Counting Pennies

Posted on Jul 7, 2011 in Feature | 2 comments

As we strive to set State of Stance apart from the rest, we sometimes have to venture outside our hometown to award those who deserve the SOS approval. My recent trip to a small town known as Mandarin, located in the suburbs of Jacksonville, Florida proves that dedication and passion for tuning can be found just about anywhere. On day one I linked up with Miguel Paz, member of Team Kindred Impulse, and owner of the ’99 Honda Civic Si (EM1) we will be looking at today.

Working against the pressures of time, we rushed to find suitable locations so I had little time to admire the exterior. At first glance, the EM1 doesn’t appear to be much different than any other. It’s actually quite deceiving until you jump inside and notice the interior has been carefully thought out. From the RSX Type-S black leather seats, EM2 steering wheel, Rear Seat delete wrapped in black leather(customized by Miguel himself), CTR shift boot and the Skunk2 10th anniversary shift knob.

Rolling on a set of Jline Sdmsl2’s (16×8 +20) wrapped in 205/40-16 Falken Ziex 512’s was not an issue. The Ground Control coil-overs coupled with Koni yellows, Blackworks extended lug-nuts, Blackworks lower control arms, Blackworks sub brace,  Blackworks Tie bar resulted in a firm ride and great handling.

Keeping the “quality over quantity” principle alive, Miguel opted for subtle  Exterior mods including am FULL- COLOR change to Blaze orange metallic from the RSX type-S, Yellow Oem fogs, custom retrofitted OEM Honda front lip, Arp splitters, and an SSR bumper quick release kit.

An SSR bumper quick release kit? Why? You ask…. Because when you are running 12’s on the track, you need easy access to the engine bay housing the K20a2 with RBC intake manifold Tuned on KPro by Mase engineering (221.2whp/157wtq).

Other goodies include:

Hybrid Racing ekk2 mounts with full front non power steering sub-frame to lower motor resulting in better fitment
Karcepts cold air intake
Karcepts alternator re-locator kit
Hytech Header followed by 3 inch piping with a vibrant exhaust
K-tuned full tuck fuel set up
Full Brake line tuck by John moore at driveway performance
(The house where all the magic happens for Kindred Impulse)
Chase bays CM1 tucked Harness
Fully shaved bay by OBD welding works
Aluminum radiator with tucked reservoir and fan
k20a2 transmission with a competition stage 3 clutch
Karcepts shifter plate with Hybrid Racing shifter bushings

Keep an eye out for the rest of the Kindred Impulse crew. This is one team you will be seeing in Import Alliance this year putting in WORK!