Honda Tuning Quote: Birth of the King

We just love the way Brian McGurk described King Motorsports in his Honda Tuning feature on our Prelude Race Car -- we just had to repost it here:

Birth of the King

Body kits, engine swaps, JDM trends, stance, and other assorted fads may come and go, but one company was alive and kicking well before most of it ever entered the picture: King Motorsports. Started in 1981 as the race team of a local Honda dealer, the team piloted their 1200cc '74 Civic to their first victory in 1984. Current CEO Scott Zellner started with the team around that time and recalls, "We ran every race we could with our little Civic, at the same time we started designing parts for them too." Throughout the '80s, the team stacked wins while garnering attention from Honda of Japan. "We got to work hand in hand with Honda Special Projects. They did all the cool stuff; it was a very exciting time." Toward the end of the '80s, King received exclusive rights as the sole Mugen distributor in the U.S., a feat not bestowed on just anyone. After that, gears changed rather quickly. "It was weird; we went from a race team to a parts distributor." Even today King Motorsports is synonymous with Mugen on U.S. shores and Scott, still at the helm, see's no end in sight. "We've been racing and winning for 35 years and we're still here and relevant. I'm very proud of it."

No two ways about it, they're the Kings and that's not changing anytime soon.

Read more: http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/features/1309_1992_honda_prelude/