TDSAutoMag

Back with some new content, I’ll be bringing you guys along for the start of an amazing build. Anyone associated within the automotive scene in Barbados knows you can’t go very far without hearing mention of Bally; from the guys on the street all the way through several forms of motorsport. He was and still is very much involved in tuning and engine building for several platforms selected to compete in a variety of racing be it drag, circuit or rallying. His portfolio is heavily populated with varying manufacturers over the years; however, with a large volume of Hondas and Mitsubishis dominating the racing scene in the last few years, that’s where most of his focus has been. After spending a large amount of time both researching and working on them it wasn’t long before he took the plunge and built his own version of each.

A few year back he was fortunate enough to come into possession of a pristine condition Evo IV in bone stock trim. Over time he turned this into one of the fastest Evos competing in B.A.D.D‘s 1/4 and 1/8 mile events on the island. With this feat accomplished, Bally was now at the crossroads in relation to the direction of the build moving forward. He was torn because he knew to go any faster a few key things would need to change. Achieving the power was the easy part but being able to deliver it to the ground would start to become problematic. The Evo IV is built off the base model Lancer which restricts the size tyre Bally would need to run in order to be competitive. The option moving forward would be to cut and flare the car; however, in wanting to keep the car’s body lines original that would be out of the question. Having faced that reality, the car was pulled from competition and sat for a while making a few appearances on the street from time to time.

With the car out of competition it gave Bally some free time which led to another project, in came the Honda build. Bally acquired a EG9 Civic shell with plans of K swapping it. A high compression K24 was built and dropped into the Civic with the intention of drag racing. After doing some private testing, he found there was a serious fight to get traction given the power coming from the K Series motor. Coming from the AWD likes of the Evo this wasn’t very becoming and Bally shelved the project pending a solution.

Being a fan of drag racing, Bally followed the advances in technology with the introduction of AWD Hondas to the sport. Paying close attention to their huge success over a short period of time, pushed him to research more about the conversions. Having accepted that the Evo would never return to competition, it didn’t take long for Bally to be sold on the idea of converting his Civic to AWD. Not having any of these conversions done locally further motivated him to take on this new challenge.

Today we’ll take a look at some shots of the Civic as Bally moved forward to prepare the chassis for the conversion. In addition to this, I’ve included a few shots of Evo mentioned above which coincidentally served as the basis for this build.

 

 

The Evo IV after receiving some much needed go fast goodies while still maintaining its period correct appearance…

When it was time for drags, the car was fitted with another set of stock wheels wrapped in used rally tyres…

A shot taken at one of B.A.D.D 1/8 mile events held at the Bushy Park Circuit…

Captured in flight…

Time slip of the fastest pass Bally was able to achieve with the built 4G64 setup before retiring the car from competition…

 

After being involved heavily in the drag racing scene and not able to compete any longer, Bally had some time on his hands and opted to take on another project to stay busy…

In the form of a EG9 Civic which was already prepped to accept the K Series motor making his job a bit easier…

Unlike the Evo project, the high compression K24 motor that was built for the Civic was to solely to compete in drag racing and wouldn’t be driven on the street…

Having put those plans on pause the car sat for some time, until Bally made a decision to push ahead with the AWD plans for the Civic…

Signs of how long the car sat were visible throughout the bay after the all motor setup was dropped…

Such a vast difference after some cleaning; the chassis also received a fresh set of Hasport Performance motor mounts…

First up on his list of things to execute was the fuel cell; being predominantly drag focused the car would no longer require the use of the larger OEM tank…

Being able to weld and fabricate, Bally came up with a design for the fuel cell and quickly began to execute…

A look at the fully welded unit complete and ready to be test fitted…

Following the drag scene as closely as he does, the tank was relocated to the front behind the bumper in order run a more efficient system…

Next on the list was to get the interior in shape, the shell sat exposed to the elements without front windows until the AWD conversion peaked his interest. It was finally time to give it some TLC and Bally began to remove the sound deadening not only to shave some weight but also to make some necessary repairs to the floor…

With the sound deadening removed it gave him the opportunity to fully access the rust damage to some of the troubled areas…

In no time Bally had the areas on the floor patched along with the tunnel to properly mount the base plate for the swap shifter…

The car will now retain a fixed bucket seat, so it was necessary to fabricate seat brackets in the optimal location…

Having completed all the necessary fabrication work on the interior, a fresh coat of black was applied to the floor…

Bucket seat fitted along with the steering column, Sparco wheel and K-Tuned billet race spec shifter bolted in place…

Bally intends on using a gutted dash skin to give the interior somewhat of a completed appearance…

Closing out this post with a shot of the Civic in the garage awaiting the next stage in development. I would like to shout out to Sunshine Photography and Regal Imagery for aiding with some of the photos for this post. Thanks for taking a look and stay tuned for more on this project coming soon…