Armchair Project Car Building

Sometimes, when I'm doing repetitive tasks, I let my mind wander to pass the time. This can happen during manual labor (like the backyard excavation I am in the middle of) or during a long mountain bike climb, for example. 

One of the things that pops up every so often is imagining what a near perfect project car is or should be for someone with not a ton of time for wrenching, but who still wants to add shiny bits to put together a competent car for weekend enjoyment or the occasional AutoX, though doesn't want to break out the cutoff wheel and welder to fit those "bolt on" parts. 

A vehicle I continuously come back to, is the mid to late nineties Civic. Despite any perceived biases I held during the turn of the century tuner craze about FWD and the Honda crowd in general, I gotta believe that for a vehicle that can carry stuff, people, and has every option for every bolt on (actual quality parts), and every usage scenario played out (lots of setups/real world examples), and basically is future proofed with all of the K series business available now, it's probably pretty high on the list. Even if you wanted to slap one together today. Right? 

I've not owned one of these things, but having now spent a lot of time behind the wheel of my Vibe, I wouldn't say I'm a FWD convert, but I get it. Very flat floors, compact mechanicals, and really, it drives pretty dang good, and the Vibe isn't even that great. I've driven one hatchback Civic (EK?) with some B18 thing in it, and yea, it was just what they say on the tin. Handled well, proper quick, relatively roomy, and my oh my easy to work on. 

Drawbacks? Challengers?

Let's get that obligatory "But you'd be one of those tools that are riding on the bumpstops with your fartcan!" comment out of the way. C'mon all, you know why we're here. 

Rambling mode off, just drinking a beer missin' my pals who went to Sebring. 

I, my son & his room mates agree. We've turbo'd a bunch of them (B's & D's). You forgot to mention the awesome handling of the double wishbone suspensions- advanced for a cheaper car. 
Working on mostly K swaps now.

I'm not a big fan of over @ 300hp in a fwd so now we're doing a K swap turbo e30.

I would totally love a clean, straight, rustfree EF hatch as a project starting point. 

some EG6 love: 

Seems like the Mighty Car Mods guys share nearly your same opinion; even if you never really liked Civics or felt like they are played out F&F caricatures; it's hard to deny the performance potential combined with the ease of wrenching and the absolutely massive aftermarket. Hell, even cheap eBay aftermarket stuff for these cars is pretty good these days.

In reply to j_tso :

I've been watching that series alot lately, that civic is always killing it.

Current challenge car is a 91 CRX (EF chassis) with a ebay turbo. It should weigh under 2k and have between 250 and 300hp.

As a builder it's ridiculously rewarding. Every possible combination of parts has been tried over the past 30 years and written about extensively on the internet. OE parts, when necessary, are available and cheap, and the aftermarket is amazing.

Chinese turbos got the kinks worked out a decade ago and I can buy a complete z6/a6 shortblock for $250 and lift it into the back of my prius. The software to modify the ECUs is free and more than enough for 99% of cars out there.

I'm almost 40 but still love the honda kids. Most of them are in the car game for the right reasons and it's hard to have an ego when your car maybe breaks 100hp. 

In reply to Shavarsh :

The driver, Jordan Cox, got himself a ride in a TCR Alfa. Great for him and his driving career, but it was a lot cooler watching his Civic take on V8s.

Hardest thing about building a wishbone Civic today is finding a good starting point--so, so many destroyed cars out there. Other than that, yeah, they're pretty awesome. 

Our Lady of Perpetual Downforce is a B20 swapped ED3 and one of my favorite FWD lemons. Quick, nimble and reliable(and well driven). I've been a big fan of that car for a long time.

CrustyRedXpress said:

Current challenge car is a 91 CRX (EF chassis) with a ebay turbo. It should weigh under 2k and have between 250 and 300hp.

As a builder it's ridiculously rewarding. Every possible combination of parts has been tried over the past 30 years and written about extensively on the internet. OE parts, when necessary, are available and cheap, and the aftermarket is amazing.

Chinese turbos got the kinks worked out a decade ago and I can buy a complete z6/a6 shortblock for $250 and lift it into the back of my prius. The software to modify the ECUs is free and more than enough for 99% of cars out there.

I'm almost 40 but still love the honda kids. Most of them are in the car game for the right reasons and it's hard to have an ego when your car maybe breaks 100hp. 

 

That's the thing that gets me. If you have a decent head on your shoulders, it seems like it would take legitimate effort to build one poorly with all of the information and decent parts out there. 

As for finding a clean shell, they aren't common, but they also don't have the AWD tax that goes with all the Subaru's out here, so they aren't too unreasonably priced.