About a half hour north of the state capital of Nashville, just off of Interstate 65, lies the pastoral community of Portland, Tennessee. By most accounts, the town is the picture of countrified living, home to just 10,000 and, at one time, a lot of agriculture. In fact, its claim to fame is an annual Strawberry Festival that's a holdover from the '40s when strawberries were mainstays of the region.
Outwardly, Portland seems an unlikely place to find true-blue Honda devotees, given its heartland proximity and particularly with a bustling metropolis only 35 miles away. That's probably why we were more than just a little surprised to discover Matthew Thornton and his sick '96 Prelude Si in the sleepy little town. Thornton would appear to bleed Honda; in addition to the Si 'Lude, he's also owned a '93 VTEC, a '98 Accord, and a trio of CRXs (lest anyone doubt his H-badge allegiance). Guess Honda guys get around.
Purchased in 2001, Thornton set out to build the cleanest and fastest Prelude he could simply because they "are nice cars and no one really does anything with them." Little did he realize the rocky road ahead, one that would ultimately force him to pull and rebuild the motor more than once. We sat down with the owner/builder and spoke with him at length about the trials and tribulations in bringing his Prelude vision to life.
Honda Tuning: You indicate on the tech sheet that you wanted to create the "baddest 'Lude on the planet"-would you say that was the main objective? How important was employing JDM gear into the build?
Matthew Thornton: Building the baddest 'Lude was definitely the goal! As for the JDM stuff, it was fairly important; I don't go as far as some people, but I was interested in the main components. [JDM parts] seem to fit cleaner and are just a little bit different. The way I look at it, [Japanese-spec cars] are built the way Honda intended them to be. When they bring cars here they have to change a bunch of stuff [for this market], so I was just putting this Prelude back to the way it was supposed to be.
HT: You've clearly tried to make the car fast, too, though. I mean, reading through your tech sheet, it seems like you were trying to strike a balance between looks and performance.
MT: Exactly. When I bought the car, everyone wanted me to get a Civic, telling me the Prelude is heavy and blah, blah, blah. I just like them, so it was important to build something strong and fast, that the car be pretty bad motor-wise, that way I could get everyone to shut up about the whole thing. Yeah, it's a little heavier than a Civic, but it doesn't really matter that much.
HT: You also appear to be a fan of all motor, commenting proudly on the tech sheet that your car is "NA, baby!"
MT: Especially with Honda motors. I've seen turbocharged ITRs and the like and it just kills me, because that motor was developed to be a bad-ass naturally aspirated engine, and someone decided to slap a turbo on it. I know turbo cars are always going to be faster, but there are so many parts to it, so much to jam in there, and so much tuning. We're rebuilding my friend's turbo car right now, and it's driving me nuts. It's just not me.