1995 Honda Del Sol - The Rose Of San Francisco

If you're a guy sitting there reading this magazine, you might be tempted to think of Import Tuner as a "guy's magazine." I mean, it's got a hot chick on the cover, dope cars on the spreads, and plenty of racing and show coverage-chock-full of both hot chicks and dope cars-in between. Then there's the tech analyses, do-it-yourself information to help out the enterprising and ambitious import enthusiast...do-it-yourself tech stuff is definitely a man's domain right? Hell, this magazine issues a veritable river of testosterone.

Then again, thinking this way might draw your attention away from the fact that import enthusiasm, and all the aspects contained therein, isn't just a guy thing. Guys might currently make up the bulk of the crowds at show and race events, but there is a burgeoning sector of female participants who are beginning to crest the scene and make some waves of their own...and they aren't just the pretty silent types who sulk seductively around manufacturers' show booths or on the front cover of this publication.

Daly City, Calif.'s Ethel-Rose Rivera is one of these new millenium women. Not only is she an import enthusiast, but she is also coordinator of her car crew, Team Gridline out of the Bay Area. That means she's got some rank, 'cause she's probably the only one organized enough to do it. She's been campaigning her '95 del Sol for the last year or so, since its completion in 2000.

"Putting a good show car together takes a lot of time, effort and a whole lot of creativity," she notes. "I got interested because of the feeling of competition, and the chance to have fun by being artistic and creative at the same time."

That said, prepare to be schooled in the art of show stopping, boy. Ethel-Rose tells me the areas she tended in her first year of ownership were the exterior and interior. Both have been revamped with a high degree of detail. The exterior work was performed by Image Auto Body in San Francisco. A few subtle tricks include the Audi TT fuel door and grafted Mustang taillights. Image Auto Body installed a Carisma front bumper, a Wings West rear valence, side skirts and wing. A custom hood with a big Plexiglas(tm) window, modified by Ethel-Rose's boyfriend, Nilo Capiz, also of Team Gridline, allows show-goers to gaze into the engine bay even when the hood is latched in place. Image Auto Body also sprayed the 5 stage candy magenta paint.

The inside of Ethel-Rose's ride is as pristine white as an Arctic wilderness covered by a fresh blanket of snow. One look at the inside, and you'll see why the car gets driven only to show events. The whiter-than-white interior scheme was the responsibility of Xtreme Designs, in Los Angeles. White has been applied to every surface of this car's cockpit: seats, doors, dash, center console and carpet. Four AutoMeter gauges have been lined up along the passenger's side dash, providing basic engine info: water temperature, fuel pressure, oil pressure and voltage. Various other electronic gadgets found their way into the interior as parts of Ethel-Rose's comprehensive entertainment system, which was also designed by her boyfriend. A dash-mounted CD head unit and LCD screen, both from Clarion, sit at the system's head. Dual MTX amps, crossovers and capacitors provide augmented flow and crank sounds out of front Kenwood component speakers and twin MTX 12-in. subs mounted in an enclosure inside the trunk. A VCR sits in a custom enclosure behind the seats and provides visual stimulation for the car's occupants (hopefully while the car is parked).

Taking a peek beneath the car's custom hood...oh God! I'm blind! The extensive chrome plating, like on the Neuspeed strut tower brace, valve cover, exhaust manifold heat shroud, and various brackets, odds and ends was carried out by Santa Rosa Plating in Santa Rosa. Even the battery has a chrome-plated cover. The long, polished intake pipe adds to the engine bay's overall brightness factor. A Tanabe 2.25-in. exhaust with polished muffler pipes the bad air out of the bay and out under the Wings West valence. Astute readers will note the polished NOS bottle mounted in the trunk, below the subs, while perusing the car's interior shots; the bottle feeds a 150-shot NOS system installed, again, by Ethel-Rose's man Nilo. Is there anything he can't do?

The suspension was set up by X-Treme Motorsports, using custom chrome-plated Weapon R coils and similarly plated Tokico dampers. In front, enlarged Brembo brake assemblies grip slotted rotors with Axxis pads. Goodridge lines pipe the pressure in from a stock master cylinder. The stock brakes remain in back, although they, too, have seen an amount of chrome customization. Wrapping everything up is a set of 5Zigen Heidfeld wheels, sized 17x7.5 in. and dressed to kill in sticky Toyo rubber.

The first of Ethel-Rose Rivera's future mods has already been put in effect, after our pictures were taken, unfortunately. She tells me the hood now sports a big Honda racing "R" laid over the Plexiglas window on the hood. To view the rest of what she has in store for this tight little ride, she says you're going to have to hit the shows and see it there. Power to the women of the import world!