S2000 Magic

Sorry For The Lack Of Posts The Past Month! Things Have Been Hecktic This End! But To Make Up For It Heres A Selection Of Some Of The SICKEST S2000's Out There!

The First Is The Amuse S2000 GT1 And The Second Is The APR Performance S2000

Two Damn Sweet S2K's If Ever I've Seen! Stormtrooper Out!! :D

EF ing Spectacular!!

When was the last time you saw a really nice EF Civic just out and about driving? Chances are never. For some reason they're almost always really busted-up. There are cars people keep nice and others that are abused and the EF chassis typically falls into the latter category. Sometimes you'll run across the ghetto street racer EF that's fast as hell but uglier than sin. There's also the occasional grandma in her super-cherry Si. Problem is, the EF Civic is so often overlooked, and when it isn't, it's done wrong.

Fortunately there are people out there like Anthony Keever who are still interested in tuning the EF. It's nice to see a younger person take on an older chassis and add some new school flair. This is a far cry from the die-hard mid-to-late 30s EF owners, but Anthony has still retained the old school look. It's old school and new school, JDM and USDM. In other words it's 100% badass!

On the exterior, Anthony decided to make his own shade of gray, leaving out the pearls and metallic that have become increasingly popular in the Honda scene. I've always been a huge fan of flat colored EFs so kudos on the paint! To keep on track with the SiR theme, he added a complete front end along with moldings, rear bumper, rear lip and taillights. To top it off he color matched the moldings and ran a pin stripe - the correct way to paint a SiR. For some reason a huge misconception has grown, most likely due to false info on the net, that SiRs had black moldings. They did not.

To kick up the exterior a bit he added the highly sought after Chargespeed front lip. It's undeniably wicked and adds some aggressiveness to the front end. The mirrors were tossed aside for some Vision MCs, which just like the moldings, were painted correctly. Perched atop the hatch is a Live Sports replica wing. Due to the replica's one-piece design it ironically fits better than the real thing, which is simply an add-on cover for the EF9 SiR wing. The rest of the exterior trim, seals and garnishes were all sourced brand new from Honda for that fresh from the showroom look.

It's funny this super-clean EF started out life like the aforementioned more common variants. Furthermore this often-overlooked chassis was nearly overlooked by Anthony, it was only due to pure luck that the car became what it is today. "The project actually started as my cousin Pat's car" says Keever. "He totaled his first shell just hours after getting it running. The wrecked shell and the GS-R motor sat in his backyard for several months, then after purchasing two other shells and tearing them down he kinda lost his motivation."

At the time Anthony was in the process of tearing down his CR-X, selling his EK and looking for his dream car, the coveted S2000. "The last thing I was looking for was another project." Anthony tells me." But Pat gave a price for the shells, GS-R motor, JDM front and a few other parts he had stashed away that I just couldn't turn down." Keever also came to the realization that many of the parts he was trying to sell from the CR-X would swap over to the hatch and thus the process began.

Once the car was back from paint Anthony attacked the interior and continued the SiR theme. Installing JDM SiR seats is no easy task in a USDM '90-91 model. "A lot of people said it was basically impossible to fit JDM SiR front seats in a USDM '90-91 Civic and have them fully functional. It took a lot of modification but I made it work." Another part that took a lot of modification was the AP1 S2000 gauge cluster retro fit. Although the cluster is from a much newer chassis it looks right at home inside the bezel.

Next up was the engine bay where Keever again mixed old school style with new school tech. A Chasebays engine harness and brake line tuck keep the bay nice and simple. Gold washers and purple nuts were used to accent the bay throughout. The Mugen 4-1 header was installed using titanium cap screws, a nice touch. But the winner in the customized department has to be the EK9 Mugen air box which Anthony disassembled then remolded. The custom fiberglass lower section makes this piece fully-functional.

 

Everyone knows that wheels can make or break any car. This is never more true than with old school cars. But once again Keever came through with a set of white 15" Mugen CF-48 that look amazing on the car. Matching the contrast piping on the moldings these wheels are the icing on the cake. Hopefully this isn't the last time we see the EF tuned by a younger generation. Can the EF make a comeback in 2010? Only time will tell.

 

  

  

  

 

Something To Warm The Blood On The Cold January Mornings

 

 

 

 

Some Very Nice FD2 Type R's 

EK's On Sweet Wheels

 

 

 

 

 

USDM EG's At Their Finest!

   

 

 

A Selection Of Some USDM, EG Civics!!!

Stance Is Everything!!

