Nov 4, 2021

Honda Collective 2021

Despite Prime's annual 7's Day celebration being a celebration of Mazda's rotary engined sports cars, I think I get more excited about some of New York and New Jersey's incredible Honda builds that come out of the woodwork to celebrate. This year, Not Another Ricer and Prime NYC collaborated on a day to celebrate golden era Hondas in what is arguably the epicenter of the East Coast's best Honda builds. I spent a couple days marinating on if I should wake up at 5am and journey down or not before making the last minute decision that there was no way I should miss out on this.

This event was a smaller one than 7's Day but the quality was insane. The sheer amount of pristine Honda dream machines was mind blowing! A trio of Championship White EK9 Civic Type Rs lined up together, all three retaining their factory exteriors save for a pair lowered over original Spoon SW388s. Seeing them lined up felt like Gran Turismo come to life!

The completely all stock example at the end looked like a time capsule.

After years of cutting, parting, stealing, and crashing these already uncommon cars, USDM Integra Type Rs and now classic performance Hondas in general need to have pristine examples preserved to keep them around for years to come. This ITR is a perfect representation of preservation and celebration of the first Type R America received. For todays event it wore a factory optional leather bra to protect it from rocks hurled from sticky tires and plastic on the seats to preserve the original Recaro seats. While originality is typically the name of the game, who's to say you can't swap some simple bolt on parts for a but of fun while your asset skyrockets. A drop in height wraps the fenders around Spoon SW388s spinning around Spoon monoblock calipers. Out back was a Mugen generation 2 wing replacing the factory big wing. I mean, yeah they're not factory, but at this point Spoon and Mugen should just be considered factory equipment.

Alright, it's time for a dose of honesty and hard truth. Most Beats that leave Japan suck. A lot of them are bought by dudes that want to be funky and weird and have old people at gas stations talk to them. They're always either bone stock or adorned with goofy wheels to play off how silly they are. Not this one though! It was stylish without being try-hard. The original zebra print seats were retained and the aero enhancements were executed well with a stylish lip and side skirt combination.

The body was brought considerably closer to the ground and it ran 14" OG TE37s which complemented the Carnival Yellow well. No need for Ronal Teddies and monster truck ride height.

Cool TE37s weren't the only addition to this Acura CL. Underneath the hood packed a J30 with a supercharger pushing a hefty increase in power over stock.

Not the Japanese Honda import you'd expect. Honda's luxurious Legend makes an excellent cruiser, especially sitting on air ride over mag blue TE37s.

There were a few FK8s with Mugen parts in attendance but none as thorough as this one. EJ came through in his Mugen complete Phoenix Yellow Limited Edition Type R. Mugen's lip kit is by far the most popular aero accessory in part to its affordable pricing and coming from Mugen already paint matched. Mugen's catalogue stretches much farther than that, however, and EJ was determined to dress his LE in full Mugen gear. Other popular accessories he has adorned are the Mugen tails, visors, and steering wheel.

Now, I don't like to pocket watch, but when getting into the rarer Mugen items, I feel it's worth calling out price tags to really show the dedication to a Mugen complete build. That carbon fiber Mugen grill is almost $1,000. The Mugen catback? $5,500. Mugen seats inside? $2,500 each. That carbon fiber wing and carbon fiber hood? Each is just under $10,000 a piece! Pricing alone for this Honda Civic is enough to make a complete Mugen package a huge rarity. The only Mugen parts not fitted to this LE were the Mugen MDCF wheels which for this event were replaced with the new Spoon SW388s. Since this event, they've been replaced with Modulo 20's.

There were more turbo K series than just the FK8s in attendance. The K under this DC5 had a huge turbo strapped to it.

Brandon Denninger's EK9 was actually a variant of Type R called the Type Rx which featured a handful of premium upgrades like power windows and locks, aluminum pedals, auto AC, and a carbon center console trim. Besides those OEM enhancements, Brandon has kept it crisp and OEM adjacent with simple modifications like a rare Mugen lip and Mugen MF10s.

Zenki EKs have quickly become a strong preference for me because of a much wider catalogue of aero compared to koukis. Of all the aero options, stock EK4 might be my favorite look of all time on this chassis.

This Spoon hommage EG6 was absolutely perfect!

SW388s might be the best possible wheel choice on a yellow DC2 ITR. My favorite mod might have been the matching yellow ICB Pursuit seat.

I don't know if it's just a relative rarity compared to the super common Civic, but Del Sols seem to be left behind in the rising tide of nostalgia. They have such a charm to them. This Japanese import on Spoon SW388s made a strong case for the chassis.

This GD3 Fit looked tough with 15" TE37s wrapped in thick Falken RT660s. Outside is decorated with details from J's Racing and Mugen. Inside showed purpose with a stripped back interior, Autopower half cage, and a college fund of Miracle Bars.

I always look forward to seeing this EF at these events. They need so little in aero to create a perfect look, especially when you're creative.

After spending a couple hours at the meet up location, we ripped over the George Washington Bridge and pooled up in Harlem. It feels corny to say, but being in a deep pack of 80s/90s Hondas screaming across the highway through unrestricted exhausts really did feel like those old videos on the C1 loop. Definitely an experience I wont soon forget!

It was such a wild sight seeing all the Type Rs parked together.

Chris Acosta is a champ driving his B18C race car through the city for these events. He's living proof to the east coast that you can be a fast driver and still have a nice car.

C-West bumper and hood with Mugen side skirts on this CE28 equipped DC5

This JDM AP1 has a captivating aesthetic to it while keeping a mostly OEM appearance.

The Tristate area definitely leans Spoon in the Mugen/Spoon supremacy in Honda tuning. Definitely a top 5 contender for me was this Spoon catalogue EK4 SiR which, in my eyes, is the perfect zenki EK hatch.

When was the last time you've seen an E-AT Civic in the wild? This was a stock automatic DX with the only mod being Mugen CF48s but it stood out just by existing.

It wouldn't be a Tristate area event without seeing this NA1 NSX. Custom aero, Regamaster Evos, and a superchargerd C series make for a much more exotic Japanese sports car.

Honda Collective was geared more towards "golden era" cars, but the FK8 show out was still strong. Like the Mugen/Spoon debate for 90s Hondas, the FK8's great aero debate is Mugen (top) and Varis (bottom).

Gold covered every metal component in the engine bay of this widened, Max Racing kitted DC5 and it was insane!

After wearing out NYPD's welcome, we split off and snaked through NYC's streets to the final meet up spot.

A few minutes after parking, the most pristine CRX I've ever seen parked up; a Japanese imported SiR on Mugen MR5s.

I saw this FA5 at 7's Day briefly but finally had the opportunity to pour over it. 8th gen Civics are a huge weakness of mine and I thought this one was so perfect. It's a USDM model with an FD2 exterior conversion including J's Racing's S-Type bumper, skirts, 15mm widened front fenders, and GT wing with carbon hood and trunk breaking up the orange respray.

Magical Racing mirrors carry the carbon theme and gloss gunmetal Regamasters and orange Brembos keep the color scheme coherent.

Every event I see this DC2 I miss out on getting a picture of it. Outside is kept simple with Type R aero, carbon fiber Spoon mirrors, and a Voltex wing atop titanium stands. The interior is focused while maintaining civility. A Cusco dash-dodger cage surrounds matching Recaro seats with Takata harnesses. An AIM dash keeps every bit of information you could ask for at a glance.