1998 HONDA ACCORD (CF6)
Name: Luke Collis Location: Waikato Occupation: Christian communicator
NZPC: Hi, Luke. Do you have much of a history with cars and modifying them?
Luke: Yes. It’s crazy to think how many cars I’ve owned over the years — easily over 60 by now. When I was younger, people tried to tell me that it was impossible to make money on cars; I’ve proved them wrong. Going through so many has also meant that I’ve had the opportunity to own and drive a bunch of really fun cars, including a couple of Turbo DA and DC2 Integras, a ’95-spec Integra Type R, B18Cpowered Civics, WRXs, a Subaru Forester converted into a ute, and a few Toyota Seras — they’re pretty cool, with factory gull-wing doors. I’m also currently building an H23A EG Civic.
Nice. How did you come up with the idea to do the Euro R conversion on this Accord wagon?
My wife and I purchased the car, as they make a great family runaround, but, after owning it for a couple of years, the transmission ended up blowing. I thought instead of spending $1500 to rebuild the transmission, why not just buy a crashed manual Euro R and convert it all over? The Accord never offered a manual option from factory. I picked up a crashed Euro R for a little less than the price of a transmission rebuild, and the rest is history.
Was it a hard swap, and were there any setbacks?
Most of it was interchangeable. For the first part of the build, I had no garage, so I had no choice but to work on the back lawn, which wasn’t ideal.
It’s a bona fide sleeper. What’s the response been like from other Honda owners?
Some who are new to the game have tried to tell me that it [must have] come out of the factory like it is [laughs]. Others have to second-guess their memory to see if Honda did come out with a Euro R wagon. The build generated a lot of interest from the Honda community, and the build thread on NZHondas was followed by many. People posted saying that they [had] had the same idea in the past, but no one had actually followed through.
We’re not surprised by the confusion, it’s very well done. Do you have plans for it in the future?
It’s been a lot of fun and a real learning curve, but I’m looking to sell it and move on to another project. Hopefully, the new owner upgrades the exhaust system to something a little quieter and low key, to really bring out the sleeper feel — maybe go for the factory Euro R system.
Thanks for sharing it with us, Luke.