Building a show car is no easy proposition. With fashion trends coming and going faster than you can get your car back from the body shop, keeping up on the latest trends can be very tricky and quite costly.
The import racing scene continues to grow exponentially as new technologies are tested, discarded and improved upon in the course of a weekend. A few years ago, cars running 13-second timeslips were the fastest on the strip and legendary on the street. These days, 13 is an unlucky number, even for a daily driver, and the farther you are from a single-digit time slip, the farther you'll fall behind the pack.
Like many others in the scene, Matt Nunez had a fantastic dream: a car that was easily driven every day, made an abundance of horsepower, and looked damn good doing it, too. He started out with a '94 Prelude VTEC with a fully built motor and big turbo to help it along. Unfortunately, the more he did to the car, the harder it became to manage. Soon, his visions of driving around his ultimate "fantasy" mobile were doused by the sight of his beloved Prelude sitting in a garage, collecting dust while waiting for parts to arrive.
Unwilling to let the dream die, Matt started on another fantastic voyage. He purchased a then-new 2000 Integra off the lot and, before he finished the first tank of gas, he got to work on his new dream.
Placing his keys and his dreams in the hands of Dynamic Autosports' dynamic duo-Nacho "Build It and They Will Come" Negishi and Aries "Master of the Tuning Universe" Dizon-Matt dropped off the car and signed a blank invoice, letting them have their way.
The motor was quickly stripped and prepped for a rebuild. The B18C powerplant got new Darton ductile-iron sleeves, while industry-standard JE Pistons and Crower rods replaced their weaker factory counterparts. After the sleeves were installed and the motor was balanced by RS Machining, Nacho rebuilt the motor to NASA-spec tolerances.
A custom turbo kit was pieced together from a wish list compiled by the Dynamic staff, with Matt footing the bill. At the center of it all is the HKS GT2835R ball-bearing turbo. A dual cooperative effort from HKS Japan and Turbonetics Japan, the GT series offers the boost level of a larger turbo with the quick-spooling characteristics of a smaller one. The result: a smoother and faster-rising powerband.
Naturally, the turbo is kept under the reins by a host of HKS parts. An HKS EVC IV ATM is used in conjunction with an HKS GT Wastegate to contain and dispel exhaust gases, while an HKS Type II Racing Blowoff Valve rids the car of unwanted back pressure and keeps the turbo spinning in the right direction. The Dynamic Duo constructed a large 3-inch downpipe mated to similarly-sized exhaust piping to route spent gases through the APEXi N1 Muffler.
Directing the air around the engine bay is an entirely different affair. A Dynamic Autosports custom exhaust manifold spins the turbocharger while the pressurized air runs through Dynamic's custom intercooler piping. An APEXi intercooler for the Skyline GTR keeps boost temperatures down and fills out the entire front bumper opening.
The fuel-delivery system consists of an SX fuel pump (rated for up to 1200hp) and an SX fuel filter. Both pieces are billet-machined and anodized in the familiar SX blue-and-red color scheme. Keeping fuel pressure in check is the Vortech Adjustable rising-rate regulator. Fuel is sprayed into the intake manifold runners through a Vortech Maxflow Fuel Rail and RC Engineering 370cc injectors, and fine-tuning is handled by APEX's S-AFC Digital. On the other side of the equation, an MSD 7AL2 Ignition coupled with an HVC Pro Coil sit in the engine bay to make sure all the petrol is combusted properly. They fire the NGK plugs through MSD wires to a tune of 430-plus hp.
To complement the engine bay, a plethora of polished shiny parts and custom one-off components were called upon. A Feel's oil filler cap closes off the custom valvecover treatment, while a Spoon radiator cap keeps the pressure on the Fluidyne radiator. Other parts from Injen, STR and DC Sports round out the line-up. The rest of the car's exterior faade is kept "lean and mean" with an OEM Acura body kit adding curves here and there.
The interior is straight out of a scene from Star Wars. There are more gauges and gadgets than you can shake a stick at. HKS Peak Hold gauges, an HKS Injector Pulse Monito, and a Halmeter A/F gauge occupy various strategically placed locations on the pillars, dash and glove compartment. A Mugen tiller points the car in the right direction, while a Mugen shift knob helps Nunez crash through the gears. Dual Recaro seats keep both driver and passenger in place when cruising the boulevard or bruising the strip. Oh, and the little red switch on the center console-that's for the EVC scramble boost function.
Ground-holding duties were assigned to Dynamic Autosports' custom-engineered drag shocks mated with Eibach springs. A JDM Integra Type R strut tower bar up front and a Tenzo bar in the rear stiffen up the chassis; an Autopower rollbar handles the rest. Energy Suspension bushings and Progress swaybars in the front and rear do double time as they keep the bullet train on the tracks, controlling any undesirable suspension travel. Rolling stock consists of 18x7.5-inch Volk III metals on 215/35 gumballs of the Nitto 555 variety. Of course, all these parts have to stop eventually and this is handled by AEM's Upgraded Rotor Kit on all four corners, with the AEM Upgraded Calipers putting their feet down on the front half.
Of course, all of this going-fast and lookinggood stuff didn't amount to much if Matt and his passengers couldn't enjoy it from the inside. So, he took the car to Bel-Air Competition Soundworks where a complete multimedia system was installed. An Eclipse 7002 Head Unit conducts the audio-visual orchestra with its large display screen, and a MacIntosh amplifier juices up the Kicker speakers all around. A Sony Playstation hides away for hours of thumb-numbing excitement, and a Panasonic DVD player provides entertainment for rear passengers or impromptu tailgate parties.
Matt used to see other fixed-up cars driving along the roads of Southern California that made him green with envy. "That's so fantasy!" he would say. Now that his own high-power, high-sound, high-style Integra is completed, he has realized his dream. The Final Fantasy is his.