Achieving The Inconceivable

HOW THE WORLD’S FIRST TYPE R–SWAPPED 10TH-GEN HONDA CIVIC COUPE WAS BORN

- Micah Wright

“Profound belief in something allows every individual to find an immense inner force, and to overcome his or her failings.” – Soichiro Honda

Like millions of other babies born each year, the world’s first K20C1- swapped 10th-generation Civic Coupe was conceived by accident. Despite being a senior engineer at Honda R&D, Kevin Boehm had to wait in line just like the rest of us for his chance to get the new Civic Type R. Eight months ahead of the FK8 Type R’s release, Kevin learned picking up his own Type R hatchback would be problematic, and parts were looking like they would be extremely difficult to source. So, Kevin conducted a lengthy round of research, drafted up a proposal, and presented it to Honda Racing and Honda Performance Development (HPD). With a green light from the higher-ups, a one-off grassroots race car based on the Civic Si coupe and powered by the heart of the new Type R suddenly didn’t seem so inconceivable, or so one might think.

To make sure Kevin’s new project was going to be born on time, he was going to have to make the magic happen after work and on the weekends. After studying every conceivable difference between the Civic Si Coupe and the new Type R, he secured a shell and shipped it over to a preferred Honda fabricator. Kevin then located a ’17 Civic Si donor, which, within a week, was picked clean of its core components.