Holed up inside her house near the outskirts of Orange County, Calif., Junko Hyodo is standing knee-deep in textbooks and crumpled paper, trying to get through another crucial semester of Cal State Long Beach's nursing program. She's obsessed about becoming a nurse and knows that all these late nights of hardcore studying will soon pay off. But also scattered among the strikingly thick books is evidence of Junko's other passion, which constantly fights with the nursing program for her precious time-cars. Copies of Option magazine, receipts for purchased parts and empty packages line the floor. It's an organized mess that has symbolized Junko's life ever since she first saw a Japanese car tear down the quarter-mile nearly 10 years ago.
A product of the booming heydays of Japanese tuning in the early '90s, a young and impressionable Junko followed her older siblings around the racing hot spots of Southern California. From street racing in the city to The Battle of the Imports in the desert, she easily fell in love with the scene and promised herself that as soon as she obtained her driver's license, she would be dipping inside a lowered and fast Japanese car. Despite the fact that the industry is primarily a boy's world, the gender barrier was a minor obstacle to her that eventually became less important as she continued to hone her skills.
Her first car was a '96 Honda Civic, equipped with the essentials including a DRAG turbo kit. It was a speedy daily driver that catapulted Junko from merely being an observer to an outright participant of the tuning scene. Unfortunately, the fun she had with the Civic didn't last long after some low-life permanently borrowed it, or in other words, jacked it. Her tuning pipe dream deflated quickly, and it didn't help when her insurance company only offered her a miniscule 80 dollars to compensate. It may have been enough cash to get her an annual bus pass, but not nearly enough to help her continue her passion to be a tuner.
Down and out, being jacked by both a street criminal and the corporate variety, Junko had no solutions to her problems. Yet her passion for cars remained and a chance talk with a friend quickly solved everything. The friend was selling a 1994 Acura Integra DC2 for dirt cheap and Junko couldn't pass up the opportunity. As soon as the title was in her hands, she went straight to the Japanese supermarket, purchased an Option magazine, and researched the best possible ways to modify the car. By coincidence, the particular Option magazine she was reading featured an advertisement with Top Fuel's world-famous Honda Integra, white as snow and rolling on gold Advan wheels. That ad alone was all Junko needed for inspiration to get back into the scene. She wanted her Integra to look exactly like the Integra she saw in the advertisement.
Her first goal was to replicate the exterior look of the Top Fuel Integra. Having close connections with V-Spec, which at the time was bringing in Top Fuel parts from Japan, helped Junko start on the right path. With help from V-Spec, she purchased the same Top Fuel body kit and painted the Integra with the famous Championship White. She then converted the front end into a Type-R, further distinguishing the car from others that simply sported the boring, round headlights. The exterior transformation was topped off by installing OEM Honda HID bulbs and of course original red-colored "H" badges, the symbol of JDM holiness. The chassis was then dropped atop a set of 16x7.5 Advan RGs, which weigh in at an extremely light 13 lbs. each and wrapped in Yokohama A520 rubbers. These wheels were the epitome of style and function, and it helped Junko inch closer to her goal of perfectly mirroring the Top Fuel Integra.