A Family Van Project a 1995 Honda Odyssey

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Thomas Fitzgibbon

1995 Honda Odyssey

Instagram: @southbaymatco

Photographer: Marvin Recinos

Instagram:  @mr2mivin

Performance Stats: 350 HP at 14 PSI, currently running 290HP at 9 PSI.

My Early Influences and Racing Crews

My name is Thomas Fitzgibbon, but most people call me Tommy. I am 47 years old (as of 2024), born in Torrance, California, and grew up in Torrance, Palos Verdes, San Diego and mostly Long Beach. I joined the army immediately after high school, spent six years on active duty in the Infantry, and four years as a reservist in an administrative unit. Seven years after my federal military service ended I joined the California State Military Reserve, where I was once again called to active duty as a cadre (drill sergeant) at the youth challenge academy for the Army National Guard, where I remained for four years. In addition to the military, I've worked as an auto mechanic, maritime diesel mechanic, and an operator at oil refineries. Currently, I am self-employed, driving a tool truck as a Matco Tools Franchise owner.

I enjoy surfing, skateboarding, shooting, gunsmithing, building Warhammer 40k and Macross models, carpentry, reading books, and obviously building my cars. I love to race as well, though time and money have limited my racing endeavours to very seldom as of late. I have a 27-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, as well as an 18-year-old step-son and 15-year-old daughter with my current wife. I've always involved my children in the things I enjoy doing, so I'm happy to say I've raised gearheads, surfers, skaters, and now a serviceman since my son joined the Marines. I'm very fortunate in the gearhead world to have a wife who is also a gearhead. Where other guys might have to run their purchases past their wives prior to dropping the credit card, I typically just have to make sure my wife's project car is kept in good running order and up to date on good modifications as well.

Growing Up With Gearhead Influences

My father was a chief mechanical engineer in the aerospace division at Garrett AiResearch in Torrance, California, and growing up with him meant getting a doctorate from Gearhead University. He began teaching me to understand internal combustion engines and air-flow dynamics when I was in kindergarten and bought me toys that reinforced those lessons, the first of which was a Lego Technic tractor which featured an engine with moving internal parts. I still remember how happy he was when I traded my Nintendo for hobby-grade RC car, a Tamiya Hornet, when I was in the 7th grade. That's when my fascination with cars really began to take off, especially once I got into on-road RC cars, which were often based on iconic race cars such as the Mazda 787B, Williams Honda F1 (1987), Alfa Romeo 155, and one of my all time favorites, the Mercedes 190E EVOII DTM race-car.

My dad, being an old guy, was very much a Ford V8 enthusiast, along with my best friend's dad (who coincidentally was an old Ford guy) who I was also close to, led me to my first fascination with a hot-rodded street car; the Fox-body Mustang. All it took was a senior to pull into my auto-shop class, driving a slammed red CRX Si, to undo all of the Ford V8 influence those two old men had worked so hard to instill in me, but that was only the beginning. The underground Honda scene was growing quickly, especially among the Filipino and Cambodian communities in Long Beach, and local race crews, like Trick Speed and Death Racers, often packed the school parking lot with eye-candy, the likes of which I dreamed of, but could not afford.

Even Jojo Callos, one of the famous 90's Honda racers, was in my auto-shop class, driving the same car he would later use to pull 11-second quarter-miles at Palmdale. Not until I joined the army right after high school would I get my first car, a 1987 CRX HF, which my (ex)father-in-law bought for me for $1800. I didn't do much with that car, but it did open doors to some lifelong friendships with guys like Myles Bautista and Kevin "Fast Eddie" Hollis, both heavy influencers in my early stages of import performance. I got into my first race crew, Kamikaze, with a bunch of other California guys while stationed in Texas. It wasn't hard for us to find each other, because at the time Cali boys were the only ones slamming Hondas and trying to make them look like race cars. You would see a guy in a "Cali style" lowered Honda, and you were instant friends.

