Not sure if it qualifies as a, ‘remember where you were when” moment, but the first ever front-wheel-drive nine second pass was a groundbreaker for sure. The feat, accomplished in 1999 by the late Shaun Carlson who built the car and driver, Stephan Papadakis, put the front-drive platform firmly in the single digits. The 9.89 at 149.50 mph pass was not the car’s first of the day. A previous run netted a tire swap and drop in pressure. The most telling aspect of the run was how sedate the Civic was leaving the line, a testament to how top end FWD cars were back in the day. The Honda chirped like a canary as it scooted off the line and wandered a bit going down the track. It could never dream of clawing at the track like today’s front-drive warriors. In 2013 the Speedfactory Racing FWD Civic laid down a 7.99 at 189.20 mph… talk about progress!

At the 2014 Atco Raceway Honda Days event the Civic was the first to breach the 200-mph threshold, running an 8.00 at 200.92 mph. Heck, the new-school cars probably hold more boost at the line than the old-time yellow Civic pumped out at wide open throttle back in the day. That all changed as the Civic landed sponsorship from Advanced Engine Management (AEM) and went on to write more chapters in the record books. Carlson started Nurfomz, got behind the wheel himself for Ford, then Mopar before his untimely passing in 2009. Steph and AEM made the jump to rear drive and ran deep into the 6.50s on Honda power. He went on to form Papadakis Racing and win the Formula Drift championship with driver Tanner Foust..