Pulling up to the traffic light, you notice the red Honda Civic idling at the crosswalk sports a big shiny muffler, a lowered stance and a set of what look like factory alloy wheels. "Easy prey," you figure. Then you look over and see the driver is a girl. "Oh, yes. Much too easy."
She looks over and smiles. She's cute, but you play the role and sneer back.
"Should've had your boyfriend do more than cut your springs and put a coffee can on your car," you yell over to no response. Then the light turns green.
You stomp the gas. Engines roar, tires scream, white smoke swirls around you.
"See you later, girlie."
Wrong.
The girlie pulls away. And pulls. And pulls. By the next light, she's five car lengths ahead and still pulling. Broken and beaten, you make a quick right to save face. Like most guys, you've fantasized about being spanked by a beautiful girl, but not like this.
Houston, Texas resident Shami Aiwase plays out this scene every day. Other than the lowered ride height of the Progress Competition coil-overs and GReddy pipe, her '93 Civic hatch looks exactly as it did when Honda built it. Looks are deceiving, however. The Civic has run 11.68 at 123 mph.
The car was originally purchased by friend George Crawford, who drove the car home on Monday and bought a bone-stock '98 Integra LS engine on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Aiwase and boyfriend Jason Herrera installed that engine, and on Friday of the same week, George and Jason installed a Nitrous Express kit and headed to Baytown, where the car ran 12.6 seconds at 107 mph on its first pass.
According to Aiwase, the thrill and satisfaction of driving a 12-second street car lasted until Monday morning, which is when the three decided to turbocharge the B18. There was only one problem: None of them had any money. So for the next three weeks, they begged, borrowed, and dug loose change out of couch cushions. They ended up with a pile of used and mostly donated parts with which to assemble the turbo system.
For insurance, the trio installed a Golden Eagle blockguard, which reinforces the cylinder walls with high-strength ductile iron sleeves. Other than this single mod, the bottom end remains factory issue and Aiwase says it's had no problems so far.
A Rev Hard cast exhaust manifold drives the T3 Garrett and feeds waste gases into a custom 3-inch downpipe and GReddy exhaust. A big, ugly Tial 40mm wastegate on the manifold and an HKS blow-off valve on the intake tract regulate pressure. A front-mount Spearco intercooler core keeps induction charges cool and efficient. To ensure the car's fuel system can keep up with the turbo's needs and the engine would accept the planned boost levels, the trio chose Hondata's stand-alone engine management system.
Juice is supplied by a Walbro fuel pump, Aeromotive regulator and 440cc RC injectors. As for the augmented induction flow, the three found Honda's MAP sensor is only good up to 11 psi, so a GM 3-bar sensor has been integrated with the intake manifold. To fool the casual observer, the factory MAP sensor still sits at the top of the manifold, but it isn't hooked up.
Jason Herrera is responsible for the tuning side of the project. A mix of conservative timing and a rich fuel map across the board keeps things running smoothly.
So far, the only thing that's proved limiting is injector size. According to the Hondata unit's datalogging, the injectors are wide open at a 100-percent duty cycle from third gear onward, so 850cc injectors are on the way.
Of course, the engine's current state is only getting Aiwase warmed up. She wants to eventually reach 450 hp with a larger turbo and built bottom end. The main objective is to run consistent 10.5s while keeping the car streetable. But Aiwase also wants to keep the car a true street sleeper, which is why it has received exactly zero body treatments. It even wears factory 15-inch alloy Honda wheels from a '99 Civic Si, which are wrapped in Nitto NT450s, sized 205/50ZR-15.
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