Chopsuey’s 2025 Civic Si Build Thread

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Alas, nobody reads.

Thanks for the well-wishing and for being a commie hater.

I read through it. You're welcome, they are nice cars.

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[chopsuey34]

Mods I (will) regret (redux):

Now that I sold my Si, what mods do I regret and what mods don’t I regret? (Here's a LINK to the original post)



Decals / Looks / Exterior Mods

I bought the car thinking I’d keep it for seven years. I wanted it to look exactly like I wanted it too. One 10-minute test drive at CarMax on a random Saturday morning changed all of that. I wouldn’t have changed the exterior appearance of the car if I had known that. Que sera, sera. Here are a few cars that inspired me:

Tune

Honestly, didn’t really need to do this. It wasn’t all that and didn’t really change the fundamentals of the car. Yes, I was running Phearable 1.5R Map 1 most of the time, but I did try Map 2 a few times. Sure, it made the car quicker, but I started to worry about the clutch life even though I was still using Map 1. Forget it bro, I don’t want any headaches with my driving experience.



Intercooler

"I probably didn't need intercooler living in Michigan. It’s really a 3 months out of the year mod. But I’ve never heat soaked. My planned power levels probably don’t need an intercooler, either. In retrospect, I would have purchased the WOT cool plate first, then assessed if I needed an intercooler."

All of this still stands. Lesson: Select mods on the basis on need, not want



Rigid Collars

"I couldn't feel much of a difference on the street, even after an alignment. While I don't regret buying them and the pain in the ass it was to install them, I probably won't ever install them again on any other of my cars. Chasing problems that don’t exist is how companies market to auto enthusiasts. FYI the Honda HRC cars don’t run rigid collars, at least they don’t list them in their mod lists."

All of this still stands. I kind of fucked up the install and nearly cross-threaded a subframe bolt. The car spend 10 days on jackstands as I researched solutions. A friend advised me to chase the thread to clean it up. That worked. Totally not worth the effort. Lesson: Honda engineers know more about car suspensions than you do, and aftermarket companies want to sell you things.



Wheels

"I don’t regret my Enkeis because they look dope, but on the street, I don’t really notice that much of a difference in handling despite dropping 30lbs of unsprung weight. Unless I’m buying a Miata, I’m only buying high-quality spacers to push the stock wheels out to flush. If I ever buy an Accord, that’s what I’d do because 19” Accord wheels have always been dope."

All of this still stands. With my BRZ, the stock wheels look great and weight 23 lbs. I don’t have any reason to change them. Going to a 17” lightweight tire really won’t change much and won’t make a street car much faster. I will say that running 245-width DWS06+ on a FWD car with 200 horsepower is silly. I don’t really know why Honda went with 235-width tires stock, but ok. Lesson: The weight of the wheel doesn’t change street performance by much. Tire choice is a more impactful decision.



Time

I wrote about the opportunity cost of drooling over wheels and mods on the internet in my previous post, and my thoughts still stand. However, I now have that experience and don’t need to drool over any more cars, mods, or wheels again (business types call this operating leverage).



If I could do it again, these are the mods I would do and call it a day:

PRL RMM
Acuity Shifter
HPT WOT Performance Cooling Plate (PRL Intercooler if Cooling Plate isn’t enough)
Stock Wheels + 235/40/18 DWS06+ tires + Wheel spacers + extended studs


These two comments really sums it up for me. The Pareto principal affects cars mods just like it does everything else, and I don’t want any headaches or asterisks or inconveniences with my driving experience. I’m just driving my cars on the street.

 

[chopsuey34]

Civic Si Retrospective:

I sold my Civic Si two weeks ago. Here are some thoughts and reflections about the car and the modifications I did to it:


“My goal is to put some money into my Si and turn it into “what it should have been from the factory”. But in doing so, I don’t want to fundamentally change its character or power. If I wanted something more powerful or different, I would have just bought that something else.”

True, I didn’t want to fundamentally change the car’s character or power. Turns out mods didn’t really do that and I could have saved a few thousand bucks. Oh well, itch scratched.



“This is my first Honda. I’m not a Honda guy, and I’m not a VTEC, 90’s golden era Honda fan boy, either. I also don’t like torqueless, high revving engines, the kinds that Honda was famous for building back in the day. But I am an “NA” guy, and this is my first turbo.”

I remain an “NA” guy, and I don’t want anything to do with turbos anymore. I wanted a mini V6, and I got it in the FA24.



“With my build, I want to replicate a naturally aspirated engine, meaning I want as much throttle response and as little turbo lag as possible. I also want to avoid the temptation of abusing the turbo and turning the L15CA into a torque monster with a camel hump dyno sheet. Instead, I want to aim for a “mini V6” feeling that I believe the 1.5T is capable of: more, linear power. And in fact, I don’t need much more power at all. I’d rather some more response than anything. I’d rather use 100% of 200hp (or 220hp) than 70% of 315hp.”

“I’m an NA guy. This 2025 Civic Si is my first turbo car. I'm already sick of turbos feeling lazy and weak in the heat, and then sharp and powerful at night when it’s cooler. I can slam and jam NA engines all day no matter the temperature or humidity. Turbos, however, like to load manage like NBA players, they work when they feel like it, those prima donnas (“I’ll manage my load into your mom” – see, turbos are moody, just like teenagers, yelling at them doesn’t work, I tried :/ ). One carries on, though.

