My
1994 Honda Accord
More pictures: (pre-suspension modification/clear corners)
- Born at the Honda plant in Maryland,
she was brought into the Neal family in February of 1994. Back then, she
had the stock 15-in. alloy wheels, an OEM spoiler, and the Honda CD-player (a
less common item back in those early nineties days of cassettes.) She
became my mom's car, replacing her old mid-1980's Accord.
- In 1999, my mom bought a new Honda
Odyssey, and I earned the University of California Regents' Scholarship.
Rather than selling the Accord to strangers, as well as in celebration of my
free college tuition, my parents gave me the Accord for my birthday in May of
1999. :-D
- The summer of 1999 was filled with
joys and sorrows for my car and I. I worked at Universal Studios in Ride
Operations, as part of the E.T. The Ride crew. Near the end of summer I
added PIAA 1700x
fog lights, as well as 16" Konig Tuner wheels wrapped
in Nitto NT450
V-rated tires. Together, the wheels and tires are now 1.5 inches wider
than the stock pizza-cutter tires. However, even the Spiderman-like road
grip wasn't enough to stop a small, and frustrating, accident
in August.
- As my freshman year in college
progressed, I wasn't making a whole lot of money. Working as an EMT was a
rewarding personal experience (learning how to take care of people when they
need me the most), but it paid an abysmal $6.60 an hour, required several
hundred miles of driving a week, and was administered by a kooky manager who
appeared to be stuck in the 1970's. (thanks a lot, Event Medical Services) So, I
didn't have very much free cash. I spent very little money in the '99-'00
schoolyear on my car, but I DID buy some PIAA Platinum SuperWhite headlight
bulbs. I recommend them to anyone. They're bright, white, and
LEGAL (even in California). I bought my good friend Z a pair of these for
his 2000 Mustang, they also look great in that car.
- The summer of 2000-2001 was an
interesting time for me. I was working full-time at Sears electronics in
Burbank. All summer, I was saving for my new home theater system, so
again it was a brief lull of car activity. I DID name my car at the end
of summer though. Her name from then on is "Laurana."
Laurana is short for Laurana-lanthalasa,
a kickass (and beautiful) female character from Margaret Weiss and Tracy
Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles. If you're familiar with
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Laurana is the rough equivalent of the
"Arwen Evenstar" character in LOTR. :-)
- Beginning my sophomore year at UCI,
I added my first engine mod to Laurana, a DC Sports "DAC" Direct Air Charger. This mod
allows the car to breathe in air with much less effort (think of a
Breathe-Right strip for a car). This added air-flow increases power in
the high-RPM range (and also gives the car a throaty growl that you might
normally associate with an exhaust). In winter and spring, I added
white-faced Indiglo gauges to
the instrument cluster of my car (my most challenging mod yet, disassembling
the dash and all). Finally, I added an Autometer gauge pod to the left
A-pillar of my car that contains cool-looking "Oil Temperature" and
"Voltmeter" Ultra-Lite
gauges. Near the end of the year, I bought and installed a beautiful
looking (and sounding) DC Sports
all-stainless-steel cat back exhaust system. Now my car has a really
nice purr when she starts, and a nice growl when you punch it on a freeway
onramp. Finally, my stock Honda CD-player finally pooped out, so I
replaced the whole radio unit with a Pioneer
P4300 CD player.
- This past summer of 2001, I was an
unpaid intern at Matchframe video, doing the occasional temp job. As a
result, I was poor as an EMT. I made just enough to cover food and a
couple computer parts, but that's it. A relatively uninteresting summer
car-wise, but I DID install some "S-type" taillights to replace the
stock ones. I think these look pretty nice. Unlike the played out
"Altezza style," I think they add a nice Euro flair to the car.
-
Over this Christmas break, I swapped out the stock suspension with some Eibach ProKit springs and Koni "yellow" Sport
adjustable shocks. I also dolled up the front a bit with Euro-clear
corners, bumper lenses, and even LED light-up windshield washer nozzles (I know
that's a bit ricey, but one of my stock ones is broken, and Honda charges $50
for a new set). I also used some
Dynamat Xtreme (a heavy foil-backed asphault gum substance that absorbs
vibration) to get rid of a few light rattles and sqeaks that started appearing
in the body.
- This summer has been a busy one so far. I've installed new foglights, the PIAA Turbojector 998's after my old ones got stolen from a UCI parking lot. >:D I installed a Hella Triple Airhorn, for waking up ladies on cellphones driving Ford Expeditions who cut me off without signalling. I replaced my headlight bulbs with PIAA Xtreme white bulbs (since one of the old Superwhites burned out).