I think there were about ten of us who all hung out consistently every weekend at either Nate's (Kamikaze's founder) parents' house, or Alberts's house (the only one of us who had a yard big enough for all of us to chill, BBQ, and park our cars). Performance parts were scarce and expensive, and we didn't have much money, so consequently our cars were never that fast, but there were two exceptions. Brandon had a turbo-nitrous 93 Eclipse, and Eli rolled in a cammed-out 91 Civic hatchback, and both were capable of keeping up with and beating some of the local V8 guys.

Many years later, when I met my second wife, I found out her older brother grew up racing around with Eli in Alhambra in the 1990s, which is another story in itself. I left Texas to do a tour in Korea for a year, during that time I became friends with Myles Bautista, when I exchanged letters with him, asking him how he was able to convert his CRX HF into a Si model. In 1997, after I returned to the United States, I met Kevin "Fast Eddie" Hollis while he was autocross racing his 1985 CRX at the Goodtimes Motorsports event. We hit it off because he was the only guy I saw modifying a first-gen CRX (aside from Myles Bautista, whom I had not met in person yet). At the top of Kevin's windshield was a banner that said "Fast Eddie's," which he explained was an old racing crew he was once in, and because of the banner, Kevin was often mistaken to be "Eddie," a name the crew earned from their old meeting spot prior to going racing, Eddie's Liquor Store.

Kevin and I would later revive the crew with fresh members, and that's when things really took off. Kevin taught most of us how to drive, I mean really drive, our Hondas. To this day I don't think I've seen another person who can throw a front-wheel-drive car through a mountain road like Kevin could. He was an amazing driver and one hell of a shade-tree mechanic. He taught us how to do a lot with very little. Some years later I rolled with another bunch of guys. We never considered ourselves a "crew," but we may as well have been. We made it a point to roll from Long Beach to a Thai restaurant in Hollywood every Wednesday night, just to break up the week, and we would take all of our cars, often racing each other (or whoever we encountered) on the way there. We all had animal nick-names for each other, and some point one of the girls called us the "Zoo-Crew," but it was never official. We were just a bunch of gear-heads having fun.

Choosing and Customizing My Honda Odyssey

Why I Chose the Honda Odyssey

By 2007 I had recently moved in with Renae (my current wife), and since we both had kids in child seats, my 91 Civic hatchback (with a six-point roll-cage) was getting a little tight. I upgraded to a 1993 Accord, which helped, but wasn't quite enough, and when you haul kids around it's not just the kids you're carrying; you have strollers, baby supplies, extra clothing, and eventually their friends too. I knew a minivan was in my future, but a stock dad-mobile wasn't going to cut it. I thought of cool vans I grew up admiring, like the GMC Vandura from the A-Team, the VW Micro-busses with safari windows, and my friend's dad's Woody.

There were two vans that stood out though. One was the Renault Espace F1 concept, built and raced only once, and immortalized in Gran Tourismo. This V10-powered beast put out 800+ horsepower, screamed to 12,000 rpm, and ripped through a six-speed sequential transmission. My kind of ride, but a little over budget. The other was Charlotte Devera's yellow turbocharged Odyssey, a very well known Honda during the height of the Import Showoff scene, owned and operated by a genuinely nice person, who built such a machine for the sole purpose of spending more time with her two boys (heavy hitters RJ and Cito). At around $5000 to $10,000 (at the time), these were slightly more attainable than the F1 Van. I chose the first-generation Honda Odyssey because it shares the same platform as the Accord and Prelude, both of which I'm familiar with from my days of doing auto-to-stick conversions in Kevin's driveway. There was a plethora of Accord and Prelude bits to pick from, which were easy to attain at the time, much of which I had in spare parts bins in my garage and at Kevin's place. The Odyssey would be the obvious choice. I went on to drive my kids around in modified Odyssey vans for the next 15 years (and counting).

