Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Fast Car

Marmite. You either love it or hate it, right? The thing is though, I don’t mind it. I don’t vomit at the thought of having it for breakfast. Neither would I pass on a full English to eat the divisive yeasty spread. What’s this got to do with anything? Well Marmite’s love-it-or-hate-it reputation applies to this month’s cover car. There’s no denying the modifications are top notch and the execution is also flawless on Kevin Cham’s Subaru Impreza. But that chrome wrap just isn’t going to be everyone’s flavour. Damn does it get attention though – and that’s what cover cars have to do. If you’re reading this now, it’s worked, especially if it’s your first time. Anyway, you can decide whether you’re a lover or hater after reading the…

“I have always had a passion for cars. From an early age I would push Matchbox cars around the front room” You don’t have to be a professor in psychology to deduce that the key touchpoints of your childhood inform the adult you grow up to be. If you had an outdoorsy upbringing, always climbing trees and splashing about in rivers, you’re more likely to end up working for the Environment Agency than the kids who spent all their time playing Cool Spot and Zool, who’ll now be designing apps on Brick Lane. Sometimes these childhood influences manifest themselves in less than subtle ways, and we reckon it’s pretty safe to assume that when Kev Cham was at school, he was the kid with the luminous Stabilo Boss highlighters in…

“After a scary trip to the ‘Ring, things were stepped up a notch!” The Mitsubishi A6M ‘Zero’ fighter plane was undoubtedly one of the technological marvels of the Second World War. Launched in 1940 and quickly racking up a 12-to-1 kill rate for the Japanese navy, thanks to its unbeatable manoeuvrability and reliability (along with an awe-inspiring soundtrack produced from that throbbing 14-cylinder Sakae motor), it’s no wonder it’s gone down in the history books. Since then, Mitsubishi’s aviation antics might not have been quite as dramatic, but that’s not to say it’s impossible to find a more recent military monster from the firm. In fact, if Bradley’s Evo IX GT is anything to go by, there’s one much closer to home than you might’ve first thought… Before we get…

Fast Facts • Sizes: 8x14-inch • PCD: 4x100 • Offsets: ET-5 • Finishes: Polished silver with gold detailing AUTOSTAR KANJI, £100 (each) If there’s one thing that gets our bits fizzing rather effectively it has to be a touch of old-skool JDM magic. You see, what with all the huge Euro-looking wheels on today’s market, smaller classically-styled hoops, like this new Autostar Kanji, simply don’t come along that often. Still, there’s no doubt that when you see super-fresh rims like these hit the streets, it gives you the feeling it’s worth buying an EF Civic or the like, just so you can run the little bastards! That’s not to say this wee beastie wouldn’t look the part on many a small Euro ride too. It definitely would have to be…

Aston Martin x Hogan Luxury Sneakers, £420 Trainers don’t get any posher than these finely-crafted items from high-end Italian fashion house, Hogan. In an exclusive collaboration with Aston Martin, they’ve just launched a limited run of 3,000 luxury sneakers based on their iconic Hogan Olympia, in a choice of four special colourways and featuring a tongue cut from Aston’s classic Kestrel tan leather. According to the designers, each shoe “reflects the elegance of the silhouette of an Aston Martin sports car and includes detailing from Aston Martin’s artisan leather craft”. And, while that sounds like some rather extreme marketing bollocks to us, we will concede that they all look pretty damn swish. They’re not cheap of course, but anything sporting an Aston badge rarely is. Start saving, trainer freaks. www.hogan.com…

The almost-retro DC2 Integra presented an intriguing proposition back in the late-1990s. With the Gran Turismo-fuelled Japanese invasion convincing a new generation of British car fans of the merits of Rising Sun performance, the market was more than ready for this racy little poppet. The stratospheric halo of the NSX-R filtered beautifully down to this more affordable proposition, the first Type R officially offered in the UK. But the DC2 Integra wasn’t just paying lip service to that now-iconic nameplate. Contemporary sales literature proudly, confrontationally stated that “The R stands for Racing’’, and this was evident throughout the car. Honda’s starting point was to take the B18C1 engine from the regular Integra GS-R, place it on a plinth so they could stare at it for a bit and poke it…

The Honda Civic Type R EP3 occupies a very special place in the pantheon of modern hot hatches. It stands proudly as one of Honda’s very best creations and one which is (at present at least) an utter bargain. Much lauded by all sectors of the motoring press at launch, the EP3 swiftly found motorsport success, and has been a darling of the club motor racing and tuning scenes ever since. It was perhaps the high water mark of performance Hondas (certainly real-world Hondas) for many, many years, and is a model which can still scalp far more modern, powerful and expensive cars. You’re reading this very publication which means there’s a very good chance you’ll agree when we say the best can always be made better. Especially now the…

It’s been a month of mixed fortunes. The good news is that I had the Civic on show at the Players Classic down at Goodwood, which was very exciting as I’ve never had a car on display at a show before. And literally a whole one person Instagrammed it, so that’s a result. I even gave it a bit of a wash beforehand. Lesson learned, though. Don’t park under trees at shows. I arrived early so I had free choice of where to leave the car, and I knew it’d be a hot day, so I parked under a tree in the shade. By the end of the day, it was covered in bird shit. Heigh-ho. The bad news is that the Civic had an altercation with a ramp at…

