Finding Balance In A K-Swapped EG Civic – Speedhunters
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“If a man does not have the sauce, then he is lost. But the same man can be lost in the sauce.” – Gucci Mane.
Well said, Gucci. For those of you unfamiliar with Gucci Mane, AKA ‘The East Atlanta Santa’, he’s a successful rapper with a penchant for face tattoos and red luxury cars on 24-inch ‘rimz’.
As women and men of the car scene, we are on a constant knife edge of scrutiny. No rare or expensive parts on your car? You’re lazy or half-arsed. One too many? You’re suddenly building your car for internet clout. Now, I’m not going to sit here and judge anyone for going all-out with a build; I wouldn’t dream of it. My favourite builds are often those with details that have been executed down to the minutiae. I’m also not going to look down upon those out there who can’t afford or justify spending dumb amounts of money on a pair of mirrors, for example. On a serious note, there are more important things in life than car parts, such as rent and food.
Now that my wise words of wisdom are out of the way, let’s delve into Pippa Brand’s 1993 Honda Civic DX.
This is Pippa’s second car, but not her first Honda. Before the Civic came a mighty Honda Jazz; even before then, Hondas ran rife in Pip’s family. In fact, she can’t remember a time in her childhood when there wasn’t a Honda Shuttle in her parents’ driveway.
The Civic had had a fairly typical life up until that point. It was purchased new by the same couple who owned it until their late years, at which point the husband sadly passed away leaving the little silver car in the care of his widow. She kept ahold of it for two more years until she also passed on, and the car was practically given away to one of their neighbours.
In the custody of its next owner, the EG received its first ever modification. A Subaru Impreza exhaust back box was fitted in place of the OEM pea shooter, although what benefits that may have provided escape me. With 89hp, it was actually down one horsepower on the mighty Jazz that Pip was used to, but she was over the moon and immediately began to save her money to put towards modifying the EG.
Being an older car, there were bound to be wear and tear items due for replacement at which stage Pip would buy an ‘upgraded’ item to take its place. Perished bushes for example meant new neochrome-coated lower control arms, and tired shocks and springs were replaced with an uprated set from an EK4 Civic.
Although they replaced tired original parts, Pip soon learned that you get what you pay for with some mods when the eBay lower control arms started squeaking unbearably over anything but the smoothest of roads. Genuine items were definitely on the agenda.
Being young though, there had to be some visual mods before any serious mechanical work could be undertaken; it’s an unwritten of the car scene after all. The original steel wheels were replaced with a set of Honda Prelude fan-blades in black glitter, and a second-hand carbon fibre boot spoiler was also fitted. It even came pre-lacquer peeled for extra patina.
On the subject of patina though, Pip’s Civic was looking a little worse for wear after a year of daily duties following seven years of sitting in a damp British garage. The paint was faded and flaking in places, and rust had started to make its way through the wheel arches. Even the ’90s-tastic pinstripes were beginning to lift way from the paintwork, so naturally when Pip got an incredible offer for all the bodywork repairs and paint to get sorted she jumped at the chance.
As is the way though, if an offer seems to good to be true it usually is, and it didn’t take long for the extent of the bodge to reveal itself. The car was three different shades of silver, and the arches were so full of body filler they could probably have stopped a bullet. This was where things started to turn around for Pip, as this setback sparked her desire to level the car up into a serious little fighter.
Parts acquisition was the next mission – specifically, all the items necessary to turn the Civic from a grocery-getter into the rowdy K-swapped weapon it is today.
Suspension was first though, as the squeaky arms and old EK parts had to go. A set of BC Racing coilovers were fitted alongside K-Tuned lower control arms for a full squeak-delete. A BWR tie-brace keeps the rear end tight in addition to the centre cross-brace for torsional rigidity. At the front, braking is taken care of by a simple yet effective OEM+ set of 282mm MG ZR discs with Honda Prelude calipers. The rear drums were retained, but as the fronts take car of 70+% of braking, Pip decided they can wait. With the car now able to corner and stop properly, it was time for more power.
The K20A2 was acquired from a breaker’s yard using Pip’s new boyfriend’s mum’s car, which I’m sure was not stressful in any way at all. At this point the car and the mass of parts were dropped off for the swap.
The engine itself sits in a partially shaved bay in Jazz Purple, with plenty of bolt-on goodies for extra power and reliability. Inlet and exhaust breathing is enhanced by a Hybrid Racing air intake on an RBC inlet manifold, travelling through the combustion chamber to a K-Tuned tubular exhaust manifold. Follow this down and back and you’ll travel along the Skunk2 MegaFlow exhaust system to that awesome period-correct back box.
Back in the engine bay, a Hybrid Racing injector rail provides sufficient fuelling, whilst a Tegiwa full-sized radiator keeps things cool under load. It’s a great looking bay, with a turquoise-painted cam cover for a bit of extra colour. Even the dipstick is a K-Tuned item for a little dress up, and the Hasport engine mounts are two great looking pieces of billet.
The K20A is electronically plumbed in by a quick release loom made by the very man who fitted the engine himself: Josh Slater at JB Slater garage. The engine map was taken care of by Jesse Halford at TDI South, meaning this pocket rocket is running 247hp now. That’s nearly three times the car’s factory output.
Driver feel and aesthetics were taken care of together, so starting from the inside the most prominent feature is the billet K-Tuned tower shifter for a more precise and positive gear throw. By this point the original shift action must have felt like stirring a ladle through a pot of soup. A Personal suede steering wheel with an NRG boss give Pip proper steering feel and control when driving the car hard, while Recaro Confetti seats and TAKATA Racing harnesses keep her pinned through fast corners.
The harnesses mount securely to the chrome Tegiwa harness bar, whilst the rear seats have made way for the Tegiwa cross brace between the rear suspension towers. Pip’s currently doing a full strip-down of the rear end to tidy it up. Just to keep an eye on the bigger cars this Civic keeps behind it, Pip has a full-width NASCAR mirror in the cabin.
Externally, the EG is a mix of trusty and unique parts for a simple yet effective visual package. The white Kosei K1 wheels were a straight swap for the glittery black Honda wheels, and they’re shod in UniRoyal Rainsport tyres.
Some of you may have just recoiled in horror at the prospect of a hot hatch not on semi-slicks, but bear with me. The weather in the UK is so dismal and wet that a set of Rainsports in the right hands will out-corner a much faster car on a set of race tyres, so these make perfect sense.
The paintwork itself was one of the last things to be done to the Civic. It’s in a shade of “I think it’s Daewoo Matiz lilac,” says Pip, but I cannot find anything online to confirm that. Denji headlights add a touch of aggression to the nose of the car, alongside the front lip which had unfortunately become a casualty of some full sends the week prior to our shoot. At the rear, the carbon fibre ducktail spoiler is a stand-out feature, whilst the clear taillights add to the overall playfulness of the little car.
The windshield scuttle panel is the most interesting though. Pip bought a carbon fibre item from Eastern Europe which the manufacturer assured was for RHD cars. The manufacturer was wrong. What they did offer though was for Pip to send them her OEM scuttle as a test-bed for a right-hand drive item, and sure enough, a few weeks later she received a shiny, new, one-off RHD carbon fibre item.
It’s the mix of touches like this alongside more reasonable items like the carbon-look NRG door mirror that appeals to me. Yes, you can go broke on a set of rims or a crazy big brake kit all round the car – and many people do – but by sticking to her guns and slowly yet surely upgrading the EG where it counts, Pip has built a devastatingly effective little fighter of a car. Taking neither herself nor the car too seriously has meant that this Civic is fun and full of character, and I would take this over a chequebook or heavily financed build any day of the week.
Long live the little lilac lightweight, and the vibe this car represents.
Let me start by putting things into perspective: Takashi Koike never intended to execute a Porsche 935 replica with his Z33 Nissan Fairlady Z. He simply wanted to pay homage to a car that he has huge respect for, and in the process build a Z like no one had ever seen before.
One look at Takashi’s Nissan, and I think you’ll agree that he has pretty much nailed the brief.
View the Z from the rear and you’d not even know that the front end has received such a drastic conversion.
In fact, the nose tuck is so smoothly integrated that you may not even spot the difference from a profile view.
I call it a ‘nose tuck’ because this goes so far beyond bolting on aftermarket aero parts – it’s a true transformation that Takashi executed himself. Of course, it helps that he works in a bodyshop and is a seasoned pro when it comes to these sorts of custom modifications.
Deleting headlights is no simple feat, especially when they extend into the bumper and fenders like the OEM items on a Z33 do. To remove them altogether, substantial work needed to be done around the hood line and where the bumper meets the front fenders. The integration of the large round HID projector lights and LED DRLs was actually the easy part, as they sit beautifully recessed in the custom mounts that Takashi created.
As these build images that Takashi shared with me show, everything was shaped hand. Much care was taken refining the radius for the bumper snout, the new hood line and both the front and rear wheel arches. You can see just how far back the conversion stretches too. In fact, it’s just the doors, roof and rear deck lid that remain stock.
