Damn, I’ve been sitting on these photos for so long that I almost forgot about them. There has been so much going on lately that there is just some photos that managed to get lost in the mix. I still got some photos from HKS Premium Day to go over and post up but I really wanted to take a break from all the event coverage lately to show you guys some unpublished photos from a shoot I did for Super Street last year. I originally shot this EK when I was in Japan in May of last year for Wekfest Japan. The guys from Tactical Art had literally just completed this car in time for the Wekfest event and so I wanted to make sure I had the car shot before I left. I don’t usually shoot feature cars in Japan for print because I have such a short time there and the weather is usually horrible, but I felt that this EK3 build was an important one because it really helps to illustrate how much USDM-style has grown in Japan over the last couple of years. Honestly, if I didn’t tell you where this car was shot or who built it, you would think that this Honda was from California or something…and well, that is the entire point of this build. Tactical Art really wanted to show the world that they had an understanding of our car culture here and wanted to build a car in homage to the Hondas from out here. You can read more about it in the digital version of the Super Street feature that I’ve linked below. If you haven’t had a chance to see it, please give it a read…

May wasn’t a terrible time of year at all weather-wise in Japan. It was a bit humid but for the most part, it was like Cali weather. Sunny, cold at night, and some occasional wind. The problem with shooting in Japan is finding a location to do it. Local authorities aren’t the most generous people when it comes to shooting on location because they don’t want you to draw any attention to yourselves or cause a disruption with every day life. Shooting a car in a busy part of town or in an industrial area might cause some distractions that they would frown upon. I don’t really need to explain to you guys what Civics and Hondas in general mean in this part of Japan so cruising around in a Civic making all kinds of noise with a group of people is not a good idea, whether it be day or night. Despite all that, we made an honest effort to go shoot this Civic in empty sections of Osaka where we really wouldn’t get in anyone else’s way. Finding a location actually took so long that we ran out of sunlight and I ended-up having to shoot this car the following morning before I flew back home to America. You’ll notice the location changes in the photos below and towards the end, I shot a bulk of the detail shots and some exterior shots right next door to Tactical Art because the neighboring businesses were closed that morning. All of the stuff I shot the afternoon prior later became extras that were never used because the photos I captured in the morning were the ones that ended-up in the magazine. Ever since then, I’ve been holding onto them but now you get to see more of this car here on The Chronicles. We called it the “Tactical Art EK” in the magazine because the car was built entirely in-house at Tactical Art, minus the exterior paint which was shot elsewhere. This Civic is actually a customer car owned by Motoki Tsubouchi and not a shop demo vehicle. They put so much love into it that you would think it was their own car but isn’t. That’s a testament to their quality of work and how dedicated they are to their craft. Enjoy the exclusive content below…

Digital version of the original Super Street feature on the Tactical Art EK…

I had some build-up photos of this EK3 buried in my hard drive that I recently uncovered as well. Yasu from Tactical Art was capturing photos of the build whenever he had the time too and he sent them to me later in the year after I had already shot the car. I thought it’d be a good idea to post them up with the actual feature shots as well so you can see the car before it got torn apart and built…

Atsuki from Tactical Art meticulously cleaning-up the engine bay of Motoki’s EK3…

The engine bay shaved smooth and prepped for paint…

Seam-sealer and the underside of the wheel well painted…

Multiple-coats of signature “Tactical Art Grey” applied to the engine bay…

Re-assembly of the car after paint was applied and the K-swap installed…

K-Tuned accessories for the K-swap, clutch line installed, and engine harness plugged-in…

2.0L K20A from a DC5 Type R Integra….

Rywire Tucked Radiator Kit….

16×8.5 inche CCW D11L wheels with satin black faces and polished step-lip….

Custom-ordered ARP hardware in gold…

The Michelin Pilot Sport tires needed a bit of a stretch to fit…

Shot on location in Osaka, Japan…

The original styling planned for this car was to resemble a U.S. Civic built to look like a JDM EK9 CTR…

 

Instead of painting the shell a traditional Championship White or Frost White, they opted to spray the car in Audi “Suzuka Gray”, which is almost white but has a grayish-blue tint to it…

The completed engine bay looks just as good as any of the best engine bays from the U.S. which was their intended goal…

They also used a host of Skunk2 products to really give the car that USDM appeal….

Rywire Mil-Spec K-swap engine harness with quick disconnect and plate on the firewall…

A closer look at the Rywire harness and the Raychem DR-25 loom…

A glimpse of how the Rywire radiator is installed on the EK, tucked nicely under the core support at a slight tilt…

K-Tuned K-swap 4-2-1 exhaust manifold….

K-Tuned fuel pressure regulator and filter…

What might be the best feature of this entire build is the custom interior which was done by 9010 Design in Japan. You would expect a build like this to just be gutted and caged but the Tactical Art crew chose to go an alternate route and did the whole interior in suede…

Even the door panels have been re-wrapped in black sueded with white stitching…

Bride Strada II Japan Edition seats and Race Series Takata harnesses…

Suede-wrapped dashboard and a custom center console that surrounds the K-Tuned billet shifter assembly….

That’s a wrap. Thanks for looking folks!…