Modify Everything So it s been a couple of months, maybe even years, since we last had a Modify Everything in the magazine but this was just too good not to show. This is what happens when the main man behind one of the UK’s best automotive trimmers, d:class, mangles his fingers – a fully customised arm sling. We might get them to make one for the boss’s broken leg! Genius. Coming soon… With the show season now in full swing there are amazing cars being built and launched every week. We will find and feature the best ones from around the world and this utterly stunning stanced Honda S2K will be in the magazine very soon. Watch this space… “‘THE GOOD OLD DAYS!’ THE WORDS USED TO DESCRIBE A…

ROTA KBF, FROM £235 (EACH) This new wheel from Rota is most certainly badass. We just can’t work out if it’s something of a brave design choice, or simply a safe bet. The KBF will certainly suit a multitude of modern motors, that’s a given. But, despite those huge, staggered sizes and PCD options to cater for many larger European and Jap motors, we can’t help feeling there’s a couple of distinctly old-skool elements to this one, too. Take a look at the face for starters. They’ve done a great job with this modern twist on the popular ’80s convex, split 5-spoke theme. But, like all the best wheels, it’s one where the original inspiration still shines through. We shouldn’t name names of course, but dare we say it? It’s…

Sometimes it’s the most unlikely things you encounter during your time on this funny ol’ planet that stick with you for the longest. Those random moments of inspiration that can completely shift the direction your life takes for years to come. For better or worse, we’ve all had ’em. North Carolina resident Adam Kharbat can pinpoint the exact moment this phenomenon took hold of him a few years back, carving out his car life for the foreseeable future and leaving him with this rip-snorting monster you see here before you. “I owned a 993 Porsche 911 a few years back, with a wide, GT2-style bodykit, rivets and all,” Adam’s eyes glaze over as he indulges in a fond memory. “It was ever since then that I’ve only ever wanted to…

Back in April we headed to Rockingham racetrack for 2017’s first instalment of Mimms Honda Day – an ever-growing festival of all things Honda which promises plenty of action, both on and off the track. Mimms may be one of the UK’s largest modified Honda shows on the car calendar these days, but rewind five-or-so years and you’ll begin to learn more about just how humble its beginnings really were. Named after South Mimms service station (just north of London on the M25) where, up until a few years ago, events used to take over the car parks, the franchise has grown from a grassroots car meet to an all-out festival in its own right, under the careful planning of organiser Davinder Plaha. Now attracting cars from all over Europe…

Rear-wheel drive Ford Escorts are the stuff of legend. You only need to look at today’s auction prices to see that. While these cars were everywhere on Britain’s roads all through the 1970s, the combination of disposability and good ol’ rust has seen their numbers diminish massively. Sure, there’s still a fair few out there, but modern ownership of Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts can be roughly divided into two main groups: firstly, people who appreciate them as focused and pure rally machines, and thus like to strip them out and bounce them through forests. And secondly, people who grew up aspiring to these cars, either because their mum used to drive them to school in a 1300E, or because they used to hang out at the Chelsea Cruise and watching…

Vehicle wraps have been a game-changer on the car scene this last few years. And with very good reason. They’re bloody awesome. Years ago a full car colour change would take weeks, but not anymore. Nope, it takes days. Not only that, but the choice of finishes and colours is expanding every day, as are the companies that offer vinyl. However, one thing remains the same. The world leaders in wraps, is, was and will always be, 3M. So what makes 3M vinyl different? Some very clever technology, that’s what. You see 3M’s sticky stuff (the 3M 1080 Series Wrap Film in particular) has been developed specifically for ease of positioning and application. There are even a couple of patented advancements built in. The first is a Controltac adhesive, which…

A day in the life of Chris Forsberg runs roughly like this: wake up, emit rays of wonder, piss excellence, eat success for breakfast, climb into car, drive sideways, renew tyres, repeat. He’s a self-taught drifter from Pennsylvania, who honed his craft powersliding tractors as a teenager. Fast-forward to the present day and we find ourselves gazing in awe at one of Formula Drift’s winningest drivers. And yes, his skills are sufficiently mighty that we’ll even lower ourselves to using the word ‘winningest’. If you know of this dude’s work, you’ll know he’s most closely associated with Nissan’s Z cars. Back in 2003 he started drifting a 350Z with a supercharged VQ motor, which has since been swapped out for a purist-baiting SR20DET. You might also have spotted him in…

Our pals behind the Players show franchise are clearly doing something right. With their long-standing September show, held at Essex’s North Weald Airfield, getting increasingly popular, five years ago they added a second show to the calendar. And Players Classic, as you can probably see from the pictures, has gone on to become one of the best shows of the year in its own right. Held at the height of the summer in the stunning grounds of Goodwood Circuit down on the south coast, Players Classic is a modified car show that simply oozes class – something reflected in the invite-only metal that’s on display in the grounds. With an appreciation for anything slammed, race-based, classic or just plain interesting, the show is a fascinating mix of everything from hydro’d-out…

