If I recall, I was perusing Twitter one night a few months ago when I stumbled upon a post with an image I found interesting. I don’t know if you guys are aware, but if you enjoy Japanese tuning, Twitter is actually a great resource for Japanese car content. My friends and I actually refer to it as “Japanese car Twitter”. Instagram is popular worldwide but Twitter is actually VERY popular in Japan. It was likely the first social media outlet other than Facebook that enthusiasts over there used to post car content. If you don’t have Twitter, you should really think about getting on it just for car stuff. Anyways, before I go too far off on a tangent, I was on the Tweeting app one night when I saw a photo of a group of Honda enthusiasts gathered around a box of old magazines. I zoomed in on the image to see what these guys were looking at and it was actually an entire box filled with old Honda Tuning and Super Street magazines…

These car guys in Japan were looking at American car magazines to study North American Honda style and culture from the 2000s. They took a particular interest in it because they felt like this was a great era in Honda modification. It was a style that they wanted to emulate. They called it “Not A Real JDM” with the understanding that this style in the U.S. was popularized from what we enthusiasts interpreted from (what we saw) in Japan. We just merely evolved it into our own style using OEM JDM Honda components and Japanese aftermarket parts. This new generation of Honda people in Japan took a liking to it and use it as inspiration for how they build Hondas now in the 2020s. What they are doing is paying homage to a style we developed from studying their previous generation. Things had truly come full circle…

When I found out that they were hosting a small car show/meet dedicated to this style of building Hondas, I knew I had to be there. I almost felt like it was important for me to be present because I wrote and photographed many of the stories that they were researching in those old magazines. I actually even extended my trip in Japan just so I could go to this meet. I’ll try to explain it more in detail in part 2 of this coverage but I invite you to watch the Vlog episode I made as well. It documents this entire event and I do a lot more explaining as to why this meet is important to both of our respective car communities. If you haven’t watched it already, please do and then look at the photos below…

When looking at the photos, try to remember that what you’re seeing may seem normal (if you are a Honda enthusiast from North America) and then remind yourself that this is in Japan. The normalcy you feel is actually a compliment to how good they are at executing what I like to call “West Coast Honda style”…

Enjoy…

Moriizumi’s 1995 Civic SiR-II is a great example of a Honda build you’d find here Stateside, running a Mugen front lip, dual fiberglass ducts on the bumper, full amber corner lights, Magical Racing carbon mirrors, Bride seats, and silver Enkei RPF1 wheels…

This CR-X del Sol SiR is also a build you could imagine seeing cruising the streets of Los Angeles, sitting nice and low on white Work RSZ-R wheels. The del Sol also has USDM sidemarkers in the front bumper, Vision mirrors, a BackYard Special front lip, Recaro confetti seats and more…

A peek under the hood reveals an ARC Induction Box and Intake for the factory B16A engine…

Koji Miura’s EG2 CR-X del Sol on silver Volk SE37K. Not really sure what front lip that is however…

This imported Acura NSX sat on classic, staggered, Mugen M7 wheels with Marga Hills front bumper, sideskirts, GT vented hood, and Craftsquare carbon mirrors…

This rear wide fender has an interesting “fin” design to it and looks to be a rarely seen piece from RouteKS…

Kohei Miyata from Level One Japan’s Acura NSX-T NA2 with Spoon Sports mirrors and staggered white Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels. This one is rare in that not only is it an NA2 with pop-up headlights, it’s also in a shade of Monaco Blue Pearl…

This EK4 Civic SiR is another build you’d expect to see in the U.S. running just a Mugen front lip, Spoon mirrors, and 16-inch Regamaster EVOs…

Takahiro Furuta’s 1995 NSX Type-T in a rare shade of Honda Midnight Purple paired with tan leather interior…

Original 17-inch Mugen M7 in the rear with a little bit of lip and 16-inch M7 wheels up front to match the traditional NSX double-staggered set-up…

Nice layout of Hondas from the Upstart car crew…

Shota Yamazaki’s Civic coupe looks to be the flagship of the group. The gray coupe runs a full Spoon Sports theme with the carbon front lip, brakes, SW388 wheels, carbon composite mirrors and Spoon side-stripe…

The Spoon Sports theme carries over into the engine bay where the B18C utilizes a full catalog of their products. The Spoon wire cover is even signed by Tatsuru Ichishima from Spoon…

The interior also features two Spoon Sports buckets seats, steering wheel, and Spoon certification badge on the center console…

A closer look at the dashboard reveals a set of Defi gauges mounted into the radio DIN pocket and a USDM instrument cluster…

If you just glanced at this photo without any context, you’d think this was at an old Eibach Honda Meet or something…

Chan Oka, the host of this event, seems to have a pretty good understanding of USDM Honda aesthetic. His K-swapped Integra has a JDM ITR face but that’s something you’d see common here stateside. Oka has also paired the front bumper with an Exceed front lip and the DC2 sits on black Volk Racing SE37K wheels…

The only real “JDM” items you’d find in his engine bay are the Carbing strut tower bar and the Mugen oil cap. Everything else is distinctly USDM. There are accessories from Hybrid Racing, including an Exceed fuel rail by Hybrid Racing, C’s Customizing, and you’ll likely recognize the bright yellow labels on the Rywire engine harness…

You might have to do a double-take but if you look at the firewall, you’ll see that the brake booster is on the left-side. Yes, this is an actual Integra imported from the U.S….

