HybridModified - Hybrid Racing

Although we’ve all seen heart-breaking
images and heard tales of severe hardship
from post-Katrina New Orleans, there
also exist some lesser-known but truly
inspirational stories of heroism that emerged
from this natural disaster. David Cordell
of Hybrid Racing is in fact one of the
unsung heroes from this difficult period in
New Orleans’ history, having put his now
immaculate ‘Imola Orange Pearl’ EK Civic
hatchback to work as a supply vehicle.
Story David Pratte
Photos Mike Maez
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CIVIC PRIDE
HYBRID RACING EK HONDA CIVIC
NEW ORLEANS,
nicknamed
“The Big Easy”
for its carefree and relaxed lifestyle, is widely
considered the most unique city in America.
From the French Quarter’s Spanish Colonial
architecture to its reputation as the birthplace
of jazz, from the world-renowned Mardi Gras
festival to its Creole cuisine, New Orleans is
a fascinating and culturally-rich destination that
draws millions of tourists every year. Sadly, what
New Orleans has been best known for over the
last 14 months isn’t its ‘Girls Gone Wild’ party
atmosphere, but rather the devastating effect
Hurricane Katrina has had on this gem of a city.
The nightmare began on August 29th, 2005,
when a Category 3 storm made landfall, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees, and flooding 80
percent of the city, forcing its 1.3 million citizens
to evacuate or seek refuge in emergency locations like the Louisiana Superdome. With billions
of dollars in damage and over 1,700 lives lost,
Katrina was the costliest hurricane in US history
as well as one of the deadliest.
Although we’ve all seen heart-breaking images
and heard tales of severe hardship from postKatrina New Orleans, there also exist some
lesser-known but truly inspirational stories of
heroism that emerged from this natural disaster.
David Cordell of Hybrid Racing is in fact one of
the unsung heroes from this difficult period in
New Orleans’ history, having put his now immaculate ‘Imola Orange Pearl’ EK Civic hatchback
to work as a supply vehicle, helping his fireman
cousin make runs outside the city to bring back
water, food and other essentials for their families
and the local fire department and police force.
Cordell’s amazing story of Civic pride began
just two weeks before Katrina hit, when he
acquired his now very special ’97 CX hatchback
from a friend who’d rear-ended a truck and
decided to sell it rather than repair it. Buying it
for a mere $1,800, Cordell immediately installed
a full 2000 EK front end with JDM fenders
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CIVIC PRIDE
HYBRID RACING EK HONDA CIVIC
Equaling their attention
to detail under the
hood and fenders, the
Hybrid Racing crew did
an extremely thorough
refresh on this super
hero Civic, replacing
the drab dark purple
OE paint with this
eye-popping shade of
NSX/JDM S2000 ‘Imola
Orange Pearl’
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CIVIC PRIDE
HYBRID RACING EK HONDA CIVIC
HYBRID RACING EK
HONDA CIVIC
DETAILS
SUSPE NSION
PIC Performance Select P3 and rear lower
control arms; Ingalls rear camber kit
WHEEL S, TIRES, BRAKE S
16x7-in ch black Rota Slipstr eams wheels ,
Nitto Neo-Ge n 205/45/16 tires,
DC2 GSR front and rear disc conver sion,
brake booste r and master cylinde r; Power
Slot slotted rotors, Goodri dge braided
stainle ss brake lines
EXTERIOR
’06 NSX/JDM S2000 ‘Imola Orange Pearl’
paint, PasswordJDM cooling plate, front FRP
lip, and license plate offset bracket; 2000 EK
front end conversion and tail lights; EK Civic
Type R headlights, grill, rear lip, rear wing,
side marker s and thin side moldings; JDM
illuminated license plate, new OE windshield,
quarter glass, cowl, inner fender liners,
moldings and weather stripping
INTERIOR
Racetech RT1000 Race Bucket s and custom
Green 5-point harnesses; Evil Auto Style
Remote series gauges, EM Racing triangulated rear chassis bars, Karcepts shifter
relocation kit, Buddy Club shift knob, EDM
EK4 orange gauge cluster, Black fuel pump
cover, new OE grey carpet and floor mats
and corner lights to make the car presentable.
