For Honda's sportiest Civic, sex appeal is down, but the fun factor is up.
When the Honda Civic Si was redesigned in 2001, it caused much consternation among devoted Civic Si-chos. Out went the previous car's double-wishbone front suspension and BMW 3-series silhouette, in came a tall, boxy hatchback body, front struts and—Heresy!—a 6800-rpm redline for the i-VTEC four-cylinder, down from 8,000 rpm. The more mature engine also grew from 1.6 to 2.0 liters. Fans of The Fast and the Furious were aghast and not curious.
Which is too bad, because the current car is quite nice in many ways, if not as extreme as its predecessor. Styling is a matter of taste, but at least the hatchback Si is faster than it looks, while the 1999-2000 model was, arguably, the other way around. In fact, on my way out to the Si in a parking lot, a woman actually asked me if it was an electric car. Maybe she thought "VTEC" stood for Veggie-Thermo Energy Converter, maybe it was the copy of How to Build a Solar-Powered Commune I was carrying in my recycled hemp shopping basket, but that's not the type of question you expect to field when you're driving a high-performance vehicle. Suffice it to say that the Civic Si is a sleeper.
The Si's 2.0-liter engine makes the same 160 horsepower as the old 1.6, but it now eeks out 132 pound-feet of torque at 5000 rpm. The 1.6 was good for only 111 pound-feet, which is roughly the amount of torque exerted by a five-year-old opening a bottle of Flintstones vitamins, and it produced that paltry amount at an RPM best expressed in scientific notation.... Read full article