1995 Honda Civic VX - Time Well Spent

[10.68 @ 129.00]

So you live in California, spend your time on the Honda forums, and see the fastest all motor street cars coming from the East Coast. What do you do? Well, if you’re Jeff Braich, you go out and get a ’95 Civic VX and go run 10s. Sounds easy enough, right? Unfortunately, we all know the truth—it’s never that simple. This car was time well spent and has taken 12 years to get to where it is today. Building a car of this caliber is no easy feat, nor is it a one-man job. Many people have been involved in helping to make this beast one of the fastest all motor street cars on the planet, and here’s Jeff’s story…

Take a walk down memory lane with us, and we’ll unfold a decade-plus journey on what it took to get there. The story of this car sounds very similar to one you’ve no doubt read on these very pages time and time again. Jeff started with a ’95 Civic and drove it stock for about a year, at which point he decided to try the typical LS swap. He went to the track and ran the expected 14-second quarter-mile times, but that’s where the “typical” part of this story gives way to unadulterated addiction. After 14s get old, some people add some more firepower to go 13s. When you’re the father of two, this might be enough, especially when you’re still driving the car to work every day. But not Jeff. He built a B20 non-VTEC and did even more racing. This build got the car to a damn respectable 12.8 at 104 mph, all while still daily driving it. In 2006, he went to an even more aggressive build with an LS/VTEC and had some more fun. But things on the East Coast were really starting to heat up, and teams like Prayoonto Racing and other big timers were really making waves in the All Motor street class.

Not wanting to see the West Coast get left out in the cold, Jeff, like many Honda enthusiasts, was active on Honda-Tech and noted those who relied on the now-infamous H2B setup. Mating the torque-heavy H22 from the Prelude to the gearset from a B-series engine, this combination provides more opportunity for aftermarket gears and better gear ratios. With the first setup, the car made approximately 286hp and 189 lb-ft torque. The numbers that really mattered were the ones printed on his timeslip: 11.54 at 115 mph. To most, those numbers would be more than sufficient, but then the East Coast All Motor drag movement began debuting 10-second K-powered cars. Most people I’ve talked to have said that at this point they would’ve ditched the H2B setup for a K setup. Not Jeff. He put a call in to Parris Engine Dynamics and simply stated, “I want to go 10s, and I want to do it with the H2B.” Famous last words.

Between Jeff, Cloyse Holland, and a host of other friends, they built a new 2.4L engine and pounded out 320hp, and were ready to lay it all out at the track. And lay it out is exactly what they did. They blew an oil pump and blew the motor apart. At this point, the average guy would have called it quits. An engine failure to this degree can depress even the most positive enthusiast. However, Jeff and his friends aren’t the quitting type. They went back to the drawing board and started over. Three months later they had a new motor in place and 330hp under the hood. As if to tempt fate and flip Murphy the bird, they went right back to the track. This time, the motor didn’t blow, but instead blasted a 10.99 right off the trailer. Goal accomplished, right? Not quite. Remember when I mentioned that this group wasn’t comprised of quitters? Well, they aren’t exactly the type to take the first offer, either. By the end of the day, the car had gone 10.72 at 132mph, putting the Civic well into the mix of competitors that were tearing up tracks on the East Coast. Let’s recap—now you’ve got a car that can run with the fastest cars in your class, in the country, but you’re on the wrong side of the map. What do you do? You load up and go enter the lion’s den. Wait, what? That’s right, Jeff and his friends packed up and headed east for the East Coast All Motor Shootout. They made it there, and qualified with a 10.68; right up there with the big dogs of the class.

This year they’ve added a few extra parts like an AEM EMS from Prayoonto Racing and a new custom race header from Myers Competition. Jeff tells us he is making even more power than last year. Now that he’s well prepared to get back out to the track and kick some more ass, we wish Jeff the best of luck.

DIY
Taking the DIY mantra to the extreme, Jeff and his friends did just about all of the work themselves. This included painting the car, along with building, installing, and maintaining the powerplants. With a “do it once and do it right” mentality, they’ve also allied themselves with some of the biggest names in the industry. Names that are unquestionably synonymous with success, including: Parris Engine Dynamics, QSD, Supertech, Laskey Racing, RS Machine, CC Cylinder heads, Prayoonto Racing, Speedfactory, Gearage 808, Exospeed, Skunk2, T1 Racing Development and many more. Without these folks, Jeff might still be sitting around running 11s instead of earning his spot at the top of his class.