truth to that for some well-resourced teams, it's far from reality for most racers. The Reality of the Matter The reality for most drivers and teams is that we don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in new parts over the course of a season. For many of us, the parts that we have on the car at the beginning of the season are what we plan to finish the season on. And aside from a lucky few, most of us lack the tooling or the skills to fabricate new parts in the comfort of our own shops. And yet, budget-minded racers like us still find ways to make our cars faster over the course of the season, sometimes by a factor of seconds per lap. So how do we do it? In this series, we will take you behind the scenes as we develop the StudioVRM Honda Prelude through a competitive 2022 US Touring Car Championship season. In the process, we will you what actually goes on when we "develop" and "upgrade" the car, and hopefully give you some inspiration on how you could approach the development process for your own track or race car. Let's get started. Choosing your Tools The key to a successful development program is organization. All of your findings and data will come from your time on track, but most of your actual development work will happen away from it. That means you need a way to collect accurate data in a quick, efficient way, and have a way to keep it organized so you can review it later on. Our at-track data toolbox includes: Trello for Notetaking Since yours truly has a penchant for losing paper notes, our race engineer has mandated that all team notes are kept on Trello, a free-to-use cloud-based task management platform. Trello is an electronic Kanban board. It lets you track tasks in small, short notes called Cards, that you can quickly drag and drop between a series of Lists to indicate the status of the list. We have two Trello Boards in our Workspace, one that shows the list of upgrades and changes that we need to make to the car, and another that helps us keep track of observations and findings at each event. This second board also acts as our pre-event packing list, which helps make sure that we don't forget to pack something. Very handy. All of our team members have the Trello mobile app installed on our phones so we can collect, share, and review our notes before, at, and after each race weekend. On-Track Data Logging on a Budget Our team budget doesn't allow for expensive data loggers, so we do things the old-fashioned way - With cameras. Over the years, the team has amassed a small collection of second-hand Sony Action Cams, and we always try to install at least two of them whenever we go out on track: One forward-facing camera on the harness bar of the roll cage One rear-facing camera mounted to the rear windshield Our cameras may be several generations old, but they are still capable of producing clear 1080p60 footage. The video footage that we get from these little guys provide invaluable data that we can go back to see exactly what the car and driver are doing. As for lap timing, we use the RaceChrono Pro mobile app, installed on a used Android phone. We attach it to the roll cage on a RAM X-mount to use as an in-car lap timer and to collect speed / position data that we can review later on. If our car had an OBD II port, we would have also purchased a budget-friendly OBD data logger to collect data from our Honda's in-car systems. Unfortunately, our car lacks the sensors or the computer for these functions, so it isn't an option for us. Some Basic Instruments There are also some areas where you have no choice but to have dedicated tools. This is the one area where I would recommend spending a little extra money to get the best possible tools. At minimum, you will want to have the following on hand so you can collect valuable data about your car's tyres: A good, consistent tyre pressure gauge (preferably one made for racing) A probe-type tyre pyrometer We do bring a travel case of portable alignment tools to the track, but those tools are for checking and fixing our toe or camber in case of a handling problem. We rarely have a need to use it during a race weekend. Building a Baseline Now that we have our tools, it's time to set a baseline for the car so we know what we are working with. This means having a rough idea of the car's power, weight, alignment, tyres, and (if available) average lap times from past events that you can use as reference data. For us, that baseline data was: Max Engine Output: 190 hp @ 7000 RPM / 159 