There and Back Again
I wanted to end this blog once everything was good with the car, but the truth be told - I haven’t touched the car much since I drove it home from the shop. Lockdown is real strict now which has put a halt on all my hobbies.
Built, not bought - one of the big deciding factors for me to decide to build and not buy a car was because, over the years - I saw my free time whittling away so I wanted to capitalise on the available time by experiencing something new.
The first car under my ownership was mainly bought as-is. I did a couple mods here and there but largely, I spent my time understanding driving dynamics, figuring out heel-toe and spending good times with mates after Uni. It was a good gateway drug into the hobby, allowing me to rock up to car meets, learn more about the platform, performing incremental upgrades and feeling improvements, dealing with worn out parts, getting used to maintenance cycles, troubleshooting electrical gremlins and flat batteries. It was pretty fun but car ownership is only one side of the hobby. There was always a feeling of triumph when you manage to fix that problem after spending hours under the hood.
Most people stop here and upgrade to a better platform, or just get a pre-built car and call it quits. I really wanted to take a plunge into the deep end and try a full out build.
The second car, I ripped out everything. From exterior upgrades, overhauling the driveline and restoring the interior. The experience taught me to persevere and learn how to problem solve - very applicable in other areas of life. The software guy in me could appreciate the loose coupling of all the engineered components in the car, especially the Honda ecosystem. It’s like a perfect set of microsystems with clear bounded contexts. My chassis was effectively a newer iteration of the older platform - same concepts, but now with a mix of 90s and 00s technology.
Not only that, I got to meet new people in the industry, balance cost and scope creep, researching to ensure cost efficiency - rather than throwing money at the problem. I also ended up with a good wall of tools that I use weekly on DIY projects throughout the house.
A big thanks to everyone involved in the build - I could not have done this without you all;
- Joseph - for all the late night assistance, brute strength, mechanical aptitude, the blessed high impact Milwaukee and being a Honda nut
- Danny - being the reason most of our lot yolo’d all our wages into japanese shitboxes straight out of school
- Josh - dropping by on Sunday arvos to lend a hand (especially the clutch and gearbox)
- Henry - for allowing me to borrow your jacks for months on end
- Luis - being a Honda Yoda and letting me learn behind the scenes about engine internals and tuning
- Jaye - lending a hand with anything and everything, all while we talking shit about F1, Kswapping the world, and how hip hop has lost its way