Shine on.
i bought my civic back in november, 1997. it was to be
the second car i have owned, and i am still driving it. my first car was my
first introduction to honda - and it was a 1984 honda civic, 1500cc single
carb, manual transmission, obligatory acid-rain eaten red paint, rusting away.
this car started it all. it was bought for me at the end of 1995, by my good
parents, and came with 13" 5-star CSA alloys, 175/70R13 Hankook snow tyres,
black plastic bumpers, faded to almost pink paint, and a cigarette tray full
of ash and crap. but it was mine. before this i had learnt to drive in mum's
steady 1991 5speed Corona wagon, which was replaced with a chunky 1995 Corona
Sedan, unfortunately an auto, but it was a good solid car and was the last
of the Corona's before Toyota phased them out. i began university in 1996
and the red civic was my daily ride.
i began like most i guess, not knowing much about the car in general. but
i soon learned. the 1500 motor was a solid performer, and i soon found it
revved happily to the 6000rpm redline, making smooth power, and was a joy
to drive - enough for a kid like me. modifications were limited to aesthetics
- i 'reupholstered' the interior, including door trims and seats, gear knob,
and new paint on the worn alloys, but the main focus was a new stereo, amp
and subwoofer package that took priority over performance, and started my
adventures in car audio. (it was a Sanyo(?) cassette reciever, Hifonics 4ch
amp, JBL speakers, and a mighty Cerwin Vega XL12 sub in a ported box. i still
have that box i built, it now houses two Denon 12's and serves duty in my
room with its own Technics amp)
however the civic's engine remained mostly stock, and was kept in good running
order by what i learned about regular oil and filter changes. but the body
rust was building, and in mid 1997 it was decided to flog it off. some chick
bought it for regular trips from auckland to hamilton - and i never saw it
on the road again. i have yet to chance upon photographs of this car - they
will definitely be posted if i do find them. by now the shape and style of
the car was firmly in my head, and i saw big things possible from its styling,
even tho it was one of the most common cars on the road. i liked the shape
of the car so much, that my next car was to be exactly the same - albeit this
time, the top model of its era. after searching high and low for an example
in good condition, a private sale saw me drive away with a then-pristine looking
86 civic, bone stock, a company car when registered in NZ in 1992, then 2
lady owners, then me. again i cant believe i dont have photos of the car
when it was newly purchased. but this time i had a much better idea on what
to do to get it a bit more individualized.
the car rolled around stock for a few months before the
first changes were made. a new steering wheel and a drastically shortened
shifter (old shifter position felt like it was a 2ft long pole making you
feel you were operating a bus!) were the first mods, then a Jamex freeflowing
filter in the factory airbox was fashioned, together with a cold air duct
right from the front bumper. this was the beginning of the process of stripping
and binning many factory parts of the engine. all intake resonators and trunking
were binned - new air intake was directed right into the airbox, improving
top end, and releasing the great honda induction noise that seemed to make
the car twice as fast. i quickly realised the appeal of a color coded exterior,
so then all black trim including the factory chin spoiler were color coded
white. this made a surprisingly big impact on its appearance on the road,
its 'recognizability' factor largely upped. the standard steel wheels were
put aside and i found some 14" alloys second hand after a long period of searching
for something affordable. then, after getting an invaluable haynes workshop
manual, i attacked the suspension and brought everything alot closer to the
tarmac. torsion bar suspension is wonderful.
these are the earliest photos i have found so far, of the car - circa 1998.
most of my money had gone into my primary passion at the time - car audio.
by then i had accquired a top of the line JVC cassette reciever, 12disc changer,
another amp (soundstream reference 700s) and two soundstream 15" SPL15 subs.
already i had discovered the entire underground street racing scene and had
started to make an impact on fellow enthusiasts, more for the volume of sound
coming from the tiny hatch, and from the increasing number of car audio competitions
i had attended and somehow won.
things stayed mostly the same thru 1999, other than the addition of further
exhaust mods and various toys being added for the fuel and ignition side of
things. all the sketches and concept plans made in uni for body kits, engine
mods, and the like, were slowly breaking away from being fiction. a string
of soundoffs and SPL events culminated in the car entering the 1999 new zealand
fours and rotary nationals, and winning the competition with a consistant
144/145db output.
