Finally, SUB 2:00!

5 years ago, going “Sub-2” at Buttonwillow 13cw was a major milestone and would receive high praise. Fast forward a few years, tire technology, increasingly faster production cars, and the soaring popularity of “tracking” have helped to make “Sub-2” a more common phrase. Now, don’t get me wrong, a “Sub-2” is still an impressive lap time. I just feel as if, the term “Sub-2” has been thrown around too loosely and has even lost some of its allurer.

Now days there are people in cars like: Porsche’s, BMW’s, McLaren’s, GTR’s, Corvette’s, and other high-end sports cars that are bragging about going “Sub-2”. When, the car they are driving is such an amazing machine that they hardly have to try to achieve that illustrious “Sub-2” milestone.

Don’t even get me started on the Yoko A052 tire. Just that tire alone has the magical ability to help just about anyone achieve the highly sought after “Sub-2” lap. Keep in mind that just because a tire manufacture claims their tire is a 200TW tire… that doesn’t necessarily mean it is really 200TW. Each Tire manufacture can classify their tire anyway they see fit. Basically, one manufactures definition of what a 200TW tire compound is, could vary greatly to another manufacture. In reality, it is just an arbitrary number used to help manufactures distinguish tire compounds amongst their own line of tires.

Long gone are the days of the well-earned “Sub-2” lap. And now, it seems like everybody knows someone that has gone “Sub-2”. Because of this, people are not asking the important questions when they hear of people going “Sub-2”. What car? What tire? What power level? FWD? RWD? etc… People throw around the “Sub 2” phrase and are automatically renowned for being fast.

We must stop this thought process. We must be asking the important questions. No longer should you take the term “Sub-2” at face value. It is insulting to those who have achieved it years ago without the use of cheater tires, increased power, or “god chassis”

END RANT…

Before I go on any further, I will admit that I am being slightly hypocritical. The FK8 chassis is lightyears ahead of “golden era” Honda chassis and could even potentially be considered a “cheater car” because of how good of a platform it is. In fact, it could be argued that when the FK8 was first released in late 2017, it was the beginning of the new era of production cars and their capabilities right out of the box.

When the FK8 first made its debut, it was quickly dubbed “cheater car” amongst enthusiasts because of how well it performed out of the box. The car was able to turn quick lap times right off the showroom floor and with the addition of some 200TW tires, lowering springs, and rear sway bar the car had crazy potential.

When I purchased the car, I set a goal for myself to “Sub-2” with a 200TW tire, stock power, and stock aero. I really wanted to prove to myself that I had the ability as a driver to drop into the “sub-2” range without any “handicaps”. On my first outing with the car at buttonwillow back in September, I was able to get so incredibly close a “Sub-2” that it was depressing. I managed a 2:00.63x on a Hankook RS-4 tire, stock exhaust, stock intake, stock cat, stock front pipe, stock ECU, stock intercooler, stock everything. I just had upgraded my cooling: Koyo radiator, First molding hood, and Acuity hoses to help combat the cars Achilles heel, overheating. I had also installed brake pads, SS lines, and Castrol SRF fluid since there was no way the OEM pads and fluid would have worked at the pace I was trying to set.

This was no doubt a very respectable time, but it was no “Sub-2” and because of this I was not happy. I had to go to Buttonwillow a total of five different times before I was able to dip into the 59’s. I was only recently able achieve this on March 17th, 2022, at a SoCal Drivers club track day.

Let’s back up a little bit here… Wednesday March 16th, 2022, the day before the event. As with every event, especially ones in California, I need to pack a ton of stuff to ensure that I am prepared for any sort of catastrophe that could possibly take place.

This event was even more stressful because I was going solo and didn’t know anyone else who was going to be at this event. So, if anything were to happen, I was going to be on my own.

Starting off, I filled up my tires with nitrogen. This helps to keep the pressure more stable in the tire as heat gets into them.

Below you can see EVERYTHING I pack into the car for my adventure.

• Tools.
• Brake pads.
• Full size jack.
• All fluids.
• Helmet, gloves, shoes.
• AIM.
• GoPro.
• Tire pressure gauge.
• Pit transportation.

Below is what it all looks like packed up. The blue tote also has rags, blue tape, and zip ties. The FK8 has so much cargo space that all this fits in the car without the need to remove any interior. Having a 5-door car is AWESOME!

I officially set off on my journey to Buttonwillow Wednesday afternoon, departing from my house in Vegas around 3:00pm. Around 6pm I pulled off the highway in Tehachapi, CA. for my first gas stop. Gas was 6.69 a gallon there! From here I would drive to the Motel 6 in Buttonwillow, where I would spend the night.

Thursday, March 17th, 2022. After having a horrible night’s sleep at the Motel 6, where, I swear my room was actually on the 5 freeway, I awoke halfway ready to accomplish my goal. I left the motel at 6:00am, topped of my gas tank and headed for the raceway. I arrived at the raceway at 6:15am… Unfortunately for me, because this event was on a weekday the gates weren’t open until 7am. So, I had to sit in my car until 7am when the staff finally showed up and opened the gates to the public.

