The camaraderie that exists among Honda enthusiasts is what makes this community so great. Our capability to communicate and share ideas with each other has helped push the boundaries of Honda modification to unprecedented heights. It is actually our willingness to share that information which is key, despite the fact that of course the advent of the Internet has certainly reshaped the landscape of the subculture for better or worse. When we all remained secretive and kept our ideas to ourselves, our closely-knit community can be stagnant and unimaginative. We’ve been able to thrive as a result of our eagerness to support one other.
There are a variety of methods to help your fellow motor head, but nothing beats that ageless means of just standing by one’s side and wrenching together. Countless memories and great bonds form as a result of this easy task, with a vehicle build coming almost as an afterthought. Brad Urbas and Jordan Twigg know all about the solidarity that comes from sharing a love for Hondas; they both possess their own unique builds but both have come as a result of their kinship.
Brad is no stranger to Hondas. He credits another friend of his, Josh Minnick, for introducing him to the brand, and in the 10-year span in which he’s been tinkering with them he’s owned an absolute of 12 different Hondas. How he came to own the current ’93 Si the thing is here is an intriguing tale in and of itself. I first spotted this Civic back in 2004 with a local college parking lot, as Urbas explains. A kid named Zack owned it and he had just moved into town. It absolutely was one of the cleanest I had ever seen back then and that i later have got to know Zack. Several years later, he ended up being selling the automobile to my good friend Josh, who had been the same guy that first got me into Hondas. I had an S2000 at the time and wanted a daily commuter. By the time Josh had it, the car had gone downhill. It was rusty and the paint had faded drastically. Before I purchased it off of him for $2500, Josh’s dad even used it as a winter car to get a year. It’s crazy because I utilized to drool over this car back then, not being totally sure at all that it would later be mine, Urbas states.
He immediately begun to tear the vehicle down and used his self-taught autobody skills to re-invent the Civic. He massaged the shell back to its former greatness before re-spraying it in a dark silver metallic finish from your BMW paint book. Being that he had already owned so many other Civics and Integras in past times, he had already developed a nice assortment of parts over time. Before deciding on a JDM B18C Type R, he even went through a few different motor swaps.
His build came together pretty quickly thanks to the assistance of his best friend Jordan Twigg. Jordan was responsible for shaving and wire-tucking the engine bay of the Civic while Urbas spent time working on Twigg’s 1994 del Sol VTEC. That’s precisely how we are, Twigg explains. Our company is always helping and pushing the other person with every new build. Brad also painted the engine bay on my old K20-swapped Civic. I loved that car, but I had to sell it to acquire a family SUV since I was expecting the birth of my daughter. I needed something simpler and so i came to the decision to build and attempt a del Sol. I got myself it from an old lady for $1400 away from Craigslist. If it was an EG2 VTEC model, she had no idea what she had so I actually asked her to text me a photo of the engine bay so that I could positively identify. Sure enough it had been and I leaped at the opportunity. The only bad thing about it was that it was wrecked. I needed to tear the whole car down completely; engine, sub-frame, interior, and all so I could build through the ground-up. Before we painted the del Sol in Audi’s Nimbus Grey tone.””, brad was good with autobody repair so he helped me straighten the chassis out””Jordan’s previous three Honda builds consisted mostly of going fast, but since he was a full-fledged family man now, he wanted his next Honda to have a simpler, more street-friendly approach. Together with the del Sol, he aimed to create a Japanese FEEL’s Twincam-themed cruiser with factory B16A3 motor intact. Claims that he’d rather spend his money on authentic aesthetic components this time around in favor of just going fast. That’s why you’re more likely to find more JDM OEM CR-X del Sol body add-ons and FEEL’s dress-up items on his EG2 than any significant power-adders, though he hasn’t eliminated the possibility of doing another K-swap with Brad.
He doesn’t really care too much about being fast nowadays but I remember when he had been a big V8 guy that absolutely hated imports! Brad proclaims. One evening back 2005 he was taunting me inside a friend’s supercharged Pontiac GTP. I got tired with them badgering me and so i raced them in my GS-R swapped Civic and pulled away from them by no less thanneeded to explain to me that he wasn’t running anything out of the ordinary because I didn’t know anything about Hondas. I thought he was running some alcohol-injected, high-compression motor or something. I then realized the potential that Hondas had and the rest is history; I built a turbocharged (Civic) coupe after, a K-swapped Civic, and now this del Sol.
Generally If I hadn’t raced him that night, Urbas iterates, We still laugh about it today but there is a good chance that he’d still be driving a muscle car around. Good thing I did because we’ve been building our cars together [for the last 9 years] ever since.