Dexter

Thanks, i am honored! And such worthy adversaries this month, i'm sure runners up Grant & Hubert with their equally awesome rides will be on the front page sooner than later. I've had the deck for over 5 years now and slowly but surely have been upgrading it. It's still a long way to go but nevertheless feels great getting recognised at this point. Thanks for all the support, To celebrate here's a sneak peek of my upcoming winter wheels for all you deep dishers out there:

What's the function of brake pad shims? I replaced my rear pads about a month ago, and there were no shims, previously they had been replaced at a shop. I fitted new pads which came with shims, but i left them out since it was really hard to get them fit with the shims. What difference do they make? Second thing i've been thinking about is what kind of chemical you should use with the pads. I've learnt to put copper paste on the outsides of the pads and leave the shins out. Haynes manual recommends using "anti squeal compound" on the outsides of the pad also, but to use shims. The official workshop manual tells to use Molykote M77 (whatever that is) on both sides of the shims. So what do you think, what's the best way to do this?

Me neither, but you can never go wrong with big & shiny!

(gear) knob!

Ok so i bought one, installed it (99% perfect fit) and it can totally handle consistent high rev track day punishment, the temp needle never went over the half way point even after 5-6 laps of really hard driving. Don't know how it rates against a standard rad since mine was broken (or clogged up who knows!) so don't know if it's really an upgrade performancewise, but atleast it looks nice and shiny in the bay!

Well i'm not sure if i'd do that to my car, but awesome idea well executed! I think that's a first here.

I bought some rails 2,5 years ago when i found a set for cheap on ebay just by accident, don't even own the seats yet! But keep an eye out they pop up every once and now.

Gear knob looking good! I wish i could get my girlfriend in to the hobby. But I do have a set of wheels in need of refurbing...

Cool looking car, love the boxiness. Black with red details look awesome. We don't have these in Finland... atleast i've never seen one. Good luck with the project!

Thanks. It was mounted down low in the middle of the front bumper so the wideangle makes it look like i'm farther from the edge of the track than in reality but you're right, there definitely room for improvement!

N/A is the way! But still i sometimes have dreams of Jackson Racing superchargers under my hood...

Try the facebook group, i bet you'll find a set before the day is over.

Do it! It'll look ace. Car of month material for sure then. Height is perfect now.

What? You can get chicks with a M in the UK? I'm coming over!

Very nice! And that color is just killer.

Here's some gopro footage from the fastest lap of the day, 1.39,77: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCLLTA_R3Aw&feature=youtu.be 4,32 seconds faster than last time i visited Alastaro in 2011, so some improvement in the car (and possibly driver!) has been achieved. This was maybe 10 laps before my brakes disintegrated, and also the front left corner felt a bit bouncy when cornering hard so there's still some seconds to be shaved off once i get everything sorted out. Was a beautiful september day in the middle of the week, and i basically had the place for myself! A race biker and a race 911 arrived early, but both left pretty soon: the 911 spilt oil all over the track and eventually caught on fire in the pit, and the biker left because the track became undriveable for him! The staff got it cleaned pretty quick though and it didn't bother me at all, you can see a white line on some parts of the track in the vid where oil had spilled. An awesome day all in all. Track days...

Managed to get to 2 track days this summer. First one was a big event at Ahvenisto in august. They had drifting, time attack, car show and also open track for everyone. Needless to say it was so crowded it wasn't a time to chase lap times, i couldn't even get my tire pressures sorted out right (was a blazing hot day) but was fun driving with everything between 1.5 eg's and 911's on the track at the same time. But once again had overheating issues. The only possible cause left was the rad itself so i ordered this: Was simple but a pain at the same time! Literally every single nut, bolt, clamp and hose was totally stuck but luckily i had reserved most of the day (which it took) for the project. A 99% perfect fit, i'd recommend this to anyone who needs a new rad. Proper flush, new fluids, and at the next track day in september no more overheating! Was so happy doing hot lap after another i ended up overheating my rear pads "a bit" : Since i had already made the over 100 mile trek to Alastaro early in the morning and the track was open for another 6 hours, decided to try to source new pads and luckily found a set from a nearby town. After a bit of squealy driving and some proper pit time was back on track... only to end the day with the same happening to my front pads! It was literally the last lap that i noticed something's not right with the brakes again. Ofcourse it was too late to source any new pads at that time of day so had a pretty noisy drive home... Will post a video of the fastest lap some day soon. I still haven't replaced my pads, it's still driveable just have to take it pretty easy! The reason for the delay is that project brake pad has grown to "project upgrade every single brake system component!". More of that in another topic here: http://civic5.com/forum/topic/9358-track-day-discs-pads-for-a-daily-driven-mc2/.