The fenders were cut and molded into the overall new shape of the car, taking that added width and bringing it around and over the arches, right down into the side skirts.
At the time of our shoot, Takashi was running on aftermarket coilovers and a set of 19-inch Work Gnosis GS-1s. Behind the squared-off spokes of the front wheels hide Central 20 6-pot brake calipers biting down on 2-piece slotted Project µ rotors.
The modified side steps brings a nice angular feel across the profile of the car, something that helps counteract the fact that the Z33’s rear is rather bulbous. They meet the massively widened 3/4 fenders which taper inward to almost meet the original width of the rear bumper.
Takashi finished it all off with an integrated lower bumper skirt, large diffuser section and a Battle Aero wing with tall stays that sprout from behind the bumper.
On the back glass, Takashi proudly displays the Raiden logo, a club he belongs to with all his friends.
There is something just so imposing about a slantnose car. The Kremer Racing 935s of the early 1980s took a base 911 and lobbed off the car’s signature bug-eye headlights for that flat-nose look. The main projectors were moved to the corners of the bumper and with that a legendary transformation was born, one that Porsche ended up offering in 1986 with the pricey Flachbau (flatnose/slantnose) option for the 930.
I think Takashi’s headlight conversion has a Garage TBK feel about it, you know, like the 930 from Wangan Midnight.
The hood modifications also include a pair of dummy louvers and a functional center air outlet.
A lot of thought went into the color – a custom-mixed blue/gray – and the contrasting black detailing, and I think it works well.
Takashi has stuck to very minimal upgrades under the hood with an HKS induction kit to give the VQ35 V6 some character on the induction side. The exhaust has also been enhanced with a full Fujitsubo system and the ECU was re-flashed with a custom map.
Takashi may look at some substantial engine mods in the future, but for now he’s enjoying having completed the exterior styling.
With the car oozing 935 vibes, it only seemed right to somehow try and tie the interior in too. Takashi found these Sparco Martini Racing sports seats that hint back at the legendary livery the Kremer-built 935s are most associated with.
It’s always a true pleasure to meet talented young builders. Without guys like Takashi and his Raiden team, the Japan car scene wouldn’t be what it is.
It was so cool that they all made the trek from Nagoya to Tokyo to meet me for this shoot, and I can’t wait to share with you what the rest of the Raiden crew brought along.
It’s time for another instalment in my slightly unconventional series of luxury SUV drive stories, and following on from my recent Rolls-Royce Cullinan feature we have another submission from the UK.
This time, however, there is definitely a bit more ‘sport’ in it all. A mix of class and performance that Aston Martin does very well.
To me, Aston Martin has always been amongst the best at mixing an upper-class feel with just the right amount of power, but when the automaker announced it was launching an SUV, there was only one thought that came to mind…
‘Here we go again… a sports car manufacturer selling out and trying to win over a slice of the lucrative ‘truck’ market.’ Porsche, Lamborghini and Maserati have all done it, and so to will Ferrari and Lotus soon. But really, what’s the harm? Is it wrong?
Initially, I was a little horrified at the prospect, however, if like Porsche with the Cayenne, Aston Martin’s SUV ends up being so profitable that the company can continue to develop proper sports cars well into the future, well, how could you possibly be against it?
Then I saw the DBX and my whole outlook changed – and not for the worse. It looked sensational in pictures.
For the first time, I remember thinking here’s an SUV that actually has all the right proportions. Most SUVs have a slightly awkward look about them, but the Aston Martin DBX does not.
Setting The Stage
This said, I was rather excited when offered an opportunity to drive one for a weekend. And the DBX looked even better in person with its glossy black exterior and gigantic 22-inch wheels. It was truly menacing.
Exterior design isn’t the only thing that Aston Martin has got so right with the DBX. The way they’ve appointed the interior – which follows recent updates throughout the entire Aston Martin model range – ensured the DBX hit the market with all the features and gadgets you can think of. And given that this thing is priced at the equivalent of US$200K here in Japan, you’d absolutely want it to be fully loaded.
While it ticks all the spec boxes, the DBX looks and feels like no other SUV out there. That’s not something easily achieved in this segment.
I had the DBX parked up for 20 minutes or so on Ginza’s main road while I shot these images, and the number of positive comments I overheard from passersby was quite telling. In Tokyo, reactions like kakkoi (read: cool) are not easy to get, and especially so in upmarket Ginza where exotic and luxury cars aren’t really anything out of the ordinary.
What seals the deal for me is the engine mounted up front – a 545hp ‘hot-vee’ twin-turbo 4.0L V8. We all know that Aston Martin gets its engines from Mercedes-AMG these days, but like in the Vantage that I drove last year, this adds to the experience rather than taking anything away from it. Simply, this is one of the best force-fed production V8s around.
Stick the drive mode into ‘Sport’ and you have an SUV with the soundtrack of an AMG GT that effortlessly machine-guns through its nine gears with immense acceleration from any speed. Despite the DBX’s 2.3-ton heft, it will go from zero to 62mph (100km/h) in 4.5 seconds. Drive it peacefully, and that V8 rumble subsides to a relaxing low-frequency burble.
Underneath its well-executed proportions, the DBX is built on a bespoke platform that like other Aston Martins is constructed with bonded aluminum panels and extrusions. It’s impressively stiff and remarkably throwable around corners given its heft, and thanks to a 48v anti-roll bar system and active dampers, it stays flat through corners at speed. Like all vehicles of this type, the DBX is equipped with air springs, allowing it to sit at different ride heights depending on which of its five drive modes are selected.
Like the engine and transmission, the infotainment system comes from Mercedes-Benz too. It’s not a bad thing – something I touched on in the Vantage post – as I’d rather see lower-volume manufacturers like Aston Martin go this route rather than attempting to build their own systems and completely messing it up. It makes total financial sense too, as modern systems are complex and ever-evolving. What’s in the DBX might be one generation behind the current Mercedes system, but it’s better than an antiquated unit that’s glitchy and frustrating to use.
Beauty On Its Side
If you’re in a position to purchase a high-end SUV, you will be looking for something that checks every box. The DBX would surely come close to doing that.
Such is the pace of innovation and engineering today, you can turn a vehicle that shouldn’t really perform at this sort of level into a package that does.
In fact, that might be the very definition of these vehicles. They’re able to be this good thanks to the decades of development that have gone into camouflaging the fact they’re far too big and heavy to actually be sporty.
The Aston Martin DBX’s party trick is its beautifully proportioned and unique exterior.
It might not be for everyone in the market for this type of vehicle, but it would probably be the perfect choice if you want something that stands out in the sea of high-end SUVs. The fact that the DBX as of this month is already outselling every other model in the Aston Martin line-up speaks volumes about how right they got the concept.
Stay tuned for my next SUV drive, whatever it may be. Any requests?
Heart & Soul: Two Honda S2000s From Italy – Speedhunters
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Nothing Happens By Chance
In Italy it’s easy to find nice food, good wine, astonishing landscapes and art masterpieces. What’s not easy to find are cars like this S2000 pairing; Japanese sports cars are real unicorns on Italian roads.
I’m Ivan, and since I was 16 (four years ago) I’ve been photographing cars. I think every car has a soul, and it’s my mission with automotive photography to bring this emotional energy out every time I use my camera. I could stay here and talk about cars and photography for hours, but let’s focus on the story of these two nicely-tuned Hondas.
Back in 2018, I met Alessio Cavalletti at the only place you can meet people like him – the race track. It was a Honda day at Autodromo Vallelunga Piero Taruffi (otherwise known as ACI Vallelunga Circuit) in Campagnano di Roma, and Alessio’s Silverstone Metallic S2000 immediately stood out to me.
Alessio liked the photos I took of his car, and since that day we have been in constant contact with each other over social media. Alessio and I live in different regions of Italy, but the Vallelunga race track has always been our meeting point.
The first time I visited Alessio closer to his home, it was to photograph a track day he had organized at Autodromo dell’Umbria in Magione. It was there that I met Riccardo Mocini, the owner of a Rio Yellow Pearl S2000.
As I mentioned earlier, cars like these are extremely rare in Italy, so I just had to photograph them together for this story.
Why The S2000?
Every time I see an interesting car, I always ask myself the same thing: why did the owner decide to buy it over something else? I put that question to both Alessio and Riccardo…
Alessio:“This is a question that, after nine years, I cannot answer precisely. Around the age of 21 or 22, I started looking for a sports car. I wanted something relatively light and not very expensive, and of course it had to be rear-wheel drive. In those years, S2000 prices in Europe were very low, and alternatives to such a technical masterpiece were simply not there.”
“My search lasted almost a year, then lightning struck – I found one for sale in Milan on the old Italian forum, Honda S2000 Passion. It was a 2004 model in Silverstone Metallic. A few months later, I went with my dad to pick it up; I can still vividly remember the whole journey back home.”
“Initially the mods were light, then I made two big mistakes: The first was to put the car on the track; the second was to start visiting Japan where I frequented time attack events.”
