Making room for a trailer hitch on an Si

[MarkR171]

Before buying my Si coupe, I wasn't really considering it because I wanted a trailer hitch to carry my mountain/road bikes. The center exhaust looked like it was going to be a deal breaker. A friend showed me pictures of someone who cut the OEM center tip off and fit the drawtite hitch for the base civics, and that all went out the window. I bought the Si coupe, and started talking to a friend of mine who does exhaust work about building something for me.

Today, I went to his shop and here are the pics of the exhaust. It's raining and I'm too lazy to move the other car out of the garage to install the hitch, but the exhaust will be well clear of the hitch now and will be installed on Monday when the rain stops.

The stock exhaust... marking the location for a v band. He cut it here and installed a v band flange on the stock exhaust too, in case I ever want to put the stock exhaust back on.

Front half of the stock exhaust back in the car

Progress

Stainless Bros 12" muffler. This is my daily driver, and I didn't feel the need to make the car loud for no reason.

Taken back out of the car to finalize all the welds and add exhaust hangers

Back in the car and done with exhaust hangers. At some point, I realized I left the exhaust tip at home, but it was a clamp-on tip, so we estimated the length of the pipe and finished it up.

Back on the ground, looks kind of silly without a tip, but plenty of room in the center for a hitch now!

Put the tip on when I got home. 3.5" aFe clamp-on tip from Summit.

 

[VooDuuChild]

Function over form sometimes. If your OCD goes nuts, just add a dummy tip on the other side of the hitch. It would be pretty boss if it wasn't a dummy...but considering they're black, it wouldn't be as obvious. Just a thought.

 

[MarkR171]

Haha yea, I'm not too worried about the look of the exhaust. I went with a black tip so it stands out less, but I'm not going to go out of my way to put a dummy tip on the other side just for looks. It's not going to look good either way with a hitch in the middle.

These are the pics of a couple other Si on the etrailer page for the civic hitch.

 

[Axatax]

Good stuff.

The only downside to this I can see is the hitch is more visible due to the way the bumper curves up around the OEM exhaust. I have the Draw-Tite on my LX Coupe and it's much less noticeable.

 

[Captaindicki]

I’m guessing your trailer is small and light? Can’t see a large one with a car like this

 

[Axatax]

I’m guessing your trailer is small and light? Can’t see a large one with a car like this

The engine is one part of a much larger equation. Look at some of the stuff on the roads in the UK. You'll see smart cars towing 16' camping trailers.

 

[MarkR171]

I’m guessing your trailer is small and light? Can’t see a large one with a car like this

I have a Leroy Engineering trailer that I pull behind my SCCA STR Miata for national events. With a full set of tires/wheels (17x9s and 255s), tools, and fuel jug, it weighs roughly 500lbs. I put over 13,000 miles on that trailer in 2018 alone.

That said, the Civic is my daily and probably won't pull the trailer very much. The hitch is really so I can use a hitch mount, tray style bike rack. It holds bikes more securely than a roof rack or hanging style hitch mount, and doesn't cause wind noise/drop in MPG like a roof rack.

 

[87elco]

 

[Captaindicki]

Right. And just seeing a Smart car hauling people is funny enough

I have a Leroy Engineering trailer that I pull behind my SCCA STR Miata for national events. With a full set of tires/wheels (17x9s and 255s), tools, and fuel jug, it weighs roughly 500lbs. I put over 13,000 miles on that trailer in 2018 alone.

That said, the Civic is my daily and probably won't pull the trailer very much. The hitch is really so I can use a hitch mount, tray style bike rack. It holds bikes more securely than a roof rack or hanging style hitch mount, and doesn't cause wind noise/drop in MPG like a roof rack

If I didn't see it I would not have believed how cool your miata & trailer setup is. Hopefully it works just as well with the Si.
Happy racing!

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