1994 Honda Civic Coupe Turbo - Blue Bomber

9.92 @ 145 mph
9.95 @ 146 mph
Without question, Quick Class competition is the most competitive form of racing in the import-racing arena. And without a doubt, Hondas have become the weapon of choice when building a Quick Class racer. It is no surprise; their super light chassis design and potent powerplant makes for a deadly combination. Who would have thought a couple of years ago that front-wheel-drive Hondas would be eclipsing the 9-second barrier. Today there are nearly half a dozen Hondas that have broken off single digit e.t.s and there are about a dozen more on the brink. One elite Quick Class racer to land in coveted 9-second territory is John Brown of Boca Raton, Fla.

A 1994 Honda Civic Coupe was the foundation that John Brown chose to build his 9-second strip terror. Like all Honda racers, the Civic was stripped down to only the bare essentials. The factory interior, dash, windows, fuel tank and stock powerplant were ripped out of the car. (Who needs creature comforts when you are only in the driver's seat for 9 seconds at a time?)

To propel the Civic down the track at a blistering pace, the anemic 1.6 single cam was tossed in favor of a DOHC VTEC -a fully built Braman Motorsports 1.8-liter engine. Braman started off with a B18C GSR bottom-end and stuffed it with all the necessary goodies-low-compression SRP 8.5:1 pistons and Crower con-rods. Swinging the forged combination is a factory crankshaft that has been knife-edged for reduced rotating mass to accommodate for quicker revs. Up top sits an Integra Type-R cylinder head that has been modified by Braman. The head was ported and polished and stuffed with oversized stainless-steel valves. Orchestrating valvetrain events are a pair of custom Braman bumpsticks fine-tuned by STR cam sprockets. Sandwiching the head to the block are heavy-duty ARP head studs.

Force Fed
Building a 9-second Quick Class racer is no easy matter. It takes the right combination of horsepower, traction and track time for quick timeslips. Addressing the first part of the equation, John decided to force feed the 1.8-liter powerplant. John started off the turbo kit with a ported and polished cast-iron manifold from Rev Hard. The manifold gathers all the spent gases and directs them to the turbine side of the turbocharger. The snail of choice was a T4 Garrett 60-1 turbocharger with a .58 A/R housing. A Deltagate wastegate and GReddy PRofec A controller regulate boost pressure to 26 psi. Since detonation can kill engines in an instant, chilling off the highly pressurized charge air is a 750-cfm Spearco liquid-to-air intercooler. The chilled charge air is then directed to 2-1/4 inch I/C piping to the factory Type-R throttle body that connects to a sheetmetal STR intake manifold. To accommodate for the 500-plus horsepower being generated from the powerplant, an additional four-injector bung was added to the intake. The intake utilizes eight RC Engineering injectors and two fuel rails.