Earlier this year, Honda Performance Development announced that it would offer up the awesome Civic Type R’s 2.0-liter turbo-four as a crate engine, not just to certified race teams but to the general public. To drum up hype and show people what could be done with these off-the-shelf motors, HPD handed three of them to tuners for a trio of special builds. One of these happened to be California wheelmaker Fifteen52, a company that’s celebrating its 25th anniversary. And because these guys clearly have great taste, they decided to plop Honda’s hot hatch engine into a 1996 Accord Wagon. (Because 1996 was 25 years ago, get it?)
Of course, Fifteen52 didn’t choose this particular car because it happened to be the only 25-year-old Honda lying around. Instead, the team chose this generation of Accord because it was a bit of a legend in Japanese Touring Car Championship racing, taking home titles in both 1996 and 1997.
The Civic Type R makes 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque, which is quite a bit more than the 130 horses and 139 pound-feet this wagon made from the factory.
Mountune USA, an official dealer of the Type R crate engine, will be taking care of most of the actual engineering and engine integration. According to MotorTrend, the Type R motor is being held in place by Hasport engine mounts and the car will feature a full roll cage. Of course, wheels are being supplied by Fifteen52 itself—Rally White Podiums wearing Toyo Proxes RR radials, to be specific. Hiding not-so-subtly behind said wheels are bigger-disced, red-calipered Brembo brakes.
As for the other two commissioned builds, one of the motors Honda handed out will be installed in a CRX while the final is going in an S2000. CRX, S2000, ’96 Accord Wagon—a supremely solid Honda fanboy’s garage if we ever saw one.
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