lb-ft of torque @ 5816 rpm (rev limited to 7500 rpm) Weight 2605 lbs with driver and no fuel Spring Rates Front - 14 kg-f/mmRear - 18 kg-f/mm Alignment Brakes Raybestos ST-45 Front / ST-77 Rear Stock Prelude Si VTEC calipers and rotors front and rear Wheels / Tyres 17x8 +35 offset 10mm spacers in front Used Hard compound slicks Aero Front splitter mounted to frame, extending 3" forward of the bumper as viewed from above VIS Racing hood, with vent grill removed and 3/4" tall gurney installed in front of vent 4" aluminum side skirts as measured from top of rocker Foam-reinforced composite rear wing Baseline Lap Times: NJ Motorsports Park Thunderbolt - ~1:35 NJ Motorsports Park Lighting - ~1:16 Summit Point Main Course - ???? Pittsburgh International Raceway - ???? Due to time and budget constraints and an over-supply of slicks, we decided to start the 2022 season on used hard compound racing slicks, then switch to new Hankook F200 medium compound slicks before the second round at NJMP. We knew that would affect some of our tyre and alignment related measurements and could hamper the development of our alignment and suspension setup. But that was ok. We had other things to worry about at the first race. Recognizing Your Weaknesses Understanding your baseline also means understanding your weaknesses. All of us head into a season with a few items left on the to-do list. So we made sure those were accounted for. In our case, there were still question marks around whether our engine was fully broken-in after its last rebuild. Despite being to the track seven times since its last rebuild, mechanical issues meant that this motor had less than 2 hours of total running time on it. We had performed some last-minute break-in before the event, but we weren't confident that the piston rings had fully seated just yet. In addition to the engine being slightly down on power, this also meant that we would need to keep a close eye on the oil catch cans attached to the Prelude's crankcase breathers. We were also concerned about the tracks that the series was going to this year. It has been years since we had raced at Summit Point or Pittsburgh International Raceway, both of which had been repaved and modified several times over the course of the past decade. Because we had no idea about the surface or the new kerbs, we would need to be conservative with settings like our ride height and spring rates. If our car was too stiff or too low, it would be difficult to fix at the track. That means running the car higher and running softer springs, and a compromise of speed vs drivability. Finally, there was the driver. While yours truly has a reputation of being a safe pair of hands behind the wheel, it has been a few seasons since I have been able to fully immerse myself in the heat of a lengthy dogfight. It would take an event or two to shake off the rust and get used to fighting again, and that means focusing on small, incremental changes while the driver re-learns how to race at the limit. Building a Plan With our baseline and weaknesses accounted for, it's time to build a plan. We like to categorize our development plans by area and set tasks and goals on a race-by-race basis. Our development plan for our first test & race weekend at Summit Point included the following items in each category: Powertrain Verify that the engine is fully broken in Verify that the new catch can setup has sufficient capacity to handle the blow-by from our engine If the engine is healthy, consider raising the rev limiter to 7700 rpm Suspension & Handling Test the compliance of the suspension by riding the taller kerbs at Summit Point Check whether the suspension is stiff enough to keep the aero working under hard braking and full acceleration Braking No changes Tyre and Wheel No changes Monitor treadwear, switch to backup dry set (white wheels) if tyres show damage Aero Monitor effectiveness of gurney flap installed on hood Monitor splitter height and check how often it contacts the ground Monitor side skirt height to see how far it is off the ground under cornering Driver Gain a better understanding of Summit Point Raceway Avoid unnecessary risks On to the First Race With plans in place and the rig loaded, we were ready to head to our first race weekend of the year at Summit Point Raceway. How did our plans fare against the track test that stood ahead of us in the rolling hills of West Virginia? Find out in Part 2 of How to Develop a Honda Prelude Racecar. In the meantime, I'll see you at the track.

