Post
by Scott560 » Fri Jun 23, 2023 9:03 am
Welcome to the forum.
If this is to be your only car, a prelude probably isn't suitable for your requirements unless you are reasonably experienced DIY mechanic and have another car as a daily.
There are a few variants, but the fastest ones are those with the 2.2 engine (h22 variant). These come only in the 4th and 5th generation (The curvy one (94-97 I think), and the one with big headlights (97-00)). The UK only got the '2.2VTi' model on the 5th gen. Early ones (black cover) came with 185bhp, 19999 and 2000 years came with 200bhp (red valve cover). Pretty sure all VTi's came with 4ws. All of this information is on wikipedia however.
Apologies in advance if this is not what you want to hear but on each of your specific requirements:
1) most preludes are not worth big bucks, you will easily find them from £1k to £7k. 2litre auto is the cheapest, 2.2 manual is the most expensive.
2) Good luck finding a manual, if you browse autotrader or ebay or gumtree, you will see most of those for sale are autos, very few are manuals.
3) No need to discount the 4ws, I don't find its that obvious on track days at all. It's useful if you are trying to park in a car park. When my previous prelude was my daily, and the 4ws used to conk out occasionally, you certainly noticed it (turned into a bus turning circle wise). If you discount 4ws and want a 2.2, that limits your options. You can swap the rear subframe and parts but again that's a bit of work and not something to do if you are new to DIY car tinkering.
4) Regardless of import or not, they are hard to find. the 'How many left' website shows only about ~200 2.2 5th gen, and ~200 2.2 4th gen left last time I checked. Most of them are rusting out badly on the rear arches an inner arch and rear sill area. Because they tend to be reliable and well built, people put off preventative maintenance and then all the issues hit at once and they end up in the scrap pile.
5) The prelude is not a track car really - it wasn't designed to be, and you shouldn't ruin it by trying to make it one, unless it is specifically your goal for it to be only a track car. A 4th gen is probably better than a 5th for track use.
6) Quickness is not a strong point in stock form. Perhaps what you are after really is a Honda Integra type R? I've driven both on track, and you will only ruin your prelude trying to make it into an Integra which it will never be (performance wise). They are so much lighter and stiffer and have a much stronger after market parts scene than the prelude. I'd hazard a guess there are more Integra type r's to choose from than preludes (price is a bit higher overall at the bottom of the barrel, but its more car).
What car have you been driving? I would forget the idea of 'keeping up' to some degree with anything on a track day, because track days are not race days. It's not a competition. Please do not go to a track day if you want to race your dad for everyone's sake, you just end up ruining the track day for everyone else. This kind of attitude really spoils track days for others and I see it at most track days.
You mention saving up for parts and skipping track days, but have a 10 to 15k budget for a track car? Doesn't add up to me. Bare in mind that if you are borrowing money to make a track car, that money is not invested, you will literally be writing off 75% of the value. If you were to choose a different car, maybe the percentage is less.
Taking your ~25 year old Japanese car on a track day absolutely destroys every part of it. Your exhaust hangers will split and fall off. Your catalytic converter will break up and clog your exhaust, your brakes will boil and require constant rebuilding. Your bushes will wear out. Your rear heatshield will fall off and cook anything in the boot. Parts of the engine bay will rattle themselves loose including your engine mount bolts. You will burn through more 10w-50 than a cruise liner. I have stopped doing track days because its just not fair on the old girl - it will be nice for it to remain useable for a few years more. Also be aware that the value in the car these days lies with its originality. If you take a nice expensive manual prelude that you pay 5 to 7k for, and then track it with questionable mods, you will be lucky to sell it for 2.5k at any point afterwards most likely.
If you have £10k in the bank I would:
1) buy the cheapest DC2/DC5 ITR and use that as a track car. No need to mod at first. Maybe get one of the older civic type Rs instead, plenty of pre-modded ones already, bit cheaper.
2) Use the rest of the money to buy a sensible daily car so that your track car repairs don't get in the way of daily mobility. Nothing worse than spunking all your cash on a 25 year old prelude, but you can't go anywhere because the car is knackered (which if you track it, it will get knackered quickly and require many hours of fixing). Be aware that fixing takes time, effort, money and space on the driveway. Tracking down parts, physically retrieving them, and fitting them all adds to the burden.
If I was to re-run my prelude owning timeline I would have:
1) kept my nice prelude nice by not taking it on the track and doing stupid mods to it. I now have the double expense of undoing the track mods to make the car enjoyable for the road.
2) buy something cheap and disposable for track days, CTR/ITR, clio 182, mini etc etc.
Just my experience and advice, others will give theirs also. Don't get me wrong, you can still have fun in a prelude on track, i don't deny it, but it comes at the expense of being able to enjoy the prelude at other times (either because you ruined it or destroyed it).
'00 UKDM 2.2VTI H22a8
'21 'e' Advance
) holds very well against most cars on the track. it helps having a shorter ratio gearbox but this will bring down your top speed, more so if you fitted a 5.1 box instead of the 4.64 i have but the low down acceleration will increase.
