Is it time to replace your race suit? Let’s get you track-ready. Top Steering Wheel Upgrades and Boss Kits for the Honda Civic EP3
An EP3 is a car people keep for the engine and then spend years fixing the driving position. The seat sits high, the gearstick is up on the dashboard where you do not expect to find it, and the standard wheel feels further away than it should once you are properly strapped in.
So the question for this car is not how small a wheel you can get away with. It is how far towards you the rim needs to come.
Everything below is kit we stock. The boss kits are the two listed for this car by year rather than for Hondas in general, and prices sit on the live product cards so they stay right. The interior shot above is an illustration rather than a photograph of a customer car, and the product photography is our own.
The bit that makes all of this easy: 6x70mm PCD
Before anything else, the bit that stops this being complicated. MOMO, OMP, Sparco and Sabelt drill their wheels and their boss kits to the same six bolt pattern, 6x70mm PCD, and our own product pages say so. The MOMO Model 08 listing states a 6 x 70mm bolt hole pattern that fits most popular boss adaptors including MOMO, OMP and Sparco. The OMP Targa listing says it fits all standard MOMO, OMP and Sparco type boss kits.
So the brand on the hub does not have to match the brand on the wheel. A MOMO boss will take a Sabelt wheel. An OMP boss will take a MOMO wheel. A quick release goes in between and works with either, and the B-G universal is drilled for both 6x70mm and 6x74mm so it covers the odd one out.
Three decisions, and none of them constrain the others:
- The boss kit, which is chosen by the car
- The wheel, which is chosen by you
- The quick release, which is optional and chosen by how you use the car
Get the boss right and everything after it is free choice.
Which boss kit fits an EP3
Two, and both are listed for this car rather than for Hondas in general.
The B-G hub is named for the Type R and its year range, 2001 to 2005, is the EP3 exactly. The MOMO hub covers the 2001 to 2006 Civic, so the EP3 sits inside it along with the rest of that generation. Either one fits.
We list Honda Civic hubs from OMP and Sparco as well, under model names and year bands from other generations of the car. Match the years in the listing title to your own and you will not go wrong.
Both of these are drilled 6x70mm, so whichever you pick, every wheel further down this page bolts straight to it.
The five wheels I would put in an EP3
1. MOMO Montecarlo Microfibre
The road answer. 350mm with 40mm of dish, so the rim comes towards you a little without taking over the driving position. The microfibre is MOMO’s synthetic suede, and it is the one I would have if the car still does a commute, because it does not mind being handled every day. MOMO quote it at 1.13kg.
2. Sabelt SW-465
My pick for most EP3s. 65mm is the point where the rim genuinely arrives in your lap rather than just nudging towards you, and at 350mm the steering weight stays where you expect it. Suede grip, aluminium spokes, and the centre horn push comes in the box.
3. Sabelt SW-390
The same idea with the dish wound all the way out to 90mm. If there is a bucket seat and a harness in the car, this is the one, because the seat has moved you back and down and 90mm brings the rim back to meet you. On standard seats it is a lot of dish, and you will notice it climbing in.
4. OMP Targa 330
The flat one, and the only wheel here that goes smaller rather than closer. 330mm, no dish at all, and an oval 37 by 24mm grip in suede on aluminium spokes. OMP build it for saloon racing and rally use. If the EP3 is a track car and you would rather the wheel was out of the way of your knees than closer to your chest, this is the shape to have.
5. MOMO Model 08
85mm puts it within five millimetres of the SW-390, so choose between those two on trim rather than on reach. The Model 08 comes in suede or leather with a slim 30mm grip section, which suits smaller hands. Take it if you want leather, or if you prefer a thinner rim to hold.
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From £217.99 Excl. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Quick release, and whether you actually need one
A quick release sits between the boss kit and the wheel and lets you pull the wheel off the column. On an EP3 there is one reason to fit one that follows straight on from everything above.
If you have gone for 85 or 90mm of dish and put a bucket seat in, the wheel is now close to you by design, and getting in and out over a door bar or a harness stops being easy. Lifting the wheel off solves it in a second. That is the reason worth paying for. Security is the other reason people give, and it is a weaker argument than it used to be.
If the car is standard inside and you have picked the Targa or the Montecarlo, you do not need one.
Weld-on units are cheaper, but the column has to be machined, so that is a job for someone who has done it before. Bolt-on units cost more and go straight on. The B-G universal is drilled for both common patterns, so it will move to another car later.
Fitting it
An evening’s work, in this order:
- Battery disconnected first, so the horn and the warning lights behave afterwards
- Standard wheel off, then the boss kit onto the column splines
- Mark the column and the wheel before you undo the centre nut, so the new one goes back on straight
- The horn wiring runs through the boss kit, so there is nothing to cut
- Torque the centre nut properly and check the wheel is centred with the road wheels straight before you drive it
If you would rather we did it, we fit these in-store.
What I would actually buy
For a road EP3 on standard seats: the MOMO hub and the Montecarlo Microfibre. Forty millimetres of dish is a change you notice without it running the car.
For most EP3s, road with the odd track day: the B-G Type R hub and the Sabelt SW-465. This is the combination I would order.
For an EP3 with buckets and harnesses: the same hub, the SW-390 at 90mm, and a B-G quick release so you can still get in.
Final thoughts: on this car, dish beats diameter
On most cars the first question is how small a wheel to go to. On an EP3 it is worth turning that around. The seat sits high, the column sits where it sits, and moving the rim 65 or 90mm closer changes the driving position far more than dropping 20mm of diameter ever will.
So pick the dish first, then the trim, and let the boss kit be decided by the year of the car. Everything here shares the same 6x70mm pattern, so nothing you choose closes anything else off.
Working out those combinations is my job here, so if you are stuck between two of them, email us and ask for me. Tell me whether the car is on standard seats or buckets and I will tell you which one to buy. I am Cameron, by the way.