During the first round of the ITCC which we covered earlier, I picked up a brief spotlight on this K20 powered EK Civic that competes in the Super Touring class.

The car is driven by ITCC organiser Philip Burdock and was built out of desire to go racing again having become bored of Time Attack.

The car is a UK spec VTI shell but when Philip purchased it from Time Attack competitor Dean Reilly, it already had a full race spec engine but unfortunately it spun a bearing after only six laps. Philip then decided to strip the car down and rebuild it from the ground up.

The car is running a standard Honda K20 engine (more commonly found in an EP3 Civic Type if memory serves me correct) with custom ITBs and a Motec M400 ECU. Thanks to Westward Engineering, it's currently running a strong 250BHP which is being deployed through a DC5 Integra gearbox with a Kaaz differential and a 5.9 final drive.

Brembo brakes with carbon lorraine brake pads aid in pulling this lightweight racer (940KG) up.

The shell has been fully seam welded along with a weld-in rollcage.

An OMP seat is Philip's office chair.

The car is rolling on a one off set of HSD coilovers with custom spring rates front and rear with Whiteline anti-roll bars. The car is also fully poly bushed and rose jointed where needed along with a front splitter which mounted directly to the chassis.

In his first eight races, Philip has brought this Civic to the podium no less than seven times. During the last race he managed to lap the Mondello Park National Circuit in 60.7 seconds (I guess the National loop at Mondello is comparable in length to Tsukuba) but is aiming for a sub-sixty second lap before the season is out.

Not too bad for a car that was homebuilt and is only in its second season of racing …

-

Paddy McGrath