Individuality is the lifeblood of our culture. The push to have a more original car than the next guy is at the very core of tuning and achieving that goal is more important than anything else, even if it means a growing credit card debt as a result of all the original parts bought and the loss of that funk, that sweet, that nasty, that gushy stuff due to spending too much time with the car and not enough with the missus.
But once in a while, an anomaly comes along and breaks the very foundation upon which we all stand. Their names are Jonathan Birth and Chris Seaton of Port St. Lucie, Florida. Combining their effort and time, both built two different cars under the same distinct JDM theme, forgoing any type of individuality whatsoever. From a distance, Jonathan's '99 Honda Civic and Chris' '99 Acura Integra Type-R practically look identical: same basic color, similar stance. If it wasn't for the wheel color, we'd think that the glaucoma condition we made up just to get a prescription for the stickiest of the icky was actually true.
Evidently, these two think individuality is better accomplished as a team effort, adding to an already long list of obscure oxymorons: jumbo shrimp, independent women, and now, group individuality? OK, maybe not. Still, despite the fact that it's borderline creepy that two seemingly normal guys are driving around Florida in ambiguously matching cars, their idea of tag team tuning is actually ground-breaking. It's a great marketing scheme that commands more attention from car show judges and apparently magazine editors. If done correctly, tuning double-penetration style can be quite a success, albeit extremely hard to understand.
We've never been compelled to match cars with our friends, much less wear clothes with the same color scheme as our girlfriends. To us, that would be, well, kinda weird. We're not saying Chris and Jonathan are weird because that would be perpetuating a stereotype that weird people love to color-coordinate. Besides, we're comfortable with weird people-not that there's anything wrong with that. After all, we have a guy on staff that could be labeled as weird (we're talking to you, Jonathan Wong), so we're very understanding. We guess we'll just chalk this up to the most minimal of levels: two guys with matching cars. Plus, it's hard to really hate on them because their cars actually exceed all standards of JDM tuning.
Jonathan's Civic is a perfect example of a JDM Civic Type-R (CTR) conversion. With the help of Atlantic Collision, his Civic was fitted with CTR body panels, from the open front grille to the aerodynamically molded rear bumper. "Finding parts in good shape is one of the problems I faced with the build up," explained Jonathan, "Thankfully, I scored some quality Civic Type-R parts from Japan." The Japanese body parts fit perfectly with minimal modifications to the frame. Jonathan accentuated the conversion with a carbon fiber hatch and a complete paint overhaul, inside and out. To make sure the JDM renovation was true to form, the Civic rolls on very expensive magnesium 17-inch Volk TE37s, finished in a very delicate and very rare Takata green. To further the JDM experience, the TE37s are 5-lug and were wrapped up in gummy Yokes but soon after the shoot Jonathan switched things up with Toyo T1R's. Hitting the wheels from the back is a set of CTR front and rear brakes with matching CTR brake pads.