UPS AND DOWNS
With a turbocharger bolted up and the engine tuned on VP Import, the Civic put down more than enough power to wreak havoc on the streets. But the real reward was at the World Cup Finals in 2010. Silva recalled, “This was my first race out at full power and the car ran a 9.38. I ended up going to the semi-finals and ran my quickest elapsed time of 9.27 seconds on a stock transmission that weekend. Running in the low 9s consistently made the 8- second range seem like an attainable goal.” However, things did not move as smoothly as he had hoped, as Silva made progressive changes in an effort to inch closer to his goal. Although electrical gremlins plagued his project throughout 2011, he did manage to make it to the semi-finals again on a few occasions, but the 8s continued to elude him.
RACE STAGE
For the 2012 season, Silva stepped up the program, rewiring the engine bay and installing a MoTeC M880 engine management system. This effort and investment proved to be well worth the trouble, as the electrical issues practically vanished. He admitted, “I should have gone this route with the electronics sooner and saved myself a lot of headache and frustration.” With additional tuning and dialing in of the car, Silva dropped his best e.t. down to 9.03 seconds, mere fractions of a second away from breaking into the 8s.
It was at this point that Silva made the decision that took him to the next level of performance. He upgraded from the 67mm sport FWD turbo to a class-spec Garrett GTX4502R turbocharger, courtesy of ATP Turbo. With Cunha at the keyboard, the M880 engine management was retuned on VP Import race fuel. These upgrades bumped the output up to 950 horsepower at the wheels.
With the previous turbo and engine setup, the stock transmission was being torn down after each race and refreshed with new synchros and sometimes new gears. At this new power level, a reinforced driveline solution was a must. The stock first-through-fourth gears were upgraded with a set from Pfitzner Performance Gear. The reinforced box proved itself, as it not only handled the increase in power and torque, but it helped to propel Silva to a new personal best time of 8.87 seconds at 176.99 MPH.