The Honda Civic Si TCA Is a Riotous Entry-Level Race Car
For $52,500, Honda Performance Development will sell you a turn-key Civic race car. You want one.
The Honda Civic Si TCA was my first race car. I've driven plenty of fast street cars, many that make the Si TCA's 220-or-so horsepower seem weak at best. But this is different. It offers something that a road car simply can’t.
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That's a bit surprising when you consider the specs. The Civic Si TCA is not radically different than the road car it's based on. Built for the SRO Touring Car America series' entry-level TCA class, Honda starts with a Civic Si coupe body-in-white, Honda Performance Development (HPD) fits upgraded brakes, suspension components, and a full roll cage. The powertrain is largely the same as in the road car, and there's even a six-speed H-pattern gearbox to demand drivers practice their heel-and-toe.
But, there's far more sense of occasion here, which becomes apparent the moment you get harnessed in. The interior is a mix of familiar and alien. The stock shifter sits totally exposed, no center console surrounding it. A Motec digital cluster is in front of the stock Si's gauges. A small quick-release wheel comes out to your chest.
I found it particularly amusing that you fire the car with the same engine stop-start button used in the road car. Maybe it's because it's funny to see something so stylized in an otherwise spartan, workshop-like interior. Or maybe it's the noise that comes when you push it. Breathing through a low-restriction exhaust, the Si's 1.5-liter turbo-four is delightfully snarly, echoing through the bare cabin. It's a hell of a lot louder than the road car, too. You can hear how it'll sing its part in a chorus of angry four-cylinder touring cars.
The TCA might share much with the Si road car, but, within a few corners of Circuit of the Americas, you realize this is a profoundly different machine.
I was blown away by the grip. Honda had racer Ryan Lewis sit right-seat to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid. That said, his biggest concern was that I was babying the car so much. He was constantly in my ear urging me to carry more speed into corners, and get back on the power sooner and harder, leaning on the TCA's limited-slip differential and Hoosier DOT slicks. (Si TCAs competing in the SRO series wear Pirellis.)
Those slicks, plus the sensation of quicker steering from a smaller-diameter wheel, give the TCA immediate turn-in grip. Not even modern Ferraris, with their hyper-quick steering, feel like this. My amusement at point-and-shooting my way around the track never waned.
Despite how different the TCA feels to the Si road car, there's not a steep learning curve going from one to the other. That's by design. This is an entry-level race car, and it has to be accessible for people like me. People who might not have a lot of experience with slicks and wheel-to-wheel competition. And it speaks to the fact that even though the TCA provides different sensations than the road car, the difference between the two isn't as drastic as many other factory race cars.
A lot of people who get to drive serious race cars tell you the brakes are what makes them feel so much different than their road-car counterparts. The Si TCA's won't make your eyeballs come out of their sockets, but they feel strong and durable. Over four laps, there were no signs of significant fading. As you'd hope. Most races are longer than four laps.
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At 2450 pounds, the TCA is 439 pounds lighter than the road-going Si. I still wouldn't go so far as to call it fast (remember, this is Miata RF weight with a bit more power), but it's energetic. It wants you to push harder, maintain momentum, brake later, and to do it all day. I had a lot more fun in just a few laps than I have in most comparably priced road cars.
Strip away all that makes the regular Si such a nice refined road car, and you have something that's just outrageous fun. It’s the Civic Si woken up.
Price is the real killer feature of the TCA. At $52,500, this is the cheapest turn-key factory race car you can buy in the US today. (Hyundai will sell you a Veloster Turbo TCA for around $54,000.) After my laps, I bumped into Grassroots Motorsports editor and great-sideburns-haver David Wallens talking with an HPD rep. He said this would be an excellent track-day car.I had to agree. Yes, you'd have a great time running this in the SRO series, but I have to imagine it would be just as fun trailering it to your local track day and running laps for your own entertainment. HPD will even sell you a silencer if noise is a concern.
I don't want big horsepower nearly as much as I used to. I want this—low weight, moderate horsepower, an h-pattern 'box, and slicks. So if you need me, I'll be browsing the classifieds on RacingJunk.com.
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