In the first installment of our new series, we assembled the tools that we needed to develop the StudioVRM Honda Prelude, established a baseline for the car, and set up a development plan for our first race of the season. All that was left was to put that plan to the test at the first round of the USTCC East Series season at Summit Point Raceway. Getting to The Point Traveling to Summit Point Motorsports Park's Main course is like visiting an old friend. And not just because several of our old friends live nearby. It was the first track that yours truly ever spent 4+ hours driving to, back when we were working our way up the track day ladder in the mid-2000's. The circuit's 1/2 mile-long main straight and flowing high-speed corners were the site of some of the best wet weather races we had ever experienced. Turn 10 also happened to be the site of our first ever catastrophic engine failure*. It was the perfect place for the car's first true test of the season. Putting the Plan to the Test Because we had so many items to check, we opted to spend a few extra dollars and enter the pre-race test day on Friday. The five extra practice sessions would be a nice stress-free way of testing the car. The first order of business was to re-learn the track and prepare for the litany of items that we had on our initial plan. Yours truly prepared the car early, arrived at grid early, and sat patiently at the back half of the grid so we could be the last car on track. Having 15+ years of on-track experience doesn't make up for the fact that we hadn't driven this car on this track for several years. Humility and patience would be key to a successful first test. And so it proved, as we took our first tentative laps at a snail's pace, lapping 5 to 6 seconds a lap off our regular pace while cautiously feeling out the powertrain, suspension, and driver. The good news was that, despite being repaved twice since our last visit, the course was as familiar to us as ever. The bad news was that the car exhibited an unsettling tendency to suddenly kick its tail out through the faster right-hand turns on the track. Not a good thing on a track that is predominantly composed of fast right-hand turns. We approached the problem systematically: First, we checked the hot tyre pressures on the car to see both rear tyres showed the same pressures Next, we checked the rear suspension for any loose bolts or components Then, we looked at any broken components that could cause the alignment to shift Fourth, we checked for any binding in the rear suspension or any indication that the rear dampers were damaged or leaking Finally, we broke out the alignment kit and did a very quick check to make sure that the rear toe and camber hadn't shifted from its pre-season settings This thorough check revealed no problems. So we recorded the results on our trusty Trello board and went back out for the second session of the day. Again, the snap oversteer reared its ugly head through every right-hand turn. Knowing that we had plenty of time left, we chose to retrace our steps and go through the same five steps again. This time, our slow, methodical approach proved its worth. Our race engineer noticed that the right rear tyre pressure was still reading the same as it was after our first on-track session - An anomaly considering that the three other tyres were reading 2 psi hotter than before. A few attempts to add air to the right rear revealed the problem: The valve core on the right rear tyre was partially jammed. It was reading 25 psi regardless of how much air was actually in the tyre. A quick trip to the local Walmart later, we were back at the track with a fresh valve core and a valve core replacement tool. Replacing the jammed core revealed that we had less than 17 psi on the right rear tyre. No wonder the car's handling was so squirrelly. With that unexpected problem sorted out, we got back to our scheduled program and kept working through our development plan. Mid-Weekend Findings Our first test day was a productive one. By the end of Friday, we had recorded some productive results against our original plan: Powertrain Verify that the engine is fully broken in Day 1 Result: Power output indicates that engine is healthy Verify that the new catch can setup has sufficient capacity to handle the blow-by from our engine Day 1 Result: Verified that the catch can setup has enough capacity to last 10 laps at 7250 rpm. Will need additional testing to see if it can last longer If the engine is healthy, consider raising the rev limiter to 7700 rpm Day 1 Result: Defer decision until after day 1 of racing Suspension & Handling Test the compliance of the suspension by riding the taller kerbs at Summit Point Day 1 Result: Car has no issues absorbing any of the kerbs except for the gator cut kerbs on the outside of Turn 1 Check whether the suspension is stiff enough to keep the aero working under hard braking and full acceleration Day 1 Result: Front and rear aero working well enough to change feel of car. Splitter does not contact ground under full braking on flat ground. Braking No changes