Out For Revenge With Bisimoto

I’ve asked this before, but it’s worth asking again; do any of you watch car television?

If you do, have you watched the Netflix series Fastest Car? The premise, for those of you who have not seen the show, is that three ‘sleepers’ race against one super car in a side-by-side-by-side-by-side drag race.

Episode one, of season one, featured Bismimoto’s 1029hp Honda Odyssey as one of the sleeper cars. We can debate the sleeper merit of a van with an intercooler for a grill later, but when the flag dropped Bisi was left in the dust. The culprit in this case not power, but traction.

Bisi, being the always positive individual he is, went home smiling, but defeat isn’t something he easily accepts. Thus, a plan was hatched to build the car you see today; his revenge car.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-4566

This van has been built to surpass his Odyssey’s capabilities in every aspect but passenger capacity. It’s smaller, nimbler, more powerful, and most important of all, capable of delivering power to four wheels rather than just two.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-4531

Initially I thought this car was version 2 of the Wagovan he built in 2010, but it’s actually a different car altogether. Shockingly, a mere five days prior to the show, this car was little more than a painted rolling shell.

Bisi and his team of Deron, Erin, Hedi, Marvin, Kevin, Andy, Zach, Carlos, Sam, Marcel, Randy and Mark gritted their teeth and sacrificed sleep in order to get this car ready for Vegas. Sitting on the black and yellow interlocking floor of the AEM booth, this car was a testament to their hard work.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-5181

Realtime 4WD was a factory option for the Wagovan, but this particular example started life as a two-wheel drive model. Bisi converted the van to four wheel drive using the rear end from a Honda CRV. The CRV rear differential is mounted with modified CRV trailing arms while the axles and hubs were brought along as well, allowing for a five lug conversion.

Bisi uses CRV parts, instead of Wagovan parts, simply because they are easier to come by. A CRV replacement rear end is one quick junkyard trip away. An original Wagovan rear end? Well, that’s going to be a lot harder to find.

A matching five lug swap was performed up front and KW Variant 3 coilover suspension brings the body closer to the ground. There’s no excessive camber here, just a simple stance which is reminiscent of the golden era DTM cars.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-4522

Under the hood is a Bisi spec K-series motor. For reliability and performance, Bisi has combined a K24Z7 head with a K24Z3 bottom end. Bolted to the motor is an experimental reverse 72mm Turbonetics turbocharger. Bisi and his team originally mocked up the motor with a standard turbo, but were not able to route the necessary plumbing in a way they felt was either beneficial to performance or visually appealing.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-4548

Power wise, Bisi’s immediate goal is to match the power output of the Odyssey on Flex fuel. From there, the sky is literally the limit as he plans to continually evolve the motor setup. Good enough, simply isn’t good enough at Bismoto.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-4505

Bisi is the first to admit that he is not a show guy. He finds beauty in function, and as a result this car’s interior is fairly restrained. A simple Momo wheel and a collection of refurbished and new old stock interior pieces make up most of the revisions. Some of you might be disappointed to learn that the red buttons flanking the Momo logo don’t activate any sort of Sneaky Pete nitrous system.

However, one of the buttons does the next best thing, by activating the rolling anti-lag. Press that button and the AEM Infinity system retards timing and adds fuel allowing for lag free pulls through the sedate streets of Mexico.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-5188

While admiring the upholstery of the doors and seat inserts, the wood inlay atop of the dash caught my eye. That piece was actually custom made for Bisi by a fan specifically for this build.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-4590

The Wagovan uses a Quaife sequential transmission, that’s hydraulically operated thanks to a Hush Performance cable-to-hydraulic conversion. Switching from cable to hydraulic gives Bisi some piece of mind, and allows the transmission to be tuned to a finer degree than the cable set up. In comparison to the cable set up, this is much easier to maintain as well.

Bisi's Honda - Keiron Berndt - Speedhunters - SEMA 2018 Deliverables - 10 - 29 - 2018-4538

Bisi and his team at Bisimoto plan to use this car as a development platform to further their product line up, especially in the realm of all-wheel drive.

That is, of course, after they get their revenge in the next side-by-side-by-side sleeper, super car, David versus Goliath battle…

Dave Thomas
Instagram: stanceiseverythingcom

Photography by Keiron Berndt
Instagram: keiron_berndt

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1

Ugh that netflix show is God awful. Alright back to the article lol.

2

I still haven't got over the fact the final race was on a loose surface.

Author3

The show has highs and lows. They abuse the word sleeper but generally found interesting people to have on as contenders, with interesting vehicles.

The race being on such a loose surface is a really weird quirk I imagine they do in an attempt to level the playing field.

The S10 guy flipping out was a bit much.

Could improve if renewed. Time will tell.

4

Must say I disagree with you. While the premise of the show was a little silly (particularly the final on salt flats) I thought the whole show was good. It showed a lot of real car guys and girls who has huge passion for their cars. They avoided the staged fights and huge dramas that often ruin such shows.

5

If they want real drama they just have to bring up that Bisimoto's custom made parts are actually made in China and his $1k+ headers make the same or less power as a generic header from Ebay. The media needs to seriously stop kissing this guy's ass.

6

They tried to stage drama; the script was painfully, paaainfully obvious.

7

Bisi gets so much shit in the Honda (and I've heard Porsche) community for his business ethics, but my god does he know how to build a monster. I'm loving this.

8

As someone on the outside who has no vested in interest in tuner bullshit, bisi or any of this I took a minute to read the thread and my only thought was how he didn't address the filler wire question directly. That alone would have me never buy a part from the guy, but that's just me.

His stuff is nice, but I think he's like most guys in the tuner industry. Pretty standard. Not sure why people are surprised.

9
Marcello Spineda

Now someone should tell Bisi,that we need a comparison (or race? :P ) between this and the odissey

Author10

I think that could be arranged!

11
thathellastockusdm3rdgenyaris@instagram

yeah man bisimoto was my push for wanting to make a v6 wagon van awd sleeper box, shag in the back and gap porsches in the morning and evening.

12

I love Bisi. He is quite the character. I had the opportunity to buy my grandfathers meticulously looked after Wagovan about 15 years ago and I always wish I did.
I wonder what power he is making? Probably hasn’t been tuned on the dyno yet due to the SEMA crunch.

Author13

I think he's going to live stream the first tune.

14

Now, someone that builds Toyota's needs to do a corolla all-trac wagon and have a little face off. :)

15
Austin Hunter Ridings

Wagons and Wagovans came with RT4WD, not AWD.

Author16

Amended, thanks.

17
Austin Hunter Ridings

Another weird detail about wagons: “Wagovan” was a trim level for 88’-89’ wagons.

Wagons came in the “Wagovan” trim, the most basic, DX (Deluxe) and RT4WD. True “Wagovans” are only FWD.

18

awesome build but Couldn't help notice how cool his logo is , its a B at normal vision but if u turn your head a bit its an M ... not mad at all

19

With the power hes about to put down i doubt those kw v3’s could handle. Should’ve gone with competition 3’s. just my 2 cents

20

What would you advise the internal gas pressure is charged to since you know so much? Just curious.

21

The v3’s? Or comp 3? Varies and depends on spring rate and fluid viscocity as well

V3’s around 2-3 bar
Comp 3 around 8-9 bar

22

And what are your thoughts about the role of bushings in the matter?

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