Riccardo:“After some experiences with other sports cars and modifying, in 2017 I found an S2000 for sale. It was dirty and in poor condition. Owning an S2000 had never been my dream – to me they were a nice car but nothing too special – but there was something about this one that attracted me to it.”
“My first thought was to fix it up, leave it naturally aspirated and use it on the track. I promised myself that I wouldn’t spend an arm and a leg on the car, nor swear eternal love to it. As you would have already realized though, I did not keep my promise.”
The Devil Is In The Details
While these two S2000s share many similarities, they’re actually very different machines. Keeping that in mind, I asked Alessio and Riccardo about their respective journeys to this point…
Alessio: “From the beginning, my philosophy has stayed the same. I wanted to make changes that would improve the car’s performance on the track without upsetting everything else. I still wanted to be able to take the car up to the mountains and attack a few corners, and at the same time make it look like the S2000 I had always dreamed of.”
“Over the years my S2000 has gone through various steps, but has always remained naturally aspirated. Almost all of the work on the car was done with my best friend Paolo under the careful supervision of Alessandro Brusciani from Conte Performance, one of the best Honda tuners in Italy.”
“Since 2017, I’ve raced the car at a number of motorsport events, including Time Attack Italy. Despite my S2000 having a naturally aspirated engine and being quite heavy in comparison to other cars in the same category, I’ve achieved good results at circuits around central Italy.”
“To be honest though, when I bought the car eight years ago, I never thought I’d be able to get to where I am now with it. I spend every single second of my free time on this project and I’m really proud of what I’ve achieved so far.”
Riccardo:“I met Alessio in 2018, at which time I had broken my car’s F20C engine twice. It was then that I decided to swap in a K20 engine and adapt a Rotrex supercharger to it. I’m crazy for a for a job well done, and an unquantifiable number of late-night hours went in to making it all work. It would have been a lot easier to use a ready-made swap kit, but the decision was made to buy the bare essentials and to build almost all the custom parts.”
“With this swap, the reliability has increased, as has the performance with more horsepower and more torque.”
“In line with this, Alessio and I decided that aerodynamic development should also have its part in the story. Initially, we opted for the simple things: a wing and a splitter, but after a lot of testing and more aero I now have an S2000 that’s really balanced, goes fast and is so much fun.”
“That’s not to say that in the future I won’t chase even more power, because, you know, it’s never enough!”
These cars exude passion from every bolt; they have a unique charm and tell you how fast they are even when they’re parked up. The commitment and dedication of Alessio and Riccardo is admirable. So much blood, sweat and tears have gone into the two builds, and after years of passion and sacrifice, seeing this petrolhead pair so happy with their creations is good for the heart and soul.
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Exterior: Voltex Street carbon front bumper, Group A Motoring carbon canards, Fiberworxx FRP front fenders with side & upper vents, SixthCarbon rear overfenders, SixthCarbon carbon side skirts, SixthCarbon FRP rear duckbill spoiler, 1,600mm carbon wing with 275mm custom stays, APR GT3 carbon mirrors, SixthCarbon carbon hardtop, Alex Novi front tow hook, custom rear tow hook, custom Silverstone Metallic respray
Interior: AG Works 4-point roll bar, Corbeau Clubsport seats, Buddyclub seat rails, Sabelt 4-point harness belts, Personal 330mm Neo Grinta suede steering wheel, NRG Innovations short hub adapter & quick release, custom shift knob, AEM Wideband 02 gauge, Depo oil pressure & temperature gauges, Broadway 380mm rear-view mirror, Modifry Yellow Box Speedometer Corrector
Riccardo Mocini’s 2000 Honda S2000 (AP1)
Engine: Honda K20Z4, Toda K20 chain tensioner, F20C intake manifold with 2NRS K20 adaptor plate, 70mm throttle body, Rotrex C30-94 supercharger with custom mount, GReddy Type-RS pop-off valve, custom front-mount intercooler, Bosch 1,000cc injectors, Denso 340lph fuel pump, Skunk2 MAP sensor, DC Sports F20C exhaust manifold with 2NRS K20 adaptor plate, Toda Racing dual header-back exhaust system, custom Accusump, custom radiator with SPAL fan, Tomei oil cooler, K20A2 oil pump & sump, Skunk2 x Tractuff oil sump baffle kit, 2NRS K20 kit with Hasport billet engine mounts, Doctronic tuned by Alessandro Brusciani/Conte Performance
Suspension/Brakes: Tein Mono Sport coilovers with 12kg/mm front & 10kg/mm rear springs, Hardrace front roll center adjusters, Powerflex bushing kit, Buddyclub rear roll center adjusters, PB Racing 6-pot front calipers, PB Racing 330mm front rotors, PB Racing front pads, factory S2000 rear calipers, Track Solution 330mm floating rear rotors, Ferodo DS3000 rear pads
Wheels: Team Dynamics Pro Race 17×8-inch +35 offset front, 17×9-inch +45 offset rear
Exterior: Custom bumper with splitter, Fiberworxx FRP front fenders with side vents, molded custom rear steel overfenders, SixthCarbon carbon side skirts, 1,600mm wing, SixthCarbon FRP rear duckbill, SixthCarbon carbon hardtop, complete Yellow Rio Pearl respray
Interior: Custom 4-point roll bar , Bride Low Max seats, custom seat rails, Sparco 4-point harness belts, QSP 330mm suede steering wheel, short hub adapter, Skunk2 shift knob, Zeitronix wideband, EGT & boost pressure gauges, Depo oil pressure & temperature gauges
Behind The Wheel Of Pete Stout’s Porsche 914 – Speedhunters
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Making Memories
It’s been over a year now since I was sitting in the driver seat of Pete Stout’s 1973 Porsche 914, and yet the rumble of the 2.2-liter flat-six positioned directly behind me feels as effervescent in my mind today as it did in the moment.
“You can go faster,” Pete excitedly urged me with a sly grin as I felt my way through the corners on a winding mountain pass some 20-odd miles north of San Francisco, California. The crisp forest air lightly battered my hair as on and on I went, relishing the marvelous sensation of the 914’s center of gravity, which felt as though it was riding along in the right-rear pocket of my pants.
As I opened the throttle, allowing the maximum volume of air to pass through the velocity stacks and on into the flat-six, Pete turned his face upward through the open targa top to the tips of the redwoods and closed his eyes in reverie. “That’s the sound of Le Mans, 1970,” he shouts to the heavens from the passenger seat.
The sun had already descended beneath the horizon by the time we made our way back to Pete’s garage to store the car, and a certain sentimental memory was triggered. I was four or five, bouncing around on the rear bench seat of my uncle’s 1966 Mustang. The carbureted V8 shook the entire car, there was an aura of spent fuel in the dark air, and I remember the feeling of the textured vinyl covering the unsupportive and decades-old seats. If memory serves, my uncle had an aftermarket sound system in the car, but the soundtrack of the engine through a hot exhaust was all that we required on that particular evening. As these things go, I ended up buying a first-generation Mustang myself years later. It was my first project car and ultimately a life-changing experience.
Though Pete’s 914 – which has been in his family since the 1980s and in the Bay Area for even longer – left the factory in a much more refined state than a first-generation Mustang. With both the small tweaks Pete has made and the swapped flat-six gargling all that fuel and air, the closest thing I could place it to was a muscle car. In fact, it sort of is one. It just happens to be a 914 and thus is also capable of going ’round a corner in a manner very much unlike a muscle car.
It was a driving experience like no other, and one in particular that I’ll never forget. Pete’s 914 just so happened to be the first Porsche I had driven, and what a foray into the marque it was. I spent weeks afterward scouring the internet for 914s, and from time to time I still spend a moment to take a fleeting look. There was a dark green one I almost pulled the trigger on, and in retrospect I regret not doing so, as it seems the popularity and cost of the 914 is going the way of the 911: Up.
High School
Everything about this particular Porsche, though, is either unique to or innately special to Pete. And yet, curiously, Pete never wanted this 914. At least when he was 15 he sure didn’t, but that’s when he started working on and – soon after – driving it.
If you want some insight on Pete’s background, you might want to take a pit stop here, where I took a deep dive with Pete into his role as editor of 000 Magazine. There, as I’ll reiterate here, I explained that Pete really wanted the family’s diesel A1 VW Rabbit at the time, as he had dreams of modifying it.
Not to mention, in the early 1990s the 914 was “deeply unstylish,” and Pete went on to explain that this one wasn’t in good shape, either. One of the doors had been kicked in when it was vandalized in Southern California while off to college with his older brother. A taillight was also broken, the paint was oxidized, and the clutch needed to be replaced.
But still, Pete ended up with what his father called a “dishonest Volkswagen” – finished in Bahia Red over black with narrow 15-inch Pedrini alloys – and was awarded ‘Hooptiest Car’ in his senior year of high school.
More important than all of this, Pete’s 914 was powered by a questionable flat-four of unknown displacement (probably 1,911cc) paired with a 5-speed manual transmission, which Porsche updated for the 1973 models with an improved side-shift mechanism. Going a bit deeper, Pete explains that the car bears serial number #193, making it one of the so-called ‘first 1,000′ 1973 914s – and had the vinyl A-pillars associated with those cars.
