Civic Si Picks up Big Power on Dyno with Simple Upgrades
A few simple changes help this latest-gen Civic Si pick up quite a bit of power.
Wanting More
At face value, the latest iteration of the Honda Civic Si is a pretty fantastic car. One with solid power, great handling, and tons of tech. But most of us always want more, no matter what automakers give us. So we were rather intrigued to see what Super Street could do with a new Si, and the results of their recent project certainly didn't disappoint.
Photos: Super Street
Creating Imbalance
Late last year, this Si received a 27WON turbo, PRL front pipe, downpipe, and cold-air intake, a new GReddy exhaust system, and an off-the-shelf Hondata tune. The result was a pretty amazing feeling, but the newfound amount of torque was proving to be a bit much for the stock clutch. That became even more of a critical point when the owner installed PRL's Big Turbo Kit and a conservative tune.
Photos: Super Street
Adequate Holding Power
The answer to these problems was a SPEC Stage 3 clutch, which is a nice compromise for a street car. It won't kill your left leg at the stoplights but is more than capable of holding the extra power this car is making. In this iteration, the clutch is rated to hold up to 371 lb-ft of torque, which is plenty for what the car's owner has planned for the future.
Photos: Super Street
Corn Fed
After finishing the admittedly difficult process of installing the new clutch, the Si's owner moved on to more fun stuff. Namely, a custom tune from Church Automotive Tuning. With PRL's Flex-Fuel Kit already installed, the owner picked up a few gallons of E85 and headed over to see just what this Si was really capable of.
Photos: Super Street
Impressive Gains
After playing around with the tune for some time, the Si ultimately made over 320 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque, which represents some rather impressive gains of 130 horsepower and 120 lb-ft of torque. Those gains were also present throughout the power band, which makes them even more impressive than something that just spikes at a higher rpm.
Photos: Super Street
Playing It Safe
SS notes that this car is equipped with PRL's high-flow cat-equipped downpipe rather than running a test pipe straight-through and that additional tuning would definitely result in better numbers. But they didn't want to push the car too far on a stock block and risk blowing anything up.
Photos: Super Street
Promising Future
Still, the results of this work are rather impressive. Pushing the stock block well over 300 lb-ft shows just how much promise this platform has, especially on a truly conservative tune. And we personally can't wait to see what the future holds for the latest and greatest Si.
Photos: Super Street