The world thrives off of controversy. Every time you turn on the television, hop on the internet, or open a periodical, it's in your face. If it doesn't spark the least amount of controversy, people will undoubtedly move on. When it comes to building Hondas, controversy can work for, or against you. Every little detail can and will be scrutinized, and building something outside of the box will often unveil the nastiest of intentions from onlookers. Though most people are generally calm and unassuming as they float through their daily lives, once they log onto the internet, a switch is thrown, and all of a sudden they become a critic. Guys who don't even own a car are suddenly dubbed master car builders in their own minds. Famous sayings like "it needs to be lower" or "it needs a lip and mirrors" are just two examples of the thousands of repetitive criticisms expressed on internet automotive forums. Often times it feels as if forums have become more of a source for ridicule rather than their original intent of providing knowledge to the masses. There's an unspoken standard that's been set and if people step outside of that, or attempt something out of the norm, they're immediately ostracized by their community.

Low offset wheels on Hondas started out as quite a controversial topic when certain individuals began to toy with the idea. Today of course, everyone has seemingly changed their tune on the concept. It's become so popular that wheel companies are making a fortune selling wheels with "dish" to anybody that wants to fill their wheel wells. Phaze2 of Southern Calif. is probably one of the best known car crews to popularize low offset wheels on Hondas, and they continue to push the limits everyday. Sure, they weren't the originators of the idea but they definitely made it "cool" to run aggressive wheel fitment on Hondas. Phaze2 member Arnel Ortiz was the first to truly push the limits on a Honda Civic with a set of 15x8 +10 offset Work Equip 03 wheels. A couple of years ago, it was rare to see a Honda run anything with offsets in the mid-20s. It was a look that blew a lot of minds. If you asked Arnel why the offset craze blew up, he wouldn't even be able to tell you. "My buddy, HeyMikeyyyy had a set of Equip 03 wheels for his Scion and it looked perfect in that sizing. We decided to test them on my Civic and eventually made it fit." Arnel says. Apparently someone else liked the look even more. One fateful February morning in 2008, thieves decided to steal the wheels-along with the rest of the car. The Civic was later found down the street, vandalized and raped of all parts, sitting wheel-less on some rocks. Most would take such an event as a terrible loss and move on. Ortiz opted for a more positive outlook. "It could have been worse," Arnel recalls. "I think I got really lucky that I got the car back in one-piece."

Remarkably, it took only three months to get the car back to its original state. If you didn't know any better, you'd never know that the bad guys had their hands all over the bright red Civic. With a hard lesson learned, Arnel decided that the time had come to store the car instead of commuting it daily. One can only be so lucky and the odds the Civic would be recovered again after another theft were low. This decision also granted Arnel the opportunity to fully transform the hatch to its current state.

Blame it on the thieves or maybe Arnel finally allowing his creative juices to flow, but the Civic took on a dramatic change. The first far-fetched idea that the Glendale, Calif. native came up with was a rusted-out hood, which is now long gone. Once photos with the rusted-hood surfaced on the internet, critics and haters went on a feeding frenzy. They jumped on the idea as if it were Honda sacrilege. If a simple corroded-hood can stir such controversy, imagine the reaction when the haters saw the multi-colored bay that lurked underneath! The uproar caused by the four-toned engine bay surpassed the Honda borders and automotive websites of all makes and models had an opinion to post. What does Arnel have to say about it? "What?" Arnel asks. "I don't understand what the big deal is. I built the car for myself. I just took what I liked, and I did it. Simple."

What people fail to understand is that Arnel Ortiz truly doesn't care what people think. There are guys out there who try to front like they don't and then cry themselves to sleep every night after reading negative posts about their project cars. If Arnel is crying in bed, it's definitely for different reasons because he's not sweating the hate. All this internet hoopla surrounding his Civic and Arnel barely has an internet connection to keep up with it all. At one point there were even a couple guys from across the country that fashioned an internet "call-out" in an attempt to one-up the Phaze2 Civic in wheel fitment. Little did they know that Ortiz and the Phaze2 crew were already attempting to achieve what was once thought to be impossible. What came next would serve as coup de grce for the hater platter. See, Arnel was busy building a custom set of BBS RS wheels which were completely chrome dipped inside and out, with 24-karat gold bolts, and sized 9/9.5 inches wide front and rear, respectively. "I always wanted a set of BBS wheels. I figured if I was going to build a set, I might as well go all out and come correct," Arnel declares. When word got out that the Phaze2 hatchback managed to house -6 offset wheels, internet critics began foaming at the mouth. Questions of functionality arose and how the car would be useless on the track. So what's Arnel's response to the keyboard warriors? "I just wanted it to not rub. The set-up is pretty aggressive so I wanted to be sure that there were no issues with clearance or anything. I'm not even concerned with the track. There's enough to worry about on the road." Ortiz is truly in his own little world, he doesn't mind the haters because his build does all the talking for him. "I don't know anything about anyone calling me out, but if they want to top this fitment, they can try, I don't really care."

 

 

Tasty JDM EK's

Some Of The Tasty EK Civic's I've Found Floating About The Tinternet!!!