Honda Odyssey Driving Experience

It feels audacious. Who does that guy think he is, shoving all those performance parts and fancy wheels into a family car? That thing wasn't meant to go that fast. He's probably putting his kids in danger in that thing! That's irresponsible! He must be one of those Honda guys who never grew up. Yes, I am all of those things, and it's the reason my kids asked to be dropped off at the front of the school, why their friends always rolled with us once they started driving (that was the best crew!), why they stayed out of trouble in high school, and why my son showed up at his prom, with five of his friends, driving our van; the coolest car there. I'll never forget the first time I successfully converted one to work with a manual transmission.

I was driving my family to Sea World in San Diego, and they had all fallen asleep while we were on the freeway, and I was ripping through the gears on the 5-South, thinking "Every dad needs one of these!" It's empowering, not because I'm egotistical, but because of what it has done for our family and those close to us. It's fun to drive something that is not a cookie-cutter family car, something that isn't for the faint of heart to own and maintain, not like other dads in their sport-utes and cross-overs, still under factory warranty. No, not this van. It has to be earned to be driven, constantly maintained and cared for, and monitored for potential failure points, since it often carries more humans than just me. We've owned and modified four first-generation Honda Odysseys, and one 2007 Odyssey with only lowered suspension. I gave up my 91 Civic Si to start this journey, a decision I often look back on, but never regret. The Honda Odyssey was one of the best things to happen to our family.

Honda Odyssey: What Makes it Unique

In a sea of Civics, Integras, and other sports cars, the Odyssey stands out because it was never meant to be fast, rip through corners on a mountain road, chase after faster cars at Willow Springs, or turn heads at car shows or the local parking lot gathering, but that's exactly what my vans have done for over 15 years. At one point I built a replica of the Super Touring engines used in the Accords from the mid to late 90's racing teams in England and Japan, the F20Cs with the cylinder heads oriented 180 degrees, and installed it into one of my Odysseys, and drove it on the street for ten years.

People asked me why I did it, and my answer was why not? It was something I always wanted to try, and the best way to get the most street time out of an experiment is to install it in something I can drive every day. My experiments were never without their flaws, and trial and error was always part of the process, but unique describes nearly everything done to an Odyssey that doesn't enhance its ability to haul groceries.

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The Honda Odyssey Build 

The engine is a stock long-block K24, enhanced with a Rev-Hard turbo kit, currently running nine pounds of boost. Engine management is taken care of via Haltech Elite 1500 ECU, a Rywire engine harness, and monitored with a Haltech IC7 display. Power is funneled through a six-speed TSX transmission, equipped with a M-Factory 5.417 final drive and Torson differential, and an O.S. Giken twin-plate clutch, with custom axles from California Axle Supply in Huntington Beach. I'm using a K-tuned TSX billet shifter mounted on one of my old Fast Eddies Racing Odyssey shifter boxes.

The clutch is controlled with a Wilwood pedal and master cylinder, mounted just above where the dead pedal used to be. The two front seats are Recaros from an old Supra, the steering wheel is a Greddy/Momo collab, and cops are looked at through a windshield-mounted five-panel rear-view Wink-Mirror (a Fast Eddies crew standard requirement).

The exterior is mild, but tasteful; extended PCI side skirts, Autozone mudflaps (I gotta have mudflaps on a 90's Honda), 98-spec bumper with a Honda Option front-lip, unknown wing on top of the rear lift-gate, Mugen front grill, and deleted shopping-cart guards from the sides. The side-exit exhaust is often mistaken for a cosmetic modification, but it's actually done because the Odyssey routes the OEM exhaust underneath the rear suspension, which doesn't work out well on a lowered van. Because of the rear folding seat accommodation, there isn't much room to route the pipes toward the rear, so out the side, they go. Wheels are currently 17x9 Sparco NSII Vipers +22 offset (F) and +38 (R), and sometimes Racing Hart Type C's in 17x9 and +18 offset all the way around.

