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This reminds me a lot of myself 15yrs ago.. I delivered pizzas in my '91 Civic STD (70hp 1.5L). That was the beginning of the fart car era and I was a pioneering loud imports... and yes, everyone wanted to race.
I did some mods to get better fuel economy (without knowing what I was doing) because all I really wanted was power. I put lightened pulleys, flywheel and lighter wheels, lowered 2" and swapped out the 4 speed for an Si 5-speed (the DX 5-speed would have been better for FE, but I didn't know that at the time, nor care). I did do the big intake and exhaust with a header, hi-flow cat and cat back, which I later dialed back to a Flowmaster 40 over the fart can and went to a SRI to avoid hydro locking the engine like CAIs at the time were doing.
In retrospect a lot of the go fast and performance oriented mods made the car more efficient and faster at the top end, but the intake, header and exhaust probably hurt more than helped FE.
I also removed all my seats except the driver seat (on certain days we deliver to elementary schools for lunch so I'd have between 100-150 pizzas in my hatchback. With no front seat, that was awesome!
In any event, have fun and enjoy personalizing your car.. but I'd be sure to think about how you want the final project to look/perform (FE or fast or a mixture of the 2) and then work towards your goal. I've made that mistake in the past bolting on parts and then selling and buying more that we're compatible, which wastes money. Good luck!
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