Tyre and Wheel Monitor treadwear, switch to backup dry set (white wheels) if tyres show damage Day 1 Results: Treadwear on hard compound slicks is significantly less than expected. Replaced right rear valve core due to sticky valve. Tyres seem to work best with a cold pressure of ~22 psi and a hot pressure just around 30 psi. Aero Monitor effectiveness of gurney flap installed on hood Day 1 Results: Needs testing. Continue monitoring. Monitor splitter height and check how often it contacts the ground Day 1 Results: Splitter skids contact the ground under hard braking and cornering into Turns 1, 5, 6, and 9. Consider raising splitter by 1 inch to avoid being a nuisance to corner workers. Monitor side skirt height to see how far it is off the ground under cornering Day 1 Results: Confirmed that side skirts were not contacting the track. Need photographs to see how far it is off ground. Driver Gain a better understanding of Summit Point Raceway Day 1 Results: Check. Avoid unnecessary risks Day 1 Results: So far, so good Turn it up to 10 Friday went well. Time to push the car a little. We found a nice gap in Qualifying, warmed the cold slicks as quickly as we could, and started on a few laps at 9/10ths pace. We weren't really testing anything in the braking system, so we kept our corner entries and braking zones conservative. Aside from that, it was race pace or better for the entire session. We needed to see if the oil catch cans would be able to hold enough blow-by from a full 15-minute session. And we still weren't sure if the side skirts would contact the ground. The car's pace was good. The used slicks were thoroughly heat-cycled-out at this point, and the reduced grip meant understeer through every low-speed corner. But otherwise, the car felt good. The front splitter skids were still contacting the ground when the front suspension was loaded up, slowly grinding down the stainless steel skids bolted into the underside of the splitter. And there was an occasional puff of smoke, indicating that the engine was sucking in a little bit of oil from the PCV. Something to note. The one thing we couldn't tell was how close the side skirts were coming to the ground. Ideally, the metal side skirts on our car should be as close to the ground as possible without touching. We knew that they weren't touching the ground, which means that we could extend them closer to the ground for better performance. But how much taller could we make them? There was no way to tell without looking at the car from the outside under hard cornering. So yours truly came up with an incredibly convoluted solution - Find a photographer on one of the corner stations, get their attention, drive aggressively enough for them to get a good photo, buy a high-res photo from them afterwards, and use Photoshop to measure the distance between the ground and the bottom of the side skirt. Corner workers and spectators looked on with furrowed brows as the driver of the #22 Honda Prelude started waving to the photographers under hard cornering in the middle of a qualifying session. This bizarre strategy worked. A few days after the race, we had this photo loaded up into Photoshop, where the ruler tool told us that we could extend the side skirts by another 4 inches before it would hit the ground. Brilliant. Less brilliant was what happened during the following heat race. The zip ties holding down the oil dipstick were apparently not tight enough. The crankcase pressure had popped the engine oil dipstick up and sprayed Penn Grade 1 5w30 all over the engine bay. There was so much oil that some of it dripped onto the left rear tyre and pitched the car into a wild slide during the second lap of the race. It was pretty clear what was happening. The crankcase pressure from our high-compression engine was so much that the stock crankcase ventilation system on our car could not relieve the pressure quickly enough. The excess pressure found the one weak seal in Honda's oiling system (the oil dipstick itself) and pushed it out. Based on some friendly advice from Savage Garage Racing's Coyote Black, we took a trip to the local Home Depot and fabricobbled a homemade vented oil cap. But the 1/2" rubber hose that we used was not built for venting hot vapors from an internal combustion engine. It softened under the heat of the engine and pinched shut after a few laps. The resulting crankcase pressure pushed engine oil out through the stock PCV vents, filling both catch cans and allowing the Honda's H23A powerplant to ingest engine oil. The result? A smokescreen so prominent that it would have made James Bond proud. Unfortunately, huge clouds of oily smoke are far better suited to action films than the racetrack. We pulled off and retired the car before we could cause any damage to our engine or any of our competitors' cars. Final Findings from Round 1 By the end of the weekend, the scorecard looked dramatically different from a few days ago: Powertrain Verify that the engine is fully broken in Result: Power output indicates that engine is healthy. However, crankcase pressure indicates that we