With the combined effects of age and alcohol, my memory of late has started to fail on me. I have the hardest time remembering people's faces, names or how I even met them. I can't even tell you how many times I'll talk to someone making inane conversation all while attempting to shuffle through my mental rolodex coming up with a whole lot of empty. Well not completely empty, I do a mean "deer caught in the headlights" impression.
But even through the fog of Grey Goose-tinged memory, I remember meeting Stephan Papadakis. It was thirteen or so years ago at JG Engine Dynamics when he was still a lowly mechanic with a full set of hair. I remember him because two things stuck out about him: He had a beat up, but very fast black EF Civic, and homeboy could wrench. Working at JG, Stephan helped turn out some of the fastest Hondas of the era, all while quietly working on his own Civic. And in time, that little Civic would grow faster as did the legend of Mr. Papadakis.
Where did your love of Hondas come from?
My first car was a '91 Honda Civic Si. I had a few friends with Hondas who taught me how to work on them. They were easy to work on and a lot of parts were available.
How did you get into drag racing?
I went to the street races with my buddies back in 1993. I liked road racing, but there weren't any tracks and I didn't have the money to get on a circuit. Drag racing was my only outlet for competition.
When's last time you street raced?
Years ago, I think it was in 1997 or 1998 in Compton, Calif. Back then, we used to hit up V-8 muscle cars in Los Angeles. It was cool, but at the same time lame. I got used to getting on the track and only worrying about running the car, unlike street races where you need to worry about tickets, fines, impounds, and all the other drama associated with breaking the law.
The most you ever won on the streets?
The most was $500 split between a few of us. Back in the day, we took my EF Civic, which was all raced out at the time-turbo, H22 motor, rollcage, running 11-seconds flat-and towed it just down the street from a burger joint in La Habra, where all these V-8 guys would meet up. We unloaded the EF and rolled up on street tires and hit up an older dude in a built El Camino on street slicks. We set up a race in Compton and drove the car back down the block, loaded it up on the trailer, drove 20 minutes, unloaded the car down the street from the race, and drove up. We raced, barely beating them, and took the $500.
Nice. So, you played the domestics?
They were hustlers themselves, but didn't know how quick Hondas could be. They were pissed. I ended up running into them at the street races a couple months later. They made some changes to the El Camino; we raced again and ended up losing the $500 back to them. To make it worse, I ended up blowing my motor.
What was your first sanctioned event?
Battle of the Imports back in 1995: I took my black EF, single cam with dry 70 shot of NOS and ran a 14.5 with street tires. Pretty quick for the time, but the fast guys were running 13s.
The one dude you feared staging up against?
No one, I was down to race them all.
The record-setting FF 9-second run; how was that?
It was in 1999 in my '98 tube-chassis Civic, my second one after the EF. The funny thing is we were testing at Palmdale a couple of days before the big debut of the new Civic at Battle of the Imports and ended up running a 9.96 with only four of us there. So, when we ran the nine at Battle that weekend, we let everyone think that we ran 9s for the first time.
Why didn't you want to tell anyone about the 9 second run during practice?
Because if we didn't run the time at the event, it would seem like we were lying. I'm not big on talking; I'd rather let my actions speak for me.
What was the breakthrough that made it possible?
The combination between less weight, better tires, and more horsepower.