Hondas are great cars.

However, as we all know they sometimes receive a lot of hate in the car community. Honda owners are stereotyped to be young kids who rice their cars and install tasteless exhaust mods (huge fart cannons on the exhaust)

When in the hands of the right person however, great things can happen.

Recently we had the pleasure of meeting Duane Skeete. He and his father are building a Hatchback EG Honda Civic. This Honda is Duane's ninth Honda I believe, so he knows his way around the platform. The car isn't done yet but we can already tell, it's going to be clean...and quick.

Duane and his father have been building this car for the past 3 years or so, you would never know they aren't even mechanics.

Their attention to detail on this build is amazing, everything is immaculate, this is mostly because of Duane's father, he believes in keeping his work shop tidy and cleaning and maintaining his tools well.

“A tidy man = A tidy car.”

— Pops

The shell is currently empty for the most part but the engine is mounted. A Honda B18c motor rests under the hood. Pulled straight from a Type-R these naturally aspirated motors make close to 200bhp, in this tiny, light, 2door hatch the power to weight ratios are going to be a bit crazy.

This car is Duane"s first engine swap, but you'd swear he's a veteran. He gets the majority of his information online. That's the beauty of hondas, there's so much information available about them and aftermarket part support as well. It's a good platform to start on if you want to modify or build a car. Unlike my subaru, the engine bay is a nightmare if you don't know what you're looking for.

Over the years Duane has amassed quite the number of parts for the car.

Brace for the incoming parts list.

ASR sway bar kit for the rear which includes a chassis reinforcement plate, sway bar and rose joint end links
Top fuel carbon intake
Momo race steering wheel
K Sport coilover
K Sport lower control arms - Voodoo line
Skunk 2 front and rear camber adjustable arms
Blox Mini Race muffler and 2.5" mandrel bent pipe
NRG weighted shifter
B&M short shifter
Hasport engine mounts
Energy suspension complete bushing kit
New genuine Honda Si front lips and fog lights and varies clips, bolts, etc
Fully rebuilt GSR front and rear brakes
Hondaata s300 ECU
All the bolts in the engine bay were replaced as well because they were all rusted

Duane admitted the list is long. Almost everything has been replaced, even all the door and trunk strips, windshield rubbers, seals around the tail lights and new tail lights. He has a lot more planned for the car, like a full aftermarket exhaust but such is the nature of project cars.

When we first got there to photograph the car Duane and his father were already working on it, they try to every weekend. The plan for today was to install the shifter, bleed the brakes and do some work on the engine loom.

We were impressed when we saw them fidgeting with the loom but we were assured there are wiring diagrams online and it only looks hard. Beautiful how cars can bring people together.