2018 Honda Civic Si HFP (Honda Factory Performance) Sharpening the Si.
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00:00This is the all-new Honda Civic Si HFP, which stands for Honda Factory Performance.
00:29To get yourself one of these, the price of the Si jumps from $30,872 Canadian to $36,572.
00:38So what do you get?
00:39Well, for starters, as you can see, it comes with a whole host of visual upgrades, including
00:43a striking red front lip, new side skirts that Honda says will generate more downforce,
00:48some red floor mats, a ton of HFP badges, and some 19-inch wheels.
00:53And I must say, the final product is really very good-looking.
00:57In fact, I think this is what the Type R should have looked like.
01:01Striking, but not overdone.
01:04Now onto the important stuff.
01:05The engine is the same as the base Si, a 1.5-liter turbo-four that makes 205 horsepower and 192
01:11pound-feet of torque, which, by the way, gets really impressive gas mileage.
01:15I averaged 8 liters per 100 kilometers in the week that I had it.
01:18However, in the HFP package, those 19-inch wheels are wrapped in 235-width Michelin Pilot
01:24Sport 4Ss, which is a very grippy street tire, one that rivals the rubber they put
01:28on the Type R. And the adaptive dampers in the HFP are upgraded over the regular Si,
01:34allowing for a more aggressive sport mode setting.
01:36Now, those are some features that I can get into.
01:39All right, the question that we're all wondering, is the Civic Si HFP any better to drive?
01:48The short answer is, well, yeah, it is, because two things.
01:52One, we have Michelin Pilot PS4S, so that's the Pilot Sport 4S up front, actually all
01:58around this car, and we have better adaptive dampers.
02:01So when I put it in sport mode, like that, and we're on a back road like this, the front
02:06end of this car is excellent.
02:09It absolutely just turns into the corner in such a predictable fashion, right?
02:17It's almost telepathic, the way that you turn this wheel and it goes in.
02:20And the steering ratio is pretty quick, and there's lots of nice steering weight going
02:23on here.
02:24So when I get into some twisty stuff like this, third gear, toss the car in like that,
02:30and it's just lovely.
02:31That front just goes.
02:34It just feels nice to drive, right?
02:40Sharp.
02:41Sharp is the word that I would use to describe the way that this car goes around a back road
02:45like this.
02:46The front end of the car is very, very well designed, okay?
02:51We have a limited slip differential up front.
02:54That's the one big thing that's going to make people take this over the Elantra Sport, unfortunately.
02:58That LSD up front makes for a car that you can just crank the wheel and stand on the
03:03throttle and it just whips you around a corner.
03:06It's phenomenal.
03:07I absolutely love that.
03:08It would make this car so much fun to drive on an autocross course, right?
03:13You can just crank the wheel, stand on the throttle, and the LSD gets the power to both
03:19wheels and it just pulls you through the corner.
03:22It's super satisfying and very fast.
03:26It's beyond impressive what this thing can do in a really tight corner for a front wheel
03:30drive car.
03:31That's not just down to the LSD, so you can't just slap an LSD in any car and it'll do that.
03:36It's also how much engineering Honda has put into the front end of this car.
03:40The suspension system is very good and in this HFP, in sport mode, I have better dampers
03:46that are able to get that power down.
03:50The engine, turbocharged, we're not getting really any serious torque until you're past
03:573,000 RPM.
03:58That's what the boost threshold seems to be, which makes it feel quite dull when you're
04:04just driving around at low speed because obviously you shift up so that you can keep the revs
04:07low for fuel economy, right?
04:10But when we're out here and we keep the revs up above 4,000, or if you're on a track, the
04:15engine is quite responsive, all right?
04:17It is.
04:18It responds to the throttle inputs very well.
04:20There's a little tick of lag as you get the boost down, but then it just goes.
04:25And even though it's turbocharged, Honda has still managed to, with the whole sound environment
04:31and the way the engine revs, make you still want to run out the gears right to the red
04:36line.