Suspension is Tein Super Street springs and shocks (only the front is a "coil-over"), Hardrace extended lower ball joints (F), shortened and reinforced steering uprights, and Ingalls upper adjustable ball joints for camber (F and R). Front brake callipers are from an Acura RL, rotors from a 350Z, and rear brakes are simply upgraded with ceramic pads and good rotors.

The Work

I did most of the work, as I do with all of my cars, but there are tasks that are beyond my capability. The shortened and reinforced steering uprights (one of the best modifications made to this van) were done by Josh Smith, a long-time friend and veteran brother, who earned his fab stripes building sand rails in his backyard. Myles Bautista built the turbo-kit by having me send him measurements and photos through text messages and showed up with a system that fit perfectly the first time we test-fitted it.

Daniel at Werdwerx created the custom callipers and brakes for the front, another fantastic upgrade needed for stopping something as big and heavy as this thing. He also arranged to have the PCI side skirts extended six inches to fit the length of the van. Steve Rogers did the dyno-tuning. Without Steve, all my creations would be non-running lawn ornaments.

Future Plans for the Honda Odyssey

I would like to add 2" metal fender flares to accommodate the 17x9's without stretching the tires. Once the fenders are done I would like the whole van resprayed in Honda Championship (Type R) White, and the interior reupholstered in red and black to accent it. I'll eventually make a better mounting plate for the IC7 display, pushing the unit further toward the steering wheel for easier access to the buttons.

A taller shifter would be nice, along with one of those new Greddy shift knobs with the flowers in it. I also want to add a mid-wing to the rear liftgate. There's a mild one, about 4" or 5" in depth, made for the Odyssey, but made by who I don't know. I've only seen it in a couple of photos on a red Odyssey in Japan. I'm undecided on what to do with the rear bumper. Either install a 98-spec rear bumper along with the Honda Option rear lip or delete it altogether and replace it with a diffuser and adjustable stanchions. I also plan to replace the large exhaust pipes underneath with two smaller pipes for ground clearance, and route one out of each side. The oil pan is way too low, so I attempted to design a low-profile pan, which will require a custom oil pump design as well.

Tips, Shoutouts, and Closing Thoughts

Advice and Tips

The van is heavy, so everything you do to an Odyssey is enhanced when it comes to wear and tear. If you don't get the geometry right in the front suspension, you'll be replacing upper ball joints every six months. It eats tyres for breakfast for the same reason. One road trip to Texas and back, and the brand new tyres on the front were showing wires, and yes, that's after a proper alignment. If you're going to drive it hard contact Daniel at Werdwerx about the brake upgrade, because you'll warp the stock front rotors quickly. Plan on replacing axles at least once a year. Don't be cheap when modifying a van, especially if you're actually hauling people around in it. Their lives are in your hands with every nut and bolt you touch. Lastly, whatever you do, don't remove the AC. Don't ask me how I know.

Shout Outs

This list should always be longer than I've made it because I realize after the fact that I left someone out, but let's start from the beginning. Dad started it all, from designing aircraft parts to lecturing me about heat transfer when I left the curtains open in the winter. Teaching me to think like an engineer made me a better mechanic. Art "Mr. B" Broudhurst, my high school auto-shop teacher, taught us so much and allowed us to modify cars in his shop, even after we had graduated. Nate @kamakaze1, Bill @bilremy, Gerry @gerry_fitkings38, and all the homies from the old K-crew. Josh "Tumbleweed" Smith @smitty0801 for his awesome fabrication work on the steering uprights. The van would not handle nearly as well is it does without his handiwork. Daniel @dj_hizzle, Ralph @scanlessfool, and the rest of the Cali-Accord @accordcellective crew for conspiring with my wife, Renae @daisy_the_n600, and secretly resurrecting a project I had given up on. 