“About the only 1973 equipment I found on the car was the transmission and the front bumper guards. This car had 1972 doors with no crash beams, 1972 door windows, a 1972 top, rain tray, headlight switch…” Pete continues, “This is indicative of why ‘correct’ is a moving target, and not just with Porsche. Manufacturers use up what they have when possible.”
The car was Pete’s daily driver to El Cerrito High in the East Bay, positioned just north of Berkeley and Oakland. Being in high school, this meant that the car could only be improved using a high school budget, but Pete didn’t let this stop him.
While initially cool to the 914, he soon discovered what any car represents to a high-schooler: freedom. He went to work on making it his right away, and the obvious first job was lowering the car and ditching the skinny tires. Pete says, “Jim Breazeale at European Auto Salvage Yard [EASY] proved an invaluable help here on said high school budget. Many hours were spent scouring his warehouse for better parts than those on the car.”
The car remained a daily driver for the next few years, which meant projects had to be done quickly – the 914 served as transportation not only to El Cerrito High, but jobs at Toys R Us and, later, Costco. In fact, Pete shared with a chuckle that he once went on a date in San Francisco with five-lug wheels on one side and four-lug wheels on the other; “she didn’t even notice!”
For college abuse, Pete purchased a K-platform Plymouth Reliant for the princely sum of one whole dollar, which made the 914 a second car – sort of. The truth was, he couldn’t afford to drive the 914 in college, but the Plymouth would eventually teach him what anyone who has purchased a daily driver to supplement their project car knows: Just having something else to get to work makes all the difference.
After college, the 914 remained a fun car for five years or so, but it resumed daily-driver duties for about a year after Pete married his wife Rebekah, who ended up in Pete’s first new car, a 2003 WRX.
Today, Rebekah handles important duties at 000: they call her ‘The Money’. Besides that brief period, the 914 has since been a pampered second-stringer. Thus, around 2008, Pete began what he thought would be a quick repaint, which ended up triggering a chain reaction that might feel familiar.
He says the “new paint made the trim look bad, new trim made the Fuchs look tired, refinished Fuchs made the calipers look bad, a brake rebuild and upgrade prompted a complete suspension rebuild.” And finally, this tight new suspension setup caused Pete to cast a second look toward the mid-mounted engine in his quest for a better driving experience on California’s splendid back roads. Particularly after Rebekah remarked that it still sounded like a tractor.
Six Swap
Even before Pete went on this quest for more power, the 914 1.7-liter was a formidable foe. He thinks back to a night just over two decades ago, when 000 co-founder Alex Palevsky and a mutual friend of theirs came over from San Francisco for a tour of the East Bay’s best driving roads high over UC Berkeley. The roster included an E36 M3 and a 993 Turbo; then “glassy-eyed stuff,” Pete says of the latter’s 400-odd horsepower. He parked his 914 at the base of the mountain, “because it was a tractor,” ready to hitch a ride in one of his friends’ modern sports cars.
To Pete’s surprise they resisted: ‘No no, we want to follow you.’ And what an educational night it became.
All three were fair drivers, with many fast-paced miles under their belts but still in their early 20s. Although Pete had the advantage of knowing these particular roads, he was very (very, very) down on horsepower. A three-to-one advantage went to the E36, and a five-to-one advantage to the 993. And yet the lightweight mid-engined platform served to shock them all as it managed to keep pace all night. Each driver rotated, and each member of the trio came away with an appreciation for how much speed you could carry in the 914, and how much confidence the chassis inspired. A ‘70s car with 80 horsepower had no business being this fast.
Fast-forward to around a decade ago, when a new character enters our story: John Holleran. Pete had met John while digging around in the EASY lot during his high school years, and John, a student at Pinole Valley High School at the time, performed a six-swap on his own 914 after the hot-rodded four he had gave up the ghost. This made a big impression on young Pete back then, and therefore John was the one Pete called before signing the paperwork to have his own engine replaced with a built-up Type IV. “Am I crazy to spend five figures on a Volkswagen engine?” Pete asked. John ended up putting in a good word about the builder Pete was going with, so all seemed well.
Then, a call back the following day threw the best of monkey wrenches in Pete’s well-laid plan. John’s friendly voice on the other end of a second-gen iPhone said, “Have you called the guy yet? Because I have a bunch of parts I’ve been saving for a conversion that isn’t going to happen, and I hate eBay and I hate Craigslist…”
Pete would need to supply a set of carburetors, an air box, engine mounts, engine tins, a tachometer, an exhaust, and a number of other parts, but John had most of the big pieces. Namely, an unstressed engine case that was pulled from a stock 911T, a nice set of used Mahle pistons and cylinders he’d been holding onto, a new old stock oil tank, and more.
John ended up building and installing the 2.2-liter flat-six that’s in the car today, which he worked on during weekends and nights when time was available. Pete helped as he could, and wishes he could have been more involved. “It was really neat to be doing this with someone your age, who you’ve known since high school, and who came up in the same school district you did,” Pete says. “We were acquaintances then; we are friends now.”
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The six made good use of the Mahle pistons and cylinders; the compression ratio was bumped up, work was performed on the cylinder heads, and Solex camshafts were utilized. Exhaust headers mean the air-cooled car has no heater in the cabin -something Pete hopes to get around to – but the sound out the Dansk sport muffler seems a nice trade if you ask me.
Further aiding in this fantastic sound is a set of Weber triple-throat carburetors from the classified ads on Pelican Parts. Hidden under the air cleaner you’ll find a crank-fire ignition system with a mix of older Electromotive components and newer bits from Clewett Engineering. It was all made to fit using a Rich Johnson 914-6 engine tin and mount set, and power is transferred to the rear wheels through a lightweight flywheel and a rebuilt 5-speed dogleg 901 manual transmission. How much power, you might ask?
With the factory air box removed for tuning, the six produced 169.9whp at RPM Engineering in Santa Rosa, or more than double what the old 1.7-liter could do at the crank. Pete, who was hoping for 160-170hp at the crank, as much as a stock 2.2-liter 911E might make, was thrilled, though he says the engine lost 20hp with the air box back in place and only gained 12 of it back when the air filter was removed. The air box (seen above cast aside in the grass to expose those glorious carburetors) has since been updated with a GT3 Cup-style intake, but Pete isn’t sure what the final horsepower number is and doesn’t seem all that concerned: “It’s driveable, with great midrange torque for such a small engine – and that’s a lot more important than peak power numbers.”
The added power came at the cost of around 100-120 extra pounds compared to the Type IV, which Pete was initially leery about; “I liked the philosophical aspect of the lighter engine,” he says. However, in driving the car, you can tell that all of that weight is added exactly where you want it.
Bits & Pieces
Weighing an estimated 2,150lbs, the car feels amazingly balanced as you feather the throttle around a corner. It feels good on hard braking and wide open on a straight, too, but the most amazing sensation in this car is hitting an apex at speed. You can imagine that this is made even better by the fantastic sound that follows as the Webers go to work, and every moment of the driving experience is special.
This is thanks to a few major things that Pete has done over the years, paired with hundreds of finite adjustments. Take Pete’s lug nuts for an example of the latter, which are factory aluminum pieces from a 911 that were re-anodized in gray after their tops were cut off and the resulting edges chamfered.
The five-lug suspension is a mix of early 911 and 914-6 gear, which Pete found in the Richmond Classified Flea Market in 1992, and drove out to Modesto to get. This setup was accompanied by Bilstein HDs when I drove it, but Pete says he’s going to switch back to Koni Specials (AKA reds). Apparently they feel even better, so I might need to go for another drive to make sure Pete isn’t making things up.
Five-lug ‘Deep Six’ Fuchs were poached from EASY, also during high school, and have since been refinished by Harvey Weidman to resemble the unfinished look seen on some of Porsche’s customer race cars in the late ‘60s. The 15×6-inch wheels wear 185/60R15 Avon CR6ZZ rubber, popular among vintage racers and incredibly confidence-inspiring during spirited backroad driving.
Braking is provided by a set of period Brembo aluminum front calipers paired with ventilated early-911 rotors and stock aluminum hubs. These calipers were polished before being clear-anodized and rebuilt by Eric Shea at PMB Performance, while the stock ATE rear set were cadmium-plated in silver.
The Aura
This incremental approach was applied to the exterior as well, which while appearing stock at quick glance sports 30-odd modifications. The most obvious are the earlier and more attractive guard-less bumpers, Hella H4 headlights with black surrounds, Euro taillights and turn signal lenses, and the lack of US-market side markers.
The antenna has been removed along with the Porsche lettering on the engine grille, while a Euro ‘914 VW Porsche’ badge has been added at the rear. A fiberglass rear valance serves to save weight and delete the stock single-exit exhaust. There’s an LE-style front air dam, and a couple dozen other little items that make this car Pete’s.
