First swiss EK9 (TypeRx) and modding story


So you might remember that recently i found out about my EK9 being a Type-Rx special edition? When i found out, i also realized that my Rx edition Pedals and the footrest were a bit dirty.
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So i thought it wace about time to give them a bit of a cleanup with some interieur cleaner:


After soaking it a bit, i brushed it all off with a brush


And, while not perfect, the pedals look much cleaner.
While at it anyway, i decided to take photos of all the Rx special features to update my Rx-spec post.
Rx Pedals:


Electric folding morrors:


"Keyless entry" Remote transmitter:


Uprated Pioneer audio system (rear speakers are still in the car and not pictured, plus the anenna is the same as the standard EK9, so nothing special):


And last but not least, that iconic red stitched shifter boot, which is nowadays also found in many EK9 replicas, because it fits so well with those red recaros:


Oh and also got some reads:
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That's it for now. Oh and i'm invited by Honda switzerland to show my car at their 50 years anniversary in september. this is going to be fun.
 
Nicely done! If you ever want to change the brake and clutch ones I have brand new spares here :D
 
After i realized my EK9 is not a regular Ek9 Civic TypeR, but a special EK9 TypeRX edition, the hunt for the rare RX-spec documentation began, because I didn't really have a lot in my collection.
And while hunting documents online, I came across a few aftermarket documents that were cheap and missing in my collection, so I decided to put together a small lot and fill some gaps in my archives:


First, the most important one. I've been looking for this TypeRX specific EK9 brochure for quite some months now, and finally it popped up recently for sale. I'm super excited about this one, as it is the correct sales brochure for my Car.

It shows all the RX specific details and features, which is super neat:


Maybe I miss one here, but I think I have now all official Civic EK9 brochures which I'm aware of:


Along with it, i got one missing Mugen EK9 catalogue, so i have now both Pre- and facelift versions for my Mugen period collect catalogue collection.


Same with the Spoon sports collection:


And Top fuel. I bought the left one specifically, because the car on the cover, is the reason I started to gather interest in EK's when I was young. Damn, time flies...


Last but not least, i got the "number 6" final edition Civic 3-door hatchback parts catalogue from Japan.


Before, I only had number five, which stopped at the regular GF-EK9-110-xxxxx chassis numbers. But the RX has actually GF-EK9-120xxxx, so when this one popped up for sale, it was the right time to get the correct parts manual for mine.

And while shopping for RX catalogues, i also came across those original RX pedals. Since these are prone to wear, I thought i better secure a set as long as they're still available and affordable, so here we go.


It looks like some useless parts, but for me, it really fills some gaps in my collection and that always is something nice :-)

And then, I've always been searching for original EK9 typeR press releases from Japan, but they're hard to find. Well I will continue to search but at least last week i found some other cool Honda Press release folders:


The coolest one is this September 1995 press release from the Civic EK / EJ / MB introduction, which was handed out in March 1996 at the Geneva Motor show:


Aside from the usual pages of Marketing information and technical details and specs


It also included about 20 A4 press photo prints:


Which also are included as standard 4:3 photo prints and Dia's:


The second folder was the same, but from the previous year Motor show in March 1995 and included the whole new Honda range from that year, which was only the NSX-T and the Honda Odyssey.
A bit of a comical combination, if you ask me. One is the bulky family van and the other one is one of the best sports car the world has ever seen.


The third press folder is from Honda Motorsport 1997, a few pages of ADAC super touring car cup information that the drivers Heger and Werner will join the Team Linder.
It also includes a proper CV and race history sheet of all drivers and background information. Quite cool.
 
Certain laws make sense, some don't. Allegedly, it's now illegal to have window visors installed on the car in Switzerland. Even if they are OEM H.O.P (Honda Optional Parts) that were sold here via dealerships, and were no problem for the last 15 years. Well, rules change, and if I want to keep the car on the road, I have to play by the rules and remove them. I waited as long as possible, but now I have my bi-annual MFK (= MOT / Shaken) check ahead and need to remove them.

I wanted to be very careful, since they're not available anymore, pretty rare and expensive collectors items these days. I found a good solution to press the plastic clips out from the inside with this little hook:


Off it is, without any damage or scratches. Phew.


Well, that was the easy part. The mounting brackets were more complicated. Three on each side are only clipped in behind the rubber seal and come out easy.


The first and last one, however, are bolted in. and require removal of both the inner and outer rubber seal:


It went relatively smooth, though.


The complicated part was fitting all the three rubber pieces back together properly. It took me a good 30 minutes of pushing and wobbling around the rubber pieces to get them all in the correct order, position and straight.


The result is not bad though (picture does not show the final result). One of the main problem is that the visors brackets, which were installed on the car for years, deformed the rubber in that areas, so you can see the marks of the brackets. I hope the rubber goes back to original shape after a while. At the end, it's only a small detail that probably no one will notice, but yeah. Details matter.


