My Tuning Diary

Hello guys,

I just wanted to share a little bit of my story of tuning these
wonderful vehicles. Back in 2003, after graduating high school, I was
able to secure a nice paying summer job at a local amusement park. I
worked long hours in the 90 degree heat. The only thing that kept me
going all those months was my dream. This dream was to own a 2000
Honda Civic Si. My room walls were a collage of all types of Honda's
in various states of tune. I would awake to pictures of Honda's and go
to sleep to them.

After working all summer I had saved up about $4000. Sadly, I was
unable to find a 2000 Honda Civic Si locally, So I put a down payment
on a Black 1999 Civic Ex 4 dr. I was so excited the first day I bought
her home! Over the next few weeks my love for this automobile grew and
grew! The first part I purchased was an AEM cold air intake. I had
never worked on a car before, but once it arrived I eagerly ripped
into the packaging. I quickly begin to try to get this thing on my
car. The instructions said an estimated install time of 2 hours, it
took me more like 8!! But after successfully getting it installed by
myself, I was hooked. My addiction to car tuning had taken hold.

The next few years saw many more upgrades; cat back exhaust, shift
knob, sound system, lowering springs, 18's, projector headlamps, and
racing seats. By mid 2006, I had just begun to save up for my body
kit, when the unthinkable happened. My baby, while parked unoccupied,
was TOTALED by some jerk showing off in a Publix parking lot!! All
that work down the tubes in a few seconds. I was devastated.

It's all good because my insurance company sent me a nice sized check
for the Civic. The Honda pictures are back up on the wall, and right
now I'm saving up for another Honda. I'm leaning towards a RSX,
Prelude, or 6th Gen Accord. I learned many lessons from my first car.
With my new car I'm not going to waste any money on bolt-on goodies,
I'm going straight for a built engine and boost. I plan on making a
huge down payment so I can have low monthly's, to free up a lot of
money for tuning. I keep these hopes and dreams on my mind everyday.
It really helps, since been riding a bike since the accident.

In my spare time, I run a blog devoted to Honda Tuning. It can be
found at http://hipohonda.blogspot.com. Check it out, I'm sure any
Honda fan will feel right at home on the site.

Anyone else have any stories about their Honda tuning adventures?

 

Maybe this is a stupid question, but rather than trying to make my car
into something it wasn't engineered to be, wouldn't I be better off
taking all those dollars I would have poured into Civic/Accord/S2000
modifications and just purchasing a real sports car from the get go or
even a stock EVO OR WRX STI?

 

some people like to "roll their own",or do their own customizations.
It's a project,a hobby.
That's how stock car racing came to be,by backyard tuners.
(sadly,now,they are no longer allowed to modify their cars)

 

On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:16:28 -0700, GRobinson324 wrote:

Maybe you should dream about a girlfriend, or a career, or something
useful. Having the main goal in your life be a "tuned" Honda is
quite..... lame.

Grow up, dude. Get a life.

I sure hope not.

 

Yeah, agreed. There is nothing like taking a "Good" car and turning it
into a "Wonderful" car. Able to keep up with the best of them.

If you do the work yourself, you can have a hell of a car for cheap.
Look at all the guys that build Muscle cars ("well, that's different!"
Really? How so?)

 

I haven't done anything to it yet, and will probably just do
maintainance instead of tuning, but I recently bought a '95 Civic EX
sedan, and I'd like to warn people looking for a 'sporting' Honda to
avoid the EX sedan. It looks sporty, handles well, but between the
outrageously tall gearing and lack of power below 5000 rpm, it
definitely *isn't* a car to drive fast. Fortunately for me that isn't a
priority, but I still marvel at how much slower this 125 HP car is in
normal driving than my 91 HP 1986 Civic Si. It's more like a Ford Tempo
four when I'm trying to merge into freeway traffic...

So if you want acceleration, get the Si. Don't be fooled by the
looks of the EX.