His plans to turn this clean little EK9 into his
dream car and a showcase of Hybrid Racing’s Kseries conversion parts was suddenly halted by
the arrival of Katrina. Waiting out the storm at his
family house, when the winds finally stopped and
the rain died down Cordell and his step-father
grabbed chainsaws and started to cut their way
down the street, which like much of the region
had been blanketed by fallen trees. “We came
up to a bunch of trees that had fallen together
in the middle of a major highway and we started
to cut and drag the trees off the road with our
truck, and the fire department was on the other
side doing the same – we met in the middle
a few hours later.”
His house being spared any major storm
damage and his loved ones eventually accounted for, Cordell went to work in support of the
Army Corps of Engineers, inspecting homes
in the worst-hit areas of the city. “I remember
one day in Slidell, very close to where the storm
made landfall, there was a home in a very nice
lakefront neighborhood where the front staircase
had been washed away and there was no way to
get to the front door (since it was 12-15 feet off
the ground), so I grabbed a ladder and climbed
up the side. I got onto the porch and looked in
through a window and saw nothing but black
walls and flooring from water damage. I looked
up and about 5-inches from the ceiling the black
stopped. The waterline reached 8-feet up the
walls inside a house that was nearly 15-feet
above ground level to begin with – that goes to
show you how high the water got in this area.”
Cordell’s family home was used to house as many
as 10 friends and family members who’d lost their
homes to the storm. After the military cleared the
main roads, Cordell began to use his Honda to help
deliver much needed food and water to the overworked and exhausted Fire and Police forces who
were attempting to restore order to the decimated
city. “We was making daily runs to Baton Rouge and
Laffayette to bring back Gatorade and other items
like cigarettes, candy bars – things the government
wouldn’t supply but we knew the fire and police
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CIVIC PRIDE
HYBRID RACING EK HONDA CIVIC
Having officially
opened their doors
for business in
November ’03,
the Hybrid Racing
crew got their start
working out
of a rented
storage unit.
departments needed and would really appreciate.”
Having done more than his fair share to
improve the lives of those around him during
the aftermath of Katrina, Cordell was eventually able to return to work at Hybrid Racing,
where he, owners William Davidson and Parker
Ruffing, and the rest of the Hybrid Racing team
build full-billet K-series engine swap mount kits,
OE quality wiring conversion harnesses, and all
sorts of other K-series related goodies required
when transplanting this latest and greatest of
Honda 4-cylinder engines into EF, EG, EK Civics
and DC2 Integras. Having officially opened their
doors for business in November ’03, the Hybrid
Racing crew got their start working out of a rented
storage unit. Wanting to take their passion for
Honda to the next level, they came up with the
idea of building K-swap parts. Having learned
the fine art of CNC machining with the mentoring
of a local machinist, they began producing their
own K-series engine mounts as well as building
their own conversion wiring harnesses. But what
really helped Hybrid Racing establish themselves as one of the elite K-swap sources, other
than the K-series groundbreaking work done
by companies like Hondata and Skunk2 that
helped establish this engine as the hot ticket, is
their utter devotion to customer service and tech
support. As owner William Davidson stated, “Our
main goal is to make sure everyone gets their
swaps done. By giving our customers phone tech
support for literally any problems they might be
having with their swap, even when they’re using
parts from other companies, we feel like by helping others we’re also helping grow our industry
and our company.”
Now well established as K-swap gurus, Hybrid
Racing has expanded to become a vendor for
a select group of performance parts manufacturers, many of which are featured on Cordell’s
spotless EK. Starting off with a media-blasted
’03 K20A2 for that showroom new look, the
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MODIFIED MAGAZINE 53
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CIVIC PRIDE
HYBRID RACING EK HONDA CIVIC
Hybrid team installed a full Skunk2 valvetrain
upgrade including Stage 2 cams, valve springs
and titanium retainers before hanging it in the
Civic’s engine bay with a set of their polished
aluminum engine mounts. Allowing the EK dash
wiring and gauge cluster to communicate perfectly with the K20 is a Hybrid Racing conversion
harness, using brand new OE connectors. Other
custom bits required for this swap include fuel
lines, clutch line, and a radiator hose insert for
the water temp sending unit, all items Hybrid
makes in-house. Where things get particularly
tricky under the hood is with the Clockwise
Motion rollerbody individual throttle bodies,
a design straight out of F1 technology that requires
a custom fuel rail, modified water pump housing, alternator relocation bracket, and throttle
cable adapter. But since Clockwise Motion has
experience swapping K20’s into all sorts of different cars including the Lotus Elise, the ITB’s
Hybrid installed came with all the required parts
to make it a bolt-on installation. Completing
the underhood adventure in customization is
a Karcept radiator bracket, Aeromotive adjustable
FPR, Walbro 255lph fuel pump, and a ridiculously sexy custom 4-2-1 race header breathing out
through a Buddy Club Spec II cat-back exhaust,
both equally fine pieces of tubular artistry that
perfectly complement the ITB setup.
