It would be interesting to see Honda split the difference for the Si. Move it to 1.7L or 1.8L. Give it more headroom over the other Civics but still less than the R.
Many of those companies are buying carbon credits to make up for it. Honda is leading the way on gas powered cars MPG They along with Subaru and Tesla are the only 3 companies that did NOT have to buy Carbon Credits, so they made money by selling them to other makers, but the standards are...
Thats how Japanese cars have ALWAYS been.
Look how long the GT-R was 276HP-300HP, 13yrs.
The B16 was 10yrs old before it even CAME to the US.
Due to the Gentlemens agreement most JDM makers started to only do small refinements to an engine for YEARS, but instead focus on things like handling...
I mean in a parallel universe I'd love a high reving engine again. Reving out long and hard till gen X has been a defining characteristic of fun Hondas. Hell, my v8 slaps 8K and has a stock 7200 RPM redline.
Figure out how to cut 150-250lbs from it.
Return to a coupe.
Bump it to about 220-230hp.
The power to me isn't a huge deal, but I prefer light and nimble.
My issue is everyone I've personally known to buy a 2.0T powered GTI had either engine, transmission, or engine and transmission issues. And by everyone, I mean LITERALLY everyone. Many people I know have been turned off VW forever due to their experiences with the quality.
All that means is that the Integra would have a base model with 220HP. So there wasnt any logical reason to hold back on the power. Historically the Integra base engine is just the Si engine.
I don't get why people are hung up on how it looks like a normal Civic. Most of the best Si's (Any Si pre 2001) looked like a normal Civic with just some different wheels/trim work. The average person would never look at one and think it was different than an Ex or LX if it was debadged.