Sometimes the best shoots and the best content that ends up on this site is the unplanned stuff. It’s pretty crazy how Steve (aka “Dagreenek”) ended up on the pages of Super Street because it was never supposed to happen. Even I had no expectations of it going to print after I had spontaneously shot the car during a business trip to Seattle, Washington. I originally made the trip back in March of 2013 to get a couple of shoot done for Super Street’s annual Honda Issue. I had already laid the ground work for which cars I was going to shoot, where I was going to shoot them, and possibly which car was going to end up on the cover of Super Street. Steve Kwan’s Civic has always been a favorite of mine and I just wanted to finally see it in person after all these years. It has garnered quite a bit of notoriety through the years on various Honda forums but for the most part, geographic limitations have left the car relatively unknown to the “newer” generation of Honda enthusiasts. Steve has been building himself a very nice Civic hatchback and had a lot of the parts you see popular nowadays back when nobody had even heard of half this shit. The car had been on the cover of Honda Tuning magazine a couple years ago but I thought that it would be cool if I could get some updated shots of it for the site…only if I had time of course because my schedule was pretty loaded for a weekend trip outside of Cali. Steve wanted to hang out anyways along with some of the other guys from up there so I told them to cruise by to hang out while I was shooting. They all ended up helping out which was really cool and it helped to make the process a quick and easy one. “Quick” is a term I use loosely in this case though because even my shortest shoots are about two hours long. We had to move things along at a rapid rate because the weather up in Seattle around that time is incredibly unpredictable. It was sunny, then it would rain, then there would be some glimpses of snow or ice, and it was just a never ending cycle of seasons all in one day’s time. With the help of these guys, I knew I would have some spare time to shoot Steve’s car and maybe one or two more while we were all together in one place…

When it came time to shoot, we experienced torrential downpour in the area I had planned so we all hopped in our cars and moved along to another part of Washington state to try to chase whatever sunlight we could. We ended up in another part of the city to provided the perfect back drop to what I wanted. It was a rundown building that had been half torn down and with the gloomy skies and the floor covered in water, it was about as close to perfect as I could ask for. We set up and started to shoot and I knew right away that I had captured some really good shots. Normally when I am the least confident in my shots, they somehow ended up being better than expected but in this scenario, I was pretty comfortable in saying that the shots were good. I think it was the wet floor that did it. It helped to carry the light and cover the area that I was shooting in almost as if I had wet the floor myself. I was snapping away and then of course, a rent-a-cop came by and broke up the party. We weren’t doing anything ridiculous or being obnoxious in any way, and the area that we were using was completely abandoned and empty, but he still decided that we had to leave. I even asked for a 20 minute window to see if I could just finish-up but the guy wasn’t having it. He told us to leave immediately and so we had to move from that area. I think the exterior shots ended up being kind of limited as a result of that but ultimately, it had no affect on the final shots. We ended up going back to where we originally had planned to shoot and I did all the interior and engine bay detail shots there. That is why you might notice a change in backdrops in the later shots. If I didn’t tell you I doubt you would notice anyway but I don’t have anything to hide. Everything came together really well and I was excited to go through the photos when I got back home. After I finished, Jonathan Wong (head editor of Super Street), asked if I had any cool cars that I had also shot up there and I showed him some samples of Steve’s Civic. I didn’t think anything of it and I almost was sure that he wouldn’t want it since it had already been in a magazine before but he liked the car so much that he told me to send them over to him and do the story on it. I was pretty stoked, as was Steve Kwan when I told him. A couple months later, it hit publication and these shots below are both the digital versions of those photos as well as some unpublished ones…

I hope that you enjoy these shots and try to really appreciate this build. Steve is one of the Honda guys from the Northwest that was ahead of his time in terms of parts selection and execution. I don’t think many of us would know what “First Molding” was today had it not been for Steve. He was one of the first few to utilize the parts and he was still waiting on his new First Molding hood to come in at the time when I shot the car. It was the final piece to his puzzle that he’d been longing to get for years. Within the scope of the more dedicated Honda enthusiasts out here, Steve’s Civic is highly regarded and always considered one of the best EK builds of all-time. It is one of the great ones and I wanted to make sure that the world got to see more of it. Up in that region, they don’t have a whole lot of events and the weather prevents them from really ever bringing out their cars so you’re only able to see cars like Steve’s a couple times a year on Facebook or something. This here is the archetype of how to build a clean, completely timeless Honda using great products and executed with precision. Enjoy…

