[SkittyDoogle]

Had the second accident in the CR-Z a few days ago. First time was sending myself backwards at about 40 miles an hour into a snowbank. This time was slamming on the brakes because the woman in front of me slammed on her brakes. I almost made it, but unfortunately made contact with her car. We both pulled over, saw the damage and exchanged insurance.

Her car was a big Lexus RX350. Fortunately it was much higher off the ground. All I did was leave some small marks on her bumper. My car took the bigger hit cracking the grille and chrome trim. However, the bumper itself remained intact and the crash beam wasn’t bent! I told her it was fine and I wouldn’t file a claim because I was gonna replace the grille anyways! LOL

At first I did think the bumper was lost. But I pulled up to a local shop I know well and they popped it out with a pry bar. I also hit up my exporter in Japan who was able to secure a Mugen Sports Grille to replace the cracked OEM grille. It won’t get here for a little while but I plan to have it slapped in when the shop from before also installs the fog lights and inner fender liners. That’s like three birds with one stone! But it’s also getting expensive. >_<

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Also, let me clarify something about the sounds the car makes:
Under almost all conditions, due to the cat-delete header from J’s Racing and the Mugen sports exhaust, the supercharger is almost inaudible. The only time I can hear it is when I’m close to a wall or a tall curb, so you can hear a satisfying whistle from the blower. And the recirculation valve isn’t a beefy blow-off valve so that’s not audible either. :/

However, people on the track when autocrossing have almost always complimented it on how it sounds! A friend I made at the track told me he could hear the boost building as I took off from the starting line. So while most of what I hear is a huge drone, everyone outside can hear the blower making some awesome noises. Took it to a small meet at a block of car specialty shops where the exhaust was louder than their garage queen S14 making 500 wheel horsepower. The pop and crack from my own exhaust took me by surprise! Probably because the back was against the wall. LOL

 

[Fediej]

The biggest problem with having a cool sounding car is that you almost have to have someone else drive it so you can hear it from the outside

 

[SkittyDoogle]

The biggest problem with having a cool sounding car is that you almost have to have someone else drive it so you can hear it from the outside

Haha that’s accurate.

ALSO, for those interested on more frequent updates, please follow my instagram page @SkittyDoogle because it’s much more convenient. I try my best to post here but due to more frequent run-ins with other enthusiasts it keeps me away from the forums. >_<

 

[SkittyDoogle]

The steering wheel from Japan finally arrived. It has a small scratch but that shouldn’t be a big deal. I’m just lucky to have snagged one at all, especially at the price. But I’ll give you forum members a spoiler on what I plan to do. Because the rest of the interior is going to be packed with more Mugen items like seats and floor mats, I plan on having the wheel reupholstered. The leather can be redone and the stitching will be changed to red to match the colors from the seats and floor mats. No details will be overlooked. 😎

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Just got the Mugen front sports grille in the mail! It’s pretty damn neat actually. Came with some awesome instructions although they’re in Japanese. Mugen is always impressive when it comes to their parts. Turns out that the mesh is actually metal, probably aluminum. And the red strips all along the edges are protective tape covering double sided tape already in place. Left it in the hands of the local corner shop that knows me and the car well and they’ll slap the grille and foglights in at the same time! Got a license plate adapter on the way as well. So stay tuned for that.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Since I can’t seem to find ANY info on how to install a Mugen front sports grille on a CR-Z I’ll post it for others.

Mugen lists a recommended step in the installation. They tell you to paint the metal crash support behind the grille as matte black. If you don’t do this then it’ll look kinda trashy just like this insta user’s CR-Z: http://instagr.am/p/CQWXtlZLLPt/
Kamispeed claims that the grille can be equipped while rubbing against he front crash support. What they DON’T say is that it pushes the Mugen grille out by almost a whole inch which is obviously not ideal. So if you want to make it fit properly then continue reading.

After the front grille was put in the bumper they discovered the issue mentioned above. The solution is to simply remove the additional crash support. This will involve some drilling of the welds.

The other issue is the air scoop. The US crash structure has the mount on the plastic crash structure. So the next solution is to weld small supports at the right height to screw the scoop to.