FWD kind of sucks, but I’m ok with it. Michigan winters remind me every year why I don’t daily a RWD anymore like I used to.”

All true, see above about the FA24. My major gripe with the Civic Si is the 1.5T engine. It’s not great. The motor kind of felt delicate and I didn’t like that I had to concern myself with things like waiting for operating temps and LSPI. Plus, you can’t make a small displacement turbo engine feel like a large-displacement NA engine, even with a tune. Moving to the 2.0T in the CTR wouldn’t help, either. Sure, the “turbo shove” is a great feeling once it’s spooled up, and the low-down torque is nice, but it’s just not my style. I hate turbo lag (even on this 1.5T with a peanut turbo), and I don’t want to wait for power. It’s my horsepower and throttle response, and I want it now!

I stand by these comments. Turbocharging did not go well for me, and I went back to NA. And I will deal with Michigan winters.



“Engine: I don’t have experience with turbo engines coming from an NA background. I like the torque in the low and mid-range. A 1.5L shouldn’t feel this powerful but it does! (The GR Corolla 1.6T must be a blast). I like the linear power of the engine; it builds like an NA engine and doesn’t fall off at the top end. I can get up to +100mph pretty easily, no complaints. Well done, Honda. But I’ll complain anyways: the total power output leaves more to be desired, and I know it can give me more (Imma tune that bitch up to 30psi with tariff free ‘Murika-grown ethanol, yee haw!).”

Tuning a small displacement turbo engine doesn’t really do it for me.



Suspension: Rides great. Like a dream.

Handling: I really liked the Civic’s LSD. It really pulls out of corners hard. High point of the handling.

Styling: I still love the 11th gen Civic styling. It’s a beautiful car.

Exhaust: I’m an “NA” guy. I prefer an excellent exhaust note over turbo whoosh noises. I still prefer an exhaust note over turbo noises. The only expensive mod I’m planning on doing to the BRZ is an HKS axleback.



Money:

OTD cost for my 2025 Civic Si purchased in February 2025 was $34,250.54 ($31,855 MSRP). Pre-trade in, my total cost of ownership was $44,135.26. I traded it in for $30,000 with Carvana. As of writing this post, my post-trade in total cost was $12,633.81 dollars (not including gas) for the pleasure of owning, driving, and modding my 2025 Civic Si. That’s $8,422.54 per year.

Cars are expensive! Why did I become a car enthusiast?? When people ask me if I’ve gone on vacation recently, I say “No, my vacation budget is in the garage”. That doesn’t play well on dating apps…

Dang, Hondas have strong residuals. I’m not going to lie. The moment I read that Honda would pause production of the Civic Si, I knew my car’s value immediately jumped. That helped sway me into trading it in for BRZ. I wonder how much dealers will be price gouging Si’s starting October 2026?

I’m not going to tell you what I paid for my Subaru BRZ, that’s none of your business. But I got a screaming deal for it. It has a seven-year warranty on it, which is why I’m keeping it mostly stock. But I will say this: I’m not running a DCF on my car’s value this time around. Fuck that. Life’s too short. I want to drive more and read shit on car forums less.

Buying cars is an emotional decision, not a financial one. The smartest thing you can do is buy a beater for less than $5,000 and drive it for 10 years. That’s what I did. My Scion xB 5MT with 180,000 miles is still going strong. I picked it up in 2018 for $3,000. It was sitting on the lot for 3 months because nobody in Hastings, MI wanted a stick-shift import that smelled like dog. I was able to beat the price down by $500. The dealer just wanted it off the lot. Anyways, I saved a lot of money driving that thing (and still do, just now for groceries and gym runs). I also saved a bunch of money waiting a year for the refreshed Civic model. My 401k loves me for that. But had I known to go with the GR86/BRZ, I would have purchased in 2024. Oh well, spilt grapes, I guess.




While the 11th generation Civic Si was a great experience, I’ve moved back to my natural territory. I still value the experiences I had with the car, though:

- I’ve lived with a Honda shifter.
- I modded a car out to how I wanted it done.
- I don’t need to obsess about mods much anymore.
- Everything I learned about Civics and cars from the forum members on this site.
- I learned how to write because of this car.


For a time, I was deeply obsessed about this car, and that obsession engendered feelings within me about my love of cars and driving, leading to the posts in this build thread. Cars to me aren’t things that take me from A to B, or what most people consider afterthoughts and inconveniences of daily life.

There’s something more to cars than just their metal and rubber. When I hear folk tales about Japanese katana containing the souls of local deities, I know what they mean. While cars aren’t living things, they still have different personalities. One of the things that fascinates me most about them is that their engineers can design them to have particular characters and behaviors. It’s those engineered personalities that I attach to like I have attached myself to my parents’ dog, Bodie. It’s those personalities that can develop into deep bonds and relationships between driver and automobile. And it’s those personalities that make me the car enthusiast that I am, because to me, a car is much more than just a thing. My cars are something that I form a strong connection with over the years and who become just as close to me as the family dog, or perhaps, even a friend.

 

[chopsuey34]

Speaking about dogs...

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