(car engine revving)
- What does it mean to be obsessive?
Ask Steve Jobs.
His penchant for perfection
defined his career
and changed the world in the process.
So why am I talking about Steve Jobs
in a fricking car video?
Well, because I believe,
if he had a Honda project car,
it would look like this.
(intense dreamy synth)
Today we are going Bumper 2 Bumper
on Big Mike's Honda Prelude.
(fast-paced music)
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The Honda Prelude has always
been a little underrated.
Honda introduced the Prelude in 1978,
right up against the Toyota
Celica and Nissan Silvia.
The Prelude's power and
handling at the time
made it a great value.
But five generations later,
at the end of the 90s,
it was more expensive than its rivals.
Buyers either bought competing models
or went with cheaper options
in Honda's own lineup
like the Civic, or Acura Integra.
So in 2001, the Prelude died
without ever getting the massive praise
that I think it deserved.
(introspective synth music)
A lot of people have kind of
forgotten about the Prelude,
but one guy didn't.
Years ago, Big Mike bought
this Prelude from a friend.
It was a little beat up,
but Mike just wanted it as a daily driver
so that didn't matter.
About a year and a half went by,
and Mike started to get an itch.
One that couldn't be soothed by ointments
or expensive salves.
An itch that only new parts
and a fresh coat of paint can scratch.
From top to bottom, Mike put the Prelude
through a complete transformation.
When it was done, it set
the Honda scene alight.
In 2008, this Prelude was
in its first incarnation.
A beautiful dark Merlot maroon
with a carbon fiber
hood and chrome wheels.
Big Mike also swapped out the engine
and did a complete suspension job.
If you were into Hondas back then,
you probably remember this
car, because it was a big deal.
But Big Mike wasn't
satisfied with the build.
He went all out optimizing
the look of the Prelude again.
Instead of building an entirely new car,
Big Mike rebuilt the
Prelude with a new look
that grabbed your attention
like no other Honda before it.
Big Mike stripped the pinot paint job
and resprayed it with
Forest Service green.
That's right, Forest Service,
the agency that looks
after our national parks
has its own paint, and it
doesn't even have a paint code.
It's just called Forest Service green.
(relaxed synth music)
(car engine revving)
Big Mike rebuilt the Prelude
with an even bigger eye for
detail the second time around,
becoming an even bigger figure
in the Honda scene in the process.
Like version one, Prelude
version two was a huge success.
Two times now, Big Mike
had changed the Honda game.
Surely that would suffice.
Wrong!
Steve Jobs had helped Apple
change the tech game two times,
with both the Macintosh in 1984
and the original iMac in 1988.
Big Mike did the same thing
with both versions of his Prelude,
each time changing peoples' perception
of how a Honda could be built.
In 2016 Big Mike decided it was time
to do it one more time.
This revision would prove
to be the most radical.
Not just for Mike,
but it would be perhaps
one of the most outlandish
and obsessive Honda builds ever attempted.
Like Apple did with the iPhone,
Big Mike poised himself to
change the game once again.
(dreamy synth music)
let's start with the big picture stuff.
You look at the engine, and right away
you know this thing is different.
Big Mike didn't opt to
use the standard H-22mL
that originally came in the car.
He swapped that out for an F20B,
an option that came in Japanese Accords
in the late 90s, early 2000s.
As it sits now though, it's been modified,
just a little bit.
Right away, the blue valve
cover catches your eye,
but this isn't just any
regular F20B valve cover,
no way grandpa.
Now in stock form, the engine is mounted
with a natural backwards slant
and Mike, he didn't like that.
He wanted it to look
like it was sitting flat.
So instead of remounting the engine,
he had the valve cover sectioned,
meaning that about an inch of height
was taken out from the middle
then the top was repositioned
so that it was flat.
He also removed the oil fill cap,
which brings the cleanliness
to a whole 'nother level.
When you look at the cover
next to the stock piece
it's obvious how different it is,
but if you didn't know,
you might not notice it.
And that's my favorite kinda stuff.
There's building for the
sake of being radical,
but then there's stuff like this
which is radical for the
sake of being better.
And that takes some real craftsmanship.
(dreamy synth music)
Air enters the engine
through a custom intake in the headlight,
one of my favorite features of the car.
The air continues through the air filter
into a Garrett GTX28 turbo,
which itself is fed by
one of the most beautiful
equal length headers I've ever seen.
Looks like a bunch of snakes.
(soft hissing)
This custom plenum further charges the air
before it hits the velocity
stacks living inside.
What's the result?
About 460 hers-pers, and 360 turks.
(car engine roaring)
The power is impressive, but even more so
is the care and execution
of this engine bay.
Have you ever seen a prettier
four-banger in your life?
No, trick question!
Fun fact, the blue valve cover
was intentionally matched
to the stock Honda blue oil filter.
(snorts)
And the braided oil lines
share the same blue hue.
The detail in this car is astounding.
I mean the fricking dipstick
handle is CNC machined,
and if you look closer,
which is a thing that you
should do with this car,
you notice that every single
bolt has been converted
from traditional hex
pattern to Allen head,
complimented by fancy dress washers.
