Yahoo Autos The Civic Sport Proves Honda Can Build One Heck of a Turbo Motor
Honda's high-revving, naturally aspirated four-cylinder engines are dead, and we're going to miss them. VTEC will no longer kick in, yo, the way it did in a sixth-generation '99 Civic Si. But after driving the new Civic, with a 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder and a six-speed stick, I'm not sure it matters.
I've spent the last few days with the black Civic Hatchback Sport you see pictured above, mostly driving in and around New York City. Thanks to its center-exit exhaust, the Sport model makes six more horsepower than its base-model brethren, totaling 180 hp. It's a refreshingly basic car with no navigation, no heated seats, or really, any luxury features. And most importantly, it's the only other trim level besides the base-model LX that offers a manual transmission.
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Anyway, back to the engine. This teensy four-pot will never have the high-revving charm of Honda's old 9000-rpm screamers, but it's an impressive motor in its own right. Why? Torque. Specifically, 177 lb-ft of it from 1900 rpm all the way up to 5000 rpm.
In the sub-3000-lb Civic Hatch, this engine feels plenty powerful for everyday driving. In fact, it's downright zingy, with an amount of around-town grunt that never ceased to surprise me. Drive it with a careful right foot, though, and you'll see fuel economy numbers exceeding 40 mpg on the highway.
The small-diameter turbo starts to kick in right around 2000 RPM, with utterly linear power delivery all the way up to the 6500-RPM redline. There's no real need to shift higher than the 5500-RPM horsepower peak, though. At high revs, this engine can sound a little thrashy, but that's tempered by a nice burble at low- and mid revs.
There is a catch to all of this torquey goodness, though–you need to order your Civic with a six-speed manual. Equipped with a CVT, the Civic Sport's torque is limited to 162 lb-ft.
That's hardly a drawback, because this gearbox is great. The shifter action is surprisingly light, especially compared to the delightfully snickey boxes in Si models of the past, but it suits this Civic's character well. The only things that let this gearbox down are a light, slightly vague clutch and agonizing moments of rev-hang when shifting at the top of the tach.
All in all, Honda's transition to turbocharging has gone incredibly well. This 1.5-liter will never replace Honda's old naturally-aspirated VTEC units in our hearts, but it's a gem in its own right. It's a big part of what makes the new Civic Sport is so good.
We can't wait to see what Honda does with this motor in the Civic Si. And we're even more excited about the rumored 340-hp 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder in the next Civic Type R. That should be a hoot-but if that kind of outrageousness isn't what you're looking for, you'll find plenty to like in the base Civic's engine.
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