Civic Duty: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Popular Sport Compact Car - the Honda Civic

Civic Duty covers every aspect of Honda Civic modification from the mechanical to the artistic with chapters on: -Suspension modifications for street, strip, or track-springs, shocks, bushings, anti-roll bars, strut tower bars, wheels and tires. -Bolt-on performance-air induction systems, cam timing and overdrive pulleys, headers, exhaust systems, ignition, and ECU technology. -Hard core engine modification-complete engine swap information that tells you which are the best and easiest swaps and which are the ones to avoid, pistons, head work, cams, engine building tricks, supercharging vs. turbocharging, and nitrous. -Exterior/ interior styling - exterior styling components (including rear deck wings), a chapter on exterior graphics and interior design-seats, door panels, gauges, and cages. -Performance driving-road racing and autocross, drag racing, and driving schools.

Written by Alan Paradise, the import performance pioneer and creator and original editor of Sport Compact Car magazine, Civic Duty gives you all the answers! In addition to providing the specs and costs involved in building the ultimate sport compact, Alan lays out his unique "build by subtraction" method of intelligently deciding how to select and build the right Honda for you-the one that will give you the most satisfaction with the least amount of pain to your bank account.

Not as specific as i had been expecting after reading the other reviews. Tuning the engine is covered in just one small chapter.

If you're really into engine tuning, take a look at Honda/Acura engine Performance from Mike Kojima. That is a really good book.


good startup book for those with a honda and an itch to mod   December 28, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

book focuses mostly on basic suspension theory and NA performance, as well as a quick glance at on how to mod your car visualy

this book is NOT a step by step guide.

expect to walk away learned alot but still no concrete answers.

Biased towards well known car manufactures, hardly refers to a "junkyard approach". Sure titanium eagle rods would be a good upgrade, but used LS rods would be just as good.

good book for those that have NO CLUE, but if you have spent a good year or so hanging out in car forums then this might not be for you.


Pretty good actually   October 22, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This book would help you to get to know your honda civic engine even more. Good book for beginners. It would tell you which mods are worth buying or not and what kind of power to expect. It tells you what kind of HP gains you can expect from your engine when modified from "don't even bother" to "mild" to the "best". The only thing I think it didn't cover is the auto tranny which some has... it mostly concentrated on the D16Z6 SOHC and B16A DOHC Si engines and manual tranny. All in all get this book if you wanna learn more about civics and it would help you get on the right track.


Great for beginners   August 7, 2001
 15 out of 16 found this review helpful

This book is excellent if you are just starting out with a Civic/CRX. The author suggests the smart ways to go about upgrading your car, not just sinking money into parts you won't need later. He covers every major topic, from bolt-on performance to interior and exterior styling, and is thankfully not biased either way.

The author does make a few comments which are 100% false, for instance, about limited slip differentials which he says "are not available as an aftermarket performance product, therefore your only option is to locate a factory unit..." WRONG, Quaife has been making LSD's for Civics for years. This is just one example of the author making off the wall statements even novices know are false.

He is also extremely biased towards the B18 series of engines, giving the workhorse B16A (which is much more suited to Civic/CRX's) a passing mention. Even the H22 prelude motor, which is totally unsuitable for Civics unless you want a drag-only car, gets more mention than the B16A.

For beginners, this book is great. It's a good introduction to the Honda world, and presents logical, money saving methods and advice for modifying your Honda. Don't take everything written as 100% gospel though.