This trend continues
throughout the entire car
including a ton of bolts
that you can't even see.
That's nuts.
Actually it's bolts.
(whistle)
(exaggerated scream)
And the extreme fabrication
doesn't end in the engine bay.
Oh boy you thought we were done,
we're just getting started.
Up, up, up.
(distant scream)
Let's start at the front.
The bumper lint is a one of a kind.
It's half JUN aftermarket lip
and half OEM Honda.
Big Mike fused together
the best of both worlds
to make something all his own.
This intake right here have
some of you big Honda guys
scratching your heads, I guarantee it,
because it looks stock, right?
Well it's not.
It feeds the oil cooler
sitting right behind it.
It looks stock because it borrows angles
from these smaller intakes on either side.
By using elements already
present on the car,
this totally unique piece
looks like it shoulda
been there all along.
And that's my favorite kind of build.
This is one of my favorite cars.
(dreamy synth)
(static whooshing)
Even if you didn't know
anything about Preludes,
one look at these fenders
and you know that there's
something special about this car.
The wide body flares give way
to a pressure relief zone
behind the front wheels.
This isn't a piece that
you can go out and buy,
it's completely original.
They took the stock Prelude fender,
laid some clay over it,
and added about 35mm of
width to each side of the car
so the fenders could
cover these big old tires.
There isn't another Prelude
like this on the planet.
But Mike's team didn't go
overboard with the design.
It still looks like something
that could have come from the factory.
A really aggressive factory,
where they produce anger.
The side skirts are custom too,
and reinforce the Motorsport
inspiration for this build
both aesthetically and
in function as well.
The no-nonsense theme
continues in the trunk.
One of my favorite features about this car
is the trunk release, which is just
a little loop, right here.
You pull it,
boom, there's the trunk.
Now I want you Honda
fanboys to look real close.
You notice anything different?
Hmm, do ya?
You stumped?
Normally in a Prelude, the
indentation for the spare tire
is offset to the left.
Now this wasn't gonna
do for my man Big Mike
because my man Big Mike got
a little thing for symmetry.
So he reworked the
entire floor of the trunk
to put the indentation in the center.
Also with the trunk open you can see
the care that was put into placing
the fuel filters and the surge tank.
It's like a minimalist piece of art.
(dreamy synth music)
You can also see how the roll bar and cage
are integrated into the chassis.
This Prelude be stiff.
(dreamy synth music)
In the driver's seat it feels familiar
but still very race car.
That's because instead of ripping out
all the door panels and the dash
and replacing them with sheet aluminum
like a lot of dudes do,
Big Mike and his team wanted
to retain the feeling of
an OEM Honda interior.
So what they did was take the
stock dash and door panels,
fill in all the unnecessary
vents and switch spaces,
and cover them in beautiful Alcantara.
I wear Alcantara underwear.
The gauges have been replaced
with a single AiM digital display
and Rywire control panel sits
where the radio used to be.
With these two components,
Big Mike can control
every function of the car
in a real streamlined way.
You know when Steve Jobs
unveiled the iPhone in 2007,
people were stunned that the
thing only had four buttons.
I think he'd like this setup.
(dreamy synth music)
The shifter in this thing is
a work of art all of its own.
It's constructed of just
a few CNC machined pieces.
It looks like something
out of a rally car,
if not a spaceship.
Now Big Mike wanted to keep the base open
so that people could see the components,
and the shifter's set up
so you only have to move your hand
a few inches off the wheel to shift.
I don't wanna go down
here, I don't got time.
Time me.
- Wow.
- And now my favorite part of every show.
Main, ignition.
(mechanical whirring)
(engine sputtering)
(engine purring)
(engine roaring)
(chuckling)
Oh, it smells like high school.
(intense bass music)
Getting a close look at this Prelude
can be overwhelming at times.
It's without a doubt one
of the cleanest builds
we have ever featured on this show.
Everywhere you look,
there's another perfectly executed detail
just waiting to reveal itself.
When Big Mike unveiled this car
at the SEMA show in 2016,
it started getting attention, a lot of it,
and it was selected as a top 10 build
for the entire show.
Do you know how many
cars there are at SEMA?
A lot!
I've been there, I've seen it.
At the time the SEMA top 10
was dominated by muscle cars and hot rods,
but there was Mike with
his one-of-a-kind Honda.
(cheerful synth music)
An immaculate build like this
can be a little intimidating
but that wasn't Big Mike's goal.
He says there's nothing in this build
that's impossible to do
in someone's home garage.
He set out to build this car
as a business card to show what he can do,
but also to prove that it doesn't matter
what kind of car someone starts with,
theirs can achieve greatness too.
(engine roaring)
Big thanks to Big Mike for
letting us walk around his car
and sharing it with us today.
To follow more of his work,
check him out on instagram, @TheBigMike,
and check out his website,
thinkbiggerproject.com.
Follow us on instagram
and twitter, @DonutMedia,
follow me on instagram and
twitter, @JamesPumphrey.
Got a lotta new shows
coming out this summer,
and make sure you don't miss any of them,
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ding ding ding.
(bell ringing)
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(laughs awkwardly)
