If we had to drive our Fiats everyday, we’d probably hate them and end up rolling them off a cliff. They can be fussy to say the least. Then again, that’s just the temperament one should normally expect from a modified 25+ year-old sports car. Thankfully for those of us with lives outside our Fiats and regular jobs that require regular and reliable transportation, there are Hondas. Drive them and forget them. Honda products have come a long way and today they are synonymous with quality and reliability. Naturally, there are many for whom Hondas and Honda powered vehicles serve as more than just basic transportation. Honda makes some impressive performance cars and the company has years of competition experience at all levels to back them up. At the entry level one could argue that Civics are to the enthusiast and amateur racer today what the Datsun 510 was 30 years ago. On the other end of the scale, well, building kick-ass touring cars, championship winning F1 and Indy cars ought to be sufficient credentials.

On the street, Hondas have developed a veritable cult status among North American youth. Entire magazines are dedicated to these cars and to their culture and it’s hard not to appreciate the attraction given their gargantuan aftermarket. Everything and anything can be had to supe up your Civic, Accord, Prelude and Acura variant. Plus, many of the available go-fast components are simple, straight bolt-ons which complements the relative ease of working on these cars. Add to that their sheer numbers on the street along with their faultless reliability and it’s not hard to see why they have conquered North America.

There are so many possible performance set-ups for Honda that it would take pages to discuss all of them. What’s available to start? Just about everything. Headers, exhausts, intakes, brakes, coil-over suspension kits are all very popular. Even when you start getting into cams, turbos, blowers or even engine swaps, it’s all fairly easy to obtain and for the most part all the really complicated R&D has been done for you. If you’re mechanically inclined, just follow the instructions. They’re pretty straightforward.

Consequently, Honda products, more than any other, have spawned an entire generation of self-proclaimed experts or as we refer to them, bolt-on monkeys . These are mostly young enthusiasts and backyard experts who share the same delusion as many Alfa and Fiat DIYers; that as long as you’ve owned just one and can turn a wrench, you can call yourself a specialist. (In Vancouver, you’ll probably find as many of these people as you will find cars on the road – especially among the Fiat and Alfa guys ) If you’re a DIYer, we can understand. If you are not, regardless what kind of car you drive, be careful with your choice of mechanic.

Now, there’s no real way to avoid this next bit, is there? It has become quite clear that for certain segments of our population (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE…) high performance is measured less in terms of power or acceleration or braking and handling as it is in varying degrees of vanity; usually through tasteless accessorizing or by how fast the cars are portrayed in popular media. Sadly, Hondas and Honda derivatives are over-represented in this group. And they’re not hard to spot. The first element and central to their performance formula is the application of a GIGANTIC REAR WING because of course, they know something that we don’t about applied aerodynamics and obviously making a Honda product perform well on the street is a… downforce issue , isn’t it?

"Euro"... Yeah right!

Complementing the jet fighter wings and the offensive body kits are the requisite 19” or 20” chromed wheels, the obtrusive rear muffler with artillery sized outlets, quadruple-redundant gauge package infesting the A-pillar, MONSTER tach, (we love the monster tach). Next come the $500 green air filter, the “Euro” tail lights which are about as “European” as Dim-Sum, anodized ram tube and a plethora of performance related decals with meaningless contrived names plastered down the car’s fenders. Are we painting a picture here? Perhaps the most amazing part about this is that none of these add-ons are “inexpensive”. It is not uncommon to see the 18-19-20 something year-old V-TEC boy dropping another 10 to 30 grand in one shot, in addition to the car’s purchase price to accessorize or perhaps more appropriately, to bastardize .

Let’s just think about this for a second… a 40 or $50,000 Honda Civic . It just blows the mind… Anybody know how the rest of us relics can tap into some of that free money?

Oh, and let’s not forget that all-important accessory, the slutty girlfriend. She’s perfect for flaunting at those weekend stereo sound-offs and illegal street races where, incidentally, the sterling conversation generally revolves around that other common Honda-boy delusion; how many 5 liter Mustangs they’ve blown away lately…

OK, OK, enough of this! In truth, Hondas really are not as bad as the “ricer” stereotype would have one believe so let’s not tar every Honda owner with that same brush. Now, with regards to some of that right stuff we mentioned, let’s read on a bit.

As we’ve indicated above, the Honda aftermarket is HUGE. But the wonderful thing about Honda performance is that one doesn’t have to spend exorbitant sums of money to make big gains power, handling or braking. Any bolt-on monkey will recognize this and would concur that the easiest go fast bolt on is the engine swap. We’re not talking about shoehorning in that old small-block, we mean swapping with other Honda mills. And there are a great variety of engine/chassis combinations, a testament to the foresight and efficiency of Honda engineering.

Typical swaps involve the use of the B-series motor of which there are numerous variations; the non VTEC LS, the VTEC B16A, B18C1 and of course that great sacred cow, the Type-R B18C5. Hasport has developed a range of motor mounts to facilitate these swaps. A word of warning; although adequate for street and some strip applications, Hasport mounts, like many other Honda aftermarket components are less than ideal for road racing. Our buddy’s Super-Production CRX racer (pictured) literally tore through its aluminum Hasport mounts. The billet mounts are preferable. Can’t find a salvaged Type-R motor? How about a B16A head on the LS block? It’ll get you pretty close. More importantly, you need not go any further than the swap itself to build a fast little car. The motors are potent right out of the box and, a word of note to the Fiat guys with their delusions of high revving 1608s and 1800s; New Honda motors in particular rev high enough even without hot cams or headers to embarrass most Fiat twin cams. (truth hurts)

In all fairness, this is less of a Fiat shortcoming as it is a simple case of Hondas benefiting from the application of newer technology. Oh, and uh, it doesn’t hurt to have a nice light little chassis to go with that motor. Significantly, all the power is made up high on Honda motors, especially with the VTECs where the rush starts only after about 5000 revs. To give you an example, albeit an extreme one , the latest dyno test on the B-18 powered Wessex racing CRX (pictured below) registered 248 hp at the wheels at a Fiat frightening 8800 rpm (about 290 at the crank). Zingy as they are though, Honda motors make less torque than that required to tighten a wheel bolt on your Fiat. Let them fall off the revs and they'll turn into stones. That same Wessex motor made 152 lb/ft of torque at 4900 rpm. Of course for a race motor that rarely sees the under side of 7500 rpm, this deficiency is of relatively little consequence.

On street applications however it becomes a hassle. Granted many people love revving and rowing through the gears but on the street this realistically amounts to no more than a part time pleasure. Even the most out of control teenage shithead lead foot is not going to surf the redline all the time. And if he does, well, that may partially explain why he’s a shithead. So the all-motor route is not necessarily the most practical for more performance, certainly not for the street. One option to address this deficiency is mating the 2-liter CR-V block to the B-16 head. The other, easier method is force-feeding. Again, turbos, blowers and nitrous oxide systems are all readily available as are complete stand-alone DFIs. We are impressed with the kind of numbers these power adders can produce when applied correctly. In fact, turbocharging is the winning ticket at the big import drags and it’s enjoying greater popularity than any other motor upgrade on the street.

In road racing, where drivers can actually exploit most of the engine’s revs Hondas and Acuras shine. As we suggested above, Hondas represent arguably the most economical route for the novice. In ITA CRXs are tough to beat while in Production and GT classes they can easily compete with the best of them.

Regrettably, of all the major manufacturers involved in road racing and especially at the Runoffs, Honda offers the least amount of factory support to its grassroots. As road racers, we hope to see this change soon.