The motor is gorgeous. Its really a work of art. When I do the turbos you will get to see a lot more of it. Just be warned they are difficult to work on, and expensive to own. And pre 01 they had a few issues, that was corrected half way through 01 (thus I searched for 01.5 for about a year before buying). If you do preventative maintenance, like I did, you will probably not have many headaches. My friend lets his go until stuff breaks, and he has had a lot of trouble with my car. I fix stuff at the first hint of failure, or do it at the recommended service point. Like timing belt, water pump (both), front main seal (easy when doing timing belt), axles, tie rods, brakes. My power steering pump started to whine and I replaced it ASAP. He let his go until it locked up, and tore the belt off and left him stranded. I have towed his car to the shop a few times. This is the first time mine has ever seen a trailer. And I do drive it hard, and put a lot of miles on it.

That said, you really can't beat them IMO. A pain to work on, but its a really fast, fully loaded luxury car, that seats 5 and cops don't look twice at. Their resale value is pretty low, so they are not that expensive to pick up, in comparison to a BMW or Mercedes or WRX of similar year and performance. IDK, I really love my car, never want to get rid of it (maybe after 200K).

But, stock he will pull on you off the line no matter what, way more torque. And probably still kick your ass. But if you get a chip, you will have him by the end of 2nd gear. These cars are really under tuned from the factory. Stock is 250/250, and an APR chip takes you to 310/370. There are more aggressive chips available too. I got APR because there is a local dealer, and when I had to have my ECU flashed they reinstalled it for free. GIAC you can buy an interface cable and install it yourself from a laptop though, and they make a pretty aggressive tune.

Sorry way off subject now, lol. Anyways, I say buy one if you like them and aren't afraid to work on it yourself. Because the parts are expensive, paying someone to fix it after that just stings. Lol.

 

I will redeem myself with pics.

 

spring time is balloon time Helped Sandi today, shes flying this weekend again

 

this is not the same benz you did a while back is it???? ................. cant be, i remember it having a "wide body" and a few other key differences...... right?

 

Ya, totally different car, but same guy. He sold the other one, but still has this one that he started before I built the silver car. I just did a turbo on it. This one is way more ghetto, but actually abides by the LeMons rules.

 

ah.... yea, i seen your build thread on the other one...... that would have been a real fun car to do something more along the lines of a cannonball/gumball run....

 

Look Ma!! I just added 100 hp adding this wing!!

 

its not a wing damn it!! its a shopping kart handle!!!!

 

I want one for my civic, one of those huge 3 tier carbon ones that should be good for like 150whp right??? Maybe some 3M fender vents and a type R sticker too.

 

Would have to agree. I just wish mine was a M3 instead of the 325i

 

Umm.........

 

wooopss lol

 

^^"my hand slipped"

 

Ya, that car was actually pretty nice. All ti really needed to be a good all around car was a bigger front sway bar, and some headers. The motor was built to flow a lot of air, and then he had me put stock manifolds on last minute. I think headers would free up a ton of power.

 

yea........ seen that portion of it too. oh well.... cant say no when he's handing you enough cash to do the work

just for kicks, you should post some of the highlights of that build here.... that was just trick!

 

Like make a separate thread here in off topic? Or just in random pics? That was a fun car to build. The new owner just asked if I wanted to do a power steering conversion, and have it race ready in 9 days. Gonna have to say no since I have three projects in the shop, and need one ready for a show in a few weeks.

 

yea.......... kinda like a "random other projects" thread of some sort

damn. its gotta be fun having unlimited ingenuity at the fingertips supported by some good tools you can take just about anything as random as that benz and just have at it. love reading about projects like that. i spent a good portion of the night reading the whole build thread when i logged into the forum.

as for me, i toyed with the honda the other day and paint matched the wheels. didnt think they were gonna come out too well but to my surprise, they actually came out real nice. i used an epoxy appliance paint. its a little tougher than standard paint, and better quality than the marketed wheel paint. made the brake dust and other road debris easy to wash off today.

although ive never really been much of a honda guy, this model civic has grown on me. given i do get pretty much free reign of customizing the car to my liking (within reason). looking to do some sort of drop shock for it, possibly bring it down 1 more inch to shut the tire to fender gap, bring out the wheels with a spacer, and also do a set of half clear half red tails.


By alisn4x4 at 2011-05-02


By alisn4x4 at 2011-05-02


By alisn4x4 at 2011-05-02


By alisn4x4 at 2011-05-02


By alisn4x4 at 2011-05-02

 

I love the honda hatchbacks but my favorite is the next gen after yours. I have the one after that and it is pretty awesome but still not my fave. Looks great though. How are you going to do a drop on it?

 

I like this year hatch. One of my favs to

 

prob find some decent drop shocks made by kyb or equivalent..... something that has a little more up travel (so it dont bottom out so easily) so i can cut a coil off each end (will lower it about 1 more inch) its currently sitting on some generic drop springs and rides quite nice actually.