Driving Impressions when going fast

[Charley-TX]

My normal daily commute is Texas hwy, speed limit 75mph. Most people travel at >80mph.

I have performed such test today, under safe conditions. (Track )
I can say that there is almost no decernable difference btw 80 and 100 mph. The car is very stable. The 1.5L turbo and CVT does not seem to strain at 100mph at all.
I would drive at 100mph daily ( should the law allow) without much concern of wear or negative consequence to the drive train.
The only concern at that speed is the "what if" something goes wrong... tire blowout, object on the roadway, deer, other drivers. Surviving a crash with a hard object at that speed is slim.

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[planedriver]

How do you guys find the braking stability from those higher speeds? I find the car a bit unstable when braking from highway speeds.

 

[a c i d.f l y]

My normal daily commute is Texas hwy, speed limit 75mph. Most people travel at >80mph.

I have performed such test today, under safe conditions. (Track )
I can say that there is almost no decernable difference btw 80 and 100 mph. The car is very stable. The 1.5L turbo and CVT does not seem to strain at 100mph at all.
I would drive at 100mph daily ( should the law allow) without much concern of wear or negative consequence to the drive train.
The only concern at that speed is the "what if" something goes wrong... tire blowout, object on the roadway, deer, other drivers. Surviving a crash with a hard object at that speed is slim.

Love the 80+mph tolls. My commute to work that used to take an hour before the light less, high speed limit tolls were put in, now takes about 12 minutes if I'm averaging around 85-90. With tune, 90-100 passing happens fairly quickly. Without tune, that top end acceleration was annoyingly stifled. 2.0 CVT here. It seems to handle the same up to about 110. Haven't risked higher outside of a straight line. I really need new tires.

The stock brakes don't really seem designed for slowing down quickly at those speeds, but they haven't caused any loss of control.

 

[CivicXI]

How do you guys find the braking stability from those higher speeds? I find the car a bit unstable when braking from highway speeds.

At 110mph, they work, but that's about all I can say haha. Nothing worth writing home about.

 

[motoguy128]

That's quite a bit of extra load and wear to be putting on an engine. Can you post your VIN just in case you ever decide to sell the car so that forum members can avoid purchasing it?

Seriously? I've driven cars in europe with weaker engines than the Civic for sustained periods of time (legally) at 180-200kph. It's not a big deal. A 1.5L engine wit ha relatively short stroke like this one, at 4000 or even 5000 RPM isn't very stressed. Redline is very conservative, mainly because I suspect they use softer valve springs to reduce parasitic loses and the intake and turbo configuration is optimized for low and midrange and power curve is very flat, which is ideal for a CVT. Turbo gives great bottom end, but it's balanced by relatively short stroke (for a passenger car...still undersquare) for descent mid range torque.


I agree with the OP, the car handles very, very well with good feedback, very stable and cornering is a great comporimse with ride comfort for an economy car. Corners well enough you can have some fun and very predictable. It gives just a little oversteer even with a light flick of the wheel near the limit. Wish sometimes I had gotten the Si with a 6M. But I'll probably get a motorcycle to ride on nice days for a little fun.

 

[motoguy128]

... oh, and I owned a BMW 325i for 2 years. Civic can't match it's braking or handling, but overall, it's still a fun car. My Civic is actually just a little faster in a straight line, but nothing sounds much better than that sweet Inline 6.

 

[a c i d.f l y]

I just have to "lol" that folks are honestly comparing the Civic to BMW's. Just, wow. Says a lot about how far Honda has come.

 

[DevilDoc8542]

I just have to "lol" that folks are honestly comparing the Civic to BMW's. Just, wow. Says a lot about how far Honda has come.

That is so true. Who would have thought BMW’s would be compared to Honda’s instead of Acura.

 

[aighead]

I noticed, yesterday, that 90-100, and presumably faster, the noise from an open sunroof is damn near deafening... I don't recall that much noise overhead in my old 1996 Civic...

 

[Micah]

I don't think mine revs in an instant even in neutral. I mean it's not SLOW but I don't feel that it's quick. and 85-144 took 1.7 miles... No ethanol and warm temps though. Once you hit 6th she really goes nowhere. I mean to try again on a cool night with ethanol later.

Not much load and thus not much boost in neutral... and why would you be trying to accelerate in 6th? It's overdriven for a reason. 5th gear is less overdriven and would catch the speed limiter at 143 before redline at just under 145mph.

Relevant details - http://www.automobile-catalog.com/performance/2017/2560775/honda_civic_si_sedan.html

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