Our 2022 Honda Civic Si Tracks Watkins Glen

30,000-Mile Update

During our 11-month stewardship with the long-term 2022 Honda Civic Si, we’ve spent the last 30,000 miles professionally goofing off. Short of adding Hello Kitty grab-handle charms or doubling the ground clearance with large chrome wheels, we’ve stayed true to Civic ownership. That is, we’ve expended money on fun stuff—aftermarket parts to enhance our track days—rather than out-of-pocket maintenance. In fact, we’ve not added an additional drop of oil outside the suggested service intervals.

While the Honda’s reliability doesn’t come as a huge surprise, as this 11th-generation Civic shares so much with the well-established previous car, our staff hasn’t been shy about pointing out the new car’s paucity of creature comforts. For instance, heated seats are standard on the less expensive Civic EX but aren’t even an option on the Si. “A Michigan December and no heated seats is a recipe for a cold ass,” noted associate news editor and future bare-all cookbook author Jack Fitzgerald. In fact, the Civic Si’s logbook mentions heated seats more times than the marketing literature for the Acura Integra. Which is a lot like the Civic Si but gets the toasty seats and adaptive dampers our staff keeps spilling ink over.

Despite its cold cushions, our Civic Si continues to warm hearts. On the heels of our road trip to Florida’s Sebring International Raceway that we chronicled in the last update, we packed tools, race wheels and tires, and a fresh pair of Carbotech XP12 front brake pads for another instructional weekend, with the National Auto Sport Association’s Northeastern Region playing host at Watkins Glen International in New York.

Whereas Sebring’s elevation changes can be measured in mere inches, Watkins Glen’s stretch into feet. Getting a corner wrong stings worse when you’re forced to live with your mistakes during the slow climb into the next one. The Si’s 200-hp turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder, which redlines at paltry 6600 rpm, is hushed even when it’s working hard. But the Civic’s Blazing Orange Pearl paint is loud enough to compensate, garnering notice from a student in a Z06 who obliged with a point-by. Some tears are happy ones.

Watkins Glen welcomes a variety of motorsports and sanctioning bodies, including NASCAR, IMSA, a vintage grand prix, and the occasional ChampCar race. During our fall weekend with NASA, we experienced the Glen’s 3.4-mile Grand Prix Circuit. This includes the Boot section that IMSA uses, adding four additional turns to the shorter 2.4-mile NASCAR circuit. The Glen was also home to Formula 1 for 20 years starting in 1961, so it’s a fun place to fantasize about greatness while sharpening fundamentals.

Our instructor, Matt Bookler, has raced at Watkins Glen longer than F1 did. He spent his 20s racing CRXs and Civics in NASA track events and claims three class records at the Glen, plus a championship trophy. He’s learned how to extract the quickest laps from front-wheel-drive track weaponry and has instructed a flock of drivers from NASA’s Honda Challenge group, including one who went on to a national championship. In other words: the guy you want slinging advice from the right seat of your Si.

Attacking the Glen’s 11 turns in a 200-hp car keeps you from ever getting lonely. Experienced drivers in Corvettes and Supras torched us on the high-speed front and back stretches, but we weren’t so easy to catch in areas that required careful throttle application. Tight corners like the Chute and Turn 10 made for quite a few entertaining David-versus-Goliath moments. Bookler had us trying a few different lines, carefully moving us deeper into braking zones, testing the limits of the Si’s upgraded brakes. The set of Yokohama Advan Neova AD09 tires we used at Sebring had plenty of life left for the Glen. We managed 108 mph at the top of the esses and cruised to 122 mph before braking for the Inner Loop.

When Bookler wasn’t in our Civic, we were in his. His 1993 Civic—powered by a trusty 2.4-liter (K24) inline-four that he shifts at 8000 rpm—is full metal hamster. Hitting VTEC in this thing is like holding a stethoscope to a horny cicada. His car, like ours, lacked heated seats—unlike ours, it was missing some window glass and actual interior door handles. Riding as a passenger in a race car isn’t pleasant. Just contorting your body to get into it feels like evidence of trespassing. But the yoga is worth it, because watching the champ at work provides valuable insight that we might later apply to our decidedly more modest Civic track ambitions.

