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Home Grown Goodness
1979 Honda Civic

Most people don’t own cars that are older than they are. But Corey Maples of Virginia Beach is an exception. Being that Corey is only 19, that makes his 1979 Civic his senior by a decade. What can we say about our boy, he likes ‘em older and bolder! “Actually, it was my Dad who originally bought the car from a neighbor of ours” Corey corrected me. “We agreed to make it our mutual project car and work on it together. It was stock when we got it.”  Isn’t that cute, a father and son bonding experience. I love feel good stories.

The first thing to go was the stock motor. “We knew we needed to put a new motor in it right away. We found a ’78 Accord 1.6L EF1 Motor with dual carb’s and high comp pistons on Ebay and snapped it up.” Assuming that Corey and his old man only did the easy stuff on the car like change out the steering wheel etc, I foolishly asked him which shop they used for the swap. “We did the motor swap ourselves” he replied quickly. “It was a lot of work and we’ve had some problems along the way but this is our baby and we do the work ourselves.”

They had some help with that stunning paint job and body work though. “A friend of mine had a body shop back when we first got the car so he did the paint. He also shaved off the markings and antenna etc.” Why yellow? “We were originally thinking of painting it white but when we were looking at the color book and saw this yellow we did a complete 180.” Good choice, as there’s no way white would have done this car justice.

After about 4 years and a whole lot of custom fabrication work later, Corey now uses his Civic to compete in local Auto Cross events where he puts it up against pretty much any type of car you can think of. “Even though it doesn’t put down a lot of horsepower (about 93 whp), I still prefer using it in AC events over my Integra. It just handles so well.” Likely a result of all the suspension work that’s been done. “It’s an amazing car to drive” said Corey. “And not just because of the way it handles. Everywhere I go in it, people ask me about it. I think it trips people out. One guy thought it was a Gremlin!”

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine
1.6L EF1 Motor Swap w/ 8 Valve Head
Twin DCOE 40mm Carburetors
MSD 6 AL Ignition w/ Pentronics Magnetic Pickup
High compression pistons
Custom throttle linkage
5 Speed Close Ratio Transmission
90 whp/86 foot pounds torque
Magnaflow Muffler
Custom Exhaust Manifold
AED Fuel Pressure Gauge

Suspension
Koni Struts w/ Ground control Coilovers
Coilovers are for a first gen CRX
1974 openable struts with Koni shocks
Modified strut perches for more travel.
Addco 7/8” Front and 3/4” Rear Sway Bars
Polyurethane Bushings
Custom Adjustable Camber Plates

Wheels, and Brakes
Minilite 15x7 -6mm offset
Toyo Proxes 195/45/15 Tires
Race Wheels - Rota RB 13x8 +4mm offset, Khumo V710 215/50/13 Tires
4 Wheel Disc Brake Conversion
4x100 bolt pattern conversion
Hawk HPS Pads w/ Brembo Crossdrilled and Slotted Rotors
Goodrich Stainless Steel Brake lines
Front 1st gen civic wagon knuckles with 2nd gen civic hubs
2nd gen Integra Brake calipers with cut e-brake cables
Rear machined 1995 civic EX hubs

Body
Custom Fender Flares
Fiberglass Bumbers
Shaved Emblems, Side markers, Antenna, Roof Rails
SPA Formula Mirrors
Sparco Steel Seats
Momo Competition Steering Wheel
Autometer Oil Pressure and Water temperature gauge

Paint
PPG Vibrance Yella

Shout Outs
www.1stGenCivic.org, Dream Works Customs, Scott at All Aspects Motorsports and of course….his Dad

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