I have known Aries Dionisio, San Diego resident and "Master Honda Tuner" (sic), for as long as I can remember. From the old days of meeting at the Godfather's Pizza parking lot for the street races to carpooling the 80-odd miles from San Diego to Dynamic Autosports in Lake Forest, Calif., we've received speeding tickets together, executed double-duty freeway domination and generally wreaked havoc whenever we were both in the same general vicinity. Now, it's your turn to get to know the man and his machine. This interview was conducted via cell phone while Aries was sitting at T.G.I.Friday's (his local hangout) and I was sitting across the table from him.
2NR: Can you hear me now? AD: Yeah. 2NR: Good-let's get started. Tell us a little bit about your Prelude. AD: All motor, 150 miles driven daily, 30 miles per gallon, and 230 hp on tap. That's naturally aspirated, to-the-wheels horsepower. 2NR: Your car is a 1994 Prelude VTEC, purchased brand new from the dealer, correct? AD: Fo' sheezee. 2NR: How do you keep your car looking so pristine when you drive that bug-laden and rock-slide disaster-area stretch of freeway from home to work? AD: Four words: Wash and wax, baby. 2NR: It's been rumored your car-cleaning episodes run well into the wee hours of the morning-is that true? AD: Yeah, you were there a few times, washing all the unburned fuel off the back of your Civic. 2NR: Do you think it's easier to clean your car now that you have the Mugen front bumper, side skirts and rear spoiler? AD: Yep, it's more aerodynamic so the water just cascades off. 2NR: And the carbon-fiber hood takes well to waxing, too? AD: Yep, all thanks to the guys at Inline-4.
2NR: Tell us about what's under the hood. AD: Oh, it's all good in my hood. 2NR: No-tell us what's underneath the hood of your Prelude. AD: Oh, my bad. Under the hood I have a standard H22A block, no turbo, no supercharger and no nitrous. 2NR: And you still manage to put down 230.3 hp and 187.6 lb-ft of torque? AD: And I still keep the factory air conditioning and power steering.
2NR: Would you say it's all because of the 7.2 million dyno runs and super-duper fine tuning you do at Dynamic Autosports instead of doing work? AD: No, I throw down power on whatever car comes my way. I like to share the wealth. 2NR: If you like to share the wealth, do you want to buy me a beer? AD: You're the big-time magazine writer, dude, you should be putting this on your expense report or something.
2NR: Well, I'm going to do that anyway, but you can't blame a guy for trying. OK, back to the interview-who painted your car? AD: Well, it's the OEM paint scheme 'cause I wanted to roll semi-stealth, but all the Mugen body parts were painted by my dad. He's the bomb-diggity for the deuce-double-O-deuce. 2NR: So, you're all about the number 2 huh? AD: Yep. Even my tires are Yokohama Parada-Spec. 2. Represent. 2NR: You throw in a lot of colloquial ghetto-type slang in your conversation. Are you a "G"? AD: No, I'm an "H" for "Husky," just like your underwear. Booong!
2NR: So, are you an FBI, too? AD: What's that? 2NR: Female Booty Inspector. AD: Naw, I have my girl Tes and she's all I need. But if you want to put some letters and shit in the interview, you can say I have an XS ECU that goes to 8500 rpm and an A'PEX V-AFC to help the A/F and control the VTEC. 2NR: Is it true you need the rev-limiter because you've been known to downshift from fifth to second at freeway speeds? 2NR: Yeah, twice in one month. But all that's history because I'm rocking the KG/AD special head combination. 2NR: What's that? AD: The combustion chambers were welded and then the ports were hand polished by Kurt Gordon. Then I put in the H22A Type-S camshafts and valve springs and connected them to 0.5mm oversize stainless-steel valves and Crower titanium retainers. My shit is high-revvin' on the rizzeal, yo.
By Arnold Eugenio
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