Reza Yaghoubi's 1997 Acura Integra GS-R
If you were around the tuner community since the late '90s, then you probably have stories or at least a fond memory or two of the street racing days. Some of you young bucks may be saying: "But I street race all the time, I just raced some guy earlier." You see, revving at some guy driving the opposite direction, or running someone down on the highway isn't really "true" street racing. In fact, it's safe to say that, for the most part, street racing is dead. The days of lining up on a secluded street flanked by business parks with hundreds of people looking on are long gone. Those who still have that thirst for speed have hopefully translated their racing talents from the streets to the track. Local track events provide a closed, safe environment for people to push themselves and their cars without having to worry about endangering their lives, or the lives of others. Not to mention the risk of an impounded and possibly crushed car. Reza Yaghoubi of San Diego, CA, once a dedicated street racer, is an individual who's matured, and made the decision to progress on the track, rather than run high risks on the street."I still remember the first time I saw a modified Honda," Reza reminisces. "It was back in 1994 when I was still in high school. I didn't even know what kind of Honda it was because I wasn't into imports at all, but just the simple look of a slammed Honda made me want one." That Honda turned out to be an EF Civic from "Ground Zero," one of the more notable car crews of that era. The slammed EF with a single-shot nitrous setup was inspirational enough for Reza to purchase his very own Honda. "I started out with a 1991 Integra GS that ended up getting stolen. I then moved on to a single-cam turbocharged CR-X which made decent power, but I just wanted more," Reza says. "Street racing was really starting to take shape around that time and the most popular race car was probably a 92-95 hatch. I had a 92 CX as a daily and decided to jump in on the craze. I sold my CR-X to fund the build of the hatch." At that time, Reza rolled with a San Diego based car crew known as Team Infamous. The team mechanic, Kivey, is credited with providing the engine that eventually made Reza "infamous". "Kivey learned how to build engines from Peter Yem of PYR Racing fame, so he really knew his stuff. "I asked him to help build me an engine and he told me about a B16 that he had built for his personal car. He was very eager to test it out and I was the perfect guinea pig." The Kivey-built engine ended up being a potent setup as Reza and his Civic began to create quite a stir. So much so that his bright yellow EH soon became known as "The Killer Bee."
"It was great to have a fast, well-known car back then. It gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of great people," Reza remembers. "One of the people I met was actually Rodrez. He was racing at the same time on the same streets. It was fun back then, we always had a good time running our cars against each other and just trying to go faster."