If you grew up like I did sucked into the intrawebz, this man (nor his car) need any introduction. For those of you who are just getting into the scene, or somehow missed the West Coast Honda revolution that is the FF-Squad, then start taking some notes. Jason is one of the forefathers of Honda tuning since the digital age, and by digital age I mean once the Internet became commonplace in every home. There were many that came before Katman and the FF-Squad, but none did as much guerilla work to make engine swaps, ECU wiring and other miscellaneous tasks accessible to the public.
Ironically, I can credit a lot to the FF-Squad and also Super Street for being where I am today. They both paved the way for the cleaner-style Hondas and "JDM scene" we are now overrun with. Thanks to FF-S and SS, I am now an editor writing for the magazine that brought me inspiration, photographing a man's car whose website photos I would right-click and save as. Jason went to great lengths to provide people with pictures of cars, technical write-ups and detailed diagrams... all for free on his site site. Over the years, the site has changed, switched URLs and become everything but extinct. As a matter of fact, if you haven't been there lately, you definitely need to check out the site at www.ff-squad.com immediately.
I don't want to pester Katman to update the thing, since I know he is always short on time and everyone else already asks, but I would love to see a full update (sorry Jason, had to do it). FF-Squad was one of the pioneering crews in the JDM movement, building cars a decade ago that would still be on par with today's standards. Jason and his crew of Honda scallywags were always pushing to have a car that looks great and performs even better. This was back when color-tinted windows, horrendous body kits and extensive graphics schemes were the standard for featured Civics and Integras.
Back in the "good ol' days" I would go to Katman's site to look at the cars and read the random stories he always seemed to have. One day when doing my usual surfing, I read the unthinkable, Jason's first EG build "Blacksheep" had been stolen. It was appalling to me that someone could take a car from another person with absolutely zero respect and completely dismember it. I had no idea at the time that I would go through the same ordeal with my own car, end up working for Super Street and shooting Katman's yet-to-be-built successor to Blacksheep.
The name Blacksheep came from the idea of the build for Jason's first EG. He decided to go with a very unusual and uncommon engine swap, the B17A motor from the first GS-R series of Integras. The cars themselves are very rare with limited production only in 1992 and 1993, thus finding a spare power plant is even more of an accomplishment. Not quite a B18, not quite a B16 the B17 is Honda's Blacksheep DOHC VTEC engine. Jason knew what he was doing as the B17 is a rather brilliant design. The most famed feature of the motor is having the shortest rods of any B series configuration, among numerous other bizarre spec changes. I can't say that's the only reason he built the car with the rare motor. There was also a definite "oh wow" factor to the irregular transplant.
Gaining fame on the Internet, Blacksheep became fairly well-known and the B17 was no longer a gray area for Honda enthusiasts. Unfortunately, the glory behind the build was short-lived. But rather than giving up, when Jason became another victim of theft, he made a personal mission to continue tuning and actually out-do Blacksheep. Wasting little time, Katman searched for his new project. This is where the timeline of BS2L (Blacksheep 2 Liter) begins.