1999 Honda Civic DX

A few years back, Jason Pham from Fairfax, Va., was a huge fan of the Japanese Civic Type R. He says he used to have wet dreams about owning one. But since the CTR never made it to the States, Pham bought himself a black '99 DX hatch and tried to get as close to the spirit and performance of the revered JDM machine.

Rather than getting himself some imitation rims and a body kit off of eBay, Pham took the rougher road, snapping up issues of Option magazine and cataloging the parts and pieces he wanted. With the help of friend Harry Nguyen at Car Trenz and advice from his teammates in Team eMotion, Pham had parts from Japan arriving at his door almost everyday.

First on Pham's agenda was replacing the stock motor with a B18C and a Spoon clutch/flywheel combo inside the transmission housing. Outside the motor, he added a J's Racing carbon-fiber intake, Mugen 4-2-1 header and a custom 2.5-inch B-pipe flowing into an Ultimate Motorsports hi-flow cat and out a 5Zigen Fireball axle-back can. An A'PEXi VAFC-2 offers air/fuel adjustability and a Nitrous Express NXT direct-port wet kit is on hand for cheap thrills.

Outside, the stock black paint with bird shit stains wasn't gonna cut it on the show scene, so Pham sent it, along with what he says is one of the first four-piece Charge Speed lip kits in the U.S., to Tommy at Tommy Kustoms for a complete spray of NSX Long Beach Blue Pearl. Finishing details include Civic Type R headlights, rain guards, power folding mirrors, rear spoiler and front grille (due to a minor accident with a deer, the Charge Speed lip incurred damage and in its place sits a VIS carbon-fiber replacement).

Underneath that soaking wet blue pearl sheet metal, the EK sits on JIC FLT-A1 coilovers attached to SRR lower control arms, along with a Carbing three-point upper strut bar and rear lower tie bar, and a Cusco six-point cage for additional chassis stiffening. Connecting it all to the road are 16-inch AME Tracers sourced from AutoRnD and completed only after the required conversion to a five-lug setup. Dunlop Direzza shoes, along with Spoon 4-piston calipers, pads, Brembo rotors and Earl's lines, complete the hatch's rolling motions.

About a year ago, Pham started scheming ways to make the hatch even closer to its Type R inspiration and realized he had only one further option: a right-hand drive conversion. Anyone who's done a RHD conversion knows it's best left to an experienced hand, but Pham says that after sourcing a JDM front clip-the hardest part of the process-he and good friend/skilled wrencher, Sophal Try, pulled off the swap in his garage.

A new CTR dash anchors the interior, accompanied by Mugen S1 buckets, Takata harnesses and a Mugen FG360 steering wheel with quick release. For windows-down, top-speed soundtracking, Pham opted for Alpine's CVA-1006 flip-out monitor, along with Polk Audio amps, component speakers and dual 10-inch subs to handle audio and video.

Although the right-hand drive conversion was no easy chore, the front clip took an effort to locate, and now the trip through the Mickey D's drive-through requires some additional yoga, Pham's work on his hatch is reminding everyone that hatches still hit hard, as he's currently dominating show after show with his crew, Team eMotion.