Steve Youhana's Civic hatch has been a work in progress since the day he got. The vision that he has had with this car was constantly evolving. It started with a B16 swap, wheels and suspension. The next year it was a turbo kit. That is how I remember first seeing Steve's hatch. Clean, Simple, and well put together. More on Steve and his hatch, including a bunch of pics, after the jump.
Steve is not originally from Ohio (where we live now). He came to Ohio from California. He heard about a bunch of Akron, Ohio guys that are into Hondas from his friend. Once we met up he instantly became a part of a circle of friends: CrewLegit. It's a weird name. It's a weird thing. It's not really a car club. It's a bunch of guys that are into Hondas that wrench (for the most part) out of a shared garage space in Akron, Ohio. We share a love for cars. Steve says that his car would not be the way it is with out his friends and the garage. More important than the work that gets done is the ideas that happen. The inspiration from being with like minded people who share a passion is priceless.
With-in the first year of meeting him he said to me, "I'm going to K-swap my car and turbo it."
And that is exactly what happened. But it wasn't as straight forward as that. To start with Steve
pulled his old B16 out. Shortly thereafter he went through his engine bay marking off what he wanted
to shave. Then he literally got to grinding. Grinding and cutting in his engine bay. With some help
from his friend Pace Petrella and Adam "Big Red" Laubenthal he started to weld up his engine bay. There was a learning curve because Steve had never done anything this involve with welding or body work. Steve's friend Denny helped him
out with wiring the conversion to the K20 wiring harness, tucking the wiring, and installing an alarm. After a long winter his car had a k20 in it.
That lasted for one summer.
Even thought the Type S swap was fast in his car he wanted more. In the winter Steve took apart his own wiring harness and added a mil-spec dis-connect plug himself. He then put the car back together and drove it down to Sunbury, OH. Marty Flaherty at Slowmotion Motorsports went to work fabricating a turbo kit custom designed for the k20 power Civic hatch.
Steve's hatch isn't for everyone. I would give him an opinion on something and so would some of our friends. 'Paint this.' 'do this.' Ultimately he did not give in on any of the suggestions - because he had a vision. For while the car had red Recaro seats. He wanted to get the rarer blue seats then match his door panels. Sounded like a great idea. Then he told me, "I want to do my CCW wheel's centers blue."
I wasn't sure. "Really? They look so good polished," I said.
Sure enough He drove up with the CCWs centers anodized blue with blue Recaros and I had to pick my jaw up off the ground.
The interesting thing about Steve is he is proud about his car but doesn't want to knock on other people or hate on those who don't have nice parts on his car. I think that is because he hears people complain about being "hated on" or not getting recognition - then they tend to criticize others about their wheels or style. Steve remembers a time not to long ago when he had Rotas.
If you ever decide to build a car- you really have to build it for yourself. The odds of getting into a magazine or something like that are so slim that I wouldn't even try to build a car that way. Or trying to build it to please your friends is dumb too. Even if you did get your car into a magazine is that the end of it? Part it out? Sell it? This car is a reflection of who Steve is.
Sadly. This car wasn't even finished (as if cars ever are). He had bigger and better plans for this hatch which included a 3 piece fiber glass front end, wider wheels, and drag slicks. As he was driving during lunch break in Akron steve hit 3 buckled bumps in a construction zone on the highway which sent him from the fast lane to the curb into the slow lane then back into the wall head on in the fast lane. Luckily, Steve and his co-worker were okay. The shell of the car sustained irreparable damage. Taking it in stride he was able to buy a different chassis and has begun to build something even Nastier.
I will posted more updates later. - Shocker Joe
Power
560WHP 406WTQ at 23psi
Engine bay
Mike Zusin (track.one motorsports) old k20a2
CTR tranny
24kt gold valve cover
Hasport EKK2 mounts
Slowmotion motorsports custom turbo setup
Slowmotion motorsports/Bosch 1000cc injectors with clips
Slowmotion motorsports custom Mickey Mouse exhaust/dump tubes
Garrett 60 trim turbo with upgraded stage 5 wheel and t4 divided housing
Tial twin 38mm wastegates
Tial type q BOV
4” purple velocity stack
Hondata 4 bar map sensor
Hondata IM gasket
AFI billet intake manifold
Skunk2 74mm throttle body
Skunk2 exhaust gear
Skunk2 timing chain tensioner
ARP head studs
K-tuned k20 upper neck
K-tuned shifter plate
K-tuned thermostat plug
K-tuned heater outlet plug
K-tuned A/C & P/S delete
K-tuned billet shifter box
K-tuned fuel rail
K-tuned radiator hoses
Fluidyne Radiator
Hybrid Racing shifter cables
King Accessories coil pack cover
King Accessories mirrored underbelly tray
Competition Clutch stage 4 clutch
Competition Clutch Flywheel
Gearspeed carbon lined synchro set
BWR oil filter adapter
Bolt Boys engine and tranny bolts
Self made disconnect engine harness
Armed and Alarmed tucked fuse box/battery/headlight harness
Stuck graphics LA light up logo
Shoot outs to
RIP MOM love you so much
Fiancé Erin
My son Jordin
Crewlegit.com Shocker Joe Coville, Adam Laubenthal, BaoWeezayy, Pace Joseph Petrella, Rob Mangina,Denny/Reed Kneale,
Denny at armedandalarmed.com
Shocker Joe Coville at www.shockerjoe.com
Kevin Kauffman at Mish Productions
Dan Myszka at Stuckvinylegraphics.com
Everyone at K-tuned.com
Everyone at Slowmotionmotorsports.com
Tim Schultz at Hybrid-racing.com
Ccwheel.com
Driveshaftshop.com
Homies that had a hand someway in this build: Carlo Tinoso,Marty Dumphrey Flaherty, Brent Boyd, SteveThomsen,Thomsen’s dad, David White, Michael Arbogast, Tommi Le, Jonathan Adams, Stephen Lapinski, Michael Kodish, Jason White, Push Tags, Ryan Miracle, Steven Edgecomb, Stephen Cortez, Darren Rick, Americus Cuevas, Mike Zusin, Randall Craver, Seizar Youhana, Tomas Zaiya