On the track, the Si burned through its 93 octane like hemp at a harvest fest. We averaged 8 mpg at the Glen, in stark contrast to the 32 mpg achieved on the seven-hour drive home to Car and Driver headquarters.

Soon thereafter, the onset of winter temperatures signaled a tire change. We swapped the Advans for Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 winter rubber from Tire Rack. Though the majority of Michigan’s winter has been a snowless, dreary muck, the Blizzaks have helped keep the Si out of the ditch while we hatch plans for its next track day.

Months in Fleet: 11 months Current Mileage: 30,303 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 31 mpg
Fuel Tank Size: 12.4 gal Observed Fuel Range: 380 miles
Service: $218 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0
Damage and Destruction: $759

20,000-Mile Update

Biting at the ankles of a Porsche 911 GT3 through Sebring International Raceway’s Gendebien Bend with enough momentum to nearly overtake it made me feel like IMSA’s Mario Farnbacher. Unfortunately, I’m no Farnbacher. And instead of his NSX race car, I’m swinging through the gears in Car and Driver‘s long-term 200-hp Honda Civic Si. To say the nearly 3000-mile round trip from our Michigan office for an instructional weekend with the Florida region of the National Auto Sport Association was worth those few seconds is to state the obvious: Hell yeah they were.

We drove for nearly 20 hours to the Sunshine State, the rear seats stuffed with a fresh set of 18-inch OZ Racing Ultraleggera wheels wrapped in Yokohama’s new Advan Neova AD09 track tires. The rest of the tools and luggage fit cleanly in the trunk—no need for a trailer. And with a full track-weekend payload, the Civic Si averaged 31 mpg.

Getting the Finger in Traffic

A far cry from Honda’s TCA race car, our long-term Civic Si donned easy-to-install upgrades that come highly recommended for track use. We fit fresh OE rotors, Carbotech XP12 brake pads (which we built ourselves at Carbotech, as detailed in our last update), Castrol React SRF Racing DOT 4 brake fluid, and the lighter OZ 18-inch wheels that we sourced from Tire Rack.

For this exercise, NASA’s Florida region kindly hosted us to experience the High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) program offered at tracks across the U.S. There are four levels of HPDE, and as someone who’s done more Gran Turismo than Green Hell, I started in HPDE1 with the rest of the noobs. These educational weekends deliver over three-and-a-half hours of track driving, with brief in-class instruction.

Passing is restricted to straightaways, and it’s up to the slower car to decide where and when the faster drivers will overtake. This is called a point-by. It’s an additional safety net to keep cars from trading paint. When new drivers try to articulate simple communication, hilarity often ensues as they point cars toward the grass or an impassable wall. On one occasion, the driver ahead of us pointed directly up into the air. Lacking the 55 inches of ground clearance needed to make a clean pass over that car, we waited for the next straight.

Our plea for more horsepower during our first drive in the Si escalated to flat-out begging during Sebring’s speedy sections, including the front straight, Flying Fortress Straight, and especially on the Ulmann Straight. While the Si doesn’t have the angry ring of high-revving VTEC Civics of the past, its humble exhaust note is just barely loud enough to notify you when you’re reaching the 6600-rpm redline.

There’s no wrestling with torque steer when exiting corners at full blast, and the car’s helical limited-slip differential in combination with Yokohama’s track rubber delivered exceptional grip. We discovered that nothing scrapes or explodes when you bounce through the curbing in Turns 4 and 5; the sporty suspension settles nicely without upsetting the car.

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Jerry Speaks, We Listen

Our instructor, Jerry Mathis, spoke into the microphone with the rapidness of a NASCAR spotter. “Turn in here. Ya left about six feet between you and the apex on that one. Don’t worry about this clown; we don’t know what he’s gonna do here. Remember, just drive your line.” Jerry flew MH-47G Chinook helicopters for the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and he previously was an instructor pilot in the AH-6 Little Bird gunship and flew UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters in the Gulf War. He’s the perfect instructor for us, taking things as serious as we’d hope and offering extra instruction via cocktail napkin and YouTube videos in the hotel bar the night before.

“The Beast,” as his 2019 Dodge Challenger Redeye is known around the paddock, feels like a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) neck exercise from the passenger’s seat. While Mathis’s Hellcat approached 150 mph on the Ulmann Straight, our Civic did 111 mph—provided we got the exit of the preceding Le Mans corner mostly right.