may be losing compression on one or more cylinders Verify that the new catch can setup has sufficient capacity to handle the blow-by from our engine Result: Stock PCV and catch can setup has insufficient capacity to last a full 25 minute session at race speeds. A higher capacity catch can and better ventilation is needed. If the engine is healthy, consider raising the rev limiter to 7700 rpm Result: Defer decision to Race 2, pending resolution of crankcase ventilation issues. Suspension & Handling Test the compliance of the suspension by riding the taller kerbs at Summit Point Result: Car has no issues absorbing any of the kerbs except for the gator cut kerbs on the outside of Turn 1. Retain setup for Round 2. Check whether the suspension is stiff enough to keep the aero working under hard braking and full acceleration Result: Front and rear aero working well enough to change feel of car. Splitter does not contact ground under full braking on flat ground. Braking No changes Tyre and Wheel Monitor treadwear, switch to backup dry set (white wheels) if tyres show damage Result: Treadwear on hard compound slicks is significantly less than expected. Replaced right rear valve core due to sticky valve. Tyres seem to work best with a cold pressure of ~22 psi and a hot pressure just around 30 psi. Tyres have reached end of service life. Replace with new Hankook F200s before Round 2. Aero Monitor effectiveness of gurney flap installed on hood Result: Oil streaking from Saturday incident indicates better flow attachment and higher velocity of flow from hood vent. Retain setup for Round 2. Monitor splitter height and check how often it contacts the ground Result: Splitter skids contact the ground under hard braking and cornering into Turns 1, 5, 6, and 9. Raise splitter by 1 inch to avoid being a nuisance to corner workers. Monitor side skirt height to see how far it is off the ground under cornering Result: Confirmed that side skirts were not contacting the track. Extend splitter by 4 inches to improve effectiveness. Driver Gain a better understanding of Summit Point Raceway Result: Check. Avoid unnecessary risks Result: Mission accomplished. Fixes and Upgrades Priority one was to address the excessive blow-by being generated by the Prelude's H23A1 powerplant. A permanent solution might involve disassembling the engine and putting new piston rings in the engine. We completed another leakdown test on the engine to check its health, and were relieved to find that the leakdown numbers had improved to under 6% on cylinders 1 and 4, and under 1% on cylinders 2 and 3. Maybe a full engine rebuild could wait. Instead, we took the approach suggested by fellow USTCC driver, Coyote Black of Savage Garage Racing. We would completely revamp our engine oil vent system, eliminating the stock PCV system and replacing it with a vented oil cap plumbed to a vented catch can. We would then plumb a drain from the bottom of the catch can into our car's Moroso oil pan, which came from the factory with a port for an oil return line. We covered the stock vent to the air intake with a PCV filter, and used this attractive laser-etched plug from Laurel Highlands Laser to close the stock PCV vent hold on the H23A1 valve cover. In order to avoid a repeat of incident with the oil dipstick popping out, we procured an English Tune oil dipstick hold down. This spring-loaded handle was a much nicer alternative to the amalgamation of zip ties that kept the engine from pushing out the dipstick under load. We also took the opportunity to rework the splitter with shorter supports to keep the splitter blade from scraping across the ground as much as it had at Summit Point. The DiFTech splitter support rods that we used were discontinued, so we opted for these exceptionally overbuilt splitter quick support rods from FS Performance Engineering. These support rods have quick release clips similar to the old DiFTech rods and make it much easier to load the Prelude onto our open deck trailer. Mid-Season Retest There really is only one way to verify whether changes like these worked, and that is to run the car hard through a long session on a full-size racetrack. As luck would have it, we were already planning on taking a 3-day trip to VIRginia International Raceway for a relaxing weekend of track days with friends from the Honda Prelude racing community. We could use the extra track time to test out our changes in a low-pressure DE environment and maybe enjoy a beer or two with friends afterwards. With that, we loaded up the rig and prepared for a long tow down to the quiet town of Alton, Virginia. Did our crankcase ventilation upgrades and new splitter supports address our woes from our Summit Point race? Find out in Part 3 of How to Develop a Honda Prelude Racecar, out now. In the meantime, I'll see you at the track. *Special thanks to SSM racer Rob Myles, not only for bringing us back from Summit Point all those years ago, but for going back there to tow the stranded Prelude back to our home just one short week later. I still owe you Rob, and I'm still working on paying it forward.