2000 rolled on with the end of university and me looking
for a job. lack of funds prohibited progress but i still ended up entering
the 2000 fours and rotary nationals and coming up with a good 2nd place in
the final. but things were coming up on the board for a change. the car, which
seemed immaculate when i got it, turned out to have been repainted - but
the prep job done by the painter was shocking. small bubbles and cracks began
forming and enlarging and soon large portions of new white were flaking off,
revealing sections of 'old white' underneath. something needed to be done.
after a period of contemplating and a number of small fender benders, the
dying repaint job, and a buildup of rust in the rear hatch (but not much elsewhere)
i decided to take the plunge and go for a whole new breath of life. a new
hatch and rear bumper were sourced and the original color of those parts
made me think about a colour change. i was intending for the original white
to be brought back to life, but most of the old needed to be taken off so
the new paint could adhere properly. this meant anything was possible. the
car was taken to a friend of the family's and him and i (in his garage) proceeded
to sand down and go over all the bodywork, shaving the mouldings and whatnot,
and custom building a bodykit. the final respray happened just before xmas
of 2000.
a silver with gold base was chosen, and a green/blue flake
added to the mix for interest's sake.
i was happy with the results considering it was a 2 man job in a garage
at minimal cost.
unfortunately the ride height and ground clearance battle was soon fought,
and the latter won. i had parked too close to a 5" tall cement divider at
one car meet in the city, and as i pulled out of the park i forgot to go forward
far enough to clear the divider before turning left. as a result, i swung
the car over the divider which sliced and smashed off the entire left side
of the kit. only a few months after i had finished it all.
not wonderful. i had gotten a new job now and had no time
to take the car off the road for any kind of repairs. after studying it for
a while i took a weekend to try to fix the damage quickly. it wasnt so much
a 'repair' as a 'make the other side look the same with whats left'. well,
you see what i mean below.
it just had to do, heartbreaking or not. however it was
the worst that had happened in a long time, the car had not been in very many
serious prangs since ive had it. by now, plans for a serious engine upgrade
were well underway, and finally in about september 2001, the car was taken
in to quest4 for help with the installation and setup.
parts had been collecting for over a year now but were
all pulled together and the whole conversion went smoothly over only about
6 or 7 days. it was back on the road and immediately into the daily driven
grind again. so far it had never sat for more than a day without being driven.
the new setup was warmly accepted by the honda club i was in, as the car made
more and more appearances to meets with a little more power under its sleeve.
the front spoiler was now however also taking its fair
share of damage, forcing me to make a few cosmetic additions to cover things
up...
the car was also warmly accepted by those up top of the
nizan car club, and i made an effort to try to keep up appearances with the
big boys and the real cars.
now with the new power came a new interest. forget car
audio. indeed, the audio equipment that had been removed before the car was
sent in for the turbo conversion was left out to collect dust - with weight
reduction now coming into play. reluctantly the heavy Oz Polaris rims had
to go, but the best replacement in my mind were the already highly engineered
factory honda integra DC2 rims - ultra lightweight, strong, and bringing that
factory race look brought me to get some DC2 rims after a long period of
searching. these rims are still surprisingly hard to find.
already the bug for more power was working its way thru
my head. boost pressures rose, resulting in the head gasket in the completely
stock motor to start giving way after 8psi and 7 months of boosted driving.
back to the workshop for more mods, this time the bill really showed. new
fuelling, injection, computer control and other things saw everything being
upgraded. also, after 3/4 years of its slammed stance, the koni shocks finally
gave way. a costly rebuild took place resulting in the reduction in height
of 60mm for all the shocks. with all this new travel now available, what was
one to do but to slam it even more? so slam it went.
the speed bug was also slowly wearing off. the recent
expense left me realising i was near the end of what the stock motor could
handle. not wanting to break anything and face a major transport problem i
decided to back off. audio went back in and since i had many offers for the
wheels i had, i agreed to a sale and the DC2 rims found a new home. i quickly
found something of a replacement - not earthshaking in design, but it suited
the car so well that i dont regret it at all.
here was the first meet attended with the new shoes.
a more recent meet of the nzhonda club saw a wealth of members turn up including
the local performance car magazine journalists, interested in writing up a
feature on the club. we were all happy to attend, with everyone's cars cleaned
and proudly on show - the now infamous 'oriental markets' abandoned warehouse
with its grafitti interior proving a popular venue.
5 years on, and the car is still going strong, boost is
now up to 10psi, peaking at 13. run-ins with the local law on the ride height
became a bit of a hassle, and together with excessive tyre wear, forced me
to return the car to a more sensible height. i dont know how much longer she
will hold together but items planned now include a new throttle body and
manifold, and maybe a turbo downpipe modification, all with the intent of
more flow - then maybe the planned limit of 12psi might be dialled in and
the whole setup properly dyno tuned - something that has never happened since
the conversion took place. yes, its just been street tuned! it runs rich
and isnt the most efficient, but is a ball of fun to drive and still manages
to turn heads as it comes down the road.
im still waiting for the rods to exit stage (block) left! but what can i
say. the future is open...
-nigel, 27/01/03
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