Why Build A Honda Civic Track Car?

Re-learning the joy of driving on the race track with an old, slow Honda Civic.

I have had my BMW 135i on track in some form or another since I bought it in 2013, and, to be frank, it’s been a ton of work. I love the car, when it runs right, however, it rarely seems to run right when it drives off the roadways and onto the race track.

Getting one clean lap a session, in between tuning hiccups, power delivery issues, or any of the BMW electrical gremlins that pop up when the cars are pushed hard gets tiresome after a while. By the end, I wasn’t learning to drive better so much as I was learning how to keep the car from self-destructing on track, while trying to sneak the occasional hot lap in, here and there. Between the cost of the event, the cost of consumables, and maintenance on the car, and time, each track day ends up costing around $600, which is a ton of money. Spending $600 to get in three clean laps on track is awful. That’s not fun, and if I’m not having fun at the track, then what’s the point?

Thus, the need for a different track day car became a clear need. However, my budget is of the shoestring variety, so buying a different car would be something of a hurdle, especially since my stupid sentimentality prevents me from selling the BMW, in the first place.

After some not-so-careful thinking, I decided to do the old switcharoo. I would make my daily driver, a 2010 Honda Civic Si sedan, my new track day car, and make my track car into my new daily driver.

This sounds crazy at face value, however the humble Honda has a lot going for it. The 8th gen Civic Si is the last of the high RPM Hondas, with its 8,300 RPM 197 horsepower K20Z3 engine. It has a 6-speed manual transmission with a factory-installed helical limited-slip differential, to help put down the power. It’s relatively light for a modern car, weighing under 3,000 pounds. And, crucially, the aftermarket support is massive, which should make parts selection reasonable.

It’s going to be much slower than the BMW, especially in a straight line, but it should, hopefully, be more reliable. And I’m confident it can be made into a competent, consistent lapping car.

As far as goals with the car, I would like to eventually match the track day capabilities of the current Honda Civic Type R at my local circuits. For perspective, that’s about a 1:25 lap around the Streets of Willow Springs, and a 2:00 lap at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. However, this, for now, is tertiary to my goal of reclaiming the joy of track day driving.

So, stay tuned because I have a lot of plans for Project Civic Si, and all of them involve going fast, and having fun.