a long time ago, at a more tender age back when i could throw a couple back for a night and not be hungover for 3 straight days afterwards, i got a ride around VIR in a buddy's black Type-R during a DE weekend. that thing was a howling riot, and did things i didn't think a FWD car could/should do. shortly afterwards, i ended up rooming with another friend who had a '99 Si. that car was just a masochist....i developed an admiration for how it seemed to want to be beaten relentlessly and kept asking for more while driving like an overgrown go-kart. not the fastest cars, but they were unfiltered and alive, and it stuck with me ever since.
fast forward a decade and a half, and in late summer 2017 my beloved 2.5RS got punted at a red light. i'm faced with a dilemma - i'm a family man that needed a compact, fun, utilitarian and efficient car that was as reliable but also as "analog" as the subaru, but i wanted more power and a better chassis that didn't require so much tweaking to make it handle not like garbage. had to have a manual tranny and a real back seat + trunk, and more modern safety amenities. but beyond all that, it had to have a sense of character and occasion, and i came to find that very few cars in the sub-$15k range can measure up to that list.
for 3 straight weeks after my wreck, i looked at everything, and even started breaking my own rules to make something fit. i mean, literally, from Toyota X-Runners to Honda Crosstours to E91 wagons to IS300s. i had things narrowed down in the end to 2 finalists - the MKVII GTI and 8th Gen Si. Truth be told, they're very opposite characters, but each had strengths in certain areas and i had to figure out what felt the most fitting. i knew the GTI was a powerhouse and had the benefit of that awesome hatchback utility. but i still remembered those days i spent in those old hondas....man they were good. were they still that good? i had to find out.
first up was the GTI, but long story short, despite lots of crazy August discounts last year and plenty of seemingly willing dealerships, there was a lot of cat and mouse BS sales tactics and i couldn't land one for the price i felt comfortable with. it also didn't make much sense in reality - i work from home and drive about 5,000 miles a year. i'd be taking a big depreciation hit while my Shiny New Thing™ sat in the garage most of the time, collecting dust and running out its warranty. so, that chapter was over.
enter Round 2 of the car hunt, which then became finding and driving a clean, unmolested 8th Gen Si with less than a billion miles on it for reasonable money. i test drove one locally, which was a smoker's car with a string of hazy ownership records and a couple half-assed modifications. i had to try it out though. i got hold of a salesman, took the car out, and by the first on-ramp it was clear these cars were special. truly a dual personality car - relaxed enough when you're just moving around, typical civic. but crest that 6,000 rpm limit and lean on the suspension and its angry, and dynamic, and full of racecar noises that gave me "the fizz". i loved the driver interface, everything where it needs to be for performance driving and the inputs are Right Now - steering, clutch, shifter. tons of room inside too, for what they are. seemed to be stout build quality as well. i made a note of it, left, and decided this was the answer. i came to the realization that these Si's are sort of the "Last Mohicans" of the golden age of high-RPM VTEC hondas. only 4 honda models ever came to the states with an 8,000+ RPM redline, LSD, and 6 speed 'box: the S2000, NSX, ITR and 8th Gen Si. in short, honda will never build a car like this again for emissions reasons, combined with the horsepower wars, which demand turbo power and lower revs. the newer civics will be faster, sure, but the experience i loved will be gone. i was committed to finding my own rev-happy honda driving experience.
it became obvious very quickly that i had taken on a task that may require therapy. finding a decent 8th gen coupe is easy, but a sedan? forgettaboutit. over the course of 2 weeks i test drove 3 different Si's and attempted to purchase 2 of them in 2 different states, both deals falling apart in the final hour either due to negotiations not working out or the seller's life events taking the car back off the market. with my insurance rental gone at this point, i had about a week to figure this out or i'd have to just settle for what i could find locally, and to be honest i was getting emotionally drained anyway.
finally, in what felt like the 11th hour of the final inning of the last game, i came up on an Autotrader ad buried at the bottom of a list of cars, for an Si at a little tiny "mom & pop" dealer right here in GA, that checked every box I was hoping for: nice color, 09-11 MY, 1 owner southern car and UNMOLESTED. i cannot put too fine a point on how hard it is to find one of these things in anything resembling stock condition. higher miles than i wanted, but it looked great. So, I had to jam over to the bank right before it closed before the Labor Day weekend, and then hit the road way early Saturday. The owner, Ron, was super cool and I found out he's a racer as well with an S2000. he agreed to hold the car for me and give me right of first refusal.
within a mile, i'm sold. clean as a whistle and drives great. so as i'm driving it, Ron gets 2 calls - one guy wants to come buy the car today, and another guy from TN is trying to buy it sight unseen, over the phone, with a credit card. holy crap! apparently i'm not the only one who really wants one of these. no more screwing around, let's get a check in this guy's hand. i felt like Indiana Jones outrunning the boulder trap and escaping with the gold idol....but i made it.
and so, finally, later that day i pulled this into the driveway:
2010, 92k mostly highway miles, almost new tires, rust free. Dyno Blue Pearl. it has some warts, sure - a couple good rock chips, some spider cracking in the paint on the rear bumer from a boop, the wheels are chewed up from some sloppy parallel parking, and a cracked fog light. overall though, it just rips and feels as tight as a car with far less miles.
current plan is to just love on it, drive it as much as i can, and do some DE events. i'd love to rallyx it, but i'm currently being a huge pansy trying to get over not wanting to get it all dirty.
immediately after getting it home, it got a couple service items:
- full detail inside and out
- new oil/filter and Honda MTF for the 'box
- air intake and cabin filters
- touch up paint ordered
- battery tie-down brace cleaned and re-sprayed black
- installed and hardwired my old dashcam
- OEM mudflaps f/r
mod plans will be pretty straightforward updates to ensure the car is capable of turning a drama-free HPDE weekend while remaining as stock as possible and daily driver friendly. its incredibly tempting to throw parts at the engine....a reliable 230whp is completely formulaic with bolt-ons at this point. but, i really enjoy it just the way it is, and i've never been a "numbers guy" anyway, so these parts will come in slowly:
- TSX front caliper upgrade with proper performance pads f/r
- shift knob (just a thing i do to make it "mine")
- Hondata Flashpro tune
- oil pan baffle (long way off, that's a big job
- some real sticky tires once i burn off the garbage Hankook Ventus that are on there now