One of the debates you most often hear among Honda enthusiasts is
whether or not a build is truly functional. Functionality is really only
relative to what the owner’s intentions were during the assembly of the
vehicle in question, but you’ll frequently hear people talk about how
there are too many show cars that never see an actual track time. There
are individuals who care very little about racing their cars, but since
they’ve installed performance upgrades, it’s assumed that their focus is
the racetrack. The race enthusiasts are usually at the opposite end of
the spectrum of the show car crowd, and it’s been that way for as long
as anyone can remember. You either beat the crap out of your car racing
it, or you want to keep it as pristine as possible for the next show.
It’s a rare thing to find someone in the Honda community who is into
both and willing to embrace both sides.
Ken Suen is one of those guys who loves all aspects of the tuning
world. He’s often being pulled in two directions and trying to find a
balance between show and go. When he first acquired his 2008 Si, he
never had any intentions of doing anything crazy with it. His plans were
to build a clean street cruiser that he could drive to work every day,
as well as various automotive events. The Civic you see today is a far
cry from his original intentions. What was supposed to be a simple,
daily driven Civic has now been transformed into a full-blown time
attack race car.
“I bought this Civic brand-new from a local dealership four years
ago,” Ken explains. “Back then, it was the stock Taffeta White color and
I had planned to just put some wheels on it and maybe an intake. I
began doing research on the car later and often found myself looking
through countless Japanese car magazines for inspiration. It was in one
of these magazines when I first discovered the FD2 Civic Mugen RR. I
loved how aggressive the car looked and decided that I wanted to do the
conversion.”
Not long after, Suen was able to locate an RR front and rear end
conversion. Many of you are probably wondering if it is an authentic
kit, and Ken will admit with no hesitation that it certainly is not. The
authentic Mugen RR kit is not something you can just buy at your local
tuner shop. There were only 300 Mugen RRs ever produced, so you can
imagine how difficult it would be to actually get your hands on a
complete “real deal” conversion. The way Ken would later pound on the
car, it’s probably better that he has a replica kit. (Continue reading
and you will understand why.) After acquiring the kit, he made the
decision to respray the car in a red hue to match the look of the Mugen
RRs he saw in Japan. He didn’t want to have the RR look without some
power to back it up, so he installed some bolt-on parts like an intake,
exhaust, and header. With these new additions, Ken was pretty happy with
his Civic. He began attending local meets and going to car shows but
never had any thoughts of racing the FA5 on a closed course.
After some convincing from his friends, he agreed to take his Civic
to a weekend track event—one session later, he was hooked for life. The
pursuit of speed had consumed him and he found himself participating in
every weekend track event he could possibly find. Ken’s Civic was also
living a double-life as his daily driver during all of the action-packed
weekends. The combination of harsh weekend racing and a long daily
commute began taking its toll on the stock K20Z3. Luckily for Suen, he
made some new friends during his racing exploits, one of them being Loi
Song of Sportcar Motion. Loi was not only an expert when it came to
Honda K engines, his shop had become very well known for dominating the
Limited FF class at various time attack events and setting
record-breaking times. If there was anyone that could help Ken find more
performance from his K, it was Sportcar Motion.
Suen entrusted his faith in Loi and the SCM crew and wasted no time
in bringing the car to their shop in San Marcos, California. Loi and
his crew quickly went to work, pulling the worn-out K20 in order to
refresh the powerplant. To maximize power, a bevy of Skunk2 goods were
installed, and the transmission was removed and shipped to Gearspeed.
Torn down and rebuilt using their signature carbon synchros and a new
Kaaz LSD, Gearspeed made quick work of the process, and SCM pieced the
car back together in just a few days. For tuning duties, the Civic was
transported to Church Automotive Testing where it was fine-tuned using
Hondata’s FlashPro.
Confident in the power of his new motor and his growing experience
as a driver, Ken resolved to compete at a Global Time Attack event. He
then spent time with Loi designing and creating a one-off front splitter
to help plant the front end. However, the new aero package wouldn’t
mean a thing without a rear wing for proper balance, so Evasive
Motorsports was contacted and was able to source a Voltex GT wing and
canards to complete the package.
Over the next few weeks leading up to the Global Time Attack event,
Ken spent all his time trying to improve his driving skills. He even
enlisted the help of longtime front-wheel-drive record breaker Clint
Boisdeau. The Apollo Performance driver accompanied him on the track and
taught him some time-slicing driving tactics. By the time Ken finished
testing his new setup, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that his lap
times had improved by over eight seconds! This is a huge, huge feat for
someone with no more than a year of experience under his belt. At the
Global Time Attack event, Ken managed to win the Street Front Wheel
Drive class, outrunning Boisdeau, a driver who he looks up to as his
mentor.
It is wild to see how much of a transformation Ken and his Civic
have made in just a short amount of time. He went from a young kid who
barely knew anything about cars, to a very formidable driver in the road
racing community. Although he’s experienced a significant amount of
personal success, he’s quick to point out that it is all in good fun.
And in case you’re wondering, he still makes that lengthy commute every
single day from Ontario to El Monte, California, in his RR-converted
Civic. And when he’s not chasing down lap times or daily driving, you’ll
find his Civic at various car shows throughout the Southern California
region, albeit with a few more battle scars. Ken Suen is a true
enthusiast who does it all, and we’ve got nothing but the utmost respect
for a guy like that.
To complement the new hue, simple bolt-on aero bits in the form of a
Mugen rear wing and J’s Racing front lip were added to the paint booth,
but the customization would go quite a bit further. Sunny grafted a set
of Sportcar Motion fender flares to the already aggressive J’s Racing
fenders for a one-off look and more wheel and tire clearance. He then
built custom rear fender flares to match the wider fronts. 
Danny finally brought the car home and, with the help of friends,
spent the next two weeks putting everything back together. That was
followed by approximately four weeks of working out any bugs and
essentially buttoning up the loose ends. 
