Take a step back from the 2018 Honda Civic SI: Not as powerful as we thought

Gil Grissom of CSI fame uttered the memorable quote “Tell me something I don’t know” numerous times to encourage his team of investigators to think outside of the box. We want to invoke our inner Grissom when it comes to the 2018 Honda Civic Si. If you told us that the new Honda Civic Si is going to be more powerful than any SI ever rolled off assembly lines, we would respond, “Tell us something we don’t known.”

If you told us the opposite, that the 2018 Si is going to be less powerful than expected, you would immediately grab our attention.

Unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show

Honda took a huge step in filling the void in the 10th generation Civic lineup by introducing consumers to the new Civic Si prototype at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto show. As with the Type R unveiled in Paris, the Los Angeles debut of the new Si is a prototype, not the final rendition. We have yet to discover how much power the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine will deliver. Honda claims the engine will offer “high-performance” and “high-torque. We assume the definition of both terms varies among consumers. Therefore, we have to rely on speculation to determine whether the new Honda Civic Si will be more or less powerful that previous versions of the vehicle.

Power Outage

There appears to be a power difference between the Si and the Type R models. Most of the new Honda reviews focus on the performance of the Type R, which offers Honda customers a glimpse into the new version’s promise to deliver exceptional power. The same cannot be said for the Si. However, we do not have the industry expert reviews to back up our assertion. We have to instead rely on the claims of a few Honda Customers that have received emails that list the latest Si updates, including information that states the Si will deliver only 192 pounds-feet of torque. We have not seen the emails to confirm the subscriber news. If true, the new torque level does not bode well for Si performance, since the new version of the Si includes the same 1.4-liter, four-cylinder engine.

The 2018 Honda Si does receive an 18 pounds-foot upgrade in torque, which is an improvement for a front-wheel drive vehicle. However, we anticipated a larger engine with perhaps two more cylinders added to boost performance. Honda has not released the horsepower number for the new Civic SI and email subscribers who receive updates have not heard from Honda about the new horsepower number. Our guess is the Si will generate around 225 horsepower based on engine upgrades for some of the other vehicles in the automaker’s lineup. Nonetheless, it is almost certain the new Si will not match the power of the Type R vehicle.

The keyword for the new Honda Si is “Prototype.” This means anything, including the power of the engine, can change between now and when the company officially releases the vehicle to dealerships. We do know that the only transmission offered for the new Si will be a short-shift six-speed manual transmission.