Below you can see my car in “street trim”. 18×9.5 +45 Regas with 265/35 Hankook RS-4’s. This is the setup that I had originally done my PB of 2:00.63x at Buttonwillow 13cw a few months before.

Side shot of “street trim”

Annnd, “track trim” 18×9.5 +45 Titan 7 T-S5 with 265/35 Rt660’s. These tires were not brand new; I had previously used them in December at Buttonwillow. Yes, the RT660 does have more grip than the RS-4’s, but at least it’s not full cheater tire like the A052.

Yes, the titans are not all the way on yet. I change one side at a time and because I was in a rush to take pictures and get the wheels swapped over, I took the picture halfway through the process.

Driving and trying to take pictures when you are all by yourself is quite challenging. Below, I have just pulled in and was beside myself with excitement after finally managing a “Sub-2” on my sixth lap of the first session.

I remember pulling in and texting Ever and Pat, letting them know I finally did it. Ever replied “pack it up and go home” and honestly, if I had not paid five hundred dollars for the track day, I just might have.

The weather was great that morning, 55 degrees, no wind, and enough sun to ensure the track had some grip. Unfortunately, the temperatures were going to be topping out near 80 degrees that day so I only really had another hour or so until my car would start to be affected by the heat.

After allowing the car to cool and ensuring the tires had correct PSI, I headed out for the second session of the day. Spoiler alert! For the rest of the day, I would not “Sub-2″again. I would however, consistently run 2 flats and have plenty of excuses of why I couldn’t break into the 59’s again.

Because this was a “low car count” track event, there were only ten cars all day. There were no groups or sessions, this meant that the track was hot from 8am and wouldn’t go cold until 5pm that evening.

This meant that I was going to get many hours of valuable seat time in my car and I would be able to work on getting faster one corner at a time. It is nice to only have a few cars out at a time and at some points during the day I was the only car out.

Below you can see the engine: Stock air box, and only cooling mods. Silicone PRL intake tube to help prevent heat soak of the OEM tube. Inlet pipe lava blanket to help block heat soaking of the inlet pipe that is directly above the turbo.

If you have read any of my previous Track Day write ups that I did in the FK8, you’ll know that I had braking Issues. This time around I had just upgraded to Giro Disc rotors and Carbotech XP12 front pads.

You can read all about that install process by clicking the link below.

My FK8 gets much needed upgrades (PT 2)

See more

On this day though, for the first time ever since owning this car, the brakes were working perfectly. There was no ABS intrusion, there was no overheating, no brake fade and the pedal would remain consistent, no matter how late I would brake. I will admit, the victory with the brakes was slightly overshadowed by going “Sub-2”, but after the “Sub-2” excitement had faded, the real victory was how impressive the whole braking system performed lap after hard lap.

My current brake set up is:

• Giro Disc front rotors.
• Carbotech XP12 front pads.
• Giro Disc TI shims.
• Project MU club racer rear pads.
• Castrol SRF fluid.
• SS brake lines.

My current alignment specs are:

• -2.8 front camber.
• -2.2 rear camber.
• zero toe all around
• factory caster.

Throughout the day I struggled a few times with fuel starvation. Despite having over a half of a tank the number of G’s I was pulling around “off ramp” was causing fuel starvation and running lean issues. I could only get about 8-10 laps before I would have to pull off to top off the tank again.

This car not only has a smaller sized gas tank at only 12 gallons, but it is also incredibly thirsty when pushing it hard.

Unfortunately, I didn’t record the 1:59.82 lap, but below you can see a short video from my second session out.

Once I stopped focusing on trying to “Sub-2” again, I was able to direct my attention to becoming quicker in certain sections of the track and overall improving as a driver. Places where I was able to notice large improvements not only in speed but also gear selection were: Phil Hill, I found that If I waited a little longer to brake and stayed out to the left of the track as much as possible (basically turn in later) I was able to apex the turn in a much better spot and carry more speed. I also found that staying in fourth all the way through bus stop, rather than shifting up to fifth then back into fourth was helping me pick up some much-needed tenths.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t link everything together for one more fast lap that day. Once the air temperatures got above 70 degrees the car starts to heat soak badly and I’m really only able to get two hot laps before a half lap cool down is needed. At first this was frustrating, but on my drive home I looked back and thought about all the good things that came from the day.

My brakes were now dialed, my alignment was now dialed, and I no longer had undesirable amounts of understeer. These were two huge wins and helped to inspire confidence.

I ended up calling it quits around 3pm once the temperatures reached 80 degrees. At that point, there was just no longer any point for me to continue abusing my heat-soaked car.

I came in and switched back to “street trim” packed up and began my 350 mile journey back home.

In the picture below you can see how empty the event was… Just look at all those open parking spots!