Pete shared that back in the ‘90s when the car became his, he wanted to find a 916 body kit. “Everyone was trying to make their 914 look unlike a 914,” he explains, further expanding that he’s thankful now that he couldn’t afford to do that at the time. Instead, Pete “caught a vision” of the car mostly stock, low, and with the right wheel/tire setup. I’d say this has been executed to a T, and then some.
Touching on that unique 914 style, Pete is glad that the car is finally valued for what it is: “Super spare, super simple; alternative thinking and design – things that I’ve come to realize were in line with the mid-century movement.”
Mildly side-tracked but curiously on-topic, Pete continued by talking Eichler houses: “A new design movement might be popular early on – or not – but it often fades, especially [when] groundbreaking… If, after 20 or 30 years of deep undesirability it comes back, it’s often here to stay.” In a nutshell, this describes the cycle of the 914, and Eichlers, perfectly.
“A lot of mid-century houses, including the one we moved into a few years ago, were built to bring good design to the masses,” says Pete. “The same is true of the 914, and it was very advanced for its day… in a lot of ways. What’s funny is that something that wasn’t particularly special, or at least wasn’t considered as such back then can change over time – or at least the way we approach it can change. This car wasn’t a special model, and doesn’t have a special VIN. And yet it keeps reminding me that you don’t need that to have a lot of fun out on the road. If anything, it reminds me that stuff can actually get in the way of having a lot of fun out on the road.”
Inside the cabin there are many details that remain from Pete’s high school days. For example, he admits that he’d prefer clean door panels, which he cut for speakers, but also says “the parts that were there back then” are becoming more important to him over time.
There are little scratches on some of the trim, scratches likely made by Pete, a friend of Pete’s, or maybe even his older brother who used the car before him. Each of these imperfections contains a story, and while the car might be improved by erasing them, you’d actually lose something in the process. Through and through this is Pete’s car, and like everything else he’s updated the interior where he sees fit rather than as an exercise of perfectionism.
The dashboard was replaced with a nicer used one, and EASY came through once again with a used carpet set. Seats from GTS Classics feature heating elements (but have since been replaced with period Scheel seats), an early Prototipo-style steering wheel has been installed, and the center console has been removed altogether. Pete says the Weltmeister short-shift kit was “purchased used from EASY in high school and installed in a Costco parking lot on my lunch break. Still there, still works. A lot of people give the 901 a hard time, but this one shifted beautifully once I’d gone through it – and it got better when Holleran was finished with the conversion. It’s no GT4 shifter, but I’ve never missed a shift, never had an issue with it.”
Revelations
It’s a focused build that has been honed over the decades, and it feels that way behind the wheel. Asking Pete about the purpose behind the project as a whole, he replies, “While the car has been on track, has been autocrossed, and has been rallied, the purpose of the rebuild was none of the above; it’s just meant to be something fun to drive on the backroads of California.”
And what a fantastic job Pete has done in that regard. The chassis inspires such profound confidence and allows you to push it so much closer to the limit than possible in other cars.
Since driving Pete’s 914, I took out a pair of vintage 911s for some contrast. They were both incredibly compelling cars in their own right, but they were more of a battle to wrangle around. The feedback was fantastic, and I felt very close to the road in both. Naturally, the unsettling feeling of the rear engine would dissipate over time, but – like the trio of young drivers experienced in their M3, Turbo, and this very car two decades ago – the 914 was a revelation. If I had to pick between a period 911 and a 914 on experience alone, it’d have to be the latter. The 914 just does precisely what you want, exactly when you want it. Right away it felt like an old shoe in the best of ways.
For additional contrast, the same can nearly be said of Pete’s 991.2 after driving it, but not quite. It’s all relative, and in newer 911 you do feel like you’re part of the car, at least compared to, say, an F82 M4. But in the 991, especially when driving it immediately after the 914, there was just a disappointing lack of feedback. The car felt strangely heavy despite being plenty powerful, the steering was oddly light, and the ceramic-composite brakes served to chuck us all toward the windshield due to my unrefined right foot. Sure, the 991 stops on a dime, it’s crisp, and it’s even fairly practical. But naturally, in modernizing the 911, its rawness has been lost.
Yes, the drive in the 991 was great, but the sensations were not entirely memorable. On the other hand, I won’t soon forget the sensation of feeling out the heavy brake pedal, the weighty steering, bumpy ride, and magical center of gravity in Pete’s 914. Looking over the silver-dot VDO gauges as I ate up the miles, high on the sound of that sensational six. It doesn’t get better.
Speaking of gauges, Pete had no use for a certain VDO clock that I noticed sitting on his workbench during a separate visit. He saw me coveting it in his garage and, presumably on a whim, said I could have it. I refused; he insisted. As did my better half. As Sara and I took the clock from his hands there was something fleeting that danced behind Pete’s smile. I was taking a piece of the story with me, a clock gifted to Pete out of a mentor’s garage years ago. “Some gifts are meant to stay in motion – just don’t let it change what you write.”
That VDO clock now resides on my desk, adapted to run off AC power, ticking away as I work each day, tracking me through the hours. And oft-times when I glance at it, I’ll consequently find myself briefly lost in thought. When will Porsche build a proper toy from the ground up again? Will any car in the future be able to strike me in the same way that Pete’s 914 did? Will I have the pleasure of finding myself behind the wheel again? Will I get my own? Only time will tell.
“Been thinking about your story, and if there’s one thing I’d love to convey to your readers – especially younger ones – it’s that you don’t need a car that’s ‘special’ or ‘cool’ or ‘valuable’ in the eyes of others or ‘the market.’ It’s about how far a sports car – any sports car – can take you if you’re willing to persevere. My 914 was a $3,000 used car 30-40 years ago, and the butt of plenty of jokes. Today its obvious parallel is a decent early Boxster for $5,000-$8,000. The liability with the 914 was structural rust, and still is, where it’s mechanical with a 986.
But look where that $3,000 used car eventually took a punk kid, 30 years later. Where might an old 986 take someone?
— Pete Stout
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Time is always the enemy of any motorsport project.
From grassroots to the very top of the game, there isn’t an engineer or car builder anywhere in the world that wouldn’t appreciate just a little bit more time. I don’t believe there’s a motorsport (which I’ve encountered anyway) where builds have not come down right to the wire.
This isn’t a reflection on poor time management (although sometimes it is), but rather trying to make the most of every last available day, hour, minute and second.
When James Deane received his invitation to compete in the 2021 Russian Drift Series (RDS) late last year, it was known from the get-go that time most certainly wouldn’t be on his side. James would have just 10 weeks in total to build a car from the ground up before shipping it to Mother Russia to compete alongside his new Aimol teammates, Daigo Saito and Charles Ng.
Unlike other pro drivers, this wouldn’t be a case of sending a bank transfer or a briefcase full of cash to a workshop and picking a new car up at some stage in the future. James, his family and his team are hands-on with all of his cars, and with the exception of the paint, roll cage and wiring, this build was completed at home.
Ultimately, James only needed nine weeks to create his interpretation of the ultimate S-chassis pro drift car.
Delivery of a standard S14 shell was taken in late December, but work didn’t commence on the car until January 4th, 70 days from when it was due to be loaded into a container.
Progress began with removing the sound deadening with dry ice before creating the front and rear tubs, stitch-welding the chassis and having a custom cage crafted to suit James’ seat position relative to his height. In addition to this, the seams of the shell were sealed to prevent tyre smoke ingress into the cabin.
By January 24th, 20 days later, the fabrication of the shell was completed and it was sent for paint. With Ireland in a Level 5 lockdown, the one upside is that there was little choice but to stay inside and work on preparing the car.
There’s a reason why an S-chassis was chosen and it’s almost entirely down to James’ familiarity with them and the availability of parts.
“It’s an S-chassis; we know what we want to do. We learned a lot over the years. I’ve had all my ideas that I wanted to change and improve with this car over the other cars, and it definitely makes things a lot faster when you know the plan,” James said.
On February 1st, with 42 days before the Nissan was due to ship, assembly of the car resumed when it returned from paint. Ordinarily, this would be the ‘LEGO’ stage of the build, with the bulk of the hard work completed. However, the combination of a pandemic and Brexit has thrown international shipping to Ireland into complete disarray, with parcels which would normally arrive the same week taking much, much longer, if they turned up at all.
While waiting for parts to arrive, the team took to creating a spares package for the car along with installing the parts they did have to hand.
As you can probably guess (or if you were following the build on James’ YouTube channel) , the car did come together in time, even with a few days to spare. Just about enough for a single shakedown and test session at an eerily quiet Mondello Park, where I caught up with guys for the first time in nearly a year.
That the car was built from the ground up in just 64 days is impressive, particularly when you’re dealing with drifting’s more relaxed rulebook and regulations. Because there’s always going to be the temptation to try and seek out more performance, or exploit a loophole somewhere in order to find whatever competitive advantage that can be found.
The risk with this is introducing unnecessary complication, which might require further development at the expense of competitive edge. There’s no guarantee that said risk will provide a reward, either.
The (not so) secret with this car – and something which is common to James’ builds – is the relative simplicity of it all. It has been a similar story with his Europe and Middle East-dominating S14A, and the Worthouse S15s also shared this mantra.
