By Ainsley Jacobs

Youngblood Hot Rods’ Land Speed 1.97-liter Honda Civic eclipses the 200mph mark with Garrett turbo power and a family effort.

Following in his forefathers’ footsteps, 200 mph-certified driver YD Youngblood has been chasing speed his entire life. After successfully campaigning a K20A2-powered 1994 Honda Del Sol to three new records at the World Finals at Bonneville in 2020, he was given the chance to work with a 200+ mph 1999 Honda Civic Si and got his whole family involved in the Garrett turbocharged project.

The family’s shop, Youngbloods Hot Rods in Utah, has been in the business of building award-winning show and race cars since 1965. JD and his sister, Ali, share the Del Sol driving duties and impressed the Civic’s owner, John Hanson, with their skills so much that they were hired to bring the former Lucas Oil World’s Fastest Civic back to life.

Spearheaded by the patriarch of the Youngblood family, Don Youngblood, the EK chassis Honda Civic was brought in for upgrades over the winter of 2020-2021. The existing B18C1 GSR engine had been stroked out to 1.97-liters to fit within the 2.0-liter displacement limit of the G-engine land speed class by Richard Holdner, but was blown on a previous run. The Youngblood team obtained a new, sleeved Integra GSR stock block, salvaged what they could from the Integra GSR P72 ported head, and JD handled assembly of the new engine which was then filled with Lucas Oil fluids and wired up to an Optima yellow top battery.

For power, Youngblood’s Hot Rods fabricated a custom turbo kit including a beautiful tubular manifold to which a Garrett G-Series G35-1050 turbo was bolted. Mandrel-bent 3” piping and plumbing feed into a huge water-to-air intercooler that resides on the Civic’s passenger-side floorboards before the chilled and compressed air is fed back into the B18 engine.

The beastly Garrett turbocharger with its V-band turbine housing is capable of supporting up to 1,050-horsepower and may seem oversized for an engine less than 2-liters in size, but it’s perfectly suited for land speed racing. True power isn’t needed until the Civic bangs its Spec twin-disc clutch-equipped transmission into fourth gear, as the first mile or so of the five-mile span is simply used to get going, so the G35-1050’s top-end efficiency is what matters most.

CGR Racing’s Cortney Green manages the tune up of the engine combination via a Hondata S300 ECU, and, on the dyno at only about 13 pounds of boost, the Garrett boosted Civic easily made 700-horsepower. In competition, though, the car is detuned to a conservative 620-horsepower on VP Racing’s C16 fuel.

Running in the G/BGC (G-engine, Blown Gas Coupe) land speed class restricts the aerodynamics to the factory body lines and only a few minor modifications, so the Youngbloods were limited with the changes they could make. A RideTech coilover suspension with high spring rates and billet lower control arms keeps the low-slung Honda stable at high speed, while the Wheelsmith 26”x4.5” wheels have been fitted with Goodyear land speed tires and Mooneyes Moon Discs.

Prior to the Youngblood’s involvement, the Civic had already run in the 230-mph zone and set multiple world records. With their help, though, the stock-bodied car set the BGC record at 208 mph in 2018.

While racing at the Southern California Timing Association’s Speed Week in 2021 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with multi-time record holder Ali behind the wheel, though, the Hanson/Youngblood Lucas Oil Civic was able to clock a speed of 187.905 mph before mechanical gremlins cropped up and forced an early conclusion to the outing for the team.

In addition to the 1999 Honda Civic Si, Youngblood’s Hot Rods currently campaigns three Roadsters with Garrett turbo power and all three are also Bonneville record holders. The entire Youngblood crew is proud to continue the family legacy of transforming imagination into reality and will surely pick up more world records in the years to come.

VEHICLE: 1999 Honda Civic Si
ENGINE: Acura B18C1 1.97-liter
TURBO: Garrett G-Series G35-1050 turbocharger
TRANSMISSION: Acura Integra LS manual
POWER: 700+
USED FOR: land speed