2006 Honda Civic Si Road Test
The Torqueless Wonder
This thing is loud, its obnoxious, and its perfect for me. I jest, I jest. Its not exactly perfect for me, but its so much like me that I had to get that off my hairy chest right away. Those were my primary first impressions, which remain relatively unchanged at the end of a week-long stint, but I learned how to extract almost every ounce of go-juice from this torqueless wonder. Yeah, 197 horsepower is all well and good, but 139 lb-ft of torque? I think I used to drive a riding mower that had more low-end grunt. Okay, I exaggerate, but the inflated horsepower, low torque and boy-racer muffler means youre in for a lot of loud, heavy-footed clutch drops and a lick of spinning rubber before the limited slip differential kicks in and launches you away from traffic.
Nonetheless, despite all the acrid smoke and screaming revs, traffic was securely on my bumper, something I got used to losing in the WRX Id recently driven; but that was clearly an unfair advantage with all-wheel drive putting 235 lb-ft of torque down to all four Bridgestone Blizzak winter boots, in the slush and snow no less. Sadly, even the base Impreza puts out 166 lb-ft, never mind the Sis true competition, like the VW GTI and its 207 lb-ft or the equally torquey Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged. Still, the Si fits the sporty bill, but nowhere will you see me attach powerful as a descriptive of its performance, as its power is all smoke and noise. Once you get around its hobbled jump off the line, the Si rounds into form (or, more appropriately, rounds the corner in fine form, meaning exceptionally flat through the apex) with many nice touches to help you forget any inadequacies you may experience from stoplights, because while industry standard rates everything by 0 to 60 mph, fun in the city is all about 0-30 and 0-40 times, or just plain being awake enough to surprise the old lady with the big hair in her Mercedes AMG.