The left-hand drive Integra hosts a suede Mugen steering wheel paired with a C’s Customizing horn delete as well as some blue Recaro seats…

Chihiro Miyawaki’s silver EK9 Civic Type R is a textbook example of a California Honda build, featuring C-West aero, Magical Racing carbon mirrors, J’s Racing Type-T hood, J’s rear spoiler, and Kei Office wheels…

The factory B16B Type R remains but has been upgraded with a 5Zigen header, Spoon Sports spark plug wires, an aluminum intake/velocity stack, and Hasport mounts. From this angle you can also see that the radiator has been tucked and hidden under the core support…

All white Kei Office Keiichi Tsuchiya KS-CE wheels…

No C-West rear to pair with the front and sides, but there is also no need because the OEM rear EK9 lip pairs so well with them…

A side profile look because silver CTRs just look so good…

Junpei’s EK9 CTR on 16-inch Sprint Hart CP-R wheels, running a Airwalker front bumper and color-matched First Molding mirrors…

Yu Mizunashi’s EK4 is actually very J-styled though it does blur the lines between JDM and USDM. The entire car has been repainted red, paired with a First Molding front lip, and 8-spoke bronze Volk CE28N wheels. The interior is fully gutted with a roll cage inside and a single Bride seat…

I didn’t get any exterior shots of the Built By Legends EG6, since there honestly wasn’t much to look at, but I did make sure to get some detail shots of the engine bay and everything else….

The main attraction to this car currently is this custom titanium side-draft header which was made by a former employee at Yoshimura, the motorcycle exhaust manufacturer…

The biggest hold-up to getting this EG6 completed by the people at Built By Legends is actually the header, which they’ve had to make numerous variations of. The main issue with this design is that it can be prone to crack or produce excess heat.

What was funny is that one day recently, Tatsuru Ichishima from Spoon was asking why there was a delay with getting this project further along. After all, it has been three years since the build started. It was explained to him that it was the header design itself which was the issue. Ichishima responded by asking what they wanted to make a header like this in the first place—completely forgetting that he was the one that came up with the idea in the first place!…

Custom radiator swirl pot mounted up front by the core support. Also because of the header design, the radiator has been moved under the support so its actually not even visible from up top…

I love that they used an old OEM air box that already previously had a Spoon Sports filter in it. The weather labels on the air box just give it so much character. This probably won’t remain when the car is finished but it fits the aesthetic of the car so well right now…

Another piece that won’t translate over to the final version of this build and future builds is this custom instrument display housing multiple Defi gauges. This is actually borrowed from a donor EG6 that they have from Orange Ball, a well-known Honda tuning shop in Japan. These, like the air box in the engine bay, also show their age and give the car so much character…

The Defi gauges wouldn’t be complete without the controller unit itself, but Orange ball modified it to be retrofitted into the OEM dashboard…

Another interesting aspect of this build is the carbon composite reinforced floor, created by Yasukichi Yamamoto from Opera Performance…

This structural overlay gives the chassis and floor much more rigidity. Apparently it also gives the EG6 a completely different feel when you’re driving it because there is so much more reinforcement to the body of the vehicle. So much so that it eliminates the necessity and weight of a roll cage…

To create this composite floor is no easy tasking however, and the labor and materials itself is quite costly at around $50,000 USD from Opera Performance…

I know I stated that the Stancenation Aichi event would be this Integra’s “final major event” but though you’re seeing it here, that statement still holds true. This was a smaller meet after all, with less than a 100 cars, so it was far from anything ‘major’. For an event such as this where it centered around “US-styled JDM” Honda builds, what better car would be better for it than an actual Honda/Acura built in Los Angeles, California?…

Everything worked out in the end to get this car to the Chan-Oka Meet because it is actually sitting in storage in the Tokyo-side of Japan. The car was just loaded-up and trailered for a couple hours to get here to the meet..

As you can see, the engine bay does still look pretty good in photos, especially when the photo is compressed for the Internet. You really have to see it in-person to see just how weathered and degraded sections of the engine are….

The engine bay itself is still fine, for the most part, but some of the filler is starting to crack and bubble from under the paint so eventually it could use some restoration. Nobody knows when that will happen though because there really isn’t time or urgency to fix anything. In the future, I imagine if it does need to show-up for any event, it’ll still be fine as it is now. Maybe it is even better if it remains frozen in time like this…

Well, that’s all for today. There’s still another set of photos coming and I’ll definitely try to get those up this week before I leave to Seattle for the Wekfest event out there. Thanks for looking everyone!…