(Today, Honda’s ultimate Civic, the turbocharged 306-horsepower Civic Type R, produces 153 horsepower per liter.) Producing 160 horsepower, the engine met the then-Holy Grail standard of 100 horsepower per liter. Additional mechanical upgrades to the base Civic’s 127-horsepower engine made the Si a screamer for its time. Honda gave the tuners a great start, fitting the 1999 Civic Si with a 1.6-liter double overhead camshaft version of its four-cylinder engine, to which it added variable intake and exhaust valves. Lyndon Conrad Bell Holy Grail: 100 Horsepower Per Liter
One thing that has yet to change: A Civic Si has never had an automatic transmission. It’s also rare to find one that hasn’t been hot-rodded. A couple years of hard driving aged them beyond their years, so many did not last the roughly 10 years most 2000-era cars remained on the road. Those Civic Si Coupes were routinely modified within millimeters of their lives by young enthusiasts eager to explore the limits of its performance envelope. Moreover, the Si Coupe was offered for only two of the five years of the Civic’s sixth generation (1996-2000 model years), which makes finding one a true rarity these days. The Si was the first high-performance coupe Honda brought to the U.S.
1999 HONDA CIVIC MOG MANUAL
On both cars, a six-speed manual is the only transmission offering. They are separated by 21 years, 45 more horsepower and 295 more pounds. 2020 Honda Civic Si, left, and 1999 Civic Si. It also demonstrates the esteem tuners hold for the 1999 Honda Civic Si. This would indicate that $52K Civic Si was more of an emotional purchase than a rational one. Kelley Blue Book says a 150,000-mile 1999 Civic Si Coupe in excellent condition should sell for about $3,500. So much so that a variant of our 1999 test car with 5,000 miles on the odometer recently sold at auction for $52,500. The Honda Civic Si holds a special place in the hearts of the automotive community. How far have moderately priced performance cars advanced in two decades on performance, ease of driving, safety and technology? To get a sense of the progress, we borrowed a pristine, 2,000-mile, 1999 Civic Si Coupe from Honda’s archival garage and drove it back-to-back with a 2020 version of the Civic Si Sedan.
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