1993 Honda Civic Coupe - S3 Class

With the Civic winning third place in San Diego and fourth place in San Bernardino at Hot Import Nights' "Two Door Mild" class last year, you can bet the cabin is nothing less than impressive. On the inside Jaime let Car Craft do what it does best: It gave the interior a complete makeover. Instead of the stock gray cloth with the funky paisley pattern, Car Craft used a combination of gray and graphite vinyl that complements the exterior perfectly. To ensure safety at the track and add race-bred looks at the show, Monkey Bars provided Jaime with a black powdercoated rollcage-monkeys not included.

Making some noise at the show, track or street was a job for Ryan Jones at California Sound Works. He designed a system that includes a Clarion DXZ 715 head unit, two Phoenix Gold amplifiers and MB Quart speakers. Completing this show-quality system is a functional fiberglass enclosure, housing four Phoenix X Max carbon-fiber 10-in. subs and a 10-lb NOS bottle. For those long waits in the staging lanes, Jaime likes to challenge others to play Gran Turismo 3 for money on his Playstation 2. The unit is neatly blended into the glove compartment and on-screen antics are easy to see on the Clarion 6.4-in.h in-dash LCD monitor. And, because sharing is caring, another monitor was mounted inside the trunk lid for the viewing pleasure of any passersby.

Elevating his car to a new class took Jaime more than five years. Projects like this take a lot of time, money and close work with sponsors, and Jaime's Civic is an excellent example of what you can do with a budget and a little patience. Judging by the pictures, one can tell patience really is a virtue, and that can only help you put you, and your car, in a separate class.