Tuning an engine with ITB’s is never easy,
especially ones with aggressive cams and other
custom goodies, but Jason at ‘Stoopid Fast’ in
Houston, Texas was up to the challenge, taming
this wild beast via a Hondata K-Pro. After a 6hour session an SAE corrected 232whp and
154wtq was massaged from this complex
setup, numbers that may not impress some of
the Web forum warriors out there but in the real
world on a Dynojet these results are extremely
solid. When you factor in the near instantaneous
throttle response of ITB’s, not to mention the
20whp they gained over the stock Type S manifold and the super cool induction sound they
make, Cordell’s EK is has serious go-fast potential. For evidence of just how badass this engine
build really is, check out the video clip of this
K20 monster on Hybrid Racing’s new website at
www.hybrid-racing.com.
Transmitting this kind of all-motor power to
the ground is never easy, particularly in light
of the “snap your neck back” throttle response
this prime time K20 EK has at its disposal.
Providing the necessary torque transfer is
a Competition Stage 4 street/strip clutch, along
with a DC5 Type R flywheel for a little reduction
of rotating mass. From there power is delivered
Where things get particularly
tricky under the hood is
with the Clockwise Motion
rollerbody individual throttle
bodies, a design straight out
of F1 technology.
to the black Rota Slipstreams wheels and Nitto
Neo-Gen 205/45R16 tires via a pair of Hybrid
Racing Stage 2 driveshafts, custom-built by
The Driveshaft Shop for the perfect length and
axle angles.
Allowing this Big Easy bad boy of a Civic to
avoid rocketing into the tail end of any slower
moving objects, things like Corvettes or Mustangs, Cordell was clever enough to install
a full DC2 GS-R brake conversion, including the
brake booster and master cylinder, along with
PowerSlot slotted rotors and Goodridge braided
stainless brake lines. When avoidance maneuvers are required to dodge Porsches and BMW’s
blocking his forward progress, Cordell has the
handling department well sorted out too, having
equipped his EK with PIC Performance Select
P3 coilovers and billet rear lower control arms,
along with Ingalls rear camber kits to maximize
54 MODIFIED MAGAZINE
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CIVIC PRIDE
HYBRID RACING EK HONDA CIVIC
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®
As seen on
© 2006 BASF Corporation
048-057 F-Covercar 55
MODIFIED MAGAZINE 55
9/6/06 4:29:58 PM
HYBRID RACICNG EK
HONDA CIVI
SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE
K20A2 (‘03 Acura RSX Type S)
ENGINE MODIF ICATIONS
2.0 -liter 4-cylinder DOHC iVTE
ENGINE MANAGEMENT
C
conversion wiring harness,
Hybrid Racing engine mount kit,
radiator hose insert; Skunk2
Stage 2 axles, fuel line kit, and
e springs and retainer s, and
Stage 2 camshafts, titanium valv
cept radiator bracket, custom
adjustable exhaust cam gear; Kar
, Walbro 255lph fuel pump,
fuel rail, Aeromotive A1000 FPR
Clockwise Motion rollerbody
Hondata intake manifold gasket,
sing, alternator relocation
ITBs, modified water pump hou
ITG Mega flow sausage filter,
kit and throttle cable adapter;
dy Club Spec II cat-back
custom R*Crew race header, Bud
ar spark plug cover, Vision oil
exhaust, Yellow valve cover, kevl
catch can, Spal elec tric fan.
the Nitto’s grip.
il under the
Equaling their attention to deta
rid Racing
Hyb
the
and
ell
Cord
hood and fenders,
on this
sh
refre
h
oug
thor
ly
eme
extr
crew did an
purple
dark
super hero Civic, replacing the drab
NSX/
of
de
sha
ping
OE paint with this eye-pop
this
bine
Com
rl’.
