2013 Honda Civic Si: Competition for the Ford Focus ST? - Ignition Ep. 70 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 This is the Honda Civic Si.

00:10 That name is synonymous with the sport compact car

00:13 boom of the late '80s and early '90s.

00:15 Since then, there have been nine generations of this car,

00:19 some more successful than others.

00:22 How about the 2013 model, then?

00:25 Well, the hardware seems right.

00:27 You have a 201-horse 2.4-liter four

00:30 connected to a six-speed manual, a limited-slip differential,

00:34 and sticky Michelin summer tires.

00:36 It received an early update, along

00:38 with the rest of the Civic lineup,

00:40 after some disappointing reviews for the 2012 model.

00:43 Is it enough in this increasingly

00:45 competitive segment?

00:46 This week, we find out.

00:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:54 Now, traditionally, launching a Honda for an acceleration run

01:04 required that you just rev the hell out of it

01:06 and dump the clutch just to keep it in its power band.

01:08 Now that we have more torque lower in the rev range,

01:11 we found the best acceleration was

01:13 from a launch at about 2,000 RPM.

01:17 You have wheelspin through first.

01:19 It ends just as you shift into second gear.

01:23 You'll hit 60 and third at 6.1 seconds.

01:28 Shifter's easy to row.

01:30 Engine sounds very nice.

01:32 And you feel the power at about 6,800 RPM.

01:38 For a 60 to 0 braking test, we have some pretty sticky tires.

01:46 Our best stop from 60 took 109 feet.

01:49 [TIRES SCREECHING]

01:50 Yeah!

01:51 Now we start the figure eight test.

01:57 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:00 You can feel the limited slip fighting

02:02 that power on corner exit.

02:04 You've got to be mindful with throttle application.

02:06 You can enter aggressively.

02:07 You basically just have to chuck this car into a corner.

02:11 Mid-corner, there is a fair amount of understeer,

02:13 mild to moderate.

02:15 It doesn't have the rotation that some other cars

02:19 in this segment now have.

02:20 The power is good.

02:21 And it's fun seeing the tach just

02:23 stay between 6,000 and 7,000 RPM the whole time

02:26 around the track.

02:28 Sounds great, too.

02:30 Pretty easy to heel and toe.

02:31 This transmission doesn't give me any trouble.

02:33 At least the shifter doesn't give me any trouble.

02:37 And you can tell there's a lot of grip in the tire.

02:39 This thing put down a very good lap time.

02:44 Still, it doesn't have the engagement mid-corner.

02:49 And you can just chuck it in.

02:51 And it just defaults to understeer.

02:53 And then you're just on and off the throttle,

02:55 waiting until you can go full throttle.

02:58 And then you have to apply it gradually,

03:00 because you can't overwhelm these front tires with power.

03:05 Versus last year's model, we have beefier anti-roll bars.

03:09 We have a quicker steering ratio.

03:11 But I still think this car needs a little bit more

03:14 to perform better around a limit handling track.

03:19 I want some rotation out of the rear.

03:21 I want to be able to control the line of the car.

03:23 I can't do that with the way this is set up.

03:25 Now, it is fast.

03:26 It's certainly fast.

03:27 It's putting down a good lap time.

03:29 But I want more control out of it.

03:38 The Civic Si has always been a light, fun, sporty car.

03:43 It's one that you can throw around and enjoy very quickly.

03:48 It's always had a free revving, high revving engine,

03:52 very good control over the chassis.

03:55 Now, let's talk about what the Civic Si has always been.

03:59 We have a 7,000 RPM redline, an engine

04:01 that sounds better and better the closer you get to it.

04:05 We have pretty much idiot-proof handling.

04:08 This car has a lot of grip.

04:10 You have good control through the steering,

04:12 not a lot of feedback from the road,

04:14 but decent control nonetheless.

04:16 But I want to get back to the engine.

04:18 It's been a big issue for a lot of enthusiasts

04:21 about the Civic Si, that it only has 2.4 liters and no power

04:25 at her.

04:25 It's not supercharged or turbocharged,

04:27 even though the GTI is, the Mazda Speed 3 is, the Focus ST is.

04:33 And I'm not sure that power is the big problem

04:38 with the Si.

04:38 We have 201 horsepower.

04:41 This thing is as fast as a GTI with a manual, or a BRZ or FRS

04:46 in a straight line.

04:47 It has plenty of power.

04:49 And the character of a high revving engine,

04:52 the sound this makes, I'd argue, is

04:55 more enjoyable than the benefit of torque

04:57 that you'd get out of a turbocharger.

