The lack of an analog tachometer meant that dialing the proper revs up was done by ear, followed by careful feathering of the throttle to keep wheelspin to a minimum. After banging through the lower gears in what seemed like one continuous up and down rowing motion, the sequential shift lights made dead accurate shifting a breeze.
The remarkable thing is that the car stays almost as quiet as stock through the whole charade, exhaling through the factory muffler.
A Honda purist will tell you that forced-induction is blasphemy, and that Honda engines are designed to swing tachometer needles into the stratosphere. Whether they roar in the back of Formula-1 cars or sit idly in your driveway, they apply less torque over a longer rev range to make their acceleration times. It's just what they do.
So there exists a substantial contingent that further emphasizes the original Honda formula when tuning their cars. More revs, more lift, longer duration, freer flow, and more noise. Much more noise.
Enter the Temple of VTEC Civic Si. Sporting IPS K2 cams and valvesprings and a DC Sports 62mm exhaust, this is a 4-cylinder whose exhaust pulses make the ground shake like a herd of stampeding elephants.
But it makes power in traditional Honda fashion, which means it's a little tough to launch without the prospect of falling on its face. Once enough revs were dialed in though, the naturally-aspirated car screamed down the drag strip, shifts cracked off at an indicated 8500rpm, which plunked the engine right into VTEC territory in each new gear. When the dust settled, the car eeked out a 14.4 second run at 101mph.
Having settled the quarter-mile battle in a flurry of supercharged tire smoke, we headed off to wind the two beefed-up Hondas through the orange cones that delineate our handling tests.
The skidpad is always a daunting task for a front-wheel drive car, no matter how well it's dialed in. A big part of extracting a fast time from the circle is adjustability under power, something that's inherently impossible in a car whose drive wheels are the same ones responsible for steering.
The two tuned Civics were no exception to the rule. An odd alignment on the Temple of VTEC car resulted in a quicker clockwise rotation than counter-clockwise rotation around the skidpad, the opposite of what you might expect in a left-hand drive car.
With a good amount of footwork and careful steering input, the Temple of VTEC car could be circled within a hair as quickly as the Hasport Civic, thanks to its cheater-slick tires.
But in the end, the Hasport car just was more stable, like the steering wheel could be locked onto a line and the car would trace the same circle over and over again.
So far, the testing has been tough for front-wheel drive cars. In a drag race, weight is shifted rearward off the front wheels. Extracting a low e.t. isn't easy when the resulting wheel-spinning frenzy has to be managed.
It wasn't until the second-half of the day that the duo began to put smiles on our faces, with both cars really shining on the slalom, exhibiting user-friendly adjustability and keen turn-in.
Getting a consistent initial entry speed out of the Hasport car proved to be difficult, due to the lack of a speedometer, and an occasionally erratic tachometer. Thanks to the added oomph provided by the supercharger though, any lost speed was easily made up while shooting through the last turn and through the exit cones.