That this photograph was captured on James’ very first run in this car should tell you everything you need to know about the benefits of a proven package and keeping things simple.
Straight off the trailer, fluids warmed, and backwards into the hairpin on Mondello’s school course – a feat that James would repeat again and again throughout the afternoon of what turned out to be a flawless test.
But what exactly does ‘simplicity’ mean in this case? I’m sure that anyone with even a passing interest in drifting could probably take an accurate enough stab at the car’s specification: 2JZ, sequential, Wisefab and a quick-change rear end.
It’s a bit reductionist to reduce the car down to just those terms, but while they’re not inaccurate, they do sell the car short. Contemporary pro drift cars are impressive machines, even to non-drift enthusiasts.
The motor is a DeaneMSPORT stock-stroke 3.0-litre 2JZ-GTE with a BorgWarner EFR 9275. At 1.0bar (14.7psi) of boost, the engine made 650hp on early runs, and by the time it was tuned to its potential, it made significantly more. This is currently without nitrous oxide, although James has said that they will consider adding the power-making gas if required later in the season.
Suspension-wise, the car is fitted with BC Racing ER Series coilovers with external reservoirs (3-way adjustable in the rear, 2-way adjustable up front) along with the updated Wisefab front and rear kit which sees improvements in strength and trackside adjustment, and new rear compression arms which have been designed to absorb any crash impacts.
For a modern drift car, it sits so well. Remember the early days of extra lock kits and the comedy levels of front poke?
Fitment and ride height were not insignificant factors for the build, as James wanted the car to sit just right. Suspension, wheel sizes and ride height are part of this, but the bodywork which covers the wheels is just as important.
Having experienced the luxury of carbon-Kevlar on his Eurofighter, this was the first certainty of the build. In fact, this carbon-Kevlar S15 conversion bodykit for the S14 by Mspek Performance in the US decided the chassis for the whole build. The original plan was to use an S15, but there’s currently no suitable carbon-Kevlar kits available. I think there’s something authentically Japanese about front and rear conversions on an S-chassis.
The benefits to carbon-Kevlar are significant. Weight is one part of the equation, with the front bumper and two front fenders weighing half that of a normal fibreglass S14 bumper alone (3kg versus 6kg). The other is the material’s proven resilience against impacts and abrasions. As a perfect example, James’ Eurofighter is still wearing its original HGK kit, despite having had a 50mph impact with a wall at the Drift Masters European Championship finale in 2019.
With the RDS having a tyre size limit of 265-section, minimising weight and prioritising its distribution played a key role in the car’s development. In a right-hand drive Silvia, you have the weight of the driver, steering, turbo, exhaust manifold and wastegates on the same side of the car.
To try and counteract this, the quick-fill Radium fuel cell with its integrated swirl pit, lift pump and two main pumps, along with the radiator, water pump and coolant header tank are located at the rear and rear-left side of the car where possible.
This meant that the custom titanium exhaust system had to dump on the driver’s side. Because fire and fuel don’t work all that well together.
From a transmission perspective, James is using the new Samsonas RS90 sequential gearbox, rated to 2,000hp with 4mm wider gears, 2mm wider dog rings, and an internal oil pump for improved lubrication.
The axles are Wisefab’s 1,500hp-rated Dynamic Axles which can twist to 90-degrees and feature CV joints with 45-degrees of deflection; ideal for low drift cars that squat and jump.
The interior is as expected – no frills and all business. A lone carbon fibre Corbeau Revenge seat with matching 6-point HANS-compatible harnesses, sequential lever, a D-MAC handbrake, PT Motorsport switch panel, and an ECUMaster display.
Beneath the custom carbon fibre S15 dashboard lies one of two ECUMaster PMU-16AS, with the other located behind the passenger side B-pillar along with the plumbed-in fire extinguisher.
It might be a drift car as you know it, but it doesn’t make it any less impressive. Especially for a car which has come together in such short time.
The Silvia has already been loaded into its container, along with its spares and 280 tyres for the entire RDS season. When it arrives in Russia, it will be wrapped in its team colours for the season, before taking on the unknown of a new championship along with the first FIA Intercontinental Drifting Cup to take place outside of Japan.
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If anything, it’s exciting to see James Deane take on new opponents in a new region. In typically understated fashion, he’s just excited to go somewhere he’s never been before, and compete against drivers he might never have met. All I know is that he’s won a championship in every region he has competed in. Time to add another to the list?
Engine: Toyota 2JZ-GTE, ARP main studs, Titan Motorsports billet main caps, ACL Race Series bearings, stock Toyota crankshaft, ATI Damper pulley, BC connecting rods, JE Pistons (10:1 compression ratio), stock Toyota head gasket, BC valves +1mm, BC springs & retainers, BC 276 camshafts, BC adjustable cam pullies, Hypertune intake, G-Garage exhaust manifold, BorgWarner EFR 9274 turbo, Turbosmart external wastegates, FMIC intercooler, K&N air filter, Vibrant Performance custom titanium exhaust, Inovfit PTFE pipe & AN fittings throughout, Davies Craig EWP150 alloy water pump, custom radiator & fan shroud, twin Spal fans, Radium Engineering fuel cell surge tank (FSCT), Turbosmart fuel pressure regulator, Hypertune fuel rail, Injector Dynamics ID1700, Ecumaster EMU Black engine control unit, 2x Ecumaster PMU AS power management unit x2, Ecumaster ADU advanced display unit, DC Power 2JZ 240amp alternator, PT Motorsport Electrics custom wiring harness
Body & Chassis: Mspek Performance carbon-Kevlar S15 conversion kit, Big Country Labs 1850 carbon wing, BC Racing 3-way adjustable custom coilovers on rear, BC Racing 2-way adjustable custom coilovers on front, Wisefab S-chassis front angle kit & rear drop knuckle kit, Alcon brakes front & rear Rear, Group D hydraulic handbrake
A Civic Modified One Lesson At A Time – Speedhunters
SHARE A Civic Modified One Lesson At A Time
I’m going to go ahead and say that next to catastrophe-driven resurrections and family heirloom stories, tales about unintentional builds are some of my favorite.
Because while anyone can build a car with a clear end vision in mind and a well-crafted shopping list of parts, it takes a special individual to start with no real direction and still end up with something incredibly purpose built.
There are countless four-door Civic race cars that exist today, but remarkable lap times were never Honda’s true intention for the responsibility-oriented, D-series-equipped cars. But, even in their lowliest form, ‘golden era’ Hondas have always been fun to drive.
The ‘ricer’ era proved that it’s easy to take these cars left, but with decent prodding you can also take them very right. This car, from wing to front spoiler is done right.
As the intro alludes, this didn’t happen overnight. Nor did it happen by following a gospel written by tuners running the streets of LA or Japan. Its current state of being is the result of 10 years of fettling with lower lap times in mind.
Have You Ever Heard Of Autocross?
When Chris Acosta bought his EJ6 Civic sedan, it was the first car of nine he’d owned by that point to actually hit the road. Previously, he bought almost anything that he came across with a conservative price tag. He’d fix these cars up a bit before selling them, and then do it all over again.
Life and family responsibilities eventually intervened though, and Chris found himself in need of his own reliable method of transportation.
“I had a job mostly to pay for insurance,” Chris explained, describing the early days of owning the Civic. Between errands he found time to give it a small drop, some Enkei wheels and a few other small modifications. Nothing extreme, but just enough to stand out from the other Civics running the rat race.
The Honda stood out to the point where a co-worker took notice and one day at lunch asked a bit of a loaded question: ‘Have you ever heard of autocross?’ That was a Monday; the following Saturday Chris pulled up to a closed parking lot full of cones “not really knowing what I was getting myself into.”
Chris’s co-worker happened to be part of the Porsche Club of America and a well-respected member of the local autocross community. Impressed that he showed at all, he saw to it that Chris got a proper introduction to performance driving.
After a few laps with an instructor, Chris was hooked. Autocross proved to be the perfect introduction to motorsport in general, and at an affordable cost.
Like most, Chris was eager to get knee-deep in modifications, but several people suggested he value seat time over wrench time.
“If you drive a car enough, it will tell you what it lacks. Rather than doing thing twice, I’d listen to the car and act on that,” he says in retrospect.
Time To Think
After a handful of years running autocross and a few modifications along the way, Chris followed an invite to a lapping day. Again, it was a well-organized event, and the groupings placed like drivers together, mitigating the risk to everyone involved.
Chris can’t stress enough how appreciative he is of his local racing community for guiding him along the way. Each lap day was a learning experience, and the community was more than willing to share their knowledge when it came to car set-up and driving style.
During his first track day, a fellow Civic driver was surprised to see the D-series engine still under the hood of Chris’s car. ‘You’re going to have a whole lot of time on the back straight to think about swapping to a B-series,’ he said with a smirk before heading out for his own session.
No lies detected, the D-series, while faithful, revealed that despite being solid enough for a tight autocross course, didn’t have much to offer on a longer track. In the engine bay now is a ’98-spec’ Integra Type R B18C engine. On the induction side, a 70mm throttle body has been paired with a port-matched Integra Type R manifold; on the exhaust side, a Spoon Sports header runs into a Spoon N1 axle-back system.