Our group included more than 25 cars, including Corvettes, Mustangs, Bimmers, and a batch of recently purchased Toyota Supras and GR86s cashing in on the included NASA membership and complimentary track day. With Mathis’s help, toward the end the day, instead of only giving point-bys, we caught up to some BMW 330is and C8 Corvettes in higher HPDE classes, forcing them to point us by.

Out of Quarters

NASA maintains that HPDE is strictly for educational purposes, but it takes a lot to subdue the instinct to drive competitively on the track. At some point during a Sunday-morning session, I was fine-tuning clean and smooth arcs around Collier Curve. Less than 24 hours earlier, I couldn’t have told you where the bathrooms were.

After a gnarly thunderstorm came and went, Mathis and I were the only two who stuck around for the final session. It was a wet one. The apexes we had so intensely practiced clipping earlier had flooded into inland lakes. Our Blazing Orange Pearl Civic Si splashed its way to the end of an exciting weekend. As we crossed the final checkered flag, Mathis’s voice came through the headset as smoothly as a prerecorded ATC message: “Out of quarters.”

What’s the Damage?

After the first few hot laps in each session, the car would show a brake-system warning light until we cycled the ignition before the next outing. The owner’s manual says this is designed to warn drivers of a brake-system malfunction. We’re not sure why the message kept popping up; with our upgraded brakes and higher-temp fluid, the brake pedal remained firm on the track and all the way back home.

We were quick to reinstall the original brake rotors and pads once we returned to our HQ in Michigan. Despite serious track time between two large swaths of highway driving, the Civic Si required no additional oil or coolant. We did notice that the dust boots around the front calipers appeared to have undergone some light blowtorching, but not enough to warrant replacement.

To date, the only significant damage to the Civic Si occurred off-track. The windshield, slapped by a stone, cracked and had to be replaced. The universally popular excuse more commonly known as “supply issues” had us looking through the rather distracting glass crosshairs for more than two weeks before an aftermarket windshield finally arrived at the local body shop. Replacement and calibration cost $759. That was followed by a routine oil change at 22,934 miles, costing $149.

The Civic Si has progressed through two SCCA autocross events plus its most recent track day at Sebring, and we plan to continue to track it through the rest of the year. After all, we still have plenty of brake pad left to burn through.

Months in Fleet: 8 months Current Mileage: 24,176 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 31 mpg
Fuel Tank Size: 12.4 gal Observed Fuel Range: 380 miles
Service: $218 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0 Damage and Destruction: $759

10,000-Mile Update

The new-car smell has been replaced with fast-food aromatherapy from over 13,000 miles of road trips and commutes, but the staff continues to admire our long-term Honda Civic Si enough to want more from it. While it continues to gobble up miles without any major misadventure, lurgy, or katzenjammer (put down the thesaurus before someone gets knackered), there are a few areas we feel the 11th-gen Civic could use some extra ketchup.

We’ve been scouring the web for aftermarket hardware that will take the Civic Si to the next level. During our new braking test from 100 mph its brakes went full quasar. High temperatures triggered a brake-system warning light, and we experienced significant brake fade. Although not a likely scenario in normal driving conditions—unless you normally drive 100 mph—it was an obvious area for improvement before attending upcoming track days.

Until recently, no one provided upgraded brake pads for the brand-new 2022 Si. Although it shares the same calipers and pads as the current Accord, track-grade hardware in the family-sedan segment is about as common as baby formula right now at a Piggly Wiggly. So, we’re addressing the situation the way most Honda Civic owners fix things, DIY-style.

Brake Last, Finish First

We called Mike Puskar, owner of Carbotech Performance Brakes, for help. He assured us his track pads would upgrade the Si’s brake performance from stepping in something stinky to stepping on something strong. Mike invited us to Carbotech’s production facility in Concord, North Carolina, to build our own set.

Since 1996, Carbotech has helped race cars brake later with its high-temp ceramic Kevlar friction material. Most pads sold today are either semi-metallic or ceramic compounds, and they aren’t built for track use. Carbotech’s pads range in capability from 800 degrees Fahrenheit in the everyday street compound all the way to race pads good for up to 2000 degrees. Each pad is hand-built by one of Carbotech’s seasoned brake-ologists.