04:37It's not like an old VTEC engine that's just absolutely insane and taps off the rev limiter,
04:42but it still has a quality about it that makes you want to run out the gears.
04:48That's good.
04:49I don't know if it's the sound.
04:50I don't know if it's the way that the torque band goes, but either way, it's still a really
04:54fun car to just flog on a back road like this.
04:57Now, the shifting experience of this car, first of all, I don't really like the clutch
05:02in this.
05:03It's too light.
05:04They definitely have put a slightly more aggressive clutch that you can really feel that engagement
05:10point where you overcome the pressure plate.
05:12It's very easy to drive.
05:14I'll give you that.
05:15This is a very easy car to drive.
05:16You put it in comfort mode and this thing just dispatches the commute every single day.
05:20It's sharp.
05:21It responds to you.
05:22If you need to get through some traffic, it will get you there and it will get you there
05:25comfortably.
05:27But otherwise shifting, the shifts are very, very, I can't fault them.
05:31It's very Honda-like.
05:33The shifts are very snappy.
05:34They snap into gear very positively.
05:37There's never a doubt what gear you're in, but there's almost like a, like a hollow flex
05:41to it that I don't like.
05:42I don't know.
05:43I'm being picky.
05:44Anyway, the rest of the driving experience is good.
05:48The pedals are spaced well for heel toes.
05:49There's enough room for my foot to get over, right?
05:52So I can actually drive this car aggressively, which is nice.
05:56And it does respond well to that type of driving without a question.
06:00There is, however, a little bit of rev hang, especially from one to two and two to three.
06:06You do have to kind of wait.
06:08You really can't rip through the gears in this car.
06:11That gets frustrating really, really quickly because if you try and shift too quickly,
06:16the revs haven't fallen far enough and you'll get a lurch when you release the clutch or
06:19you wait for the revs to fall to shift smoothly, but then you feel like you're waiting forever.
06:25Kind of takes away from it a little bit.
06:27I don't know what's going on with rev hang in some of these cars.
06:30Subarus are really bad for it too, but if we could just, we could just eliminate rev
06:35hang from the world, that would be great.
06:37Please.
06:38After getting into this and into my Miata, the revs fall almost too quickly for me to
06:41catch them.
06:42It takes me a minute to readapt.
06:44So then the HFP, yes, you are getting some more performance.
06:48You're getting a little bit of a sharper Honda Civic Si, which is nice.
06:52It's not just some fancy Tupperware on the outside.
06:55I think it looks better personally, but it's not just that.
06:58At least you're getting tires and suspension and it makes for an Si overall that is definitely
07:03a sharper driving experience on a road like this.
07:06Now, how's the rest of the car to drive?
07:08Well, it's just a regular Civic in here, obviously.
07:10The infotainment volume slider.
07:12What is that about?
07:13I was just in a drive-through, got myself a coffee before I started filming this and
07:19the music was blaring and I pulled up and I reached down to turn the volume down and
07:23I turned the temperature down because the temperature knob is where the volume should
07:27be.
07:28And then if you want to actually turn the fan down, which was also blaring, you have
07:31to click a button for climate, go into a screen and tap a button on the screen.
07:37Not cool.
07:38There's no knob to turn down the volume for the radio, there's a little button on my steering
07:43wheel here, which isn't in a good spot and you can't like grab it by feel really easily.
07:49The infotainment itself looks very nice, like visually it's quite nice to look at.
07:55It's beep...
07:56Auto power off, what are you doing?
07:57Stop beeping at me.
07:58It looks good, the navigation looks fantastic.
08:01Once you get into a screen like for your smartphone or for radio or whatever, it works well.
08:06It's fine.
08:07On my screen here, speaking of which, it's digital.
08:09It looks fantastic.
08:11Really bright readout for the speed and the tack is super easy to read.
08:16When I put it in sport mode, I get these two red lights that light up in the dashboard
08:19and they flash at me when I need to shift.
08:21That's really super cool.
08:22I'm really into that.
08:23We have a bunch of things to go through here.