A Fidanza 7.5lb flywheel and Exedy clutch transfers the power to the transmission, which itself had been fitted with a GearX 4.9 straight-cut final drive and Synchrotech carbon synchro kit.
An autocross background fostered an appreciation for momentum over horsepower, so naturally the engine remains NA. Further performance gains were sought in the simplest way possible – by removing weight.
The interior has been stripped almost entirely. A lone Spoon Sports bucket seat sits on a PCI bracket, and a Takata Racing harness keeps Chris strapped in behind a Spoon Sports Gen2 steering wheel.
The factory tachometer has been replaced with an Omnipower equivalent, which has seen its needle pegged all the way past 11,000rpm after an accidental full-throttle 4th to 3rd gear shift at Limerock Raceway. Pulling off the track after the mishap, Chris let the engine idle cool, keeping a close eye on the matching AEM oil pressure and air/fuel ratio gauges.
No harm no foul; the motor turned out to be OK, and it’s the same motor still in the car today.
Still A Street Car
While the Civic most certainly has race car mannerisms, it is still license-plated and registered in its hometown of New York. One of the key components that allows this car to remain legal on the streets is a roll cage that’s functional but not too obtrusive.
Chris drew the 8-point cage himself and had Soul of the Street take his design and make it reality within the specifications for the various series he competes. Once it was complete, the cage and engine bay were painted Frost White to match the exterior.
The RAYS Volk Racing wheels are – if there was any question – green TE37s wrapped in 205/50R15 Toyo Proxes R888R tires. Ground Control Special Purpose coilovers specced with 900lb/sq-in front and 700lb/sq-in rear springs keep the tires mostly away from the fenders.
Again, driving style and miles behind the wheel have seen various suspension reinforcements enter the equation. The front and rear strut bars are Spoon items, while the OEM Civic Type R parts bin was pilfered for lower control arms, shock forks, and a 26mm sway bar. Energy Suspension bushings are used throughout.
Finally, behind the 15s are Alcon 4-pot brakes equipped with Hawk Performance pads.
Overall, much like the rest of the car, the exterior is a combination of higher-trim Honda OEM parts and track-proven accessories. Beneath the JDM Honda Civic SiR front lip is a homemade plywood front splitter, while JDM SiR headlights can also be found up front guiding the way. Professional Awesome hood louvers help with engine temps, as does a Shelby GT500 heat exchanger and a C&R Racing three-quarter-size radiator with 14-inch fan.
Hanging off the carbon fiber trunk is a Spoon Sports GT wing that’s the final exclamation point on a truly sorted vehicle.
The motorsports racing itch has led Chris to a point that he’s considering a rear-wheel drive project next. If he does go this way though, the Civic won’t be replaced – it has too much sentimental value now.
From rides with his father to track days with his wife Nicole by his side, no amount of money or rear-wheel temptation could persuade Chris to part with his beloved Honda. A FR car would be an addition to the stable rather than a swap.
A decade into an incredible journey with an honest car, Chris thanks his parents, in-laws, and wife for their support along the way. The car also wouldn’t have come together without Eddie Valez, Mill hatch, Tom and the guys at Full Throttle NYC, and his cousin David. “I’m sure I have forgot a few who helped me get to where I am today, but I am forever grateful to anyone that’s helped.”
Forcing Three Into Two: A Triple-Turbo Diesel BMW 2 Series – Speedhunters
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Gary Martins’ family has been involved with BMWs for many years, owning both dealerships and workshops in South Africa. Gary has personally being involved with the brand since 2001, and among many things is a BMW Master Technician.
When Gary decided to open his shop, Grease Monkey Motor Garage, in 2016, he worked on anything that came through the doors. His real passion, however, was diesel-powered cars. So while the subject of this story surely doesn’t look like – and definitely doesn’t go like – a coal-rolling 2016 BMW F22 220d M Sport, that’s exactly what it started life as.
After purchasing the coupe stock, it wasn’t long before Gary became bored of its 188hp 2.0L turbo-diesel engine. He started wondering what life would be like if BMW had produced a high-power diesel version of the popular M2…
Gary’s imagination quickly got the better of him, and after coming across an X6 M50d triple-turbo engine as well as OEM front fenders and a front bumper from an M2 for sale, the future of his 220d was written.
The front left M2 fender had some light cosmetic damage, but that was quickly fixed. Gary couldn’t find original pumped M2 rear fenders or a rear bumper though, so those items were all custom made. After everything was fitted and properly gapped, the car received a full respray in matte Daytona Grey.
On top of the OEM and OEM-style bodywork upgrades, BMW Adaptive LED headlights were retrofitted, and FSU Developments custom-made a carbon fiber hood and front lip. In the rear, LED tails and an FSU boot lid and rear wing were also added.
For wheels, Gary’s fitted up a set of Asanti Athena wheels measuring 20×8.5-inch in the front and 20×10-inch in the rear, all wrapped up in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres sized 255/30R20 and 295/25R20 respectively.
While the exterior certainly looks the part, under the hood a function-first approach has been taken. Gary says that a lot of work went into the engine conversion, getting it to physically fit in the first place a real challenge. Because with three turbochargers and everything that goes with them in the mix, the 3.0L inline-six turbo-diesel unit isn’t small. The lack of space also necessitated a full custom radiator setup to keep it cool.
Prior to the install, Gary went on a ceramic-coating spree and upgraded the turbos with hybrid units. He also fitted a huge custom intercooler behind the grille, Cool Boost Systems water/methanol injection, and a Nitrous Express (NX) kit. On the exhaust side you’ll find a 86mm straight-pipe stainless steel system that exits through quad Akrapovič tips.
After a custom tune (by Gary himself), a power and torque output of 610hp and 1,070Nm on 3.2bar (47psi) boost pressure was realised. Transferring those numbers to the road – or at least trying to – is an F30 330d automatic gearbox (with custom ECU tune), and an LSD-equipped F30 330d differential.
With more that three times the original power of the 220d, the standard suspension and brakes weren’t going to cut it. To solve this issue, BC Racing coilovers, adjustable stabiliser links, Powerflex bushings, and BMW F10 M5 front brakes plus M2 rear brakes with (Endless race compound pads all around) were fitted.
Likewise, the original 220d interior needed some work. It may look race-themed, but the car actually sees plenty of track day action, hence the half cage and Sabelt seat and harness to keep Gary secured and safe.
The cabin also features a BMW M steering wheel, late-model digital cluster and iDrive system with widescreen monitor, an NX touchscreen display, and AEM boost and GlowShift nitrous pressure gauges.
It may have started as a random idea, but what’s been created is testament to the skills of Gary and Grease Monkey Motor Garage.
One goal was to have the car ready to race at the Knysna Hillclimb in 2020. It was, but of course COVID ruined the opportunity to compete. If it happens this year, I’ll definitely be there to see this oil-burner smoke its tires on the start line, and quite likely the rest of the way up the hill too.
Stefan Kotzé Instagram:stefankotzephoto info@stefankotze.com www.stefankotze.com
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Back in 2013, we took a quick look at a Mercedes-Benz 190 E after seeing it in action at Gatebil Mantorp in Sweden. Being Gatebil (and Scandinavia), of course it wasn’t your average W201 – this one had been set up to go sideways.
The unique Team Lovetap drift machine grabbed a lot of attention wherever its owner Mårten Stångber took the car, so when it came time to step up to a newer platform in late 2014, he knew exactly what badge it should wear out front.
A rulebook change for sanctioned Swedish drift events was the main catalyst for Mårten to retire the 190. Essentially, his Mercedes’ rear suspension towers had been completely rebuilt, and a new ruling didn’t permit the modifications he had made. A new chassis was needed.
“After looking through the usual options – Nissan S14, Toyota Soarer, and some other popular drift alternatives – I stumbled across Sarto Racing’s freshly released Mercedes CLK featuring a Rocket Bunny collaboration wide-body kit, and that opened up my eyes for the W209 body,” says Mårten. “I did my research and after finding the CLK 63 AMG Black Series, I knew this would be the platform I wanted to build upon. It had a very similar chassis to my 190 but a better front end suspension, so I was optimistic about its potential as a drift car.”
Initially, Mårten looked locally for a suitable W209 base, but when the right car hadn’t turned up after a couple of months, he expanded his search overseas.
“I decided to look in England due to low pricing and the fact that their cars didn’t have underseal, which would make chassis prep easier,” says Mårten. “I ended up finding a completely stock 2003 Mercedes CLK 270 CDI on eBay and placed a bid with just two minutes left in the auction. This was my first time ever bidding on eBay and I won.”
Once the sale had been confirmed, Mårten booked a flight to England for himself and a friend, where the CLK was picked up and driven back home to Sweden. It ran flawlessly during the journey through France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, and Mårten even waited a whole day before he began to strip it right down to a bare shell.