04:59 I like spinning engines high to redline.

05:01 I like the sound they make when you get close to redline.

05:04 Now, this, of course, doesn't get as high as a redline

05:07 as former Civic Si's have had.

05:09 I mean, we've had Civics that rev to 8,500 RPM.

05:14 And while I'd hate to define a car by a redline,

05:18 revving past 8,000 is a lot of fun.

05:21 Still, though, we have a lower redline,

05:25 but we have more torque.

05:27 Now, we have like 170 pound feet,

05:29 really low in the rev range.

05:30 I mean, the 2006 Civic made, I think,

05:33 4 pound feet at like 6,000 RPM.

05:36 It was kind of silly.

05:38 But now we have a more usable power band.

05:40 You can leave this car in a higher gear

05:43 and just stay around the torque peak

05:44 and thread the car like a needle through the road.

05:48 You feel the power surge a bit more right at about 6,800 RPM.

05:53 And you do get that metallic four-cylinder Honda sound.

05:58 That is a good noise.

06:03 What I want out of a Civic Si is an aggressive chassis.

06:06 And that's where this car might be letting me down a little bit.

06:09 Not to say it's slow or boring or not fun.

06:13 It's all of those.

06:15 It put down great handling numbers around our figure 8.

06:19 It can maintain speeds comparable with a Focus ST,

06:23 with a BRZ or an FR-S. But for some reason,

06:27 it's not as enjoyable as those cars to throw around.

06:31 And I'm trying to figure out why.

06:33 Well, for one, there's the fact that there's

06:35 not a lot of mid-corner rotation if you lift off the throttle.

06:38 You don't get a lot of sense of the chassis eager to work

06:41 and play with you.

06:42 Once it generates those high levels of grip,

06:45 that's all it does.

06:46 It's hard to modify our line.

06:47 It's easy to pinpoint.

06:49 And this car won't surprise you at all.

06:51 But it doesn't challenge you either.

06:58 The Civic Si was never the track-focused performance car.

07:03 That job was left to the Type R. Never mind that we never

07:06 got the Civic Type R in the US, but that was the distinction.

07:09 But the fact that we still don't get the Type R in the US,

07:12 it makes you long for something more out of the Si.

07:16 Sure, the interior is nice.

07:17 You have carbon fiber trim.

07:19 You have some chrome doodads and stuff.

07:22 But I kind of want the car to be rarer, lighter, more focused,

07:27 more happy to abuse a mountain road.

07:32 But this is very capable.

07:34 One thing I will say I really admire about this car

07:36 is that there is no sport mode.

07:38 You don't have to do anything to access

07:40 the fun parts of the car.

07:42 You just turn the traction control off and go for it.

07:45 You don't have to select sport shifting.

07:47 You don't have to change the throttle map.

07:49 It's always in fast fun mode.

07:51 That's great.

07:51 Keep that up.

07:56 Now, I've mentioned the Focus ST several times.

07:58 And let's talk a little bit more about that.

08:00 It's uncomfortable how close that car is to this one

08:04 in terms of price.

08:05 Now, sure, this car is cheaper as the base model.

08:08 But you don't want that.

08:09 You want the version with summer tires.

08:12 Now, if you do that, you're about $700, $800 away

08:15 from a Focus ST without any options on it,

08:19 but a Focus ST nonetheless.

08:21 And then when you realize that, it

08:23 starts becoming difficult to find reasons

08:26 to choose the Honda, unless you really like Hondas

08:30 and you really like naturally aspirated engines.

08:33 But there's the chassis of the Focus ST,

08:36 which is its strong point, that you can control it and modify

08:40 the line through a corner with so much control.

08:45 That's what it offers its driver.

08:46 It offers its driver so much more than the Civic SI.

08:51 Not that the Civic SI is bad.

08:53 It's just that the Focus seems to have

08:55 elevated what these cars can do or when they should do.

08:58 The sport compact car segment is changing and growing rapidly

09:05 more competitive.

09:06 While the Civic is offering plenty of features,

09:08 other entrants are offering more power or more aggressive

09:11 suspension tuning, or both at once.

09:14 The interesting thing is that the Civic SI

09:16 is the same as it ever was.

09:18 We're happy you can still get it with a high-revving,

09:21 naturally aspirated engine.

09:22 We're happy it's still quick and fun to drive.

09:25 And we're happy those traits haven't changed.

09:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:47 (upbeat music)

2013 Honda Civic Si: Competition for the Ford Focus ST? - Ignition Ep. 70

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