While working at it anyway, I decided to clean everything properly and give it some rubber care liquid:


It's sad to see the car without the visors. They were a big part of its "JDM" identity, and I got the car with them from Japan originally. The car looks a bit sleeker now without the visors, but yeah, it was just a cool part of its history and style. And to be honest, they were quite practical when driving around. But that's life and it had to be done.
 
Today I got some rarely-seen goodies from Japan for my EK9 original goods collection:


The first one is a copy of the Japanese Special price list for the Civic EK9 TypeRX from the Honda sales department, from the 25. November 1999:
You will find this in my special TypeRX knowledge post soon with many details of the TypeRX.


The second thing is something I didn't know existed until I recently stumbled over it. IT's a Civic TypeR "Dyanamic Safety Driving" Training video on VHS Cassette.

The video was released by Honda Primo (the sales channel who sold the Civics, etc.) in Japan. According to the Print on the front, these were Not for Sale.


So i wonder at which occasion these were given to customers. Maybe during some actual "sports driving" training course for EK9 owners or so?


The video starts with typical cheesy 90ies Japanese graphics.


Aside from a bit of cool EK9 driving footage, the video consists mainly of JTCC (Japan Touring Car Championship) Driver Okada Kiruru showing how to handle the EK9 in sporty conditions safely.


I think the video is filmed on some Honda Test track or one of their tracks, but not exactly sure where exactly.


In Case you want to see the whole video. Somebody was nice enough to digitalize the whole cassette and put it on YouTube. Enjoy :-)
 
Its funny I never liked the visor look on the ek9, so that was the first to go. looks much cleaner
 
Recently, my wife and I got invited to visit friends in the beautiful village of Pontresina in the southern part of Switzerland, not far from the famous St. Moritz. We have travelled there before, using the most common route, the Julierpass. But this time, we had a long weekend ahead, so we decided to pull out the EK9 from hibernation and instead take the long way. When planning the route on Google Maps, I accidentally set it to "no toll roads" which brought up a quite uncommon, but beautiful B-roads tour.
Schaffhausen - Frauenfeld - Wil - Wattwil - Toggenburg - Lichtenstein - Maienfeld - Landquart - Davos - Flüelapass - Pontresina
On the way back, we dicde to take the following route:
Pontresina - LaPunt - Albulapass - Lenzerhorn-pass (To Lenzerheide) - Davos, and then back home via the Autobahn via St. Gallen (because the forecast showed heavy rain in the afteroon).
Overall, 483 kilometers in 9h19 of spirited driving.


So we packed our bags, fuelled up and started the road trip:


After a bit of nice flatland-driving, we arrived in the first mountains of Toggenburg:


After Driving behind mt. Säntis, and passing the Hemberg hillclimb-route, we made it to the Rheintal valley:


But the vineyards and village of Maienfeld is what really was unexpectedly beautiful:


After that, altitude is going up when you start the uphill ride from Davos


And then climb up the Julierpass:


Despite the warm weather, it was snowy the day before.


After reaching the peak flawlessly (it's still too cold for bicycles and motorbikes this time of the year, and not too many caravans), we ended up in a traffic jam due to some construction and many tourists on the road. While forced to drive a bit slower, we still enjoyed the lovely scenery.


On the other side we were greeted with the most beautiful summer weather and smiling locals :-)


We enjoyed a few great days with our friends in Pontresina


And were also able to witness wild capricorns close-up. Which is something really special for every Swiss:
 
Three days later, our trip back home started in Pontresina. Due to its close distance to St. Moritz (where the rich go for skiing). The density of the likes of Porsches, Ferraris, Maseratis and the likes is very high. So my EK9 surely got a few people confused...

We first took the short leg to the little village of La Punt:

And t hen went to the Albula-pass, which is a kind little brother of the Julierpass. But I have to say it's much lovelier to drive. And you have less heavy traffic here:



Beware of Marmots on the road:


This is really one of my favourite mountain roads so far, and here we had almost the whole road for us, which made it possible for us to really enjoy all the curves and views:

These kind of roads are just perfect for a swift little, screaming B16B:


Once you reach the top, you see hidden entrances to military tunnels:


And the winding road down begins:


We decided to take another small mountain pass to the Lenzerhorn, which is not really a detour, but a great hillclimb type of road too. You have great visibility and the most beautiful views, and end up in Lenzerheide, a famous skiing spot.

After that, we took the road to Davos and the Autobahn back home. As it was the season start, we ended up in a police control twice, but they were all nice and had nothing to complain about the little noisy Honda. Actually they were more interested in the special car than it's modifications, :-) After all it's definitely a road trip I can recommend. But, like with all mountain passes. Make sure you don't go in peak summer when it's all full of caravans, tractors, Bicycles and motorbikes, or in winter, when many of them are closed due to the snow.
We had a blast and really enjoyed the ride. And i would definitely do it again.
 
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