The media that covers the sport compact tuner scene in the U.S. is pretty small. A lot of the major magazines and a good chunk of websites are based out of the Southern California area, and the majority of their staffers generally cross paths on a fairly regular basis. It's why we often fight for the same cars, go to the same events and end up tapping the same resources.

MD Automotive in Westminster falls into the shared assets category. At one time the Honda/Acura/Toyota shop was home to influential Honda tuner Oscar Jackson and his Jackson Racing outfit. Today the facility is owned by Mark DiBella, who runs a more conventional service operation but still attracts various tuner clientele and journalists, thanks in part to his Dynojet dynamometer and the shop's past notoriety.

We've known DiBella since he worked for Jackson and have always had a good rapport with the likable shop owner/main wrench. He's helped us on various projects over the years and we've tried to reciprocate the love by plugging his business as often as possible. Recently, though, he filled us in on an interesting opportunity that we felt we couldn't pass up.

Not long ago, Sport Compact Car magazine - arguably the greatest "tuner" pub ever produced - folded due to sagging circulation numbers and poor advertiser support. At the time, the book was involved in a build with DiBella, helping him bring back his 1994 Acura Integra GS-R from the dead.

The DC2 chassis GS-R was his sister's, and several years ago was stolen and then ditched - but not before the thieves took off with the car's best assets, namely the prized B18C1 mill that came stock, in addition to the seats, wheels, etc. After some years of letting the chassis collect dust, DiBella set out to restore the Integra, initially dropping in a JDM motor and gearbox. Then SCC entered the picture and sufficiently upsized the project's scope, delivering on its pages an episodic arc following the GS-R's construction - that is, until publishers shut down the periodical.

DiBella's project suddenly became homeless, and remained that way until a few weeks ago when UrbanRacer agreed to pick up the coverage. The build's ultimate goal is simple: to transform the forgotten DC2 into a reliable daily driver with enough guts to put down well over 200 horsepower, plus hold its own in certain track-based disciplines.

To reach those objectives, the project has gone through some redirection. A bunch of chassis enhancements were made, which was always the plan, but instead of keeping and optimizing the Japanese-spec B18 bullet, DiBella and SCC went the route of swapping in a modern, larger displacing K24 power plant from an Accord (the poor man's K-series alternative).

But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. Sorting out the DC2's handling was first on the agenda, which we will recap in parts one and two. Future installments will summarize engine work, other odds and ends, plus the empirical data that SCC collected in determining if the build had in fact met everyone's expectations.

SUSPENSION
One of the good things about DiBella's 15-year-old DC2 is that there are plenty of reasonably-priced choices for enthusiasts looking to move to a complete aftermarket suspension. The GS-R in particular has always been quite popular, and as such several companies have developed products specifically for it. To reach his aims, DiBella decided on the Buddy Club N+ Spec coil-over system.

The N+ Spec setup is BC's entry-level issue and sports adjustable body length and spring pre-load, pillow-ball mounts and 16-way rebound damping adjustment. Spring rates are 670lb/in for the front coils and 335lb/in for the rears (there's more spring in front since the car's factory weight distribution is 64/36), and helper springs for droop travel are also included. Buddy Club attaches a $1180 suggested retail price to the N+ Spec set.

If you're like us, you likely read that last bit, got to the part about helper springs and droop travel and went, "Huh?" Droop is described as the amount of down travel a shock has and the opposite of bump, but an easy way to think of it is in the context of the four positions in any suspension's range of movement: compression, bump, rebound and droop.

Helper springs are used to take up droop travel due to the spring rates the kit comes with. Even when adjusted to full height, the coil-overs still come up shorter than the stock hardware. DiBella ended up having to adjust the front spring perches further up (and therefore add some spring pre-load) in order to get the front suspension to sit higher and avoid wheel rub when the steering is cranked all the way over. In total, the car's ride height dropped about an inch from stock.

To guarantee full droop travel at each corner, DiBella set the spring perches to touch the bottom helper spring with the suspension unloaded. On the ground, the Integra's weight squashes the helper springs to full bind and the mass of the car is held up by the main springs, which compress just a little. In cornering, the helper spring provides the force to plant the unloaded outer tire.

CAMBER, CASTER, TOE
In stock form, like most cars, the GS-R has some adjustability in terms of alignment, but that adjustability is pretty limited, especially for what DiBella has in mind. His may be just a street car, but it's a street car with a new lower center of gravity and more powerful engine - elements that will shine brightest only if the power can get to and stay on the ground. A call was made to SPC Performance to come up with some upgrades for the stock suspension arms and rear toe links, areas where camber, caster and toe are tweaked on the DC2.

Another bonus of the DC2 is the forward double wishbone suspension, a setup considered to have superior dynamic characteristics and load-handling capabilities versus the more common MacPherson strut design. For more camber and caster, SPC came up with an adjustable upper control arm set, a $500 forged aluminum investment that replaces the stock upper arms. They feature hard rubber inboard bushings and a polyurethane ball-joint bushing that can adjust for between -2.50 to +3.50 degrees of camber and -1.25 to +1.25 degrees of caster.

Camber is controlled by sliding the ball joint inboard or outboard in the slot and caster is adjusted by rotating the offset mounted ball joint in detented increments of 45 degrees to increase or decrease the swing angle of the front hubs.

In back, the GS-R got SPC's Civic/Integra adjustable rear upper arms, which offer -2.0 to +5.0 degrees of camber variability. The EZ Arm XR adjustable camber link doesn't use heim-joints, which would've provided zero deflection, but does have thinner-than-stock hard rubber bushings that don't deflect as much. SPC sells them for $73 each.

And speaking of deflection, a place heim joints were chosen over rubber bushings was in the toe link at the front of the rear trailing arms. While rubber-infused links are nice for limiting noise, vibration and harshness (or NVH) and providing ample compliance, they have been known to move in unwanted ways under extremes and cause toe change in back. DiBella replaced these with SPC's Honda/Acura rear toe links, which run about $208 per set.

SPC's aluminum heim-joint links have basically no deflection since they use metal spherical bearings, and toe is adjusted with the link length instead of the slotted setup on the OEM numbers. Yes, metal heim joints are more prone to wear and transmit more vibration, but these links are oriented so that there is limited movement as the suspension travels; wear at the toe link is not as big an issue as in a control-arm bushing or pillow-ball upper mount.

One last place where the bushing-versus-bearing dilemma was weighed was with the rear trailing arm's main bushing, another area that is notorious for contributing to rear-wheel toe change when it's old and beat. In this instance OEM rubber wins, offering the best compromise between NVH, longevity, and compliance for DiBella's street car (versus filling the stock bushing's voids, adding polyurethane inserts, or using zero-compliance spherical race bearings). In the final analysis rubber is still better for regular road-going vehicles since it doesn't make the car rattle like crazy and offers several degrees of motion without binding. A pair of trailing arm bushings can be had for around $120 from your local Acura OEM parts dealer.

Next time: body roll, chassis stiffening, running gear and brakes
www.markdibella.com