The most interesting car to me is the one that entirely defies expectations and at the AER race for the Jalopnik Cup of Excellence earlier this month I was shocked one morning to see a bright orange-and-white Civic hatch tear its way through a line of BMWs in a couple of laps. Just watch the video.
Mike Bednar and his “RealDime” (get it?) racing team managed t turn a 1992 Honda Civic CX into the fastest car on the track, putting in 1:15 laps around NJMP’s Lightning circuit, compared to 1:18s for some of the faster BMWs. One look at the car and it’s obvious how they did it: A J32A out of a 2003 Acura TL Type S with a six-speed LSD.
Bednar called this race more of a shake down for the car, which they’d just finished building, and they quickly learned there wasn’t enough air getting into the radiator. It was a simple enough fix as they drilled some holes in the bumper and then buzzed through the radiator support.
They didn’t win the race, of course, but there’s something highly amusing about a hot rod Honda being the faster but slightly unreliable car at a track full of BMWs, Porsches, and a GM V6-powered Mazda RX-7. Once they get their issues sorted it’ll probably be one of the cars to beat at future AER races.
FWD FTW!
Video: Nic Stango and Michael Roselli, Photos courtesy of Puppy Knuckles
Contact the author at matt@jalopnik.com.