Scott Byars' 1990 Honda Accord

Once upon a time, Scott Byars of Tucson, Ariz., owned a Porsche. It was a red Porsche. A red 1982 928 to be exact. The car looked good, handled well and was fun to cruise, but it was unreliable, expensive to maintain and even more costly to modify. Byars, having both a girlfriend and young daughter at the time, decided he needed a more pragmatic vehicle. What he got in trade was a fully loaded, bone-stock 1990 Honda Accord.

"I was tired of expensive repair bills, and I wanted a car with all the comforts," says Byars. "A real rear seat. Honda reliability. A/C, power steering, power windows, cruise, you name it, I wanted it. The Accord seemed to best fit my needs." But Byars clearly didn't want a boring family car, either. Driving the Porsche had whet his appetite for performance handling, and the first thing Byars set his hot rod sights on was the Accord's suspension. He started simple, installing Eibach springs, a good set of aftermarket rims and performance tires.

The bodywork was also addressed early in the process. "My best friend John Destrini surprised me with a paint job for my birthday," says Byars. The two of them repaired the car's minor door dings and scratches, and prepped the body. Then Destrini shot the primered car with the beautiful blue-on-white paint scheme.

The car handled well and looked great. But every Civic wannabe in Byars' hometown suddenly started hitting on him at stoplights and the anemic stock Accord drivetrain was on its last legs.

"It was all show, and no go," Byars says. The car was in desperate need of a serious horsepower upgrade. A number of high-horsepower engine possibilities were considered, but Byars ultimately realized torque was king of the street. And the road to torque is paved with displacement-lots of it. It was time to find a nice big engine for the family sedan.

One of the largest bolt-in engines able to fit between the fender wells of the 1990 Accord is an H22 from a Prelude. Byars found a good deal on a JDM H22A equipped with a limited-slip differential. A prototype HASport urethane mount kit was also sourced at the same time, and the engine was dropped into the car over the course of a long weekend. Once again, the personality of the car transformed overnight.

Byars laughs at the change in the Accord's abilities. "I didn't have a problem anymore giving those Civics a view of my taillights." Not with the car posting 14.1 quarter-mile times at 98 mph.

Byars also enjoyed the handling of the Accord, but felt it could be improved. He installed a full set of LSR coil-overs and paid for a high-quality performance alignment job. The car ran fast and handled great, then the engine let go. "I drove the stock H22A really hard for about a year; I guess it finally couldn't take the punishment."

Instead of doom and gloom however, Byars saw the blown Prelude engine as an opportunity to make a monster of an engine. He turned to R&D Dyno of Gardena, Calif. to rebuild and super-size the destroyed H22A. Byars asked R&D to stroke the 2.2-liter engine to a whopping 2.6 liters-nearly 160 torque-producing cubic inches of Grand Canyon-sized cylinder volume.

The giant four-banger also came back from the builder with a host of high-performance goodies, including such delectables as Ross 11.5:1 pistons, ARP rod bolts, Web cams, a fully ported and polished head, and oversize RC Engineering 440 cc/min fuel injectors. An MSD Digital 6 ignition system and A'pexi fuel controller were also installed to help handle engine management duties.

At the other end of the combustion process, a DC Sports stainless-steel header works with a Nakayama muffler and custom mandrel-bent exhaust system. The result is 220 horses and 180 lb-ft of tire-smoking torque at the wheels.

Although Byars feels the engine is finally developing proper horsepower, he's not finished pushing the performance envelope. "Because I have two daughters now, and my girlfriend is now my fiance, this car still has to be a family vehicle for us, but I think I can squeeze some more performance out of it without losing comfort or reliability."

Specifically, Byars is putting the Honda on a diet. With the car seeing more and more Saturday night drag strip action, weight has become an issue, so he performed a thorough, front-to-rear dead weight reduction, which included the removal of the all the car's sound-deadening material, undercoating and bumper support sheetmetal. Next is the installation of a painted carbon-fiber rear deck-lid, hood, and interior. Byars also has his eyes on a set of Lexan replacements for the rear windows. The Accord weighs around 2,600 lbs; Byars believes he can shave at least 200 lbs from the chassis.

With the Accord nearly finished, what's Byars' favorite thing about the car? "That's easy," he says. "I love the comfort and power-everything, but the best part is how fast the car is. I love going out to the track and upsetting the V8-boys. Afterward, they always want to know where the nitrous is hidden. They hate it when I tell 'em there isn't a bottle."

What then does he like least about the Accord? "That's a harder question to answer," he says. "Maybe it would be a better family car if it didn't look so nice. I get challenged by almost every import on the street." Byars reconsiders his answer for a moment. "Wait, that's actually one of the best parts of owning the car," he says. "Challenges from the wannabes aren't a problem anymore."