Cars, to many, are a mere means of transport, and a bad one at that. A polluting, traffic-causing, nature-destroying way of getting around. With all the congestion, the smog, and the climate change, it seems that cars are nothing but a necessary evil. And to love cars is to love evil itself.

But you and I know that cars are never just cars. We fall in love with cars because they live and breathe. They have personality. They’re our sidekicks, companions, friends. Cars are vessels by which we create and keep memories. Cars captivate us, amaze us, and free us. We express ourselves through these mechanical marvels of speed, power, and noise.

Here in this new series called Tuned, we aim to celebrate the passion that surrounds cars by diving headfirst into the rich world of modified cars and exploring car culture—featuring iconic, interesting, and special vehicles that live in and around the streets of the Philippines.

To kick things off, we could not think of anything more appropriate than this Honda Civic Type R (FK8). The Filipino people’s love affair with Honda’s iconic four-door sedan stretches as far back as the 1990s. It has been the sensible man’s affordable pocket rocket ever since, and the recipe was always very simple: a high-revving, relatively high-performing in-line four in a dynamic, fun-to-drive chassis.

From there, the abundance of aftermarket parts and the rows of Japanese surplus shops along Banawe made it easy to make the Civic go even faster and look even better. And the Type R has always stood as the king of the hill. It’s the one every Civic driver dreams of owning—the one they make their cars look like.

The brief for this particular FK8 build was to create a simple, perfectly street-able car with a bit more spice than stock. And the exterior modifications reflect that.

It rides on the stock height and the stock adaptive dampers with the only change being a set of 19-inch by 9-inch Advan GTs finished in Racing White wrapped in grippy Bridgestone RE71s.

The rest of the exterior is untouched so as not to further complicate the already busy aesthetic of the FK8.

The inside is the same story, too. A chunkier Buddy Club steering wheel retains all the functionalities of the original steering wheel while providing a more satisfying grip.

The stock aluminum shift knob had a habit of melting your right hand off after an hour of being parked out in the sun, so it was replaced with a Honda Access shift knob with a leather insert that’s safe to hold onto no matter the weather.

Then we get to the exciting bit: power mods. Back in the day, Honda’s naturally aspirated K20As from older Type R models needed a lot of work to make more power. Aside from an intake and an exhaust, you had to build the top end with cams and valves, build the bottom end with forged pistons and rods, or switch the block out altogether for a K24. With the K20C, though, turbocharging has changed the name of the game.

Starting with the basics, a ’90s-style Injen cold air intake takes care of breathing in, while exhaust gases are pushed out through a PRL catted mid-pipe and downpipe before it reaches the throaty HKS Legamax exhaust. The FK8 is notoriously plagued with heat-soaking issues that were a priority to address.

Turbo blankets from PTP as well as a larger intercooler supplied by HKS were employed to keep inlet air temperatures nice and cool. Tying all these mods together is a tune by Speedworks Engineering sending 365whp to the front wheels.

Oh, did I mention there’s a blow-off valve? Of course, there is. What’s the point of a turbo if it doesn’t hiss off throttle, am I right? Driving this car is an aural experience incomparable to stock.

You get an angry snarl from the K20C up until 4,000rpm, then the turbos start whispering sweet wooshes in your ear until you let off the throttle and the HKS BOV gives you a quick hiss to make you feel like you’re in the opening scene of 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Left alone, the FK8 is already an enjoyable car. But these mods, though simple, really work to elevate the driving experience. In this configuration, the turbo pulls so hard, wooshing its way through traffic like a cat with its tail on fire. But even then, it still retains all the usability of a normal FK8.

The clutch is still light and easy to modulate, and it doesn’t idle like a choking bear. The wider tires provide much more grip and confidence to push the car to its limit. But despite the grippier tires, violent wheel-hopping is still an issue here as it is on the stock car.

This car is tuned with Hondata’s FlashPro module, and an upgrade to Hondata’s KPro ECU with a launch control function would probably do wonders to manage the hopping during hard launches.

The owner of this car has moved on to bigger and better things with a Nissan GT-R and a 992 Porsche 911 among many others parked in his garage, but still chooses to keep this old Honda.

He has graciously appointed me as the custodian of this car for the last year or so. In that time, I’ve managed to put a little less than 2,000km on the clock having taken it to a couple of track days, a family road trip, a few hospital visits, grocery runs, and countless trips to the office.

And I think I see why he keeps this around. It’s fun that you can experience every day between stoplights without any hassle or worry. Perhaps the best way to put it is if you could only own one car for the rest of your life, this could be the perfect candidate.