1999 Honda Civic Si

Bag of Doritos, bottle of Gatorade, Caselogic CD case—these are all passenger seat requisites for a day spent on the road. For Californians there is another item that needs to be added to that list: the Thomas Guide. From San Francisco to Los Angeles, there is no better ally to have on your side than the trusty ol’ T. Guide, otherwise known as the driver’s bible,sitting snugly on your lap.

Johnny Lam from Riverside relies on the Thomas Guide so much that he plastered the map on both side of his car. Yup, if he ever gets lost, all he has to do is pull over, get out of the car, and study the graphics. But that’s not why he put the map there. He did it to get attention and he does—and not just from people lost on I-405.

When the ’99 Civic Si came out, Johnny was one of the first guys in line to drive one home. He wasn’t much of a car fanatic, but his mind-set quickly changed as he slipped behind the wheel. All of a sudden, he wanted to do something he had never done before—a buildup. To get things rollin’, he needed help; he had to find a way to rub elbows with some of the top manufacturers. He went to Las Vegas for the SEMA Show, and introduced himself to a whole lotta folks (just check out the props section) who were willing to sponsor and work with him on his project.

Stylin’ with a Thomas Guide map of L.A. and Orange County slapped on its body, Johnny creatively thought of thanking each of his sponsors by indicating their location with a spot on the map. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the map on the passenger’s side of the car is laid out correctly, and on the flip side, the map was stuck on the car to make it look transparent.

Underneath the designs, the Civic sports its original Honda Electron Blue Pearl paint, which blends perfectly with the carbon-fiber hood from Sunny Styling. He replaced the tires with what you see now, a set of 215/35 Blue Scorchers from BF Goodrich, hugging 18-inch Racing Hart wheels. When asked what part of the car he was most proud of, he answered, “The Xenon HID headlights because not too many people have them—especially on small cars.”

Just improving the exterior didn’t cut it for Johnny. He needed performance, so he had the engine modified with some help from the guys at Trust Performance in Alhambra and SP Engineering in City of Industry. They installed a DRAG turbocharger kit, an HKS blow-off valve, and an intercooler from Spearco. They also fine-tuned the turbo by adding a boost controller from HKS. The 2.5-inch exhaust is custom made by Tanabe. Denso spark plugs light it up with help from wires by Crane Cams. HoseTechniques dresses the engine nicely with blue silicone hoses, and a carbon-fiber valve cover from Dome Composites wraps things up nicely under the hood.

Generation X Motorsports in Bakersfield is responsible for the the transmission work. Our friends at Gen X installed a six-puck racing clutch from ACT and a shift lever from B&M Import Racing. These racing parts work hand-in-hand with front and rear adjustable shocks. When he had the Civic slammed 2.5-inches in the front and 2.25-inches in the back, he knew something had to be done to bring the negative camber back to zero, so a camber kit from Sprint suspension extreme was added to all four wheels.

And what about the car’s interior, you ask? Johnny’s company (he’s the co-owner), Belaray Motorsports in Riverside took care of that. The cabin is now finely fashioned with a pair of racing seats, a MOMO steering wheel, and a Räzo shifter knob and pedals. The Torasport blue carbon-fiber dash is custom made, so is the JDM center console. Of course, we can’t forget the sound system. The hook up took as long as the turbo installation. But, hey, what’s a car without entertainment? And the ICE is stacked. Allowing Johnny to play the tunes on his Civic is an Eclipse CD player flowin’ out of the MB Quartz speakers—two 6.5-inch component sets up front, two 6x9 sets out back, two tweeters, and two 12-inch JL Audio subwoofers. With everything wired, the two Soundstream amps deliver 1,000 watts of juice. To top it all off, there’s the additional entertainment, which comes from a Sony PlayStation and Panasonic VCR, which can be viewed on the Eclipse 7001 head unit.

During the year of hard work it took to build his ride, Johnny learned a few things that can’t be taught. Patience, diligence, and the value of time, and money were what got him through the grind. So, now that the labor is done, he’s still planning to touch it up a little—just to make it look extra nice for the shows here on the West Coast. And to help him get to all of the shows, he always carries his map.