Thinking of a SI

[dmitri]

Civic is a super easy car to learn to drive stick . Especially with the brake hold feature

Yeah almost too easy... it'll spoil ya for sure.

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[CivicSi84]

I know this thread has jumped into tuning, but I am considering buying a Si, or either a EX Hatch. I personally would prefer the Si, but unfortunately I have never driven a MT car, but i want to learn. But I have a hour long commute. Eventually, I would get a tune, nothing crazy as I am no racer, and i have a small child in the backseat most times, but how much of a power difference are the cars after a tune? And with a long commute and being a new MT driver, is it even worth risking the clutch? I honestly don't know how easy they are to fix, or price for it.

The civic, even the Si is probably the easiest manual I have driven in the last 20 years. I learned on a 86 Golf.... there was no such thing as hill start assist or brake hold. Honestly the hardest part of learning stick is the launch and holding it in place on an incline which HSA and BH mitigate one of those. If you know somebody who has a stick and will let you drive it, take it to an empty parking lot and using only the clutch get the car rolling(needs to be a normal car, not a high hp or modded car). Once you master the engagement point of the clutch then you can start adding in throttle input to keep the RPM's up as you release the clutch. Once you master that, everything else is a cake walk. Upshifts are done around 2.5-3k depending on the car, release gas, push in clutch, change gear, release clutch and apply gas(in a smooth manner, applying more gas as you are releasing the clutch). You will learn the intricacies the more you drive and every car is different. Downshifting is the same, once you get comfortable enough you can start using engine braking to slow the car in addition to the brakes but until then when you want to stop, clutch in, gear shift in neutral and apply brake. Once you are stopped, put it in first and start from the beginning.

 

[AK_FORTY_KEVIN]

Sounds good. I understand the concept of driving it, just gotta find someone to let me put it into motion

 

[SilverGhost]

No, I wish they did, it'd be easier. I have a customer that had me tune his CVT Sedan, then bought a CVT HB as well -- we loaded a copy of his Sedan tune on his HB and it ran different, to the point I looked at a log and told him "man that looks like crap", then had to go back in and alter the way I run the boost on the car as well as retune the MAF curve -- it was even the same intake.

Aheeeem yep that's my Sport Hatchback But the Hatchback Sport hauls some arse now.

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