08:26Let's take this one for example.
08:28I have a brake-o-meter, which tells me how much brake I have and there's a throttle on
08:33the left-hand side there.
08:35This would actually be really useful if you were driving on the track a lot because then
08:38you could check to see how much brake pressure did you apply in that corner.
08:42Could you brake a little bit more aggressively next time you come around to that corner?
08:45That'd be great, but it doesn't save the level that you hit with the braking.
08:50Do you know what I mean?
08:51It just goes up and then goes down after you let off the pedal, which would mean that you'd
08:55have to be looking at it.
08:57And if you've ever driven on a track, you would know that you're not looking at your
09:00gauges while you are braking.
09:02You're looking to turn into the corner.
09:04There's some shift lights.
09:05That's actually really helpful because it'll flash when you want to shift.
09:09It looks really Formula 1-ish too.
09:11We have a G readout, which also doesn't, I don't think it does that I can see, doesn't
09:16save the amount of G that you hit in the corners.
09:18You couldn't really use it to figure out if you could get into that corner a little bit
09:22quicker the next lap around.
09:24Looks great though.
09:25Anyway, the rest of the interior looks very nice.
09:29It is visually very well designed.
09:32I find it comfortable.
09:33These seats are comfortable.
09:35I like them and the bolsters are quite good without digging into my legs.
09:39That seems to be difficult to do nowadays, looking at you, Focus RS.
09:42The center console here is nice.
09:44It's comfortable.
09:45Everything is put in a good spot for you to reach, okay?
09:49I can reach the entire navigation system without a question, super easy, and I've got a good
09:53space to my pedals.
09:54I'd like the steering wheel to come out at me a little bit more.
09:57I don't have what I would consider a perfect driving position, but I have a good driving
10:01position.
10:03Cup holders down here.
10:04On it is this kind of cool thing where they, to plug in your phone, you route the cable
10:09kind of up from underneath the console, so it kind of comes out here, which is cool.
10:13It keeps the whole area looking clean.
10:15That's a good design.
10:16I actually really like that.
10:17Steering wheel looks really nice and it's very comfortable in my hands.
10:21No complaints there.
10:22I really do look forward to driving this car.
10:24It responds very well to everyday driving and when you find a back road, tap that sport
10:29button and it sharpens right up for you and you can have a great time.
10:33That's really the ideal version of a daily driving car.
10:38If you were going to fully track drive this car, this car would be able to do it.
10:42Okay?
10:43This is not one of those where I say, hey, you'd probably want a new alignment or you'd
10:48want some better tires or you'd want some coilover or something like that.
10:52No.
10:53Right off the bat, this car would rip around a track and you'd be having a great time.
10:56Same with an autocross course.
10:57That front LSD, the way that the car is designed in terms of its chassis is good.
11:03I can't fully explore the limits of the car in a back road like this, obviously, but I
11:06can tell you that as you turn into a corner, there's no detectable understeer whatsoever.
11:12Even under throttle, you stand on the throttle and it just kind of rips you around the corner.
11:17See me smiling?
11:19Yeah.
11:20Oh, it's fun.
11:23A little bit of G-force there.
11:26Nothing that you would consider to be understeer whatsoever.
11:29That front end just nabs onto the road and it pulls you right through the corner.
11:34Great car.
11:36So there you go.
11:37The Honda Civic Si HFP.
11:40I think this is a cool package.
11:42You actually get some performance improvements.
11:44It looks better on the outside.
11:46There's some cool add-ons.
11:47It's got awesome badges all over the place.
11:51It's kind of like a special edition.
11:52It's something that if you were already going to buy a Civic Si and you weren't thinking
11:56about spending the extra for a Type R, if you're just looking for an Si, something just
12:00a daily, it's not that you wouldn't be like afraid to drive in the winters, then this
12:05would be an excellent option.
12:07It's got a few little improvements that are going to make your track days and your autocross
12:11days more exciting.
12:12So there you go.
12:13My name is Thomas Holland and you've been watching Throttle House.