As much as it might sicken parents, their children's maturity process involves experimentation. Growing up is about trying stuff, figuring out what does and doesn't work. The same can often be said for Honda enthusiasts and their journeys through Mod Hell. You want to change your whip and make it uniquely yours, in part because everyone else is doing it. But sometimes those initial choices end up in regret.
Josh Stockinger from Oceanside, Calif., knows all about making iffy early choices regarding his '98 EX coupe. Currently part of the sales staff at San Diego's Sportcar Motion, Stockinger bought the car used in 2000, began some mods a year later and admits he really didn't know where he was headed with it.
"I was jumping around for a while until this project began," he says, recalling his first forays with "body kits and lots of rice." With those days behind him, Stockinger now revels in the understated authority of the Civic's current JDM motif. For a while, he kept the factory single-cam, 1.6-liter, augmented with the common induction and exhaust mods, and even a Gude cam.
Once he came across a friend's S2000 loaded with Spoon Sports gear, Stockinger was hooked on the JDM and OEM theme. One of the biggest headaches he's endured involved body kits and aero pieces that don't sit flush. The aftermarket parts he'd been buying, with their loose fit and ugly gaps, didn't measure up to the JDM and O.E. offerings.
"I want things to look factory, like they're meant to be there," he explains. "The JDM stuff, especially the JDM OEM stuff, always fits perfectly."
The last major stage of the coupe project involved swapping in a twin-cam B-series powerplant, something he would have done sooner if he'd had the dough. Picking up work at Sportcar Motion solved that problem and came with the additional benefit of working around experienced import heads.
Every project needs a map, some point(s) to focus on when the vision gets blurry. Throughout the buildup, Stockinger kept his eye on two elements. He was shooting for performance inspired by a more visceral reaction to some familiar intangibles, namely the way his friends' cars sounded and the palpable excitement of street racing. Both elements motivated him to keep building the car, even as several friends were getting out of the scene. As police began to crack down on local street races, Stockinger and other enthusiasts headed to the dragstrip. But even that lost its luster.
"I was limited to running only race weekends when the tracks were open. They've permanently closed [local strip] Carlsbad since then," he laments. "Running at the strip was also looking fairly expensive. Everyone is moving really fast and I'd need to drop some serious coin just to keep up."
Stockinger has passed that stage in his life. He's priming his daily driver for a different motor thrill: autocross. "I never thought [the Civic] would take me this far," he admits. He's experimented, tried, failed and learned. And now he has one cherry, JDM-flavored Civic to show for it.