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Brief Specs
Owner: David
Car Model: 1999 Honda Prelude VTi-R
Engine: H22A DOHC VTEC, custom intake pipe with Simota air filter, Xplosion rear muffler
Transmission: 5 speed manual, Daiken heavy duty clutch
Chassis: BB6 5th Gen
Suspension: 18” BSA Hyper Black Rims, DBA X Drilled and Slotted front and fear, EBC brake pads, King springs
Misc: Night Hawk Black Pearl, OEM Honda front lip, Mugen side skirts and rear lip, JDM fog light kit, custom black headlight housing, full dvd/audio system.
Style and elegance are the two words that hit me when I first laid eyes on the DMT prelude. In recent times, I have almost come to expect a performance orientated approach in Honda styling comprised of big name Japanese brands yet Dave and his 5th Generation Prelude soon made me remember why it was that I began to love Honda. It is the undying style and elegance of the “H” badge and what it incorporates. The title given, “Prelude” along with “Odyssey”, “Integra”, “Legend” to name a few exemplify this feeling of elegance, and what better example than the DMT Prelude. A rare find Manual VTi-R model with full leather trim Dave has extended the interior comfort by installing a CD/DVD/TV/Radio/GPS combination system. The classiness is subtly continued even down to the brakes where the calipers have been colour matched to the gold rotors installed. But do not mistake the prelude as an “all show, no go” car. The first time I met Dave was at a dyno day where his pride and joy clocked an impressive 114kw at the wheels.
The beautiful backdrop of a typical Melbourne overcast day quickly turned to night leaving us with some great day and night shots of the classy Prelude.
Is the Prelude your first Honda?
Yes it is, my previous rides were a 1988 Nissan Pulsar Vector SSS and then a 1999 S14 Nissan 200SX High Spec.
What made you choose Honda?
Unfortunately my reason for getting a Honda came from the fact that it was too expensive to insure another 200sx after I had a car accident, that had been my dream car since I was 18. So after the accident I looking at various cars such as Audi A4 1.8T, Alfa 156 I settled on the prelude as it was the coupe shape which I liked with a nice dose of performance and met all the other criteria I was after.
And what lead you to the Prelude?
I guess I liked the fact it blended luxury and performance, it has climate control, cruise control, leather, sunroof and pretty much power everything as well as the punchy 147kW H22A. The 5 speed manual gets the most out of it but can become tiresome in peak hour traffic!
How did you find out about Ozhonda and what keeps you here?
I came across Ozhonda through Prelude Australia and what keeps me coming back is the friendly atmosphere and the fact everyone on there shares a common interest.
You mentioned how difficult it was to find a VTi-R with leather? How important was that for you and was it a big aspect of why you wanted a prelude?
Well after having the 200sx I was looking for something with a bit of luxury, leather wasn’t a must but I thought it would be nice to have and might help resale later on, the fact it had leather was manual and had very low km was enough to seal the deal on this prelude!
What advise would you give others searching for a prelude?
I'd say look for a car with low km and full service documentation, Hondas are pretty tough but need to be looked after at service time otherwise can have expensive problems, also id say look for a manual as I've heard the autos can play up and be expensive to fix. Other than that look for a car that’s been well cared for, good colour and happy hunting.
This is not the first time your car has been featured has it?
No it actually made an appearance in the herald sun cars guide a while back, they do features on used cars and it so happened they were doing a write up on the 97-01 prelude so I sent my car in. I answered some questions via email and they sent a photographer to my work to take some pics of the car, the rest as they say is history.
The VTi-R Preludes are equipped with a mighty h22a engine. How do you find this compared to other cars you’ve owned?
Well that’s a tough question obviously it a lot quicker than the old pulsar but I did like the low down torque of the 200sx more as boost came in around 3000rpm where as VTEC doesn’t kick in till 5500rpm which means you have to work the car a lot harder to get the best out of it. That’s being said it has the same 147kw that the S14 had stock and still pulls very well for an n/a 4cyl its also good on the juice I average 10lt per 100km. the engine does pull well in the low gears but loves to be revved out as most VTEC engines do, after all that’s what they were designed to do!
You’ve really taken a different path with the Prelude ; Looks / Comfort rather than performance?
Yeah I’m sure some people will disagree with this but I don’t see the prelude as a performance car, more a neat cruiser that goes pretty well as a bonus. As most people know spend 3G on a turbo car and you can expect great performance gains but spend that same cash on an n/a and the kw per $ just aren’t the same. For that reason from the outset I decided to make my car look and sound good but not expect to make it any quicker as I just didn’t think the return would be worth the investment. So as you can see from my list of mods nearly all the changes affect the looks rather than the performance of the car. That being said I have run the car down the ¼ mile and put it on the dyno just to satisfy my curiosity and see what it could do.
So what are the results?
Well down the ¼ I managed a best of 15.4 @ 93.2mph (150kmh) at Calder Park, it was a cool night with around ½ tank of fuel. At the time I was still running the standard 16” wheels with crappy tyres and running 40psi this caused a lot of axel tramp hence the poor 60ft time, the mph suggests something in the region of a 14.6 should be possible with a better launch. On the dyno it managed 114.7 fwkw @ 6621 rpm and 174.7 Nm @ 5,052 rpm which I thought was respectable given the only performance mods are a Simota pod air filter, new rear muffler and a Daiken heavy duty clutch.
In saying that you have DBA brake rotors. Braking is a vital aspect of any car, did you notice the improvement after you changed these rotors?
Main reason for the brake upgrade was again for looks as the standard brakes looked pretty average behind the big openings in the new 18” wheels so I thought I might as well get something that will improve the look and give better stopping power. Its hard to judge the effect of the upgrade as the brakes were pretty finished when I changed them, but that being said I find the combination of DBA gold X-drilled and slotted rotors with the EBC green stuff pads great for street use they always pull up well and never experienced any brake fade. That’s being said if I was doing any track work the setup would probably be different.
What made you take this path with your Honda?
As mentioned previously my plan was to build a neat cruiser that I could still use as my daily driver without too many hassles and I think I have achieved that to my satisfaction. Car modification is a very personal thing and you can’t please everyone, I think the best you can do is please yourself and hope others share your views.
What are your future plans for the DMT prelude?
Nothing I have done everything I set out so do since purchasing the car 2 years ago, now its time to just enjoy driving it, maybe a set of HID’s but will see how it goes. Not sure what ill get for my next ride but I'm hesitant to get anything quick as its just to easy to get done speeding these days so maybe a nice BMW 330CI dropped on 20’s ; - ) ha ha
What’s your opinion of rice?
I assume we are talking cars here and to be perfectly honest I’m not a fan at all I've never like the stickers or T-wings or bits and pieces tacked onto the car as I’m sure you can tell by looking at mine I prefer clean fuss free lines but as I said earlier modifying is up to the individual many people like rice so each to there own I’m just not a fan.
Finally, VTEC or Boost?
The ultimate would have to be both the whistle of a turbo followed by the scream of VTEC that would be crazy. VTEC is a lot of fun but if I had to choose one it would be boost purely because it’s easier to get power from a boosted car.
I would like to finish by saying I know I don’t have the most modified Honda going around but I hope it can show people that you don’t have to spend big $ or put wild body kits on a car to have a neat cruiser. If you set yourself a modifying plan from the start and stick to it you should get a good result, I’m wrapped with my finished product and hopefully others share my modified car view.
We thank Dave for taking time out with us to complete this feature and Jimmy (toE) for some awesome photographs.
Article By James (SiR JDM)
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