Sedate-Looking 1996 Honda Civic Sedan Packs A Silvia Turbo Engine And RWD Secret

Sedate-Looking 1996 Honda Civic Sedan Packs A Silvia Turbo Engine And RWD Secret

Many Honda purists look at the sixth-generation Civic as a car that needs basically nothing to be a great daily driver. One owner in New Zealand decided that he needed a couple of features that Honda never offered; a turbocharged engine, and – wait for it, rear-wheel drive.

Those two modifications are among the most desirable for such a small and spunky little car. While building the Civic as a RWD car would’ve been prohibitively expensive, it’s fun to dream about just how fast it would’ve been in that form. Now that this one is up for sale, someone can drive this Civic out of their dreams and into their driveway.

Listed for just $6,000 in New Zealand dollars or about $3,751 in American, this Civic features the well-regarded Nissan SR20DET four-cylinder turbocharged engine under the hood. The owner created a custom tunnel to house the driveshaft and then installed Nissan Silvia cross members to support the modification on both ends of the Civic.

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In fact, much of the build is shown off over on nzhondas.com. This particular car has had one wild story from the days when it was still Honda-powered until today. For the prospective buyer, it’ll be nice to have the ability to see the build as it came together.

From what we can clearly see in the ad, there’s quite a lot of work to complete on the interior of the car before it’s daily-driver ready. The center console is devoid of any sort of sound system and the steering wheel could use a replacement or at least a touch-up.

The seller notes that the engine needs tuning as well. Most likely it’ll end up needing a standalone ECU before someone can really get the most out of the platform. Once those things are done it’ll make for one epic little car.

The exterior looks relatively clean and the rest of the interior is still in good shape as well. For the money they’re asking I think a lot of us would be willing to spring for this Civic. The used car market is pretty wild over here and this would certainly be a unique means of conveyance.

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