Jon Walsh Featured in Superstreet

1996 Honda Civic DX – Most Wanted
How Jonathan Walsh Went From Honda-Hater To Honda-Lover
By Sean Klingelhoefer
Photography by Wes Allison

Stubbornness can be a difficult trait to overcome. For Jonathan Walsh overcoming this would be life changing. His obsession with cars began with his first build, a 1994 Mazda MX3 that was featured in Import Tuner and was also an extra in the movie 2 Fast, 2 Furious. The main problem Walsh realized at the time was that the vehicle was completely unreliable. “I had turbo’d the Mazda and that led to many driveability problems,” he admits.

While considering other cars he only had one rule, absolutely no Hondas. Jonathan explains “I hated Honda’s just because they were everywhere at the time and I was hardheaded and did not want to give them a chance.” Fortunately for Jonathan, his girlfriend held no prejudice towards the brand and ended up purchasing a ’00 Civic EX herself. When Jonathan’s car was down he would ride in the Civic and slowly came to his senses. Seeing as how his girlfriend was doing nearly all the driving he points out “that’s when I realized these Honda’s are really reliable cars.”

Eventually he would purchase a Civic of his own, the one you see today, but at the time it was a very different car. “I bought it for $5,000,” Walsh tells me, “It was red, with an automatic singlecam, and had a Buddy Club kit molded on.” Needless to say, to start with a car like that and end up with the vehicle he has today is not only an accomplishment… it’s a miracle! While most people would completely avoid this type of project, Jonathan got hands-on with his creation.

The inspiration for the redesign would come from a close friend. Never having been in a DOHC VTEC-powered vehicle and a previous Honda-hater, Walsh had no idea what he had been missing. “I went with a friend to Orlando to look at a car for him,” he elaborates, “It was a DC2 Integra with a JDM front and a Type R motor. When we test drove it, I fell in love with VTEC.” After one drive Jonathan managed to contract the all-addicting Honda drug and knew what he had to do with his Civic. “It was intense, I had to have a Type R motor.”

Up until this time Walsh was still holding on to the few scraps of his automotive prejudice. After the VTEC experience, the last pieces hanging on by a thread were completely removed from his mind. He had remained the owner of the aforementioned Mazda because he wasn’t quite sure of Honda’s performance capabilities prior to the test drive. As soon as possible, he listed the MX3 for sale. “I sold it for $10,000 and bought a B18C Type R.”

After making a fire-sale on the Mazda, and collecting all the parts for his must-have swap, something occurred to Jonathan. He didn’t know how in the hell to do an engine swap. So like any hardcore enthusiast he did what he had to do… he paid someone to swap it. Only kidding, Walsh would never even consider the option of the easy way out. “I did a lot of research,” he explains, “I ended up installing the motor and manual transmission in my garage with no power tools. I also had to rewire the harness. That was not so much fun but I learned a lot about Hondas.”

And thus the passion was ignited, as it is for many fellow Honda builders after completing their first swap. Fortunately for Jonathan his newly-found passion would turn into newly-found luck as he would soon lose his job. “A couple of months [after I did the swap] I got laid off. And with the LITTLE knowledge I had about Honda, I got a job at the local Honda dealership [and] I am still currently employed [there] as a tech.” With the passion turning into a career, Jonathan was now around Hondas five days a week. Gaining experience and knowledge at his new job, Walsh started plotting his next moves in the build of his hatchback.

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