In the behind-the-scenes world of automotive magazines, it seems like only a handful of project cars ever make it through to completion. Reasons for projects to be 86'ed range from the owner running out of money to the car getting wrecked halfway through the build. Sometimes it boils down to a simple loss of interest, or even a bad reaction from readers.
We try to finish our projects here at Honda Tuning. Sometimes, the situation isn't within our control, but if at all possible we try to give them the 'ol college try to get them done.
In the case of our EG cover car project (Feb. '05), we've had the thing on hold for almost 2 full years. The original owner got out of the import game to pursue a life in law enforcement, leaving the poor little Si homeless and in pieces.
Call me a sucker (Sucker! - Sen. Ed.), but I can't help but take in a stray, especially when that stray is a real Si with a clean title and beautiful black show paint that hasn't seen sunlight in the 2 years it's been on the car. I ended up buying it from the original owner with the intent of building it as a present for my girlfriend, Alex.
What could possibly be a better gift than an EG hatch? An EG hatch cover car, of course.
The original concept for the build was to piece together a cover-worthy car ourselves, following the build from start to finish. There was a turbo H22 built and put into the car a couple years ago, but that was about as far as they got. The first thing we did was pull the H in favor of the B-series build that we started in this issue. The next step is getting the car ready to leave the parking garage so we can get moving on the project.
The first step on the path to getting the car on the road was replacing the suspension. We weren't sure how long the springs and struts that came with the car had been on there, and they didn't have the ride height adjustability that we needed anyway, so we opted for some coilovers.
Our friends over at Eibach Springs have the perfect kit for the soon-to-be street/track/show car, the Pro Street-S coilover kit. This kit is sprung and valved for the performance-oriented streetcar that will see track time on the weekends. The springs are just stiff enough to get you to stick in the twisties without shaking your girl (or in this case, me) around in the passenger seat on the way to the movies.
| Bling! Eibach Pro Street-S, in yo' face!
We also picked up a set of SPC front upper adjustable ball joints, rear camber arms, and rear lower control arms to go with the coilovers. The camber kits will not only help us align and dial the car in for the track, they'll provide mad negative camber for the shows.
To tie everything together and compliment the cage we're going to do at L-Con Racecars, we also got a set of Password:JDM strut bars. The three point front tower bar ties both strut towers to each other and to the firewall while the four point rear bar ties the rear strut towers to each other and two stock bolt locations on the hatch floor. These bars stiffen the chassis and reduce body flex under the high g loads found in any type of racing, or on the freeway onramp, not to mention the fact that they look sick and will look even better when they are powder-coated to match the rest of our color scheme.
We enlisted the help of long-time Honda Tuning wrench John Rodriguez for the install, but since it's her car, we made Alex do about half of the work.
Keep your eyes peeled for a whole lot of tech stories on this car in the near future. Hopefully by the time you read this, it will already be on the road.
