Some history

I am 5th owner of this car. I guess that five good owners are better than only one, but dumb or careless. Unlike almost every DC2 in my country it was bought as brand new abroad in Belgium and was imported to Poland as new and crash-free vehicle. It was one of the first ITRs in Poland. ITRs were never officially available at polish Honda dealers, you wanted one, you had to to look abroad.

First owner did many good things to the car as Mugen Jasma header and some more Mugen parts, I'll skip it as it doesn't matter now. He also changed the wheels and removed the badging. So, it was owner's intention, not a crash that shaved off the decals. It was me who re-fitted the decals many years after that. Here are the pics I managed to find, first months in Poland:




Second owner, is famous for his Honda tuning knowledge, currently he runs Ecu Performance company. That's the car spec from back then, copy/paste the link to your browser:
http://ecu-performance.com.pl/category/projects/page/8/


Third owner was working for a Honda dealer. He happened to have a little engine problem as one of the engine pans started to make knocking sounds. I'll reveal the details when asked to, no problem. The car had about 70000km on the clock. Thanks to the 3rd owner's help the car got the whole bottom engine replaced for a brand new!


Finally, the fourth owner. He was using the car ocassionally, and he loved it. I asked him to sell it to me within a year time (I needed funds of course) and he decided to do it and wait till I earn the money. Such things don't happen, but that's how it was. The car was stock when he bought it, but he managed to do light mods as DC Sports header, 2,5 inch exhaust and AEM CAI.


All those guys had some things in common. They were aware of the car's magic and could afford to maintain it properly. They all were (ans still are) Honda fans and driving enthusiasts. They never crashed the car.

Thank you ror reading and wait for more: my part - maintenance, mods, detailing and repairs for 3 year of my ITR possession.

My DC2 Story - performance&maintenance from the beginning

I bought my car on Friday the 13th, 13.04,2007, but luckily I'm not superstitious.

Here's the car from 16.04.07. It was stock apart from DC2 header, 2.5 inch stainless exhaust and AEM CAI, I already fitted it with brand new T1Rs and some Spoon stuff:







This the sound it makes, gotta love it:
http://www.streetfire.net/video/dc2-itr-dcs-41-jdm-header-25inch-exhaust-aem_115004.htm

After getting my own licence plates and some good clean-up:





When I bought the car it had exactly 99000 km on the clock.

By 102000km I replaced:
-Rear brake discs and Pads (EBC/Ferodo)
-Goodridge brake hoses
-Brake fluid (Motul)
-Lower front control arm bushings, shock absorber side
-Fuel filter
-Oil filter+ oil Shell 10w60 Ultra Racing + Motul Engine Clean treatment
-Spark plugs (NGK OEM)
-Rear sway bar bushings and links, the whole set

Only after 4 months of having the car in my posession I had a painful experience. Somoeone scratched all the panels except the roof with something sharp. I got mad. This were the results of someone's jealousy/stupidity:









I faced the need of repainting the car. It was a shame as the paint was really nice. Despite few scratches and bumps and a little rust on rear fenders there wasn't much to complain. Anyway, I couldn't just leave it. I decided to use my insurance and give the car a full respray. The best (in my opinion) paint job facility in the area, janisz.com.pl, was up to the task, they disassembled the car and repainted every panel except the roof. The result was really good and i started to see the good sides of the whole operation. The paint was no longer original, but it was better and nicer, and the car was still crash free and even better assembled. That's the effect:







Then I decided to finally install and tune Apexi VAFC2. The car's dyno result with header, exhaust and CAI was 201.7hp on Warsaw dyno, an optimistic one I might add. In my city the dyno showed only 186hp at the same set-up. I wasn't worried about that as I'm aware that dyno figures can vary between certain dyno brands. It's the performance that you can see on the street that matters.

Anyway, we managed to gain 14hp at the top and thanks to proper AFR tuning and VTEC engage point lowering the difference in the mid revs was up to 19hp and 24Nm!




I only wonder sometimes how much hp the car would show now on that Warsaw dyno? Maybe 21x? As I was and still am satisfied with the performance I never bothered to measure that. Since that I started to use Shell's Vpower Racing fuel only, as we fiddled with the ignition a bit.

I fitted S2K button and changed the standard bulb to red led:



107000km. I replaced:
-Front brake dics and pads (TarOx F2000, Ferodo DS Performance)
-Gearbox lower mount
-Front right sway bar link



Then I went for some new floor mats, 2din radio block plate and Honda Access rear tower bar:




One of the most important changes were red Recaros. Mine were nice but a bit worn in the usual areas. The ones I managed to get were like new, have a look:




The difference is obvious:






I finally decided to get back to the decals:




Mugen NH0 mirror cover:

Then my car showed up in 01/08 Maxi Tuning Magazine:






Then, at 115500km I decided to go for some better gearbox parts. The reasons were:
-constanst hunger for modifications
-crunching at III and IV gears ;)

I went for:
-Gearspeed carbon synchro set
-OEM bearings and seals (also driveshaft seals)
-Exedy Stage I clutch set (there was nothing wrong with OEM one but I wanted to do that blitzkrieg style)
-Exedy cro-moly flywheel
-OEM IV shorter gear from Y21 VTI gearbox
-Spoon magnetic oil drain plug
-Honda MTF
-Hondata Heatshield




As my friends from jhm.com.pl ripped apart the gearbox they told me that the sleeves will have to be replaced soon as well, the gear teeth were on the service limit, although they were not causing any problems. Well, I asked themto put the box back together and got mentally ready to open it again in the future. The whole set was working just fine anyway.

