20 Years Leap
2019 Honda Civic Si Coupe vs 1999 Honda Civic Si Coupe- Car Comparison
This is a shoot-out between 2 fresh out Honda Civic Si roadsters. The twist is that Honda built one in every one of them, the 1999 Civic Si, 20 years ago, and it’s arguably the foremost pristine example within the world.
The other may be a 2019 Honda Civic Si coupe fresh off the East Liberty mechanical system, although its odometer already reads 2750 miles. It is also the foremost powerful Civic Siever and therefore the first to be fitted with a turbocharger. These two machines bookend the Civic’s sport compact heyday and driving them back to back shows just how far that movement has come across the last twenty years. Obviously, the performance gains since those youth are significant, but we’ve also lost something along the way.
The Revolutionary
Honda lit the Civic Si’s fuse with the primary hatchback model in 1984. When a V-8 Chevy Camaro just made 150 drives, the 91-hp Civic Si was bold, and deals went on until 1987. The Civic’s fourth-generation landed in 1988, but the Si didn’t reappear until 1989, once more only as a hatchback. With the Civic’s fifth-age sold from 1992 to 1995, Honda at long last offered a roadster body style, yet the Si still just as accessible as a hatchback.
1999 Honda Civic Si Coupe
Honda, at last, observed the daylight in 1996 and presented the 6th era of the Civic and subsequently the principal Civic Si roadster, however just in Japan. When it finally arrived within us in 1999, it powered by Honda’s B16 VTEC-equipped double-overhead-cam 1.6-liter inline-four making 100 horses per liter and revving to a sky-high 8500 rpm. It had been so good, so on point; it helped ignite the fashionable revolution of small-car, small-displacement performance that lives on 20 years later.
2019 Honda Civic Si Coupe
Sales lasted just two model years, and therefore the number sold seems to be lost to history. Because the Si was a trim level and not a definite model, even Honda claims ignorance. No matter color, they’ve become proper classics, and values are climbing rapidly.
More Torque, More Speed
In an age when it seems all cars have grown significantly larger and heavier, the Civic Si hasn’t plumped up all that much within the past 20 years. Now in its third model year, the present Si weighs about 2900 pounds, roughly 300 pounds over the old car, and its wheelbase and overall length and width have only grown some inches. The old vehicle’s significantly airier nursery causes it to seem taller; however, it’s a large portion of an in. lower. From behind the 2019 Si’s girthy, leather-wrapped wheel, it feels bigger and bulkier than its grandfather, but that sensation is more an element of its thicker pillars and smaller windows than an extreme increment in measurements or mass.
2019 Honda Civic Si Coupe
There isn’t a lot of a dislodging contrast in the engine either; however, these two Hondas’ powerplant couldn’t be increasingly unique. The new car’s 1.5-liter is turbocharged and swallows over 20 psi of boost to create 205 horsepower at 5700 rpm and 192 lb-ft of torque at just 2100 revs. Its powerband goes ahead simply off inactive, however, it’s delayed to fire up, and it’s completely done at 6600 RPM, where it hits a forceful fuel cut-off. It likewise decelerates gradually, clinging to fires up with each rigging change, which may make it trickier to drive easily.
By comparison, the old car naturally aspirated 1.6-liter feels as if it absolutely plucked from an auto. Its power delivery is all at the highest of its tach, impending strong at about 5600 rpm. That is the point at which the VTEC variable valve timing and lift framework changes to its progressively forceful camshaft profile, expanding power and turning up the inner burning music.
More Torque, More Speed
This was the primary Civic Si to induce VTEC for both its intake and exhaust valves, a bit like the first NSX, and therefore the B16 revs quickly and cleanly. It makes 160 ponies at 7600 rpm and redlines at 8000 fires up. But don’t shift just yet. Hold that gear until you kiss the fire up limiter at 8500 RPM. It’s no wonder this car was a sensation.
The B16’s upper-rpm pull is addictive, but you actually must wring its neck to stay the ability flowing, and even then, the Si isn’t exactly quick by today’s standards. After we drove it sort of a stolen rental at the test trackback within the day, the zero-to-60-mph dash took 7.1 seconds. If you reside your life a quarter-mile at a time, you have 15.7 seconds at 88 mph before you reside again. Today, that’s about the performance of the bottom Civic coupe. Tragically, it’s very much simple to get the little unboosted motor off the tune, in spite of the short equipping of the Si’s five-speed manual and its 4.40:1 last drive proportion, which makes it a screamer on the highway. At just 70 mph in fifth gear, the four-cylinder is popping at 4000 RPM. You constantly end up trying to find another gear that just isn’t there.
Although we appreciate the simplicity and sound of the old car, progress is progress, and therefore the drag strip doesn’t reward sentimentality. But the performance gap isn’t as radical as you may expect: Shifting the fashionable Si coupe’s six-speed manual transmission for all its worth, a 2017 model needed 6.3 seconds to accomplish 60 mph in our past testing and controlled through the quarter-mile in 14.8 seconds at 96 mph.
No Contest When the Road Turns
The performance gap between the 2 cars widens considerably when the road turns twisty. With its bigger tires, firmer suspension, and more extensive tracks, the new Civic Si offers impressively more grasp. The old vehicle, nonetheless, doesn’t humiliate itself on mountain streets. In 1999, Honda fitted the Si with 25 percent stiffer front springs, 33 percent stiffer back springs, and a front swagger pinnacle support.
It also added a thicker front anti-roll bar, and it absolutely was the sole Civic with a rear anti-roll bar. Its four-wheel disc brakes were larger moreover, as were its 195-millimeter-wide all-season tires, which wrapped around seven-spoke, 15-inch aluminum wheels. There’s somebody roll at the old SI’s handling limit, but not enough to be an issue, and therefore the car is wonderfully planted in fast sweepers, where it takes a pleasant set and its soft suspension soaks up mid-corner bumps. You must know about the firm suspension and soft suspension.
Today’s Civic Si is that the best Honda has ever produced, and it remains one among the premier front-wheel-drive performance bargains within the world. Still, we discover ourselves drawn to the mechanical honesty of the 1999 model. From the raw feedback and response of its B16 engine to the direct mechanical action of its shifter, there’s over a touch first-generation NSX in its experience—enough to create these cars eternally desirable. Despite its additional performance, features, and refinement, you’ve got to wonder if we’ll be drawn to this Si as strongly 20 years down the road. If we discover one with just 930 miles on its clock, we just might.
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