“I’m a little crazy. I like to choose the different approach in life!” You can try and fight it as much as you like, but internet-connected phones, watches and other gadgets we’re probably too old to have even heard of yet are undoubtedly reshaping the way we live our day-to-day lives. This pattern’s started creeping into the way that in-car entertainment systems are shaped, too – ensuring passengers are cocooned in their very own portable wifi-enabled bubble so they’re never too far away from their all-important cat videos and comedy Snapchat filters. One young man who’s taken this to the extreme is Josh Ball, who’s overcome a limited budget and dared to go against the grain and transform his Audi A3’s interior so it could now out-perform the International Space…

Silverline 40 Piece Bit Set, £12 Any mechanic will say, “They just don’t make them like they used to”. But, in this case at least, it doesn’t mean cars were better back in the day – it just means they were easier to pull apart! Yes, modern motors (especially the German ones – Midge) are absolutely riddled with all sorts of weird and wonderful fasteners. No longer is a screwdriver and a 10mm spanner enough for most jobs, so chances are you’ll find an infinite number of uses for a decent set of these. Containing all the Torx, Hex and Spline bits you’ll need for the majority of basic jobs, it’s not a case of should you be straight on the blower to Silverline. Ask yourself, for just 12 smackers,…

Let’s put all the memes and lawn mower jokes to one side and give Honda the praise they deserve. They are one of the best automotive manufactures in the world, and their VTEC engines were and still are an innovation. This is why we’ve dedicated this 35-page bonus section to modifying, buying and tuning them. Damn we’ve even featured one of the most iconic cars of all time, a Mk2 Escort – that’s had its original heart pulled out and replaced with a VTEC. The purists won’t like it, but we sure do. We’ve also kicked off the section with the best DC5 in the UK. You won’t find a fault on this flawless build. Love them or hate them. You’ve just got to respect them……

1 989 was a special year for the Fast Car world. That’s when Honda re-wrote the rulebooks with the release of the B16A VTEC engine, pushing out around 160bhp from a high revving 1.6ltr non-turbo engine back when most other N/A 1.6s were struggling to top 110bhp. From then on the term VTEC and big revs have become the norm for sporty Hondas, and while tuning them took a while to seriously take off in the UK, these days the Honda VTEC lumps are some of the best 4cyl engines to upgrade. And we’re here to show you how... What the hell is VTEC anyhow? And why is it so good? VTEC is Honda’s name for a variable valve timing and lift system, and while quite a few other manufacturers,…

A contracted acronym for Variable Valve Timing and Lift Electronic Control (as VVTLEC is a bit of a mouthful), the father of a thousand internet memes, Honda’s VTEC system is more than just a clever piece of valve timing. It’s a lifestyle. Much like forced induction is addictive, and people who experience turbos or superchargers for the first time immediately get hooked on boost. So it is with VTEC: once you’ve held onto that steering wheel with white knuckles beyond 8,000rpm, the howling motor sounding fit to explode and yet relentlessly goading you on, you’ll never look back. VTEC is a drug. History Big motors have always been subject to punishing taxation in Japan, hence their manufacturers’ enthusiasm for improving the efficiency of smaller displacements. Toyota love forced induction, Mazda…

If there’s one thing RX-7 ownership has taught me over the years, it’s to always expect the unexpected. One day you can be happily rackin’ up the miles… The next, you’re treated to terminal engine failure. Joy of joys. That’s a hell of a generalisation. But when you’re messing around with 20-year-old turbo Japanese cars – not least a rotary – you’d be silly to assume your ownership would be trouble free. So when it is, alarm bells start ringing… Over the past month, the RX-7 has racked up a cool 2,500 miles travelling through Europe to Austria and back down to Goodwood for a quick track day at Players Classic. In fact, the odometer’s just ticked over 50,000 miles. That’s not bad considering it’s on a standard engine and…

Beer Oh Dear! You know they say every action has an equal opposite reaction? Well, there’s always some sort of entertaining reaction when Midge and tequila-infused beer are involved, especially when the catalyst seems to be holiday sunshine. Of course, he won’t be too happy we’ve shared the fact that he can’t hold his alcohol with the whole world. But if naked inflatable-dolphin riding shenanigans (all to the Rocky theme tune) isn’t worth a look, we don’t know what is! (Bastards! – Midge) Supermarket Scrabble Surely everyone loves a spot of Supermarket Scrabble to pass the time on their road trip, right? And quite obviously there was just one thing missing from this collection of candles to get maximum points. Yes Midge, clearly all this picture needed was U. Funnily…

Bonus Feature Easy Engine Swaps Special Features The Lost Art of the Look-alike. How to build a replica. Plus Product tests, Carnography, Japfest Donington, Fast Projects, and loads more too Bay Swaps Crazy Corsa Pick-up LS Swapped RX More TBC Feature Cars Naught Nissan 350Z Super-wide Supra Mad MX-5 Gorgeous Golf #386 On Sale Friday August 18th *Subject to change because we might get distracted looking at pictures of Pamela Anderson. Phwoooooaaaar…