Pads weren’t yet available for our Civic Si, but Carbotech said it could create them, using the OE hardware to craft the backplate templates. (We wish all future 11th-gen Civic Si owners a very pleasant track day.)

How to Build Brake Pads

I holstered the keyboard for a day to build our set of Carbotech pads with an air chisel. The first step of the brake pad process is removing the original pad material from the backplate. It blasts away easily, even if you’re holding the air chisel wrong. Once most of the material is off, a belt sander clears the remaining debris from the plate.

Working inside the Carbotech factory harkens back to my own high school automotive shop class. It’s a warehouse teeming with enormous World War II-era lathes and drill presses. Massive tubes of air ducting hang from the ceiling like chandeliers. Amid the dust and pad powder, every tool has its place, and goofing around is a good way to lose a finger. The machinery here isn’t robotic, with the nearest thing to automation being a sandblast cabinet with a conveyor belt and a baking oven you don’t have to light with a match.

The raw chunks of pad material are called pucks, and they’re shaped to match the backplate using an enormous carbide drum. Once the puck is ready, two holes are drilled into the backplate and then used as a pilot to guide the drill into the brake-pad material. While a single drill bit can cut through the street-compound material numerous times, the stronger pads’ higher levels of heat resistance diminish the lifecycle of the tools. In building our set of XP12 pads, which can handle temperatures of up to 1850 degrees Fahrenheit, the high-strength steel bit was thrown to the scrap pile after drilling just two holes.

A chamfer is added to one side of the puck and then affixed to the backplate with high-temperature adhesive. The steel and brass rivets that hold this assembly together are pressed using a foot press. The nearly finished pad is then moved to an oven to cook, which is the most time-consuming process. It’s also why the craftsmen at Carbotech start their work at 2 a.m., well before the oven’s heat can double down on the fiery Carolina sunlight shining in.

After hours of oven-curing, the pads are cooled and then painted in different colors that correlate with their level of seriousness. While Carbotech maintains an inventory of more than 40,000 brake pads, the process from which each is built is spectacularly bespoke. We’ll be putting our handmade Carbotech XP12s to good use at various track days later this summer and fall. Expect a full report on that at the 20,000-mile update.

Scheduled Pit Stop

The Si’s Maintenance Minder light, which is first triggered when the ECU determines remaining oil life to be 15 percent, came on at roughly 12,000 miles. We then took the Civic to the dealer for scheduled maintenance, which included an oil and oil-filter change, tire rotation, and equipment inspection for $69. The equipment inspection indicated our optional Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 high-performance summer tires are mostly surviving. The front tire tread was measured at 5/32 inch while the rears remain at a healthier 8/32 inch. When new, these tires have a tread of 10/32 inch, according to Tire Rack.

We plan to install stickier track-only tires along with our Carbotech brake pads, fresh OE rotors, and upgraded high-temp fluid for upcoming track events in August and October. The best is yet to come for this fun and affordable sports sedan.

Months in Fleet: 4 months Current Mileage: 13,301 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 31 mpg
Fuel Tank Size: 12.4 gal Observed Fuel Range: 380 miles
Service: $69 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0

Introduction

When our Honda Civic Si arrived at Car and Driver HQ to begin its 40,000-mile stay, we were pretty damn excited. For the next 52 weekends or more, we plan to squeeze as much entertainment out of this affordable sports sedan as possible. So far, that’s meant driving to Florida for an IMSA Endurance Cup race at Sebring and brushing against cones at an SCCA autocross event. It’s a kickoff to what we’re planning to be an exciting long-term test.

The options list for the Civic Si is as short as its throw from first to second gear. The Blazing Orange Pearl ($395) color is exclusive to the Si and is the same shade as our favorite Buffalo Wild Wings sauce (Spicy Garlic). We also opted for the High-Performance Tire package ($200), which wraps the 18-by-8.0-inch wheels with stickier Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 rubber. Our preference for the black standard wheels over the optional blade-style wheels saved us $1708 on an item we plan on replacing with an aftermarket set later. The Car and Driver mailbox is open to your best (or comically bad) suggestions.

