VTEC History & Technology - Wrenchin'

ECU tuning company Hondata owes homage to VTEC arguably as much as companies like Hasport. The company was started by a couple of Kiwis who had a passion for racing and continue to today. Co-owner Doug MacMillan says, "We built our business around what the aftermarket tuning community was doing with Honda engines, especially forced induction. It's fairly safe to say that modifying Honda engines has been central to the sport compact car scene and the VTEC system has allowed Honda to stand head and shoulders above the crowd. Had Honda not created VTEC, Honda would have been more like one of the crowd with fewer people selecting their cars and engines for modification. We would still be doing what we are now, which is building great programmable engine management systems for Hondas and Acuras, but we would be doing fewer of them."

But what about racing? Although the need to implement VTEC into Honda's championship Formula 1 engines wasn't there, the technology played a major role in early import drag racing. When asked how VTEC helped shape sport compact drag racing, long-time drag racer Stephen Papadakis says, "The VTEC cars weren't as fast as the non-VTEC ones until 1997 or so. The scene was well on the way at that time." This is likely true; Mitsubishi's DSMs had been out for some time and tuners were getting decent numbers from non-VTEC Honda engines. "When the '94 Integra GS-R came out, that was when Japan finally gave the U.S. market a good engine. That car was fast! That was when VTEC changed from trendy to fast, in my experience," Papadakis says.

The late '90s was an explosive time for Honda enthusiasts. The GS-R was selling in large numbers and Honda finally got wise and released the B16A-equipped Civic Si. The VTEC experience was so strong for one old-school gearhead that he went so far as to purchase a brand new Si just for development purposes. Up until the release of the '99 Si, John Grudynski, owner of HyTech Exhaust, had only manufactured his custom-made headers for race cars, Formula Fords, Indy cars, and other spec classes. He was soon hooked on VTEC though. "It was 1998 and Dan Paramore took me for a ride in an ITR and I was blown away with the performance of it. I didn't even know what VTEC was or how it worked then, but it sure peaked my interest for sure. The rest is history," John says. Today, HyTech's Honda-specific headers work so well that they've been copied time and again, despite the company's best efforts to keep its designs exclusive. While many recognize the value of a HyTech-style header, only a select few pay for the real thing. Despite the piracy, John says that without VTEC and Honda's popularity, he'd be homeless. "About one-third of my business is from [Hondas], the rest is the Formula car stuff and miscellaneous junk," he says.