Imagine a land of great bacon, excellent hockey, and lots of beer. Sounds like paradise, doesn't it? These, and especially the bone-chilling winters, are just a few of the things that Canada is known for. One would not expect to find import racers cruising around in fixed-up rides. We're here to tell you that the pulse of the import race scene is not confined to the good ol' US of A. Indeed, the great white north wishes to stake its claim as a burgeoning epicenter for the import scene, and the vehicle you see before you could be considered exhibit A. This Honda Civic may look like the official Japanese 5Zigen N1 race car from a distance, but don't let it fool you-this Civic hatchback is as Canadian as Bob, Doug, and the Labatts.
As many of you already know, 5Zigen has been one of the most recognized racing teams in Japan, and is continuously growing more popular in North America. Among the countless numbers of Civics racing all around the globe, there are two in North America that are sponsored by 5Zigen (one in the U.S. and the other, in Canada). Here's the tale of how one of these gems wound up in Canada. Back in 1999, 5Zigen visited the Las Vegas SEMA show and ran into Bell Chan of BC Auto & Design of Canada. 5Zigen spoke to him about a project that would help promote their name in North America. Bell considered the idea for a few months, and when he ran into 5Zigen again at the Tokyo Auto Salon, a deal was struck.
The process began when Bell acquired a '99 Civic CX. As soon as it rolled into BC Auto & Design, the car was completely stripped to start its transformation from a stock CX into a racy Type R clone. Adding a B18A DOHC engine with a VTEC cylinder head (yes, it has a LS/VTEC configuration) wasn't a bad way to motivate this little hatchback. Then a carbon-fiber air intake was fitted, allowing more air to flow in, then delivering it through the cylinder head to a 5Zigen exhaust. The four-into-one high-performance header (specially designed for the Civic Type R) reduces backpressure with further assistance from a 5Zigen Fireball after-cat system. The front tower bar comes from Spoon, keeping the strut towers from getting shifty under higher G-loads.
In the 5Zigen philosophy, a car's handling is key, so Cusco upper pillow mounts and lower control arms were installed. A lightweight aluminum, coilover suspension from 5Zigen keeps all four wheels firmly planted on the tarmac. The stiffness of the springs in the front (14 kg/mm) and rear (10 kg/mm) make for a Civic with excellent speed into and out of corners.
By now, you're most likely wondering what sort of oats this wee-beastie packs under the hood. With parts provided by Spoon Sports, the need for speed is met with an estimated 250 hp at the flywheel. That's a fairly impressive figure in such a lightweight hatchback. Stopping power for the Canadian Civic comes from the Japan Type R brake system with four-wheel discs and a 5-114 bolt pattern on all four corners. The high-performance, titanium hyper brake pads from Project sit comfortably on the vented, cross drilled, slotted rotors from Brembo. The Civic once rode on 18-inch 5ZR forged wheelies, but BC Auto & Design quickly replaced them when these new lightweight 17-inch Inperio wheels from 5Zigen arrived in Canada back in April. One side of the vehicle is shod with the Inperio M-05 style wheel, while the other side rides on the S-08 style.
Everything from the engine down to the paint job on the project was replicated to look just like the Japanese 5Zigen Civic. That's because 5Zigen played a big part in this buildup. The company designed and provided the body kit, then Techwell body shop was chosen as the makeup artist to hide the original silver color that lies beneath the now Pearl White paint. The HID lights in front (provided by IPF) are pretty hard to ignore, shining ever so brightly even though the car is swimming in a grip of stickers and graphics from 5Zigen's racecar template.