Words/Leonard Yee as told to Jonathan Wong
Snaps/ Steve Demmitt for Xerotalent.com
For years now, we've searched the globe relentlessly for what most would call the unattainable and what we feel is the ultimate in sport compact performance and styling. From mega-backed Super GT racecars to a $14K Scion with more than double that amount in audio equipment and custom fabrication, we've seen it all. But what about the guys and girls who can only afford to dream the impossible dream? The kids who build the kind of cars this magazine was founded on, which are essentially the real world cars that you and I drive. We're talking about daily drivers here, the kind that run on 91 pump gas and have barely-hanging lip spoilers because the car's so low that it scraped on every driveway it came across. Leonard Yee's EK Civic is a true testament to the words "daily driver," (sans broken body panels) proving that it doesn't have to cost you a huge fortune to build a cover car. (Not that a small one wouldn't help out.) But you might be wondering: just how much did it cost Leonard to put his Civic together? We'll let the man speak for himself.
I bought the car from a friend for $6K. It was painted Phoenix Yellow and came with the GSR motor that's in it now. Before I bought it the car sat outside for about a year or so and accumulated a lot of spider webs; needless to say, it was pretty ugly. I'm afraid of spiders, so I gutted everything inside and out to make sure I got rid of them all. Yellow isn't my color, so Image Autobody (the same shop that painted his Civic coupe, see our February '04 issue, "Final Call" for the full feature--JW) worked out a deal with me to repaint the car if I did all the prep and masking. The hard part after that was choosing a color, mainly: Should I paint it to match my coupe? Image has had a good reputation for painting some of the top show cars in the Bay Area and I came across a few pictures of some of the cars it did back in the day, most of which were pastel colored. I decided it would be cool to bring back the old school flavor and chose a baby blue paint I found in a Dupont paint book. I also had to pick a color that would match the red Work wheels I bought, particularly since I bought them a few months before I picked up the Civic. I helped my friend Phil at Image with the paint, spraying it in two stages in a matter of two weeks. My inspiration for the exterior is to keep it as JDM-styled as possible, so I didn't shave too much off in order to keep it plain and simple.
Since I plan on using this hatchback for track action, I didn't want to put a turbo kit onto it like my coupe. I had to use as many N/A bolt-ons as I could find. I was able to pull some of the parts from my old car, like the ITR valve springs, Skunk2 titanium retainers and intake manifold, and adjustable Cusco cam gears. I went with good quality mods that anybody can easily obtain, so that's why you don't see a lot of JDM-inspired products. I pulled the air conditioning and power steering to save some weight and decrease some of the parasitic loss. Since I repainted the car all over, including the engine bay, I hid all the wiring, which also made the bodywork in the engine bay a lot easier. Compared to my coupe, the hatchback is much cleaner.
Although the modifications were light in this department, I wanted the best when it came to braking and handling. I like the Wilwood setup on my coupe, but opted for the Endless kit instead and swapped in a few parts from the old car as well,including the '99 GSR rear brakes with retrofitted pieces from Fastbrakes. EM Racing has made some very stylish chassis bars, so I added those in since the trunk area was pretty bare. I had the Work wheels custom made to fit since I had to make sure any wheels I chose would clear the Endless calipers.
The interior is really simple; I stripped everything and removed all the sound deadening material for further weight reduction, then bolted in lightweight bucket seats. I found as many parts from the JDM EK9 that I could and even though it's a lot different than my coupe, I still wouldn't consider the hatchback a super show car. Being that it's more race inspired, I took out the rear speakers, but left the in-dash head unit and both front speakers.
I have to say that I love this car a lot more than the coupe. I drive it daily while the coupe stays at home. I think over the past couple of years, I've progressed as a car builder, finishing cars that appeal to a lot of people. Road racing with it is something I love and something I plan to do more often.
Buying a Civic for road racing: $6,000Total amount spent on modifications: $13,205
Getting your car on the cover of Super Street Magazine: Not exactly priceless now, is it Leonard?