Roger Maeda Driver/Author – StudioVRM Racing Team Stats Height: 5'8" (172 cm) Weight: 170 lbs (77 kg) Born: Kyoto, Japan Resides: East Brunswick, New Jersey Nationality: United States of America Trivia Daily Driver: Toyota FJ Cruiser Favorite Driver(s): Jenson Button, Kaz Nakajima Favorite F1 Team: VCARB Likes: Chess, Precision Pistol, Italian Food Pro Touring Car Racing's Greatest Loser Racing the road less traveled means encountering more obstacles than the average driver. ​ As a result, Roger Maeda is no stranger to losing. ​ Yet, through every defeat Maeda has grown stronger, faster, and wiser. Even as reigning champion in the US Touring Car Championship East Series, Maeda strives to push the limits of car, driver, and technology in pursuit of even greater performance. ​ Racing Record ​*Season in progress 2024 US Touring Car Championship East Series 2nd in SP* 2023 US Touring Car Championship East Series 🏆1st in SP 2022 US Touring Car Championship East Series ​ 2021 SCCA Club Racing - Super Touring Under ​ 2020 SCCA Club Racing - Super Touring Under ​ 2019 SCCA Club Racing - Super Touring Under ​ 2018 US Touring Car Championship East Series ​ 2017 SCCA Pro-IT Series ​ 2016 SCCA Club Racing - Improved Touring Class ​ 2015 SCCA Club Racing - Improved Touring Class ​ 2014 SCCA Club Racing - Improved Touring Class ​ 2013 IMG Endurance Racing Series 🏆1st in PI-4 2013 IMG Sprint Race Series ​ 2012 IMG Sprint Race Series ​ 2011 EMRA Sprint Race Series ​ 2010 EMRA Time Trial Series 🏆1st in ST-4 2009 EMRA Time Trial Series ​ 2008 EMRA Time Trial Series ​ 2007 EMRA Time Trial Series ​

Race Hard. Bloom in Chaos. May 30 3 min RACE TEAM NEWS Frustrating Weekend Ends Up in Smoke for StudioVRM's Roger Maeda A close quarters duel with BRT’s Martin Szwarc ended in disappointment as the StudioVRM Prelude’s H22 powerplant expired halfway into the Ro Apr 25 3 min RACE TEAM NEWS Rocky Road Leads to a Podium on Technicality for StudioVRM.Racing The 2024 USTCC East Series opener proved to be a tough test for StudioVRM’s Roger Maeda, as electrical problems with the team’s 2024 spec Pr Feb 4 4 min HOW-TO ARTICLES How to Fix Scratched TV Screens Like a Pro (Racer) Using an $8 detailing pen to fix your scratched up TV or laptop screen 1 2 3 4 5 The Car: StudioVRM Honda Prelude - USTCC "Kikka" Technical Specs The Driver: Roger Maeda Meet the Driver – Author – Mechanic known as "Touring Car Racing's Greatest Loser." Driver Bio Latest Articles Our Partners Latest Racing Secrets Nov 12, 2023 6 min RACING SECRETS How to Develop a Honda Prelude Racecar - Part 8 Pushing to the Finish Line with Late-Season Setup Changes Aug 14, 2023 8 min RACING SECRETS How to Develop a Honda Prelude Racecar - Part 7 Race testing our Spec B engine upgrades and aero updates Jun 24, 2023 4 min HOW-TO ARTICLES How to Develop a Honda Prelude Racecar - Part 6 Analyzing and adapting to our new VTEC powerplant 1 2 3 4 5

Racing Secrets All Posts Racing Secrets Race Team News How-To Articles May 30 3 min RACE TEAM NEWS Frustrating Weekend Ends Up in Smoke for StudioVRM's Roger Maeda A close quarters duel with BRT’s Martin Szwarc ended in disappointment as the StudioVRM Prelude’s H22 powerplant expired halfway into the Ro Apr 25 3 min RACE TEAM NEWS Rocky Road Leads to a Podium on Technicality for StudioVRM.Racing The 2024 USTCC East Series opener proved to be a tough test for StudioVRM’s Roger Maeda, as electrical problems with the team’s 2024 spec Pr Feb 4 4 min HOW-TO ARTICLES How to Fix Scratched TV Screens Like a Pro (Racer) Using an $8 detailing pen to fix your scratched up TV or laptop screen Jan 26 1 min RACE TEAM NEWS 2024 Race Schedule StudioVRM.Racing is defending its US Touring Car Championship East Series crown with a faster, more refined machine and team.