Till VTEC do us part

A project car is much like tying the knot to be honest. A strong commitment which may fail or even blossom in the times to come. Having a project car has its up's and down's. At times it might be a pain in the neck, but if you keep yourself together the end result might be quite epic. This was the case for our friendly neighbourhood Doctor, Suneth! 

Some of you might remember this car, some may not. But this car has come a really long way since we featured it last on OH. It was blue for a start and it took quite a beating for been an automatic. Suneth didn't back down though, with a few tips from his good friends and with an injection of his own taste he has built one awesome little car. 

Its not usual for Doctors to drive cars like this and it was one of the reasons why I was quite interested in the story in the first place. Mind you he is restoring a Datsun 510 as we speak too! So what's new in this then? 

Well obviously the colour. But not any ordinary white either. Championship white to be exact, a colour straight off the Type R brochure. That's right, ever since Suneth laid his eyes on a rare Integra Type R sedan in a magazine he knew this was what he wanted from his Teg! 

He has tried his best to make his Teg as close as possible to the real thing. I must say he has succeeded.

Suneth love's details, and it can be seen in the work carried out on the car. Believe it or not, the Integra engravings were missing when he got the car. But he did manage to find them under quite a few layers of bondo! 

All the original lighting fixtures have been sourced for that OEM look. Authentic style decals have added been too. 

The red badges are actual Type R items! Lucky find....

Personally though, my favourite part about this car is how it sits. The Stance game is the biggest thing in the automotive tuning scene right now, and its nice to see Sri Lankan's following the crowd too. Of course with our nasty roads, our guys should be awarded for having the balls to do it! 

Suneth first tried lowering springs on his car, but he wasn't happy with the end result. So coil-overs it was. I must say the car looks real good! 

A set of fully adjustable GAB coils on all four corners help slam the car down. 

Coupled with some chassis bracing from Ultra Racing, the handling on the car is quite impressive. The DC2's were always known for good handling even in stock form, but with the addition of these mods it takes it to another level for a Front Wheel Drive car. 

What did I say about looks? The slotted rotors all round improve braking too, but with the added horses a pair of Wilwood high performance brake callipers are on the way too! 

No bodykits on this Honda mate. So much win on that white on white combo too! 

Keeping the OEM theme is a Type R style Spoiler at the back. Finding an original one is quite an expensive exercise so one was custom made to exact specifications! 

There is a lot more going on in the interior department too! 

Believe it or not, the interior was originally brown in this car. But no Type R ever comes with boring brown interiors so everything had to go. A lot of the panels have been replaced or colour matched to look like the real thing!

 A set of SSCUS seats help keep you in place in corners! 

You might be wondering why SSCUS instead of RECARO? Well, the original red Recaro's are quite hard to come by and they do fetch some mighty high prices for a pair of used seats. The SSCUS seats are the perfect match in terms of design and comfort. 

One thing that I could not keep my eyes off was this...

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Gotta love the original MOMO steering wheel in this car. Its the same item that came in a ITR, well this was nicked off one in the States! 

The steering wheel wasn't the only thing that was nicked though! Fancy Type R gauges yo! 

And the biggest change was the manual gear box conversion. While an auto might be helpful in traffic, you can never enjoy a good car with one. So it went in the bin and after months of searching Suneth managed to find an original Type R box for the car.

 He also has added a short shift kit just for kicks! 

Devil is in the details they say....

Moving on to more important matter at hand!

A mod not everyone will notice are the two struts, a very helpful mod not only to show off your bay but help the poor ole mechanic too! 

Pick up your jaws from the floor, yes that is quite an impressive engine bay! Majority of the work has been done in here. From a bigger throttle, to a ported and polished cylinder head with Crower Valve springs and retainers and MSD Blaster Ignition kit are just a few of many mods made to make reliable N/A horsepower. 

The engine has been rebuilt completely and ACL Bearings have been added for good measure. A Skunk2 s2 Pro intake manifold helps the engine breath better too.

 A Godspeed Fuel rail makes sure that engine never runs lean!

Remember the BC sticker on the rear window. Well it stands for Brian Crower, Camshaft specialists! Suneth's car has a pair of N/A high cams from them in his B18. All of it controlled by a custom tuned ECU from Tuned-i-Chips. 

And making sure the car makes all the right noises is this APEXI Jasma spec exhaust system mated to a Mugen 4 is to 1 manifold. Sure does sound sweet when VTEC kicks in! 

 A little bit of bling....

 A Jasma triple core radiator has been added for better cooling. 

All the hoses have been replaced with more reliable SAMCO Sport items! 

The car is still a WIP, and Suneth keeps fine tuning it everyday. The sticker on the back is true testament to this fact. Like every project car, you never stop building, tweaking and tuning! A comprehensive build sheet is listed below. 

After months of toiling away, what Suneth has achieved is amazing. A very unique ride that manages to catch everyone's eyes. Rather than spending his cash on a very common brand new car he has stuck to something original and unique. Yes it might not be the real thing, but hey its real close to its namesake and in some ways better too! So Kudos to him. 

Charith Kulasiri

Build Sheet

Engine 

B18c3 

Port and polish 

ACL bearings 

Brian Crower stage 2 street performance NA cams

Crower valve springs and retainers

Mugen 4:1 header

Skunk2 s2 pro intake manifold

D90 70mm throttle body

Msd blaster ignition system

Platinum plugs 

Jasma triple core aluminium radiator

Gearbox

Ek9 Type R Close Ratio manual 5 Speed

Helical LSD 

DC2 Type R clutch, pressure plate and flywheel

Suspension

Dc2 ITR front tower strut

Ultra racing 3 point strut tower front

UR 4 point rear tower strut

UR rear lower member brace 

Gab street performance coilovers

Adjustable upper arms 

ECU

Hondata S300 v2.0'with custom tune by Drag&Drift Performance

Interior

Spec IR converted. 

Amber ITR clock

Momo SRS ITR steering wheels

SSCUS front seats matching rear upholstery