About Us

MY STORY

My name is Richard. I am a car enthusiast that lives in both Auckland, New Zealand, and Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.

Like many of my customers, I have a huge interest in cars, and gizzmos. If it wires up, beeps, flashes, or looks cool, I am in.

When I was a kid, I was into V8s. The roars, the rumbles, the smell of burning tires.

At age 13 I was building a 23 T-Bucket. I got the bug for wheeling and dealing, trading and collecting parts. I would spend my weekends cleaning and polishing parts, "spinning spanners", and learning how to properly use power tools. 

At age 19, I found myself back in New Zealand. I needed a car that was economical, modifiable, somewhat quick, and with decent handling. New Zealand had opened the doors to used Japanese vehicles. I went to the auctions, and bought myself a 1985 Honda CR-X Si, with a 1600cc ZC motor, and a PM7 ECU. It didnt take long for the car to be lowered, bigger exhaust, K&N filter, nice stereo, and a nice set of wheels. Never satisfied I bought myself an ECU chip from one of the big tuners of the time. It was EXPENSIVE. Once it arrived, I wasted no time in fitting it. I started the car. It started first pop. Success! I backed out of the driveway, and put the car in first. I hit the throttle, and dropped the clutch, and as the car took off, I thought to myself "WOW! What a fizzle!" I pulled back into the driveway, and switched off the car. Stewing over it, I thought to myself that I was a smart guy. Obviously, the ECU could be tuned (I had just bought a chip). I had experience in playing with carbs, so I understood air / fuel mixtures. How hard could this be? I started reading. And reading. And reading. And reading. I built myself an eprom programmer. I found a couple of forums online, and on the now defunct Yahoo e-groups. I chatted with other people that were trying to achieve the same goals. I read my stock chip, and my aftermarket chip into a computer format, and went through them bit by bit looking for differences. I found some, and with the help of the communities I had found, I managed to rewrite a modified tune to my own chip, and after what seemed like 1000 revisions, I got the old Honda running mean!

From there I had the bug. I really got into this new form of electronic wizardry! Fast forward more years than I want to count, and I have tinkered with every car I have owned, from Civics, to EVOs to Skylines, to WRX's..... Nothing was immune!  

 Havok Engineering is a new project that I have been working on. While it is a new business, it comes with many years of personal and work experience.

So stay tuned, and bookmark my page. While I have some pretty innovative, and unique products for sale now, the best is yet to come!