We all go through our fair share of trials in life. That’s just how the universe seems to work. Struggles and inevitable loss along the way help to shape who we are, and in turn, allow us to appreciate what we have in our lives. The art of modifying a car somewhat resembles that theory in that the unforeseen events help to shape our future selves. One of the most enjoyable things about starting a project is the journey that comes along with it. If the ride weren’t an interesting one, everyone would simply pay someone else to do all their work for them.
Although this does happen on occasion, what you need to understand is that for every great experience on that journey, there comes an almost equal amount of challenges and difficult moments that can actually encourage one to appreciate and value their project that much more. Once a bond develops between car and owner, a relationship is forged and no hardship is too great to overcome.
Chivas Sotelo’s voyage with his ’00 Civic Si has been a noteworthy one. The Las Vegas native has experienced so many negative events that it has become a testament to his character. The only reason he has this Si is because his first Civic was taken away from him. “I didn’t really intend to buy another Civic,” Chivas admits. “After my first one was stolen, I started looking at S2000s, but they were just too expensive at that time. This Civic wasn’t exactly cheap either, but it was cheaper than an S2K and was in better shape than the other cars I found. The original owner was moving away from Las Vegas and just didn’t have room for it anymore. I paid $10K for it and it was basically stock with the exception of some custom leather seats. Well, I mean, I thought it was stock at the time.”
Perhaps the custom leather seats were a red flag, because Sotelo’s coupe was no virgin. On a random trip to California one day, Chivas blew his “stock” B16A and later found that the previous owner had supercharged the motor and did his fair share of “spirited driving.” The rings on the engine were completely shot, and the motor barely had any compression. His first hurdle would be to find another motor for his EM1. “I really didn’t know much about cars back then. Everything I did later on I learned on my own. My whole plan was to eventually go the turbo route, so I wanted to get a good, legit engine. I traveled out to California and picked up a JDM GS-R long block from HMO. In hindsight, I actually regret buying the engine because I realized I should have bought an ITR motor instead, but I moved forward with the build anyway.”
The whole engine dilemma was just a first in many other incidents he would encounter. Once he got his car on the road again, he decided to purchase his first set of wheels, which were replicas of the very-popular Volk Racing CE28 wheel. His coupe was running smoothly and everything appeared to be fine, until he hydroplaned into a center median one day. The wheel that made contact with the wall practically disintegrated, and the spokes broke right off the wheel. The damage, other than the wheel of course, was minimal, so he fixed it and moved on. Two months later, he ran into his next predicament. “I was walking back to my Civic after finishing up some shopping at the mall and noticed yellow emergency tape wrapped around it. I thought it was a joke at first, but then my friend saw that the whole front end of the car had been side-swiped. Whoever hit my coupe was nice enough to leave a note and they said their trailer couldn’t get around my car. The wheels of the trailer actually ran over the front of my car, but they left their insurance information so I could file a claim. I had it towed home and then I took it apart. The damage wasn’t as bad as I thought; a front fender had to be replaced as well as the front bumper, crash beam, and one of the headlights. Their insurance company gave me more than I needed to repair the damage, so I took the extra money and bought an authentic set of 16-inch Volk TE37s.”