One thing to note is that even with the removed crash structure, the grille is still only slightly more than half an inch from the crash beam. The tolerances are too close for comfort to leave anything else there.

Tomorrow the car will be buttoned up and back on the road. Stay tuned for that.

Also, being able to see the intercooler, oil cooler, oil lines and oil filter is pretty cool. With that extra beam out of the way I expect it to run just a smidge cooler.

 

[Fediej]

Kinda glad I "modified" a ZF1 Mugen grille to fit my 2015, was easier than doing all that. Kudos to you though!

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Kinda glad I "modified" a ZF1 Mugen grille to fit my 2015, was easier than doing all that. Kudos to you though!

I am genuinely surprised that I’ve never seen a Mugen grille on a ZF2 that was installed correctly in the US. All of them have the rectangular crash bar clearly visible and it’s never painted so it’s obvious and unsightly. Here’s an example of the crash structure on a Jap spec CR-Z:

 

[SkittyDoogle]

The Mugen front sports grille installation was a success, along with everything else! Now the front end looks great! The most annoying hurdle was dealing with the crash beams. Otherwise everything went smoothly. The LEDs from Raybrig are extremely bright! In the daylight I didn’t even think they were working but one quick glance directly in the light felt like staring at the sun so I felt pretty stupid for trying that.

Here’s the light from the normal headlights by themselves:

And here’s the light with the LED Raybrig units on:

At a glance it doesn’t seem like much but now the fog lights light up a much wider beam than the standard headlights. It seems like a worthwhile upgrade for those with or without foglights equipped! Again, if you are interested the part is the Raybrig LF07.

Next small issue to tackle is how to mount the license plate. I did buy an adapter but the Mugen grill didn’t come with any tabs to slip in to mount a plate, so I’m gonna head to the local dealer to ask the parts guys about solutions.

 

[Spdbump]

This is what kamispeed.com offered for that grille Blox License Plate Adapter Kit

 

[SkittyDoogle]

This is what kamispeed.com offered for that grille Blox License Plate Adapter Kit

Too late! I got fed up with asking around about hardware and how it’d fit sticking out an inch from the grille. So I had the shop drill some holes in the plate as wide as the holes on the grille. Cost me only the screws and hardware!

 

[Spdbump]

Others have done similar. I would have velcroed it!

Too late! I got fed up with asking around about hardware and how it’d fit sticking out an inch from the grille. So I had the shop drill some holes in the plate as wide as the holes on the grille. Cost me only the screws and hardware!
View attachment 64978

 

[Fediej]

I am genuinely surprised that I’ve never seen a Mugen grille on a ZF2 that was installed correctly in the US. All of them have the rectangular crash bar clearly visible and it’s never painted so it’s obvious and unsightly. Here’s an example of the crash structure on a Jap spec CR-Z:
View attachment 64972

It's really not that surprising considering how rare it is to find somebody who has a Mugen Grille of either type and even rarer still to find someone willing to go through all the extra effort that you did to make it look "right."

 

[SkittyDoogle]

It's really not that surprising considering how rare it is to find somebody who has a Mugen Grille of either type and even rarer still to find someone willing to go through all the extra effort that you did to make it look "right."

I paid one hour of labor to cover the cost of drilling the welds and repainting the beam. The cost is not as extreme as it seems. For the rest of the cost of the install and everything else that was done, such as the cost of the parts alone (Mugen grille, inner fender liners, camber bolts, fog light kit, Raybrig LED fog light units), it’s hardly a drop in the bucket. In my opinion it’s a very reasonable modification as most of the work had to be done with the front bumper removed so it’s well worth the time and money while it’s disassembled.

I’d argue it’s likely more rare to find a genuine Mugen part on a Honda of any kind in general, CR-Zs being no exception. What grinds my gears is the number of fake/replica parts such as front grilles because they’re slightly cheaper. Only one Mugen wing I’ve seen in person other than mine was real, while the rest were comically fake, and even then that one was pieced together through about three years of searching for mixed parts kits on various websites. These companies can’t stay around making products if people don’t buy them and they go unpaid for their work.

