If you’re a fan of EngineLabs, there’s a much-less-than-zero chance you like more than just domestic V8 power. You are in good company, as we love pretty much anything that turns hydrocarbons into horsepower, regardless of how many cylinders it has, or how much displacement. (In fact, we spent the weekend working on a 35cc single-cylinder engine, and having as much fun as any other engine project.) That brings us to the subject of our article — a new video series from Skunk2 diving into the history of performance Honda engine technology.

Technical Difficulties takes Skunk2’s founder, Dave Hsu, and pairs him with famed racer and engine builder Jay Meagher of RS Garage, and longtime tuning powerhouse Jamie Marsh of Marsh Tuning. The trio discusses the beginning of the sport compact tuning movement, the challenges faced early on, when the market was demanding neon underglow as much — if not more — than well-engineered camshafts.

The trio discusses different concepts in a relaxed, conversational environment, with a number of visual aids utilized to make things easy to understand.

However, the flash died away, and the hardcore performance companies survived. The Honda performance market was always the most technically advanced subset of the sport compact world (save for the years when GM Performance was backing the EcoTec platform), and as the enthusiasts matured, they were more interested in the finer details of engine performance.

Recognizing that, Hsu enlisted the help of Brandon McCray — who you remember from producing several Horsepower Wars series — to put together the Technical Difficulties series. Not only to go down memory lane and immortalize the early days of sport compact performance engineering, but also to help educate everyone on more advanced engine concepts going forward.

There are currently five episodes live on the Skunk2 Racing YouTube channel, with no end in sight, as it’s scheduled to be an ongoing series to talk about all aspects of engine performance. For us, it’s a nice trip back to our roots in the sport compact world with some extremely knowledgeable individuals on engine performance in general.