For a year, Honda put our favorite sport compact on ice and snuffed out the coupe entirely. Thankfully, the Si is back as a longer, lower, wider, and more serious-appearing sedan. Visually, the Civic Si has gone from Gundam Wing to grownup, inching closer to the maturity and size of the Accord. The interior is an especially welcome improvement, with a bigger 9.0-inch touchscreen, climate control knobs with digital readouts, and a comfy thick grip area. Every Si gets the same red-and-black cloth interior, but its equipment largely matches that of the less powerful Civic Touring, sans the leather. The new Si’s improvements have resulted in a $2120 price increase, and for that much, we wish it retained the old car’s heated seats.

Unfortunately, the new Civic Si hasn’t evolved into a more powerful unit. Horsepower from its turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-four has dropped from 205 to 200 horsepower, but its 192 pound-feet of torque arrives 300 rpm sooner. Our long-term car’s initial test numbers show that despite losing five horsepower, it matched the 6.6-second run to 60 mph of the previous-generation Civic Si sedan and even mirrored its 14.9-second quarter-mile at 95 mph. However, in our passing-time metrics, which are done in top gear, the new Si shows off that lower torque peak with a 2.2-second-quicker time from 30 to 50 mph and a 0.1-second-quicker run from 50 to 70 mph. All in all, most won’t notice a difference by the seat of their pants, but the car’s excellent handling and superb steering make us wish the Si had a few extra ponies.

In our initial testing, we experienced some significant brake fade during the 100-mph stop, which triggered a brake-system warning light. The 100-mph stop took 316 feet, and although that’s a reasonable performance and similar to the result on the 2020 Civic Si sedan we tested on identical tires, we didn’t encounter as much fade or a brake-system warning light on the previous-gen car.

Our most exciting trip so far was a weekend drive to Slalom City for an SCCA autocross event held on a Cummins test track in Columbus, Indiana. Over six runs, the Civic Si proved to be a fantastic autocross machine, and its helical limited-slip differential made slicing between cones a grippy endeavor. The Civic Si also proved pleasant on the eight-hour round trip, and the trunk easily held our tools, air compressor, luggage, cooler, floor jack, jack stands, and helmet. It’s a good sign when the most challenging part of the race weekend is neatly taping the letters and numbers on the front doors. We look forward to giving it a more challenging weekend at an actual track day soon, as we did with our long-term 2019 Honda Civic Type R.

With less than 6000 miles on the odometer, the logbook has already started to fill with comments on what’s shaping up to be a love/hate relationship with the sporty suspension. The Si’s stiffer suspension, chassis, and performance tires can sometimes make for a bouncy romp over Michigan’s abundance of expansion joints and uneven (and sometimes missing) pavement. “Not the most relaxing commuter,” commented one editor. Senior features editor Greg Fink noted, “Stiff suspension + morning coffee = stained shirt.”

The adaptive dampers that were standard on the previous Si aren’t offered on this car. That equipment is instead reserved for the new Integra A-Spec, which is essentially an Acura-badged Civic Si with leather seats. Here, there’s no comfort mode for our aging backs and growing bums.

The three drive modes—Normal, Sport, and Individual—don’t really transform the Si. Sport mode adjusts the steering weight and throttle response while deactivating the stop-start function. It’s a shame this mode doesn’t add more character to the Si’s mostly quiet dual mufflers. Individual mode allows the combination of Sport steering with Normal throttle response. The stop-start function can also be switched off at any time with a button that’s separate from the drive modes. Honda has given the Civic Si a rev-matching system, previously only available on the Civic Type R, as well. This can be a little annoying to enable or disable, as it’s done within the infotainment touchscreen under vehicle options, which can only be accessed if the parking brake is on.

The Civic Si has many increasingly rare qualities: It’s a sedan that’s sold with a six-speed manual transmission exclusively, and its little rumble is fueled by forbidden apple juice. That it remains available is cause for celebration. We’re thankful it’s back, marking the beginning of an 11th generation since the first Civic debuted in the 1970s. So, before the Civic Si becomes another fun car replaced by a crossover, we’ve got 40,000 miles to reach and more cones to kill.

Months in Fleet: 2 months Current Mileage: 5977 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 29 mpg
Fuel Tank Size: 12.4 gal Observed Fuel Range: 350 miles
Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0
Damage and Destruction: $0

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