To understand Dave Allan's passion for his '95 Integra LS, you need only look at his habit of spending free nights boozing and wrenching. When Allan or best friend Jason Sierant gets an order of JDM original equipment Honda goodness, the duo picks up a case of beer, takes their cars to JS Automotive in South Orange, N.J. (owned by Sierant's father), and spends the night putting on new parts until early morning.
"And that's a good night," Allan adds. "It's not a bar night, but it's a good night."
We like Allan. He's a schoolteacher from Union and admits he gets a little nutty over the "stupid stuff," but sometimes obsession has its rewards. When he received his Recaro SRD seats from Japan, he found a coin in one of the bolsters. The yen, while not monetarily valuable, sent Allan's mind racing. He and Sierant imagined the previous owner of those buckets dropping the currency while "throwing toll on the Wangan or something." Allan still has the coin today for good luck, the only one in his change tray.
Allan's father bought the used DC2 for his son, still in high school, thinking commuter car. The younger Allan wanted a platform for wheels, body kit and the works. Father and son compromised on an Integra with 23,000 miles, A/C and a slushbox-"a cream puff," Allan says.
The acquisition predated Allan's knowledge of the import scene, but a new interest in the scene's magazines started churning ideas. He confesses to being a delusional hot-rodder until a violent introduction with a guardrail. As the car sat in the body shop Allan decided to let loose, starting with a "ridiculously awful" fiberglass front end followed with a "crazy" rear spoiler, 17-inch rims, and some second-rate bolt-ons. Purple and blue wire loom ran throughout the engine compartment.
"It's ludicrous now when I look back to think that I did that," he says. "[But] it was fun and it got a lot of looks. To each his own."
Allan considered entering shows with the LS, but changed focus after seeing the severe one-upmanship of that world and gravitating to the simplicity of JDM. He bought an Integra Type R motor and paid people that he considered friends to do the swap. "That was a mistake," he concedes.
The car had the right motor, but the wrong throttle body, gearbox and ECU, and Allan had no avenue for recourse since the deal was under the table. Preparing for a stretch at Loyola College in Maryland, he was forced to put his problematic B18C5 on the backburner.
Things got worse when he came home for a break. Allan went for joyride and mis-shifted. The resulting mass of bent valves convinced him to assume full control of the rebuild if he wanted it done right. Emboldened by friends on Honda-Tech.com, Allan went on a mission - "a labor of love," he says - to create a car that more accurately reflected his tastes.
It's hard not to notic e Allan's preference for Spoon Sports, a company that he says stands behind its product and has a deeper commitment to performance. He cites Type One, Spoon's speed shop, as evidence. Using solely Spoon parts, Type One enhances new Hondas exclusively, building on strengths from the factory, correcting shortcomings, and basically making kick-ass stock cars.
"I like that a car can come from the dealer, get tuned mechanically and aesthetically, engineered to the owner's specs and improved right from the lot so the vehicle is more of a driving machine," Allan explains. "That is basically what I was trying to do for myself."
Now with a second car in the stable, Allan pulls out the DC2 for pure pleasure these days. He's had his fun with ostentatious body kits and wheels and seems pleased with the Integra's current JDM sleeper configuration. He's eyeing only a handful of minor changes and one big engine redirection.