She Is Happy, Too - After a long journey, my CR-X SiR is finally home..

After the CR-X was off the truck and safely in a parking stall, we went over every square inch of her. We tested the power windows, the climate controls, and the CD player. We played with buttons, checked the signals, I even looked at the brakes through the wheels to make sure I was comfortable with how much brake pad I could see before I took her on her maiden voyage back to my house. The owner of the shop, Paul, even gave me two replica Mugen emblems for the side skirts.


There were some oddities that came with the car as well... We found about four "JDM cigarettes" in the door pocket, which we smoked. We found kitchen sponges and a floor mat in the trunk; a keychain, and some spark plugs in the glove box, a cellphone screen cleaning pad, and there were two pieces of rubber wedged between the rear interior side linings, and the ¼ window trim.


My car’s previous owner was an odd one indeed. There were some inconsistencies with this car that to this day I cannot explain. Why some of the best name-brand upgrades were installed on the car (APEXi, Spoon, Spats, SPAC) but yet the interior was not showing signs of the same love and attention to detail. There were nicotine stains from smoking in it, no spare tire, broken heater control, and someone "hacked" the side linings with what I can only imagine was a dull steak-knife to install the rear Spoon bar instead of trimming it nicely.

After almost an hour of combing over the car, we decided to call it a day and bring her home. I was a little excited and a little nervous all at the same time. This was my first time driving a CRX in a long time, and my first run out with a right-hand drive.

Heather got in the passenger’s seat (a weird feeling, having her on my left while I'm driving), and we were ready to roll. Slowly, I pulled onto the street and we were off... A few seconds later I hear a little voice, kinda scared saying: “Honey, you’re in the middle of the road.”

That was something I hadn’t expected; getting used to the center line of the road being farther away than just to my immediate left. I pulled a little closer to the curb and proceeded to make my left turn from the side street onto the main street (and into traffic with other cars!). The wipers suddenly came on… Now, this was something I had prepared myself for. I bought a JDM wiper switch to use in Project 88, so I knew the switches were reversed, but in real life when everything is happening all around, you just don’t think about the wiper switch being on the left side of the column versus the right. You don’t realize how much of your driving is based on instinct and habit until you’re forced to change it. I banged my hand only a couple times on the door panel while attemping to reach the shift-knob but otherwise the drive home was fairly uneventful. I got some odd looks and even a couple double-takes.

I was even got to open her up a little bit on a deserted stretch of highway, and it felt good...


When I got her home, I felt like a new father; there were people calling, emailing, and folks started stopping by. Hell, I’m surprised no one showed up with ‘It’s a Girl’ cigars with them (hmm, maybe that’s what the JDM cigarettes were for). The Japanese family from next door even came by to see a little taste of home.

My friend Tsuyoshi from Japan mentioned to me during an IM conversation shortly after my CR-X arrived, that he thinks ‘she is happy too’. I asked him what he meant  by that and he said, ‘if she is still in Japan, she is not going to get any spot lights’.

I guess that’s true... If she had stayed in Japan, she may have ended up at a salvage yard. And we may have been seeing pieces of her on eBay by now.

One of my good friends once asked me why I didn’t save my money and just buy an SiR to begin with rather than collect parts for my North American only to end up buying an SiR anyway... I thought about that a lot and I’m happy with my decision(s), not that I could change them now anyways. If I had it to do all over again, I’d still do it the exact same way. I know some people will just look at my car think "Bought not built" but that's not the way I see it. I paid my dues, and I've earned my stripes. I've learned so much more by doing things the way I have, that in a lot of ways, I feel I have built this car. I've torn it down and built it back up in my head millions of times. I've gathered over 60GB worth of information, tens of thousands of dollars worth of parts and years worth of research. This EF8 didn’t just fall into my lap; I didn’t just wake up one morning and there was an SiR in my driveway. Buying my first CRX literally changed my life and these past 17 years were a learning experience, a journey; and one I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.