We discovered two requirements in building a well-executed, magazine-worthy H-car. First, an infinite amount of money will never guarantee it. Second, it can't be done without some foresight and a vision. Over the years we've witnessed H-car buildups that embrace these truths and some that don't. Lucky for us, most do.
Los Angeles resident Leon Casino had a vision for his right-hand-drive '91 CRX before he could even claim the car as his own. The plan was simple yet counterintuitive: to enhance every performance realm possible without tarnishing the car's OEM persona. While many tuners have a difficult time uttering the words OEM and performance in the same breath, Casino found a way for the two to coexist in a fuzzy Dr. Phil sort of way.
A Honda enthusiast since '87, Casino has owned everything from a '91 Civic sedan to what he claims to be the first turbocharged Prelude in the United States. Lofty claims aside, Casino knew this CRX project had to stand out. He turned to VIS Racing Sports (City of Industry, Calif.) to source him three right-hand-drive EF6s from overseas. The plan was to use them as parts cars for his '89 USDM chassis, but once the dust cleared and Casino realized the pristine nature of one car in particular, those plans quickly changed.
With an immaculate exterior and a nearly complete interior, Casino first remedied the lonely engine bay. Not wanting to stray too far from the CRX's roots, he rounded up a D16A6 and bolted it into place. Before he and his boys would hoist the D in between the framerails, Roy at Glendale, Calif., performance facility Exospeed had his way with it. Internals of the displacement-increasing variety were swapped into place and compression was bumped up to a healthy 12.0:1. The top end was also overhauled by Industrial Performance in Carson, Calif.
It's not the California octane-defying compression ratios or the top-secret Exospeed camshaft that demand the most attention here. Pop the hood and the first thing you'll notice are a pair of 45mm Weber side-draft carbs mated to a set of polished velocity stacks. When asked why he steered clear of EFI in favor of dinosaur technology, Casino said it all had to do with keeping the car as OEM as possible and keeping things simple.
Japanese EF6s rolled off assembly lines with 1.5-liter SOHC engines boasting carbs, not injection. Despite a finicky inability to modify air/fuel ratios for optimum driveability, carbs do shine in other areas, namely fuel atomization and making lots of top-end power-just over 200-wheel hp to be more specific.
Casino's obsession with the OEM doesn't end under the hood. All else exterior toes the same line. According to Casino, "There will be no cheating. Even if nobody else does, I'll know the difference." After a freeway altercation in which the CRX lost to a Denali a few years back, Casino went in search of a replacement Mugen body kit.
With no luck initially, Casino almost sold the car. "If I can't have the real thing, I don't want it at all." Luckily, he scored the real thing. All body components and interior enhancements sport either genuine Mugen or Honda badges-no knock-offs here. Even the original paint code was sourced from an overseas Honda dealership for a perfect color match.
Casino's EF6 walks that fine line between performance and OEM that many others have veered from just after their first bolt-on. The key for Casino? Foresight and a vision.
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