The twin-turbocharged Honda Civic that rewrote the sport compact record books more than two decades ago is back on the block, with bidding at $18,250 and two days remaining.
Built by Don Ness Racecraft in Minnesota for AEM Electronics, the NHRA-spec pro stock chassis debuted at SEMA in 2002 and began campaigning in the NHRA Xplod Sport Compact Racing Series in 2003. The series had launched two years earlier around three headline categories: PRO/RWD, PRO/FWD and MOD. Stephan Papadakis, fresh off the 2001 Pro FWD championship, took the wheel of the rear-drive machine.
Power came from an Acura NSX C30A DOHC V6 fitted with a pair of turbochargers, an unusual choice in a class dominated by four-cylinders. The combination made the car the first Honda into the 6-second range. In January 2005, Papadakis ran 6.525 seconds at 210 mph during testing at The Strip Dragway in Las Vegas, a mark that still stands for a six-cylinder Honda.
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What followed was less glamorous. The series folded after the 2007 season, and the car was sold to a buyer in Mexico before being seized by Las Vegas Metro Police under federal criminal forfeiture law. It sat in an evidence vault roughly five years while the case worked through the courts, then went to auction in 2015.
The current seller bought it with an eye toward NHRA Competition Eliminator CC/AT competition. In 2018, Jerry Bickel Race Cars in Missouri brought the chassis up to a 6.0 certification and moved the pedals forward inside an enclosed cage for legroom. Mirror-image Precision Turbo PT7675 units went on, along with a Gato billet water-to-air intercooler and a 105mm billet throttle body.
The carbon-fiber body still wears its Viper red and blue 2007 livery, complete with paint chips, tired decals and quarter-panel damage. The bare chassis and body weigh 996 pounds; with the engine and electronics, 1,501.
The work isn’t finished. There is no transmission, driveshaft or radiator, though the seller says the engine has been started. Two unassembled engines, a Liberty’s Gears five-speed and titanium wheelie bars go with it.
The car carries a Nevada off-highway VIN, isn’t street legal and sells on a bill of sale in Florida.
Bid Here
Images Via: Bring a Trailer
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