The young drivers guide to JDM cars
Many young drivers a car modification enthusiasts, unfortunately a large amount of these enthusiasts are “Ricers” (not sure what ricers are? Check out An Introduction to JDM cars). I understand the appeal – and am guilty of this myself at a young age – until i saw the light and came over to the JDM cars side!
However due to the nature of JDM cars mainly being function over fashion usually resulting in large engine sizes, or high insurance premium cars it is hard for the young driver to get into the JDM cars scene. This when coupled with the legal requirement for declaring modifications to insurance companies, means a costly experience for some young JDM cars enthusiasts.
However have no fear – there are options for the young driver to get into the world of JDM cars.
There are a select few cars that can be used (and more importantly insured) by the young driver. These cars are cheap to purchase and maintain – and have HUGE performance possibilities…
While there are several other manufacturers available for young driver – this article will focus on the most popular manufacturer for young JDM cars enthusiasts – Hondas.
Young JDM Cars – Hondas
The Honda civic has been around for nearly as long as Honda has – and throughout the years they have refined the design – with each offering the young JDM cars enthusiasts a entry point in to the modification scene.
The Honda civic is one of the most popular from Honda, this is due to many reasons – take the Honda civic EG for example (EG is the chassis code for civics made between 1992-1995). EG civics were WAY ahead of their time in terms of styling and performance.
Standard out of the factory EG6’s (EG6 is the DHOC VTEC EG civic) can still put up one hell of a fight against modern cars of the same spec range on the track today. And the styling of all of the EG civics was so ahead of its time they still do not look dated to this day. Many simple modifications can be done to an EG to make a superb looking JDM car that many could be envious of. This is perfect for the young driver looking to get into the JDM cars world.
However the EG6 is still a relatively expensive car to insure – but there is a workaround perfect for the young JDM cars enthusiast.
Honda in their wisdom – for one reason or another, made MANY (nearly all) performance related parts for the EG series civics IDENTITCAL to the Integra Type R (DC2 Chassis Code).
This opens up a world of opportunity. Young drivers can obtain a cheap 1.3 EG civic, and focus on small modifications to handling and breaking (which occasionally reduces insurance costs) and visual modifications at first… until they get a little older.
In this example – By the time the young JDM cars enthusiast has a beautiful looking civic with enhanced performance spec handling and breaking modifications (and remember the modification parts available are TRUE RACE SPEC parts designed for Hondas flagship racer the Integra at the time)… But you still have that terribly slow 1.3 engine…
This is the true beauty of the EG/DC series compatibility. It is a INCREDIBLY easy job (relatively) to swap a Honda Integra type R engine.
Young Driver Friendly JDM Cars (EG Civic)
e into your civic.
No welding, minimal (or no) wiring modifications, in fact all you need really is a new engine mount, and a shifter…. (google it – it really is quite simple)
Soo what does this mean for your jdm cars
This allows you then to have a super light, high revs, high power, car that easily dominates most things on the road (trust me i have one!) at a reasonably young age.
So as you can see even the young driver can get into JDM cars with ease.