All Motor Civic Runs Mid-9s With Huge Top Speed

The Prayoonto Racing-built 2.7-liter K engine dusts a wheelstanding Firebird with a 15 mph advantage. Watch it holler!

If you’ve never seen how Hondas make up speed on the back half of the drag strip, buckle in. This run by Robert Reinen’s ‘96 Civic at the 2017 Haltech Import vs. Domestics World Cup Finals shows in dramatic detail how Hondas make their elapsed times in the quarter-mile.

The Civic runs in the All Motor class with its Prayoonto Racing K-series engine, where it faces a barrage of V8 pony cars. And in this elimination-round matchup, the little Honda gives up the first part of the track before barreling past its opponent with way more top speed.

Reinen gives up some space off the starting line, which affords a great look at Shawn Calabrese’s bright-red 2002 Pontiac Firebird with its nose aimed skyward for the first 100 feet or so. If there’s any downside to a drag-racing Civic, it might be the lack of spectacular wheelstanding ability.

After Reinen smashes his Civic into top gear, however, he just breezes past the Pontiac pony car. Through the top end, the Fuel Injector Clinic Civic clocked 142 mph, 15 more than the Firebird. The 9.669 seconds in this pass was no joke, either. During qualifying, Reinen had managed a 9.677 at 143 mph. That’s some consistency when it counts.

Reinen won his Round 2 matchup when Adrian Alicea’s own Prayoonto-prepped Civic lit the red bulb in the other lane. However, Reinen exited in Round 3 with trouble getting down the track. Nevertheless, no other Civic made it to the third round.

That came as a disappointment for Loan Prayoonto, who qualified #1 in the All Motor class. However, #15 qualifier Tommy Godfrey bounced Prayoonto in the second round on a crazy holeshot win by just 0.02 second.

Prayoonto’s Virginia shop prepares some of the world’s most potent K-series drag engines. Reinen’s engine is bored-and-stroked K24 that makes 2.7 liters with Kinsler 67-millimeter individual throttle bodies. That setup should make well over 500 horsepower at the crank. His car also runs a manual transmission Pfitzner Performance Gearboxes, a specialty transmission builder from Australia.

Get some more of this sweet Civic right here: