Boileau had long been an autocrosser and club racer with a 1964 Mini Cooper. But when the Civic 1200 became available in America, he acquired one from a dealer he'd set up, Dobbs Honda in Memphis. He promptly cut off the roof and installed a rollcage. As far as Bob III knows, the car has never been registered.
Why race a Honda, a brand that was staking its rep on the appeal of compact car fuel economy? Bob III points to Datsun's presence on the club circuit, its 510 and B210 models, as one motivating factor. "Datsun was big into it," he says. "They made headers, cams, pulleys. It was like us against Datsun, the big manufacturer." But providing the new Honda badge with a little battle shine came with its costs.
"We were having problems keeping motors alive. One time, we blew up three motors in a weekend. We were running 12.5:1 compression and the motors had a tendency to starve the number-four rod for oil. Unfortunately, we got so good at changing motors we once timed ourselves. We had an engine changed and fired in 47 minutes."
There were three main challenges to getting the EB2 motor to hold together: learning how to split valve overlap, finding valves that wouldn't drop under race stress, and increasing oil flow. Valve overlap they solved ingeniously. When they could insert a specific diameter drill bit-used essentially like a feeler gauge (Bob III doesn't recall the size)-they knew the engine was at TDC.
Running cams that were almost all lift caused the stock, two-piece welded valves to constantly snap, a malady solved with custom stainless steel one-piece units.
As for oiling, Bob III notes that behind the plugs on both sides of the engine girdle are nipples that regulate oil flow. Grinding down the nipples increased flow enough to stop starving the number four rod. After that, the engines were always reliable. "We could run it at 10,500 rpm all day long," he says.
Braking also required some creativity. Boileau replaced the front brakes with a bigger set from a 1975 Civic wagon, but the rear drum brakes were prone to self-destruction in races, not at all designed for slicks or hard corner loading.
He took an old broken drum to a machine shop, told them what kind of offset he needed, and came back with a billet stainless steel piece that held the stock rear drum bearing and included a bracket to hold the stock front discs. Voila, quite possibly the first four-wheel big-brake kit on a US Honda.