Pea
nge
Ora
JDM S2000 ‘Imola
e menafor
the
lip,
t
fron
M
rdJD
swo
with the Pas
ion, CTR headtioned ’00 EK front end convers
side moldings,
thin
,
lights, grill, side markers
a recipe for
got
ve
you’
and
rear lip and spoiler
hback. With new
a seriously clean and mean hatc
rs, molding and
OE glass, cowl, inner fender line
illuminated
JDM
a
as
weather stripping as well
h enough
fres
s
look
c
Civi
ell’s
license plate, Cord
y line.
mbl
asse
ka
Osa
the
off
d
rolle
to have just
EK is
cial’
Spe
The interior of Cordell’s ‘Katrina
mats
r
floo
and
et
carp
just as fresh, with new OE
But
ll.
sme
car
new
that
for
d
having been installe
ts having
sea
k
stoc
the
e,
ther
s
end
e
the OE them
h RT1000 racing
been ditched in favor of Racetec
that builds the
y
pan
buckets, the same com
petition Coupe.
Com
r
Vipe
ge
seats for the Dod
passenger of
Holding Cordell and the terrified
Hondata K-Pro ECU
ION
DRIVETRAIN & TRANSMISS
line, Competition
Hybrid Racing conversion clutch
A Type R flywheel
Stage 4 street/strip clutch, K20
NUMBERS
232whp
0pid Fast)
154wtq (tuned by Jason @ St0
SPONSORS
, Evil Auto Style,
Hybrid Racing, Racetech, Skunk2
Drive Shaft Shop,
Pas swordJDM, St00pid Fast, The
JDMuniverse.com
etech custom
his choice down are a pair of Rac
s that’ll serve
ition
add
s,
esse
green 5-point harn
Attack at Virginia
him well during the GTLive Time
profile Evil Auto
International Raceway. The low
ted gauges will
oun
h-m
Style ‘remote series’ das
or at the track,
et
stre
the
on
be equally valuable
acklit data on
providing the driver with orange-b
plements the
engine vital signs that perfectly com
Other raceter.
clus
ge
orange EDM EK4 main gau
dy Club
Bud
the
de
inclu
s
mod
oriented cockpit
ks to
than
ition
pos
OE
the
in
ted
loca
shif t knob,
o
Mom
a
and
kit,
the Karcepts shif ter relocation
gothe
ing
plet
Com
el.
Competition steering whe
ing triangulatfast interior upgrades is an EM Rac
rear hatch area
ed chassis bar set, stiffening the
minimized.
is
such that suspension deflection
Racing has
rid
Hyb
of
ell
In the end, David Cord
a showjust
than
e
mor
is
that
c
built himself a Civi
orm
or perf ance
case of engine swap ingenuity
paint job and
sexy
parts tuning, more than just a
determinaless
self
his
F1-style ITB’s. Through
hardship
and
os
cha
the
ng
duri
tion to do good
ted a
crea
he’s
brought on by Hurricane Katrina,
ss
acro
and
ans
Hybrid Hero ever yone in New Orle
owner Cordell
the nation can be proud of. As
, but my Civic
this
stated, “Not many people know
I got to help
that
fact
the
is very special to me for
n the madwhe
on
d
relie
e
yon
the people that ever
for ever yone,
ness was at its peak. It was hard
and police.
ents
even more so for the fire departm
we could.”
as
h
muc
as
We tried to help those guys
bol on the
sym
an
erm
Sup
a
have
This EK may not
when danger
hood or a “Spidey sense” to tell
impeccably
this
at
lurks nearby, but just looking
wing all
kno
and
ck
hba
built K20-powered hatc
us with
fills
ish
mpl
acco
ed
help
it
the good deeds
a huge sense of Civic Pride.
SPECIAL THANKS
Will, Parker and Laura at Hybrid
Racing, my girlfriend Hannah,
in,
my parents, my friends Kyle, Just
,
LLC
ails
Det
The
’
atin
Shwan @ Swe
n
isio
coll
the
at
d
Cha
&
Shwan
center and to everyone else that
helped me along the way!
56 MODIFIED MAGAZINE
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