Tuning Japanese

HONDA CIVIC



Eleven years ago, when L.A.'s tuner scene was taking shape, Paul Ho was a punk kid street-racing a crude-but-wicked Honda Civic. Today, at 26, he's in charge of R&D at Injen Technology in Pomona. He still drives a hot-rodded Civic.
But now it's the ultimate expression of the import tuner ethic -- fully customized, it's docile enough to drive on the street, powerful enough to blitz a dragstrip in under 11 seconds.



The first step to a fast Civic: Junk the engine. Ho replaced the stock four in his 1994 Si in favor of the more powerful B18C, a 1.8-liter twin-cam VTEC found in the Acura Integra GS-R. This easy swap is so popular that the B18C has emerged as the small-block Chevy of this new generation of hot-rodders (and, dubiously, has also led to Integra theft rates 2.5 times as high as any other vehicle). Ho blueprinted, balanced, ported his engine -- the traditional go-fast hocus-pocus. But the only way to make real power from 1.8 liters is forced induction. Ho's weapon: a giant turbo mated to an exhaust manifold he designed and welded himself. On the track, boost dialed up to 26 psi, the car makes more than 600 hp.



Ho wanted a sleeper -- a wolf in lamb's clothing, and opted for a restrained JDM look built around a J-spec body kit. Aside from the panoply of gauges and the gutted rear of the cabin, the interior is as subdued as the exterior. As he explains: "I wanted a car that made a lot of power, but still looked really clean, very subtle, almost stock." Close enough.

Car class: Front-wheel-drive dragster. Ho's goal is to create the fastest street-legal Civic in the world, and he will sacrifice anything, including the ability to carry other passengers, to meet that goal.


Most demented improvement: An exhaust manifold Ho designed and welded himself in the hopes of more efficiently powering his turbo. He has
succeeded.


Headturner: Ho wanted a "sleeper" -- fast as hell but you'd never know from the exterior -- but his wicked intercooler instantly blows his cover. Then again, the decals and rear wing don't help much, either.

CUSTOM TO THE CORE



If Non Fujita's 240 is a show car built around racecar components, and Keith Ta's Supra is a show car being transformed into a racecar, then Paul Ho's Honda Civic is a racecar that's sweet enough for the show car scene. The intercooler (1a) and carbon fiber hood (1b) are standard equipment in this company, but Ho also added a carbon-fiber rear wing (1c) and J-spec headlights (1d) for that authentic JDM look. The 1.8-liter VTEC engine (2a), reworked after being lifted from a friend's Integra, has emerged as the de facto engine of choice for Civic tuners. The gargantuan turbo (2b), mated to Ho's custom exhaust manifold (2c), dials from 14 psi of boost on the street to 26 psi on the track. Ho designed, fabricated and welded the exhaust manifold (3) -- the ultimate in customization. He bent mild-steel tubing into equal-length runners, welded the tubes into place, and treated the exhaust headers with a ceramic coating. If serious about your drivetrain, it's not uncommon to mount extra gauges -- water temperature, oil temperature, oil pressure and fuel pressure -- in front of the passenger seat (4a). The ignition box is mounted on the floorboard (4b), as is the launch control (4c), which allows Ho to set his engine speed for racing launches. The turbo boost controller, meanwhile, is hidden inside the glovebox. Ho tracks the boost, air-fuel ratio and exhaust gas temperature using the gauge cluster to the driver's left (5a), though as a practical matter, he doesn't have time to consult them when he's speeding toward his shift-point redline of 9,800 rpm. (That's why God created shift lights.) Note how the rollcage (5b) is artfully routed through the dashboard instead of bent around it.

WHERE'D THEY GET THE GOODS



Car 1994 Honda Civic Si


Engine Honda B18C dohc inline-four (swapped out of an Acura Integra GS-R)


Pistons Arias Pistons, 310-532-9737


Connecting rods Crower Cams & Equipment, 619-422-1191


Camshaft WEB-CAM Racing Cams, 909-369-5144


Ignition MSD Ignition, 915-855-7123


Fuel injection RC Engineering, 310-320-2277


ECU ACCEL, 248-380-2780


Turbocharger GReddy Performance Products, 949-588-8300,


Intercooler A'PEX Integration, 714-685-5700


Intake manifold STR Power


Exhaust manifold Injen Technology (custom), 909-839-0706


Exhaust Injen (custom)


Clutch Advanced Clutch Technology, 661-940-7555


Differential Quaife America, 949-240-4000


Wheels Volk Racing/Mackin Industries, 562-946-6820


Tires Toyo Tires, 800-442-8696 West Coast, 888-444-8696 East Coast


Suspension A'PEXi


Seats Sparco Motor Sports, 800-224-RACE


Harnesses Sparco Gauges GReddy

Preston Lerner, a contributing writer to Automobile and author of the motorsports history Scarab, prefers to race his own Nissan 240SX on tracks with curves.