I was getting tired of putting 110 miles a day on the S2000, so I picked up a 91 BRG for $2000. The eventual plans are for a car to rival Emilio's 95R, but with my take on how to do it... but first we are going to have some fun trying to maximize the mileage while I collect parts for the build. Plans are to document how the changes we make affect the gas mileage with the ultimate goal of getting the most out of it.

The car is a 91 BRG with 240K on the clock. We are pretty sure the engine is not original. But it is all stock. The suspension is Raceland, and it was slammed at one point. The alignment and corner balancing are way off. The wheels are 13x5" Honda... and slightly lighter than the stock Daises. So far I have only changed out the stock seat for an aluminum Kirkey racing one. The car came with a Buddy club seat that was not sized for my posterior... so I sold it to Sonny.

Sonny and Emilio are loaning most of the 1.6 specific parts since I have no long term plans to keep this engine. We will dyno the car after every change. We will also try to tune the car more for mileage than power. I will also do some performance testing using my phone as the data logger. Since some of the changes we plan on doing will change the odometer/speedometer, I will have correction factors such that the changes are normalized. Big thanks to 949Racing, Second Chance Roadster, Emilio, Sonny, Steve, and everyone else who helps me out with this.

Planned changes:
Alignment
Intake
Header
Exhaust
Computer
3.9 open differential
Possible 3.6 differential
Hardtop
Fastback hardtop
Lights up / lights down
Top up / Top down
MAYBE aero... flat bottom, spats, EP air dam, spoiler, diffuser, etc.

We may get an AEM dynoshaft, which would make it much easier to chart the changes. Basically we cold make a change, go for a drive, get the instant road load horsepower, and then make a direct comparison to before the change. Also a big maybe.

This car seems to have been well maintained. There is evidence of newish hubs, rotors, pads, recent clutch, new cat... And then there is the not so well done. The ride height varied by over an inch from high to low. The exhaust has been welded into one piece, missing the brace to the transmission housing, and has a cracked header. The fenders are horribly rolled. Relatively new top with one crack in the window. The heater core has been bypassed, but the A/C works great. Cruise is semi-functional.

Car weighed with stock seat:



With the Kirkey and adjusted ride height:



Notice the bad corner balance.

Some pics of the seat. My first victimizing of the car... I removed the stock seat mounts. No turning back now.





We then did compression and leakdown testing:

1: 210 and 40%
2: 200 and 26%
3: 205 and 7%
4: 215 and 4%

Not bad compression, not sure about the leakdown. Hopefully user error. Thanks to Steve for helping out with the testing and replacing the CAS o-ring and valve cover gasket.

Then we took the car to the dyno:



Really good for a stock 1.6

Just for fun, I painted the wheels:







The brown did not like being covered. It wrinkled badly.



And some shots of the victim:





On to gas mileage data...