Meanwhile I made some cosmetic changes as caliper repaint, nice engine bolts and washers and JDM VIN tag:



2008.09.12. Time flies, soon I hit 117000km and in Igmar Honda dealer I replaced:

-Gearspeed sleeve set
-2,3 and 4 OEM gear set
-OEM bottom fuel lines
-custom bottom brake lines
-The car's bottom along with fuel tank got a coat of rust protection
-Honda MTF
-Brake fluid

As ITRs are bare in terms of rust protection I needed to take care about it. Sadly DC2's body rust protecion is as bad as any EG/EK Civic's, that's the thing that pisses me off the most in Hondas. Here is the bottom and fuel/brake lines before the sweep:














120000km: I went for Bilstein B6 shock absorber set:



123970km: I repaired dented header (rock accident) and replaced oil pan gasket at Largo Honda:



I also got a set of lowering Vision seat rails, new silent muffler and custom aluminium seat sleeves to prevent the backrest part from moving.








I started to notice some small bulbs on rear fenders, no rust yet but it was underneath to show up one day. Damn I hate when that happens. My fellow friend from Volvo dealership I work for did the body work. He cleaned and cut out infected places and welded some healthy implants.





Then his fiend, former worker of our dealership now running his own business did the paintjob on two rear fenders and rear bumper (vacation tourist scratched it's left side and broke it's fitting)





Finally something truly JDM. I found a set of JDM 16 rims reworked so that aftermarked taper end lug nuts would fit. I bought them and sold my old 15' set with nearly new Potenzas. I also went for a set of steel Kics R40 lug nuts and had the rims refurbished in powder white, center caps were done by airbrush guy to fit the new, brighter shade of white. The rims came with a set of lightly used RE040s, how convenient ;)








Through all that time I was detailing my car. Today I have Swissvax Master Set, Concorso wax, losts of detailing accesories, polishing mashine, pads, towels, sealants etc. I put a lot of effort to make my car shine.















Today the car looks like this, it has about 130000km on the clock and counting. Counting very slowly as I use the car ocassionally.







Some more maintenance info.

-I change oil and filter every 7500km, now at 130000 I'm about to change it again. It's always Shell 10w60, in my opinion a top notch oil.

-Recently I replaced:
-oil pan gasket again, on part warranty (129300km)
-thermo switch (127200km)
-front left sway bar link (127200km)
-radiator, as it had a small leak (129300km)
-coolant (129300km)
-valve cover and spark plug gaskets plus valve timing adjustment (123970km)
-synchromesh transmission fluid (123960km)

The car was serviced by my fellow mechanics from Volvo dealership, my friends that run a Honda club workshop jhm.com.pl and sometimes by me. The car was also inspected and serviced by two Honda dealerships. Keeping in mind that service diversity I can't provide you with an invoice or bill for every thing that was replaced or even bought. Of course I can show every bit of papers I have, here on the web or personally. If I forgot something, which is likely, I'll update the place as soon as I realize it.

The car is fault free and as I mentioned before was never crashed. I' not going to strip it and sell parts separately - you get the whole package you can see here. It is well maintained and constantly serviced. It does not demand any major or little investment, repair or replacement. You buy it-you drive it and that's it. Yet it is not immaculate, as it's 10 years old. The body, although I did my best, will always be weak in terms of rust protection, special attention needs to be paid to rear fenders and the bottom. You can hear some interior plastics clicks on uneven roads and in general you can see some "normal used car condition" here and there. Still, I can not think of a better DC2 than mine and I've seen many. I put my best into that car, not mentioning vast amount of money. The car can be found in the internet in many places, apart from every prominent polish car message boards you can meet me at itr-dc2.com and detailingbliss.com. I am ready to let you inspect the car anywhere you want and as thorough as you wish. But I won't pay for it as it is the buyer that needs to be convinced, I don't need to prove something I already know ;) If you are reading this I assume you are an ITR enthusiast and I don't need to explain what the car stands for and means to any Honda fan.

The price for the car is 12000 euro. Feel free to ask any questions, I'm open for discussion and further information sharing. I have a lot of other pictures of my DC2 I can e-mail you. Price negotiation? Well, you can always tell me your price, but that does not equals my acceptance ;) I want to sell the car to the best future owner possible and not cheap, if you'd read the blog you can clearly see why.

Specs:
CAI AEM, Hondata Heatshield. DC Sports JDM 4-1 2,5’ header. 2,5' stainless exhaust, Mtech silencers. ECU P73, Apexi VAFC II. S80 LSD gearbox, Exedy flywheel, Exedy stage 1 clutch, Gearspeed synchros and sleeves, shorter IV gear from VTi. ITR JDM 16' rims in mint condition, 215/45/16 Potenza RE040 tires. Bilstein B6 shocks. Honda Access rear tower bar.
TarOx F2000 front discs, Ferodo DS Performance pads, EBC discs, Ferodo Premier pands in the rear. Goodridge brake lines, Motul DOT 5.1 brake fluid. S2000 AP1 sidemarkers. Xtec 6000K HID set. Momo OEM steering wheel, OEM titanium shift knob, Mint red Recaro seats, S2K OEM engine start button, JDM DC2 shift boot. Spoon kevlar wire cover, Spoon oil filler cap, Spoon radiator cap, Spoon reservoir tank covers, OEM JDM Honda DC2 decal set in kanji, JDM registration Permit Sticker.

Feel free to contact me at:
ciamach@go2.pl
gmaciaszek@yahoo.com