Around the mid '90s the Honda phenomenon had caught on in a big way. People were constantly testing the waters - finding ways of tuning these once thought eco boxes into full-blown racecars. At the forefront of style were many odd conversions, grotesque color schemes and bizarre graphics. Enter the purveyors of OG JDM style, the FF Squad. They helped to usher in the classic JDM style and fused it with proven performance. Thanks in part to the FF Squad, the scene never looked back. Now more than 10 years after their internet boom we took some time to sit down with five original members of FF Squad, Jason "Katman" Kaplan, Lee Randle, Steve Joo and brothers Dylan and Erik Huig, to see why they're still addicted to FWD Hondas.
Super Street: Alright guys first and foremost for our reader's that don't already know, what is FF Squad and how did it start?
Lee: We don't know what it is either.
Steve: Katman's love for building websites.
Katman: It was our friend Pat, who passed away in '97. He was a pro skater and a friend of ours - we all used to skate. He got into Hondas and it rubbed off on all of us.
Steve: I was a poser!
Katman: At first it was mostly myself and Steve, Erik and Dylan. Then Lee showed up later.
Lee: I went to school with Steve. Steve would take me to go meet up with these guys to go to the street races or whatever. I didn't even have a Honda yet.
Katman: Didn't you have a Bug?
Lee: I had a Bug. It was like '92?
Dylan: That's when I had a squareback and Erik had that Integra. But I think the FF Squad name came because crews were a big deal back in the day and we kinda spent time thinking up funny
crew names.
Katman: That's how Tiiite Boy Racing came about. First it was Hot Chot Racing, HCR for short, thanks to Steve.
Lee: I guess a chot is a dick (everyone laughs).
Katman: What language is it?
Steve: I dunno, like Vietnamese or something.
Katman: Then it turned into Tiiite Boy for some reason, I guess because of Max and the whole megaphone thing.
SS: Ah yes, the megaphone. Who started that?
Lee: It was Max and Katman, they started doing it to each other.
SS: That doesn't sound right.
Katman: When shit was dope we'd be like "that shit was tiiiiiiiiiiiiite!!!" (done while raising a closed fist to the mouth).
Lee: Then they started to battle over who could do it better.
Katman: Then later the fingers moved into the megaphone.
SS: So there was an evolution?
Katman: Yeah it turned into "oh that thing was tiiiiite!" you know (making megaphone gesture) it was like that.
SS: Unfortunately this doesn't record video.
Lee: It was some funny-ass shit; Max was hilarious.
SS: What was everyone's first Honda?
Katman: '87 Civic Si, summer of '94. Before that I had a VW bus.
Eric: My first car was a '93 Acura Integra.
Steve: Mine was a '88 Prelude.
Katman: With the happy-face city lights!
Steve: With the happy-face city lights.
Lee: I had a '90 Integra.
Dylan: I had a '92 Civic hatchback.
Katman: I remember that, it was super dumped.
Dylan: That was the car that had the BBR Competitions and the Primo sticker on it.
Katman: I remember one time you had it so low on the CR-X wheels when we were on our way to the street races that the shit was just scraping on the freeway.
Dylan: Were you in the car with me when the dude pulled up next to us and told me that the car was on fire?
Katman: Yes! (laughing)
Dylan: Yeah my muffler piping was constantly scraping.
Lee: I'd see you guys at the street races sometimes and it looked like your car was air-bagged, that's how low it was.
SS: It sounds like almost all of you started with Volkswagens?
Dylan: I think so.
SS: What made you guys jump from Volkswagens to Hondas?
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