Some projects are the culmination of a dream, the fulfillment of a lifelong fantasy. A chance for the owner-fired up with enthusiasm-to say: "I'm here, and this is how I roll." Not this one. There's no nice way of saying it, but Brandon Katrein is a contrary SOB. The 30-year-old from Chicago is a parts manager, spending his work hours surrounded by Lamborghini and Infiniti bits. So what car does he build? A Honda. A '92 Civic Si, EG chassis.
"I won this car in a bet with the previous owner," says Katrein. "He thought he would have it completed by October 2006, so I bet my turbo hatch (a '96 Civic B16, EK chassis) against this project. Come May 2007, he had totally given up on it, so I called in the marker. I thought I was on the winning end, but found out my new 'car' came with nothing but the broken suspension bolts stuck in the body. There was nothing I could do but modify it."
Perhaps that daytime exposure to high-end marques would influence his build strategy, inspire him to go for something upmarket. Nuh-uh. Since it was no more than a partially converted right-hand-drive shell, Katrein decided not to stray too far from there. "I wanted this to be different from my EK-which still has air conditioning, full interior, full stereo, built engine and all the creature comforts-while still being respectable on the street," he says. "I wanted something at the other end of the spectrum... stripped down with a good power-to-weight ratio, without the need for 300-plus horsepower."
It still took nine months to complete. "The longest part of the build was gathering the motivation to tackle something like this," says Katrein. "So much had to be redone and sourced just to start with a 'stock' base. The first issue was a half-finished RHD conversion and engine bay shave. It didn't line up well enough to seal against the windshield. Looking at what I had to do just to be able to complete the car was the most daunting task. At one point, I even put the shell and a new RHD clip up for sale. I told anyone with $800 to come and pick it up."
So much for putting one's heart and soul into a project. But the wisdom of Homer teaches us a lesson. Homer Simpson, that is, when he describes alcohol as "the cause and solution to all of life's problems." Yep, one of the essential fluids that got this car on the road is beer. "When I told my friend Jesse from Level 7 Motorsports I was giving up, he told me we should talk about it over a couple of beers," says Katrein. "After a few rounds, he convinced me to keep the project going, even offered to finish the shave and prep the engine bay. Without him, I would probably have sent the whole thing to the scrap yard. To this day, I don't know if he did me a favor or not."
Let's take a look and decide for ourselves. The internals of the venerable 1.6-liter B16A VTEC engine are virtually untouched, just augmented with a set of STR CNC billet aluminum cam gears and a JDM Civic Type R N1 crank pulley. A custom-made air intake houses a Feel's filter, while an oil pan from the same company is also found in the engine bay. "The Feel's oil pan starts off as a stock GSR oil pan," says Katrein. Then, like Spoon or Mugen, Feel's adds its own baffles to it. I was expecting something a little grander when I opened the box, but hopefully simplicity is the hallmark of genius."
A Fuel Labs fuel regulator joins a Benen Industries fuel rail (made from billet 6061 T6 aluminum) and a Crome-chipped P30 ECU. Tuning was done by Suja One Motoring of Carol Stream, IL, but Katrein made the wiring harness himself... from scratch.