Although the 190 was an unconventional drift car, one of the surprising aspects was its engine. In almost un-Gatebil fashion, it hadn’t been swapped for a Toyota 2JZ, an American V8, or something from the Volvo parts bin – it was all Mercedes-Benz. Well, Mercedes-AMG… with the bonus of an Eaton supercharger strapped to its side.
“After building my 190 drift car, I quickly learned how well-engineered Mercedes-Benz engines are,” says Mårten. “They seem to be overlooked when it comes to the drifting and tuning scene, which is both good and bad. Because while it might be cheaper and easier to find a Mercedes engine in the first place, it’s not easy to find quality parts for them, so you either have to fabricate them or custom order them yourself.”
On the flip side, Mårten is quick to praise their out-of-the-box reliability, even with a lot of horsepower in play. “The engine that we currently run in the CLK [M104 3.2L inline six] is still on stock pistons, crank, cylinder head, valves, springs. Internally, the only upgrades we’ve made are forged rods, different bearings, a support girdle, ARP head bolts, and a head gasket to be able to produce over 800hp at the wheels.”
Ancillary modifications include a BorgWarner EFR 9180 turbocharger, Nuke Performance/Pyrotect fuel cell, dual DeatschWerks fuel pumps, Bosch Motorsport 2,200cc injectors, an Emtron KV8 engine management system, and a custom Auto Verdi dry sump system. This all adds up to a dyno proven 846whp and 975wNm.
Getting the power to the ground is a 200mm Sachs Motorsport clutch and Tenaci Motorsport flywheel, 4-speed Tex Racing T101A dog box, and a BMW E34 differential with custom axles. The suspension meanwhile is built around KW Competition coilovers (2-way front and 3-way rear).
A lot of time went into getting the NASCAR-spec transmission to work with the M104 engine, and likewise the steering threw up some big challenges. A custom solution was required, and that resulted in a one-off kit with 55-degrees of steering angle.
In the wheel and tire department, Mårten opted for Cosmis Racing XT-206Rs in 18×9.5-inch +10 (front) and 18×11-inch +8 (rear) sizing with 225/40R18 and 265/35R18 rubber respectively. Through the front spokes you can catch a glimpse of the Mercedes-Benz S600 6-piston calipers and 345mm discs, while the rear features S500 2-piston calipers with 298mm discs.
One of the coolest aspects of this car is the custom wide-body kit, as designed by SeidoWorks in Sweden. This marries up with custom FRP hood, fenders, doors, trunk lid, and quarter panels, and is finished off with a livery by Lituta Motorsport Graphics.
Inside, it’s all business with a custom 6-point roll cage and Sparco Evo 2 seats running TAKATA Racing 6-point harness belts, plus all the other motorsport upgrades you expect to find in a pro-spec drift machine.
While Mårten did a lot of the work designing and building this CLK drift weapon himself, he’s quick to offer credit where it’s due. “The car would never have been completed if I had done everything myself. The team members and my partners have played a key role in making this car a reality. The team have worked their asses off all these years and kept me motivated throughout the entire process; my partners have supported the build with parts and invaluable knowledge. We encountered so many problems along the way, but somehow we managed to get through it all together, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.”
While the car was first shaken down in April 2016, it’s always evolving and there’s still more do. Mårten wants to update the original hand-formed bodykit molds to give the wide-body the finish it deserves, upgrade the wiring with a new motorsport-spec harness, and improve drift-ability with a broader power-band and 8,500rpm rev limit. He’s also looking to add a rear sway bar, set himself up with a bunch of diff ratios to suit different tracks, and fit some custom billet rear knuckles.
And then there’s his other build…
“I have recently started a project that’s been planned for many years. It’s a 1981 Toyota Corolla wagon that’s getting S13 rear suspension, S13 front suspension, widened steel fenders and a Honda K24 engine swap. It’ll be kept N/A to maintain that authentic mechanical feel that a car like this deserves.”
I think it’s safe to say that if the Corolla is half as cool as his 850hp CLK, this surely won’t be the last time you see Mårten Stångber’s name on Speedhunters.
Mårten Thanks: “My good friends and team members Sebastian Simonsson, Stefan Engström, Jesper Jumisko, Joel Haglund, Edvin Olsson, John Lindell, Anders Franzen, Robin Carlsson, Christopher Reinholdsson, Andre Niklasson, Emil Persson, Simon Emanuelsson, Fabian Landelius, Markus Millved, Billy Store, and my dear girlfriend Linda Nielsen. And a lot more people! I’d also like to thank Nuke Performance, Th Pettersson, Autogruppen, Cosmis Racing Wheels, BJP Race, Ecarlsson Steeldesign, KW Suspension, DeatschWerks, Depalma Workwear, Emtron, Tenaci Motorsport, Seidoworks, Svensk Turboservice, Digifi Media, Strömbergs Rör & Svets, Pulverteknik, ATK Driftteknik, MSI Gaming Nordics, Tagene Hjulinställning, Situne.no, WTP Dekor, CarCareProducts.se and Gokartcentralen.”
Frankenstein Lives! An 8-Second V8 Turbo Beetle – Speedhunters
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You’ve lived in the city outskirts your whole life; maybe you’re a bit bored, but have a passion for speed. What do you do? If you’re Joosep Järv from Estonia, you build yourself a badass Volkswagen Beetle drag machine.
Joosep’s inspiration for this build came about after seeing Finnish drag racer Jussi Nurmi blast 10-second quarter-mile passes in his naturally aspirated Type 1. After this, the idea of building a fast VW wouldn’t leave Joosep’s mind, so around a decade ago he bought himself an bare Beetle shell and went to work.
Initially, Joosep used a stock 1,585cc VW motor fitted with an old turbo from a diesel BMW 3 Series. With this power-plant, his Beetle ran 13-second passes on the strip – quick but not nearly quick enough.
Next, Joosep used an air-cooled 2.0L engine from a Transporter T3. With this setup, a pair of turbos taken from two BMW 525tds donor cars were used, but with the extra power came transmission breakages. At this point though, Joosep knew he was headed for quicker ETs.
Joosep could have stuck with the Transporter motor and upgraded the driveline to handle the extra power, but instead he opted for a whole new setup. He picked up an Audi 01E FWD gearbox, and because it’s a bolt-up solution for so many other Audi engines, attached it to a 4.2L V8 from an Audi A8 – the largest motor he could find for his limited budget.
The V8 required a serious amount of custom work to make it fit into the back of the Beetle, but ultimately Joosep made it work. Furthermore, he chopped the body and added a retro-looking split windshield.
Totally stock, the naturally aspirated ABZ engine pushed the Volkswagen to an 11.7-second ET on a slippy and cold concrete strip in October 2016. During the 2016/2017 winter, Joosep added some nitrous to the party, and when the car reemerged the following year he was finally able to claim a 10-second pass with a 10.9 ET.
But why stop there? Now that Joosep had tasted a little victory, he wanted more.
By now the car was lifting its front wheels at launch, so Joosep did what any self-respecting petrol-head would do – he named his team ‘WheelsUp Racing’ and added a turbocharger for more power.
As the car was now running 10s easily, all of a sudden it wasn’t meeting the safety regulations, so the Beetle was brought back into the garage, and a major overhaul that would help take the car into the single-digit ET zone began. Joosep designed his first tube-frame chassis – which weighed only 120kg (265lb) – and the Beetle body was stripped right down until there was only around 60kg (132lb) of metal left. With all components in place – including a lot of fiberglass – Joosep ran 9.0 at 242km/h.
Fast forward to the present day, and WheelsUp Racing are now working on refinements. Aero modifications like a rear wing and a front splitter have been added to aid stability; clutch problems were resolved with a fresh Quarter Master 3-disc unit and 7.5-inch flywheel; and turbo lag was remedied with SQS Racing straight-cut gears in the Audi transmission.
When I met Joosep and his team to shoot this feature, they were participating in one of Estonia’s last drag racing test days of the year. Here they fitted larger slicks out back, and Joosep ran a new personal best quarter-mile pass of 8.83 at 260.8km/h (and a 5.6 at 205km/h on the 1/8th mile)
All of this progress has only made Joosep want to go even faster. The 8-second pass sees him now move out of the ‘Super Comp’ class and into the ‘Outlaw’ class where top competitors run 7-second ETs.
Joosep says that he has a long list of upgrades in mind in order to be competitive. Spending more hours on the dyno this year than racing means that the team have a good understanding of where they are heading.
Right now the still-internally-stock ABZ engine is making 600kW and 1000Nm at the wheels, but this is being achieved with maxed-out boost, injectors, and fuel pumps, so all of them will get an upgrade for the 2021 season. Nitrous will also be added, and for stability, the body will be stretched a little longer.
I have no doubt that Joosep and the whole Wheelsup Racing crew will make a stellar job of this car over the winter, and when this Frankenstein of a Beetle reappears in spring, it’ll easily be one of the most exciting cars on the grid, and ready to go head-to-head with the quickest Estonian drag cars in its class.
Vladimir Ljadov Instagram: wheelsbywovka because@wheelsbywovka.com www.wheelsbywovka.com
