Without a doubt, this issue of Super Street is the one that I personally have been waiting a long time to do. What you are about to see is a collection of the cars that helped and continues to shape the import scene as we know it. Ask anyone and they'll say that my roots lie deep in a Honda. A black '91 Si was my first ride, my first real love, which taught me the basics of how to work on and modify a car for cheap. In high school, that hatchback was my dream car-compact size, but had enough room in the back to make out with girls (that backseat might as well have been a motel room with all those friends who used it as a spot to deflower themselves) and man, did it look great slammed (still does) on SSR Super Fins. I later went through a JDM EG and a semi-retro DA before I gave them up to do a SR20'd 240, but still, I never lost that love for the H-badge.
It has been nearly seven years since the last time I owned a set of keys to a Honda, and I'm happy to say that I'm getting back into one-a '90 Civic Si, to be exact-and I'm going to build it the way I wish I could've built it back when I was 17, except now I actually have the money to do it the right way, instead of shortcutting things. I'm going to do a few basic mods, which you can read about in issue six of Project Car, but once it comes over here, I'm going to prove that my VTEC'nique is still in full effect. I can't go into what exactly just yet, but if it's anything like my 240, then you know it's going to be sick.
So, Honda fans, behold; there's something for everyone one of you in here: old school builds, a cover car that I feel represents the epitome of the JDM Honda scene, a first look into an engine build that both we and Bisimoto are about to take on, the cat who really coined the term "JDM" and a new Honda craze that's going to take you and the country by surprise. In fact, it's already big in Japan and guys like Stephan Papadakis, Shawn Hillier and Dr. Charles are doing crazy things with them. But what I'm most happy about this issue is that I finally got my chance to meet the drag racers (who, I might add, were very hard to track down) whom I looked up to the most when I first got into Hondas; they're legendary heroes of a time long past who deserve the props that they never received. It was truly an honor, and they've helped to make such a long lasting impression on my car life-thanks, guys.
Jonathan Wong
jdmwong@superstreetonline.com