Honda Civic Hatch

The most coveted of all Honda Civic models is the hatch. That's no secret. And no hatch is more coveted than the vaunted SiR. While the SiR is marketed overseas as a true-enthusiast vehicle that easily adapts to weekend track sessions-or, for the truly devoted, full road-race compatibility-the Stateside version is only a shadow of its former self.

The yellow hatch pictured here belongs to Southern California resident Wilson Tam. He spent many months looking for a decent Civic hatch with straight sheet metal that hadn't been subject to any accidents and eventually purchased this 1993 example from a friend. The car was by no means stock when he picked it up. It had a body kit, 17-inch TSW rims and a B16A motor swap. Its owner hadn't intended to sell it, but eventually needed to because he just couldn't get it to pass smog. At the time of the transfer, the registration had lapsed for more than half a year.

With the car in Tam's hands things quickly took shape. He wanted an all-around driver that could hang at the drag strip and still be competitive at shows, but the real goal was to turn it into something closer to its Eastern, high-performance counterpart. To this end, Tam aimed to replicate Spoon Sports' yellow EG street car because of its subtle demeanor and inspiring performance.

"What struck me about that car was the yellow paint clashing with the black carbon-fiber front lip and rear wing with the black N1 race mirrors," Tam said. "It stood out but was clean-looking, nothing crazy or off the wall."

The first order of business was getting rid of the body kit and swapping the wheels. Since he didn't have any extra factory body pieces to spare, Tam ended up driving the car around town sporting naked bumper supports and stock 1999 Si alloys. Next was passing smog and paying the registration fees, and then swapping the B16 powerplant for the B18C Type R motor he had saved from his totaled '91 Integra.