Can You Really Have Both?

By Gavin Dowse

Michael Corcoran Photography (Facebook)

This has been a massive debate in car culture between purists and radicals. That such debate is the idea of form and function, whether you can have your oil pan scraping, 400whp //M3. This debate stands with my close and personal friend Tom Carrigan with his 2013 Honda Civic Si. Living in Upstate New York there are practicality needs, especially when you get hit with 2ft of snow in just two weeks. It’s a near perfect little daily driver that mixes a ton of form and function; four doors more whores.

Tom and I started our friendship ten some odd years ago. He skateboarded and I did the same so naturally we became friends. He later went off and started taking baseball much more seriously and is currently playing in college. Never saw a whole lot of him in school because of baseball after that. Out of the blue in high school Tom hit me up with a photo of the car he was looking at buying, a 2002 Audi A4. That silver B6 was it, the end all, be all of cool.

Tom spent his delivery boy money on what most teenage boys spend their money on, car parts. I remember his interior had some blue LED lighting, tinted tail lights, subwoofers, radar detector, wheels etc. Truth be told he had the coolest car in high school, some kids had mommies Infiniti or whatever but Toms car was so clean and all his own. 

The end of high school is kind of an end to an era in everyone's life, you move on and you get another start. I got rid of my beloved Honda Pilot and Tom got rid of his Audi. Neither car was dapper, the illest or hella flush but you have a hard time letting go of your first car, it’s like your child has gone off into the hands of someone else. This must be what its like giving your daughter away at her wedding. Tom to this day still talks so highly of his first car but he was in business of something faster and sportier. He shelled out money from selling his Audi for a down payment on what lays before you.

He had not told me what exactly what he had up his sleeve, but this Si was not what I expected. He went from all wheel drive and a dreaded slush-box automatic to front wheel peels and i-VTEC. The first time Tom let me drive it he mentioned he wasn't going to touch it, just drive it; what a crock of shit that was. The new daily has already gone through a few personal touches like the red emblems, amber fogs and tint to start.

Being a boy of American Iron and European styling, Hondas already did not sit well with me. There was only one redeeming factor of this Honda in particular and that is a 8000k rpm rev limiter. I remember driving it for the first time and getting the green light to run through those gears. The 2.4l screamed its brains out at 8000rpms making my pants fit much tighter. It was all of the metal meshing and variable valve timing that mixed into a symphony that Bach would have been jealous of.

The pure essence of this Honda is such that the gear box and motor are soul mates like PB&J. I used to make fun of i-VTEC because I always thought it was whack like Guy Fieri’s frosted tips, but this is a lot of fun. 

Toms futures plans are to keep this car such that of a OEM+ look. A static drop this summer is in order, maybe some new wheels and just to drive it. The plans are to have the fenders hug rubber but with ferocious winters in NY like this year shall determine how low he will go. He's mentioned wanting to more actively attend meets and balances his paychecks between the car, girlfriend and the Racino. He has talked about finding a beater to keep the mileage off the civic being that he has wracked up 18k miles in 6 months. Talks in the work of another Audi or Integra shell, but I can’t imagine why you wouldn't want to beat this car like it owed you money.

Upstate Fitment - Intro.

By Gavin Dowse


My name is Gavin and I’m currently living in Upstate New York outside of Albany. I’m just some punk kid that that has a passion in automobiles and driving way too fast. When I was a little kid my father had a 92’ GMC Sierra with a 5 speed that changed my whole life. Fast forward to 2001 when the Fast & Furious movie came out I've followed the car community with some close friends ever since. I’m currently attending school full time working part time to feed my addiction.  I’ve been through a few cars and love spending time and money on them. All of my close friends and family have ties to the car community which we all feed off one another for ideas. From drift missile 240's to lifted TJ's and everything in between.

I spent my entire senior summer between work flow cash and graduation money desperately trying to acquire a project car. I was originally going to lift my Tahoe and wheel it, but i wanted something more practical too. I went from EK civics, 240sx, e30s, older fox's and so on. I really wanted a  BMW because of the RWD and the scene points. I did find a slew of POS neglected E34s, E28s and a couple E36s. My dreams were performance with luxury like an original Euro Spec //M5 but without real money it just was not feasible.

A few years earlier I found my first set of Stance Works articles, and Mike's famous E28 was my obsession. I was some freshman loser drooling over this 25+ year old car, surrounded by Lamborghini and Ferrari addicts of my generation, not even the cool ones like the F40 or Countach for gods sake. Finally getting my long awaited license without real money for performance, low&slow became the name of the game. Now before every JDM fanatic, elitist Eurotrash, and V8 F-Body owner comes at me bro, I’ve come to accept the fact at 18 and in college I cannot afford an unreliable race car, it is simply not practical. I decided to take the less expensive route and I found myself behind the wheel of a B5.5 Passat test driving it. Instantly fell in love but my mother was not helping me buying another car that was going to nickel and dime me like my truck was. So the next day my mother and I went to a dealer and she closed the deal on what lays before you, a sort of negotiation for my safety and well being. She is by no means anything special, unique or “Break Neck” status. Hell she's all but a wildly stock and unmodified plain as day B7 VW Passat.

Now you  can say what you want but I love every bit about this car. You can say I'm sponsored in part with the help of my parents, whatever. I'm not spoiled and work off whatever it is that I have, but I'm grateful and not hiding anything. Especially living in a town where kids are handed Audi's, Merc's and BMW's like candy. I’m about as open as ever on peoples perspective or opinions with regard to their car, I’m not here to openly bash or would want anyone else too. I want the scene to be as forgiving and open as most people are quick to hate when peoples builds cannot reflect everyone's opinions and that sucks. I’ve been through Honda's to American small block 350s and now on Eurotrash. So I’m here for the long haul at this point.

 

 My close friend Michael took time out of his weekend to help shoot these, and hopefully the rest of the photos for this blog, because well, I couldn't keep a photo in focus if I wanted. Thanks Mike. Check this fool out on facebook - Michael Corcoran Photography.

My close friend has also been through a 2002 Audi A4 and 2013 Honda Civic Si. His feature will be relatively soon weather permitting, hes got a good looking SI, with a twist. We were always about that 10 second supra chase and danger to manifold. I don't think we'd ever change that. (@t_carrigan13)

Thank you for reading. Stay tuned everyone for features and hopefully meet ups, I really want my car within the year to be lower and help anyone’s car that’s not getting the recognition they deserve.