This was so hard, i really wanted to go for hubert's mad hatch but in the end couldn't resist grant's stealth decker. Also thanks for all the votes for my deck & krzys for the nomination! Appreciated.

Ok just read thourgh the posts here and i have to admit a lot of good points from very different perspectives. First of all i'd like to point out that this whole "war" started out with nothing more than Tom giving his personal opinion on how he votes, not how everybody should. How i see this it's ended up in nothing more than a friendly disagreement. Civic5 is probably the friendliest forum i have ever visited, to the point that sometimes i even wish people would be just a bit more provocative to spice things up a bit! Sure people have different opinions and personal rules about how they vote. I very, very rarely nominate anyone, but still love to pick my vote out of the selection of different m's present each month. If i never would be nominated, i probably would do it myself at some point when i feel like my car is good enough to deserve being recognised. But i agree that it is very rewarding when somebody nominates your car, a privilege which i've had a couple of times during my 5 year career at civic5. But i have my own rules too, when voting. I never have voted for my own car. I usually go for a deck, because i have a deck because decks just look better (and the hatch guys just haven't realised it yet!!! ). For me stance and wheels are a lot more important than a bad a*s engine swap... probably because i don't have one, because i lack the skill & £££ !!! But how other people vote is totally up to them, it doesn't bother me. People should be allowed to express their opinions without others getting offended, isn't that what this forum is all about! The coolest thing about modding cars is that everybody does it their own way. Sure theres a lot on influence one way or another but in the end it's the owner who chooses his mods and style and ends up with the best looking car, for him. And i think the same should go for the car of the month competion: decide for yourself what i takes to win the title, be it being recognised by others or just by simply being the best car that month.

Very true, you can't write a bible about the subject!

Good conversation here and lots of different ideas. Here's a small summary of the conversation in this topic and also http://civic5.com/forum/topic/9112-mtec-discsagain/, http://civic5.com/forum/topic/8853-recomended-pads-mb6/ and also experiences by Zuissi who used to race Time Attack with his MB6. Track day brakes for a daily driven MB/MC Brake pads: Proper pads are the most important thing. Opinions about different brands however are very varied, and not a single one stands out as the "ultimate" pad for MC/MB civics. - Ferodo: recommended by many, but quick to wear out? - Hawk: recommended by some - EBC Green/Red/Yellow: mixed opinions - Brembo: mixed opinions - Nissin: mixed opinions - Mintex: mixed opinions - Tarox, Black Diamond, Axxis: rarely mentioned but recommended by their users Brake discs: As long as they are in good condition, even stock discs will do just fine. Grooved, drilled etc. aren't really worth all the money unless you want the looks. - Mtec: recommended by many, but also bad experiences with cracked/warped discs - Black Diamond: recommended by some - EBC Ultimax: recommended by a few - Tarox: mixed opinions - Mintex: mixed opinions Brake fluid: Upgrade to atleast Dot 5.1. For racing fluids Motul RBF600 is recommended by many. Brake lines: HEL braided lines are recommended if you go RBF600 (higher boiling point), with street fluids stock lines should be ok. Brake stopper: Not used by many but those who have one highly recommend it. What do you think, do you agree with how i summed it up? I did this mostly to set my mind straight about what i want for my own deck, but i might as well edit the first post of this topic with the above info, so that people searching the forum about the same subject can get a quick overview as soon as they open the topic.

Well this is exactly what one finnish time attack driver told me. But since the deck is (or is trying to be!) also a bit show, i think i'll be getting grooved discs anyway, just to get the look. For a brake stopper i was recommended this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEGIWA-BRAKE-STOPPER-HONDA-CIVIC-EG-INTEGRA-DC2-/171430553182?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item27ea0ea65e An extra 50€ + postage... this is starting to turn into an expensive project! As always... I'll have to get in touch with Hel to see if they've sorted out the problem with the short rear lines. But i didn't really get you, Tom, you said you sorted it out by complaining meaning that you eventually got the proper lengths, or just got your money back???

Ok i think i'm starting to lean towards braided lines. Did you get these, Tom http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEL-Braided-Brake-Lines-For-Honda-Civic-Aerodeck-MC2-1-8-VTi-1998-2001-/221334085849?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item33888a20d9? And were they really too short? If so, how did you sort it out?

Typo? Dot3, 4 and 5.1 all mix together.

Oh i didn't realise this. @UnicyclingTom do you have braided lines?