The amount I’ve spent in parts and labor so far is likely almost enough to buy a 10th gen Type R in cash. The reactions from people who are interested in cars is incredible. Frankly I’ve never had any negative feedback regarding the work done so far. Building a car should be a passion project and it’s always clear through its presentation if it was done with care and money or penny pinching stinginess. Hence I am sparing absolutely no expense to get the best of the best. This car is nowhere near done yet.

 

[Fediej]

👍

 

[SkittyDoogle]

During the Mugen front grille and Raybrig foglight install I had the shop install the second set of camber bolts in the front struts. This is because the CR-Z has basic strut suspension and therefore has very limited alignment capabilities. People claim two camber bolts is dangerous although I’ve never heard about any of them snapping.

Originally the big chain tire shops told me it was against store policy to align the car outside of factory specs so there wasn’t much I could to. But they recommended a small shop I’ve never heard of before, and they were happy to align the car how I wanted! Now the car has -2.85 degrees of camber in the front and they also gave the car 0.5 degrees of toe out. I asked for the toe out because the car is surprisingly unstable at speed on the track and I want to see if it’ll help.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Lessons learned from the alignment:
-2.85 degrees of camber is very helpful! Due to the very limited space between the tire and the strut, so tight I can’t even fit my finger tip inbetween them, I’ve ordered two pairs of 5mm wheel spacers from the somewhat famous brand Seeker. I heard from the guys at King Motorsports a while back that 5mm is about as far as they comfortably go before applying extended studs. It’ll give me extra wiggle room to add more negative camber and experiment with wheel fitment in the near future.

0.5 degrees of toe out does actually significantly increase stability! However it comes at the cost of rotation. Next year I’m going to go with a much less aggressive toe setup. Maybe 0.2 degrees or so.

One good thing about tracking an odd machine like a supercharged hybrid is that everybody at the track is also a car nerd and they all take notice of something weird. When the hood is up it gets constant attention and countless questions. One of the noteable examples was a man claiming to be an automotive engineer who was fascinated with the supercharger kit and the Mugen wing.

I showed him the instructions the Mugen wing and grille come with. He said they were better than OEM in some cases! Another neat fact he noticed was the supercharger was a Rotrex unit, something I never looked closely enough at. Last but not least, he noticed all of the new plastic pieces.

Normally, plastic is one of the cheapest materials to use in manufacturing. But that’s only on a large scale application. It’s important to note because plastic molds are very expensive to make! Ever wonder why HKS uses stainless steel tubes for their supercharger kits? That’s because the material might be more expensive, but the tooling is way cheaper! Considering all of the plastic intake pieces, washer tank, intercooler, air box, the detailed instructions, flashable tune and all of that packaged with a warranty? Even if HPD sold 20 kits, and that’s a generous estimate, we both doubt HPD or Honda managed to break even on selling this kit.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Looks like almost everything’s at the exporter’s warehouse now. The only pieces missing are the pair of wheel spacers. But let me say one thing, and that is OVERSIZED SHIPPING IS EXPENSIVE AS HELL. I just paid for shipping of the rear fenders and that ran me about $500! That was more expensive than the fenders themselves. Sometimes it’s great dealing with items from Japan, but man when something’s oversized or overweight you are screwed.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Got the Mulsanne blister fender kit in the mail today! For the first time ever one of my packages arrived with an inspection notice. Both DHL and customs opened the box. Really strange.

The quality of the fiberglass is pretty good for a small independent shop. It came with a set of instructions (which I didn’t translate yet) and two stickers. Normally they only come with one, but I asked the exporter to ask for two and they gave me another. That was very nice of them! They also included a box of double sided tape for mounting.

Brought it to the local repair shop and body shop to get their opinions onthe fenders. At first we thought using the double sided tape would be easy, but that was before we saw the fenders in person. But with the fenders here that seems like a bad idea as double sided tape will fail eventually and the panel gap will never go away. So they’re going to use body adhesive instead and mold it to the body. This will involve removing the rear window but they say that’s not a huge deal.

The one tricky area will be the fuel door cutout. It’s not quite perfect. But the bodyshop guys can use some filler to make it fit right. That said, it’ll be a bit more expensive than I thought it’d be so it’ll have to wait until next year to get done. After all, I want it done the right way.