Kevin "Fast Eddie" Hollis for teaching me how to do so much with so little, and how to push my cars to their limits. Without Kevin, the stick-shift conversion wouldn't have gone as smoothly as it did. Oscar Jackson Sr @jacksonracing for teaching me what works and doesn't work in a sea of questionable modifications. This guy is everyman's mentor in the Honda game, always ready to give his time and knowledge to others. Steve Rodgers for bringing good things to life at @dynasty_motorwerks and bailing me out of all my "why doesn't it run" predicaments. Myles Bautista (and Riza for supporting him for three decades) @irevhard for looking out for me from half a world away with a pen and paper, then building me a turbo-kit 25 years later, and especially for passing his welding gift on to my son. O.G.s like Junior @jr.redline.racing for putting on such a great show during the golden years of import racing while I was away in the military, giving me plenty to read about.

Ken Myoshi @importshowoff for putting three awesome things together; cars, hot girls, and the club scene and creating one of the greatest import racing movements outside of the racetrack. Dennis Caco @maxboostcomic for creating nearly every t-shirt I wore during the 90's and early 2000's, and especially for bringing humour into a scene where we often times took ourselves too seriously. Max Boost! Brian, "Monkey" Mike, Tim, and the rest of the "Zoo Crew." We gave going out to eat a new meaning! And last, but certainly not least, my kids, Azia (26), Aiden (18), and Zoe (15) for necessitating such a large vehicle with all of your crap, friends, and stuff you needed to haul around. Without the demanding little brats I wouldn't have pushed the limits of something like this into reality, and it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without them screaming and throwing up in the back seats, arguing about who gets to sit where, who's touching who, and asking if were there yet. Sit down and be quiet!

What the Car Scene Means to Me

I gained an extended family that rivals my veteran brotherhood from the military. The people I've met in this game are so numerous, I feel ashamed when I see someone, who I remember what car they drove, but can't remember their name. It's never been because I didn't care enough to remember, but because I've met so many cool people that I can't retain all their names in my minuscule little mind. Perhaps it was easier for all of them to remember me, not because I'm special, but because I do odd modifications to strange cars. Whatever the reason I'm grateful for all of you. I'm also grateful for the hobby itself. We spend half our lives on the road.

I couldn't imagine doing that in a boring car, envying some other guy in a sports car three lanes over, thinking "I wish I could be that guy." No, when I'm in my van (or any of my project cars) I'm in my happy place, flying low, feeling the road communicate with me through too-stiff-for-the-street suspension, able to drive over a stick of bubblegum and tell what flavor it is, feeling the engine resonate through the steering wheel because of the solid urethane mounts, fighting to get it off the line without stalling it or chirping the tires with that damn race-clutch, and banging through the gears with that notchy-ass K-tuned shifter without a reverse lock-out.

There's no other place I would rather be when I'm on the road. The guy in the Ferrari can look at me if he wants to, but I'm having too much fun to look at him. The car shows, car scenes, races, and extended Japanese culture that came with it all have enriched my life in so many ways, including that of my children's lives, that I can't comprehend what my reality would be like without it. Maybe I would have run off and joined the French Foreign Legion, or became a mercenary. Thank goodness for cars!

My Dream Car

Every clapped-out piece-of-crap old Honda or Toyota, that looks like it should be recycled into cans, ends up being my dream car because I think of "all the cool things I could do to it!" I'll humor the question though, since a dream car is typically something that is out of our reach, or too far into the future to consider anytime soon. A mid-engine F1 powered Odyssey, similar to the yellow Ridgeline built by the Hoonigan boys would be nice, but only on the race track. 

I would love the Silhouette R34 made by Liberty Walk, especially their first one with the tripled-card L-series engine (so cool), but I would be afraid to drive it every day because of the body kit. There's also Randy's (from Illuminate) K24-powered R34 Skyline, which I was my favorite car at SEMA, but I didn't create it, so there's that. That leaves me looking for another stock car to build up to be my dream car, so a red FL5 Typer R Civic would do nicely. It always comes back to Honda.

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