I think it sold its soul to the devil, or at least went into some sort of time-share deal with Zack De La Rocha. How else to explain the pissed-off sounds it makes? If you have been to a NIRA race and experienced Christian Rado’s ’95 Integra, you know what I’m talking about. As Christian places the car on its two-step rev limiter before a launch, the car produces a wicked rapid-fire exhaust cacophony that sends pit people scurrying behind walls, photogs drop their cameras to cover their ears. It’s bitchin’. I’d donate a month’s worth of lunch money to have my daily driver make noises like that. It would be perfect for scaring off 5.0s and Camaros. Of course, it would help if my street car ran 9s…
Rado’s Integra runs 9s. At press time, it is the fastest Integra in the world. Its quarter-mile best is a hair-raising 9.40 at 157 mph, set at the NIRA race at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. For the 2000 race season, Christian has been competing in NIRA’s Pro FWD class. He was also racing back in ’99, but he was still flying under the radar and certainly not as fast. Back then, the car was running 11s. So, what changed?
People. Christian hooked up with three key dudes to make up Team World Racing: Marc “Koz” Kozeluh, Eric “Grim” Kozeluh, and Rob Smith. Brothers Marc and Eric cut their teeth in import racing at the Performance Factory in New York, so it comes as no surprise that they know what they are doing. And Rob is no small time slouch on a couch, either. He runs RPS Performance out of Chatsworth, California. So, suffice to say, he knows just a little about engines. Marc became the chief mechanic, Rob the crew chief, and Eric the team manager.
Over the span of about a year, Christian’s car and team transformed themselves into one of the most professional outfits competing in NIRA. Their purpose: “To kick everyone’s butt and set the world on fire.”
Their current work in progress is a 1.8L turbocharged Integra GS-R. Yes, that’s right; 1.8 liters. It’s not bored, stroked, or otherwise modified to increase displacement. It is, however, beer-powered. Yep, with just a few cans of Coors Light…er, no, not really. But it does run on alcohol—long the fuel of choice for pro V-8 dragsters. Alcohol can allow an engine to make as much as 30 percent more horsepower than if it were powered by gasoline—that is, if the engine is set up right. Alcohol also requires special parts and a much higher level of maintenance.
The engine’s crankshaft is stock (once again proving that Honda builds incredibly stout cranks), and there are Integra Type R camshafts and stock Honda plug wires. That’s about all that I can find on this car that could be labeled “stock.” Everything else has either been replaced or modified. The block itself has custom cylinder sleeves and contains Crower rods. The head has been ported, polished, and fitted with Ferrea valves, custom valvesprings, and custom retainers. RPS made the custom intake manifold, as well as the fuel rail and turbo exhaust manifold.
Turbonetics is responsible for supplying the rather large turbo hanging off that exhaust manifold. Team World Racing is unwilling to tell us much about the turbo other than it was handbuilt and the specs are “very nasty.” The turbo draws from a custom air intake and releases spent exhaust gases through a custom-built exhaust. A Spearco air-to-liquid intercooler with custom piping is used to keep the air charge cool. Alcohol is supplied by two sets of Bosch fuel injectors and controlled by a Weldon fuel regulator and pump. But enough of the mumbo jumbo, here’s all you need to know: an estimated 800 hp at the wheels, a lot of low-end torque, a redline of 9,700 rpm, and a curb weight of under 2,000 pounds. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Team World Racing worked hard to get the Integra’s weight under a ton. Back-halving a car is legal according to the NIRA rules, so the body structure aft of the driver’s seat consists of a lot of chrome-moly tubing. What remains of the original body structure has taken on a likeness to Swiss cheese, thanks to Marc’s plasma cutter efforts. Electrical wiring has been pared down to the bare minimum amounts required, and the factory dash has been replaced by a carbon-fiber piece that weighs less than one pound.
Less weight and more horsepower are always good for drag racing, but so is suspension tuning. The suspension on Christian’s Integra features geometry similar to a stock Integra, but all of the components are aftermarket. Remote-reservoir Penske shocks (yes, the same Penske that makes shocks for CART and Formula One race cars) are used, as are Eibach springs. Bolted to the front wheel hubs are 15x10-inch Bogart wheels shod with 15x10x26 Hoosier drag slicks. The rear wheels are also Bogart, but run with much skinnier Goodyear 15x10x3.5 tires.
At the time of this writing, Christian is set to compete at the NIRA Sunoco Performance Products Import World Finals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He’s won three races this year and is hoping to avoid the bad luck that kept him from winning the race at Englishtown. Vegas should be a good show. Bring earplugs.