SixEighteen
Member
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2013
- Messages
- 126
In the US, it's not currently possible to legally import an EK9, unless you somehow were able to have it approved as a track-only car. But even then it's difficult.
For someone like myself, I have always wanted to own one of these cars. I had priced out a full replica (everything, even the seem welding, me doing all of the work) to be about 21-25,000USD. Super steep for a Honda Civic, whether or not it's an EK9 replica or not. While I wouldn't have been able to justify doing all of this work and dropping all of that money on the major swap items, someone else clearly did. So when I found mine, I couldn't help but snatch it up (for a fraction of that conversion cost). Now my time can be spent with the fine detail, making a car truly worthy of the badging. While it isn't much of a competitor in SCCA classing, it's a car that I wanted to have in my collection as a fun track/autocross/hobby car. Feel free to check out my journal if you're curious of the car's current state (shameless plug )
At the end of the day, when people build replica CTR's/ITR's (at least in the US) it's because we simply cannot have them. The R-models carry a certain nostalgia that is not possible through the typical US-based models.
I can't speak for the honda fanboy rice that typically comes out of the "jdm" parts market, but this is my stance.
For someone like myself, I have always wanted to own one of these cars. I had priced out a full replica (everything, even the seem welding, me doing all of the work) to be about 21-25,000USD. Super steep for a Honda Civic, whether or not it's an EK9 replica or not. While I wouldn't have been able to justify doing all of this work and dropping all of that money on the major swap items, someone else clearly did. So when I found mine, I couldn't help but snatch it up (for a fraction of that conversion cost). Now my time can be spent with the fine detail, making a car truly worthy of the badging. While it isn't much of a competitor in SCCA classing, it's a car that I wanted to have in my collection as a fun track/autocross/hobby car. Feel free to check out my journal if you're curious of the car's current state (shameless plug )
At the end of the day, when people build replica CTR's/ITR's (at least in the US) it's because we simply cannot have them. The R-models carry a certain nostalgia that is not possible through the typical US-based models.
I can't speak for the honda fanboy rice that typically comes out of the "jdm" parts market, but this is my stance.