Randy "RC" Chacon's '92 Civic CX
"I don't even like this particular body style of Civic" he says. Sure, it isn't the best way for us to start a story about Randy Chacon's spotless '92 Civic, but it's appropriate to escape from the fantasy sometimes and return to the real world. In that often romanticized world in which we hold our breath, close our eyes, and try to believe in, everybody loves their Hondas and has cute little girl names for them. Nobody ever has problems putting their cars together and their builds come out exactly as they imagined. In the real world however, oftentimes cars never end up the way they were originally planned, and people are quick to ditch their failed projects for something new. In the bizarre world that Randy Chacon lives in, he absolutely hates his Civic, yet he continues to build the hell out of it. It's not something we recommend or can even remotely comprehend, but that just so happens to be Randy's reality. He may not like this car all that much, but he's formed an unholy union with it. On paper, the casual enthusiast might think that this Civic was an absolute labor of love-to Randy, it's anything but.
"I've just never really been a big fan of this chassis, I just ran across this car on one of the local internet forums one day and it looked in decent shape. At that time, it had an LS-VTEC swap and a cheap turbo kit, but the body looked straight. The owner was looking for trades and I was in search of a weekend car, so I traded him two Civic coupes I had for it. I drove over an hour to go pick it up and it was raining so hard that I didn't give it much thought. I test drove it around the block and it ran fine. I thought it was a good deal."
Little did he know that his careless inspection would later come back to haunt him. An inquiry with the Arizona police department resulted in Randy discovering that the motor had actually been reported stolen. What sounded like a good deal at the time was actually much more troublesome than Chacon had ever envisioned. "I made a huge mistake. The guy who originally owned the car had a pretty decent reputation on my local Honda forum and I took it in good faith. It just goes to show you that you really can't trust anyone out there." Randy adds.
The built LS/VTEC is topped off with a Precision 6262 turbo and a menacing hood exit dump
After trading away two cars in exchange for a (now motor-less) hatchback, it's no wonder Randy developed some disdain toward this car. Even with the love-hate relationship leaning clearly towards the "hate" end, Chacon soldiered on and decided to continue. He made plans to build up an 82mm ITR engine but little issues with the car kept adding up to the point where Chacon ended up doing an unplanned restoration of his Civic.
"I started putting the motor together but then I figured I couldn't have a newly built motor inside a filthy engine bay, so I started cleaning it up," RC says. "While I was working on the bay, I realized I didn't like that huge hole in the front bumper and the random dents in my fenders so I went to the dealer and purchased a completely brand-new front end. Once I saw the new front end pieces, I knew I couldn't have a new front half of the car without changing all the exterior moldings so I went back and bought practically everything they had at the dealership. It just totally snowballed after that. Everything from the exterior to the inside of the car; if it looked old, I replaced it," he states.