1996 Honda Accord Article at Automotive.com

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1996 Honda Accord Coupe Wide Body

Below is an enthusiast article written by the automotive experts at Import Tuner. There's plenty of things about Vince Guzman's Honda Accord EX coupe that warrants attention. GTR lights out back, dope Racing Hart's at the corners, finished interior, polished engine--none of these things ever go unnoticed. However, they are also only part of

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IntelliChoice Value Rating

The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.

One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.

What is a good car value?

A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.

But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?

For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.

This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)

Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.

Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.

So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.

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Article From Import Tuner Magazine

Fender Fetish

This '96 Accord Coupe Flexes Wide Body Style / Article provided by: Import Tuner Magazine

There's plenty of things about Vince Guzman's Honda Accord EX coupe that warrants attention. GTR lights out back, dope Racing Hart's at the corners, finished interior, polished engine--none of these things ever go unnoticed. However, they are also only part of what grabbed our attention the first time we came across it.

Of course, we're talking about this Honda's wide-body tinwork, which drew us to it like ants to a sugar pot. And like those dedicated six-legged workers, we felt it only appropriate to share our findings with the rest of the colony.

So, kick up your heels, turn up the lights and get ready to marvel at the craftsmanship of this wide-bodied wonder.

Flexin' Wide

The body mods on this Accord are insane and were performed by Tito Jun of Jun's Auto Body & Paint. The wide fender treatment is true tinwork (not fiberglass) and features vents aft of the wheel wells. The integration of the wide panels to the rest of the sheetmetal is perfect and is finished by a modified Black Widow body kit that wraps the lower body panels and defines the Honda's front fascia. Also up front are projector headlights and Euro-style clear corners.

On the back end, the Accord's taillights were ditched and swapped with units from a Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R. We don't have to tell you how well the swap was performed, as the pictures do it justice by themselves. An APR GTI aluminum wing is perched on the trunk lid and mates well with the rest of the body mods thanks to the Accord's stretched stance.

Prior to the application of the Frost Blue paint and blue pearl clear, the Honda's door handles, emblems and moldings were shaved and a Sparco gas cap and funnel were added in place of the stock hinge fuel door.

Nhon Motorsports gets props for the graphics scheme. We like the way the vinyl was used to accentuate the flares without taking anything away from the body tweaks.

No car is complete without the proper stance. After all, you don't see beauty queens competing in combat boots--and this Honda is no exception. The Accord struts its stuff on the street on Skunk2 coilovers and big 19-in. Racing Hart C6 wheels. The Skunk2 units allow Vince to dial in the right amount of drop to tuck those tight-ass C6s into the widened wells and provide enough damping to keep your shocks off the bump stops.

Polished Performance

The engine bay is clean enough to eat off of and is highlighted with a grip of dress-up items. The valve cover is polished to a gleaming luster, as are the power steering and AC pump units.

The engine's performance is prodded with an AC intake, dual AC carbon-fiber mufflers, AEM Tru-Power underdrive pulleys, an AEM Tru-Time adjustable cam gear and Nology spark plug wires. Akimoto vacuum hoses now snake their way through the engine bay and a polished AC strut tower brace enhances underhood gleam while stiffening the chassis. Also not to be overlooked, are the AC oil filler cap and polished AC battery tie down.

Vince gives special thanks to the crew at Track Masters, who is responsible for bringing the engine to its current state of shine.

Interior Wonderland

For the Accord's interior transformation, Vince turned to Rags 2 Riches.

What culminated is an interior wonderland of white vinyl and white painted pieces including the dash, center console, vents, door panels, sills and gauge cluster frame.

Rags wrapped the seats, shift boot, e-brake handle and door inserts in white vinyl, then added black carpet to set it off from the floorboards.

For a touch of race flair, Rags installed a blue carbon fiber dash kit.

AC racing pedals allow Vince to blip the throttle in style and an AC shift knob is fashionably perched above the snow-white shift boot.

For sounds, the coupe relies on a Sony head unit to deliver the pulse to Boston Acoustics components.

Next Up

Vince wants to thank his crew, Team Hybrid, and his sponsors, AC Auto Designs, Track Masters, Nhon Motorsports, Carisma and Akimoto for their support.

What's in store for this Accord? Who knows exactly. There is plenty of room for engine and suspension tweaks, not to mention entertainment possibilities.

But for all you fender fetishists out there, we're guessing you feel the same way we do--anything else you do to this wide-bodied beauty is pure gravy. With this Honda, it's all about the sheetmetal.