This is what I mean by changing wheels one side at a time. Just jack up the car from the jack point under the front door and thanks to this amazing chassis both front and rear will come off the ground.

Below you can get a good glimpse of the brake setup. My “Brownbo’s” didn’t get any browner and that’s a huge win in my book.

Because I had so much seat time and was doing ten plus laps in a row, I was able to encounter some eye-opening issues… I remember a few years ago when I first started to think about getting a FK8, I came across an article that stated some of Honda’s race FK8’s use the OEM intercooler. Upgrading to a larger aftermarket one would actually cause more overheating issues because the larger intercooler would block more air flow to the radiator. As we all know the FK8 has major overheating issues, so because of this, I never wanted to get a larger intercooler.

Now during my sessions today, I started to notice that my IAT on the log R app would be around 100-110 for the first 3-4 laps. After that, they would spike all the way to 140+. This was causing large delays in engine responsiveness. This was noticeable when trying to blip the throttle to down shift, the engine would be almost unresponsive. Not only was I not able to manually rev match to down shift, but the auto blip down shift feature wouldn’t work either. It was also noticeable when trying to go WOT coming out of a turn, the car would be very hesitant to accelerate. I’m assuming this is all related to the fact that the factory ECU begins to pull power when IAT/ECT temperatures start to climb.

Basically, even at 75-degree air temperatures the car would become heat soaked after 4 hot laps in a row and would need to then be cooled down for almost a full lap at 6/10ths or just pull off track and drive down Lerdo HWY west to the stop sign and back

Here’s the car all back in “street trim” and ready to head home. Angie had packed me some PB&J for lunch so I sought shelter from the hot afternoon sun and ate them under the awning.

One of the other things that I had always heard mixed info about was, how to properly disable VSC for the track. I had always done the “long hold” of the button which would prompt two beeps and never had any issues with my rear brakes overheating or prematurely wearing down. I’m always able to get the car to oversteer without any VSC intrusion.

This time however, since there was so much seat time I decided to try to the “pedal dance” which will shut everything off and put the car into maintenance or (dyno) mode. I tried four laps this way and was 1-2 seconds slower than I was when only doing the “long hold” method to disable VSC. The “pedal dance” also takes the car out of +R mode and defaults to sport. This means you lose the stiffer shocks and quicker steering.

This was all the testing I needed to prove the “Pedal Dance” is not the way to go. The “long hold” of the VSC button and the audible two beeps is all you need to achieve your fastest lap possible.

For some strange reason, the front lip of my hood is extremely susceptible to rock chips. I have managed to get five chips in the hood and even had the hood fixed and repainted again, but after a few miles on the freeway I quickly picked up another chip. Because of that, now I always put some blue tape along the front edge of the hood.

When I think about it, having the car this dialed after not even a full year of ownership is a great feeling. When people switch platforms, they can take years to get used to a new chassis and work all the kinks out. Despite only managing a “Sub-2” once this day, I’m still a happy camper knowing how well the car is dialed now.

At the end of the day, I’m not trying to “Sub 2” for anyone other than myself. Let’s be honest, it’s not like a 59 is that great of a time for the FK8 platform. There are at least five guys I know of that are doing 56’s/57’s and even one guy that is doing 50’s in a FK8 at 13cw… Granted, ALL those guys have tunes with added power and aero. Most even have 275+ wide tires, coilovers, and or upgraded LSD’s.

Remember what I said at the beginning of this post when I went off on a rant. Not all “Sub 2’s” are created equal.

I’m happy that I was able to get more seat time and see concrete results from improving driving style/lines throughout different corners of the track. The FK8 is such a magical car with an uncanny ability to shit all over the physics of what a FWD car is capable of. The amount of grip, the braking power, and handling characteristics are what you would expect from a higher end sports car, not a FWD 5 door hatchback. There has never been a time where this car hasn’t impressed me or has failed to put a huge smile on my face.

Going forward I do plan to add an oil cooler and Intercooler to help combat overheating and heat soak. I do feel badly beating on the car so hard when it starts to get too hot and it’s not going to last me forever if I continue to run into overheating issues. I do also plan to go back to Buttonwillow and trying to push for a :58 with a stock ECU, Stock exhaust and the RT660 tire.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope I didn’t come off too vain, conceited, or narcissistic in the beginning of this post. I am very humble and do understand that there are much faster people out there than I. I didn’t write any of that to offend anyone or take anything away from anyone who has achieved a “Sub-2” in any capacity. I was merely trying to bring light to the fact that “Not all Sub-2’s are created equal” and don’t take all “Sub-2’s” at face value.

One day I’m sure I will get a tune, some sort of aero, upgrade my LSD, and run the almighty A052. But for now, I’m just trying to extract every last tenth of second that I possibly can with “driver mod”

If you have any questions related to this article or any others on the blog, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Email me Billy@Functiontheory.com, Instagram @Functiontheory, or simply comment on this post below. I would love to hear form you in any capacity, don’t be a stranger.