Click the image below to take you to another page where you can download the larger versions of them if you want to save them for your desktops or whatever. Once again, don’t attempt to steal my photos and crop the watermarks out or anything. If you see these photos on any other site other than here or the official Super Street magazine page, they were taken from me, especially if the photos have been cropped. Don’t alter my work and don’t use them for personal gain. That’s a bullshit move on your end if you think that is ok. All rights reserved, all biters served….

Oh, here’s a mod list for those concerned:

OWNER Steve Kwan aka “Dagreenek”

POWER 240WHP/184TQ

ENGINE 2002 Honda 2.0L K20A; Hasport EKK2 engine mounts; ARP head stud kit; Golden Eagle headgasket, fuel rail; RC 750cc fuel injectors; TODA Racing timing belt, timing belt tensioner, oil pan; RS Machine bored engine block, 89mm sleeves; CP pistons, custom piston rings; Carrillo Pro-H connecting rods; Balanced/blueprinted K20A crankshaft; Spoon Sports magnetic oil drain bolt; Custom 3-inch cold air intake; HKS air filter; Honda OEM RBC intake manifold; Karcepts intake manifold adapter; Hondata intake manifold gasket; BDL hose clamps; Walbro 255lph fuel pump; SX Performance fuel pressure regulator, fuel filter; Starlite Aeroquip fuel lines; Russell quick disconnect fittings; Marshall fuel pressure gauge; Earl’s fuel fittings, fuel lines; R Crew Racing exhaust manifold, exhaust; Denso Iridium spark plugs; Visteon/C&R radiator, radiator fans; Samco Sport cooling hoses; Mugen thermostat; Custom powercoated glacier white valve cover; ARP 12-point bolts w/black beauty washers; FEEL’S carbon fiber coil cover, oil cap; AEBS radiator hose clamps

DRIVETRAIN K20A Type R 6-speed manual transmission; Competition Clutch Stage 2 clutch, flywheel; Torco manual transmission fluid

FOOTWORK & CHASSIS Tein RE coilovers (14K/10K); K-Tuned traction bar; 26mm front sway bar; Comptech rear sway bar, endlinks; Carbing 3-point front strut bar, rear strut bar; Function7 rear lower control arms; Cusco Safety 21 8-point roll cage

BRAKES Endless Racing 4-POT custom gold front brakes, front/rear Street brake pads, brake lines; Mugen front/rear brake rotors; FEEL’S brake master cylinder; OEM ITR 5-lug conversion

WHEELS & TIRES F: 16×8 +45 Desmond Spoon Sports SW388; 215/40-16 BF Goodrich G Force Sport; R: 16×7 +35 Desmond Spoon Sports SW388; 205/40-16 BF Goodrich G Force Sport; Project Mu lug nuts; APR extended wheel studs;

EXTERIOR JDM OEM Honda EK9 CTR front bumper, rear bumper, sideskirts, headlights, taillights; First Molding carbon fiber Flugel Plate, carbon fiber hood (Not Pictured); Sergeant rear diffuser; Zeal Type 1 rear spoiler; Glasurit Desert Sage Metallic paint; Phillips 4300K high/low HID kit; Spoon Sports carbon fiber side mirrors

INTERIOR Bride Zeta III seats w/Bride Hyper Gradation center seat pads, seat rails; Takata safety harnesses; Mugen FG360 steering wheel, shift knob, pedal set; Splash steering hub; Mr Alex quick release; OEM Honda EK9 CTR door panels, carpet; Retrofitted 2000-spec dashboard

ELECTRONICS STACK/SARD ST-8130 instrument cluster; Hondata K-Pro; Hybrid Racing PNP harness; Odyssey PC680 battery; Chasebays engine tuck harness; Hybrid Racing plug-and-play harness