Carl the 4WD Civic Wagon

[Dems]

Hey guys, Felix invited me to share my Civic with you all. I've named it Carl and it's stuck like glue.

This is how I picked Carl up.



It's a 1988 Civic Wagon, Australian delivered but basically an import that Honda Australia brought in for about a year and now pretend didn't exist (don't bother talking to spare parts at a dealer if you need anything for one)



It came factory with real time 4 wheel drive, yes a 4 wheel drive Civic! Also thrown in is an electric sunroof and manual everything else... Go Honda! :/

[Dems]

Not much has happened in 12 months of owning it, I've spent most of my funds maintaining it and keeping it running. When it's not costing me money I've managed to stockpile some parts and fit a few things, already on the car is a set of Koni/ground control coilover sleeves, Nardi wheel, clear indicators and some colour coded door handles.

[Dems]

The plan with Carl was always to go low and slow... In a twist of fate I've entered Carl into a local track day for nugget cars (Sorry Carl)
Eligible cars to enter must cost less than $3000 AUD and have an engine capacity of 1.5l or less. Mods are fairly stringent, no forced induction or LSD's or engine mods.

The first race is this week, so last month we had a dyno day to check out all the competition.



Carl pulled a mighty 50kw at the wheels but caused chaos to the dyno because of the strange power split between the front and rear wheels.
This meant the computer had to be reset, whoops haha!

.

[Dems]

I've got an EF9 front bar ready to go on after the track day, just need a good drivers side indicator and J's Racing lip and a lick of paint.

[Dems]

I test fitted my track day wheels. TE37 in 15 x 7 +25 (had to be no wider than 7 inches to comply with the regs for the race)







I'll most likely be going with a 15 x 8 for daily duties, still undecided what to get.

[Dems]

Took my wagon down to a buddies workshop to fix up a rattle in my exhaust and mount up my fire extinguisher before the big race on Sunday...



One thing led to another and we ended up making a straight pipe.



It actually sounds pretty good haha, just got to mount my wheels and get a helmet and I'm good to go.

[Dems]

The grippy stuff is on now! Just some crappy phone pics for now.





Huge improvement, I was getting worried that it wouldn't be much fun on the track but the tyres and exhaust have made such a difference.
There's actually a bit of power between 3.5k-5k rpm now!!

Can't wait to show you guys how it goes on the day.

- Gwyn.

[KennyBKT]

Oh man so this is the car i see parked at staff parking haha. Looking good with the te37s!

[DaRKNT]

I love it.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Awesome car, good luck at Nugget Nationals on Sunday. 50kw atw is a great power figure, the car seems to be in great shape.

[Nathannnnn]

good stuff! In for track day results

[tinkerbell]

this thread has good amount of WIN

[gunpoons]

Awesome ride, good luck on Sunday[emoji106]

[felixR]

Love your car Gwyn! How did you find it in the first place?

[Dems]

So much love, thanks guys!!

Felix, I had wanted one for years. passed up two average condition ones interstate, nearly flew up for one but the buyer didn't have very good communication skills.

This one came up at the most inconvenient time on ebay with a pretty high buy it now price. I flipped a coin and decided to wait for the auction to end and hope that no one made the purchase.
The next three days watching the auction nearly killed me and then it ended. I sent and email and waited patiently.

No one bought Carl so I went an inspected it the next day and left a deposit, only one other person had checked it out.

After about $1000 on bushes and oil leaks he was ready to hit the road and the day I had the rego transferred into my name I fitted the coilovers that very night!

- Gwyn.