2008 Honda Civic MUGEN Si - Test Drive

2008 Honda Civic MUGEN Si

The 2008 Honda Civic Si is already a pretty cool little sedan, and lots of fun to drive. So when Honda teamed up with Mugen to produce 1000 special 2008 Honda Civic Si Mugen sedans, the internet was abuzzin'. I got a chance to spend a week with a Mugen tuner car, and I lived to tell the tale.

In Japanese, "Mugen" means "without limit," and it's the name of the tuner company co-founded by Sochiro Honda's son Hirotoshi in 1973. Mugen specializes in souping up Honda cars for the track and street, and they've been very successful in their home market. Mugen parts are available in the US, but this is the first time that a co-branded Mugen vehicle has been brought out by Honda.

The Mugen Si shares most of its mechanical underpinnings with the standard Si. The Mugen elements focus on suspension, exhaust, body modifications and some cosmetics. Inside, there's not much to distinguish the Mugen from a stock Si. There are a few badges, a Mugen shift knob and drilled aluminum pedals to elevate the atmosphere, and of course there's that bisected rear view, with the big wing out back.

The Si interior is a very good one, luckily, and it didn't need much tweaking to work as a tuner car anyway. First off, the seats are firm and supportive, with excellent side bolstering to keep you in place when cornering. The dash is very high-tech looking, with a digital speedometer tucked at the top of the instrument panel and a big rotary analog tachometer taking center stage. Keep that tachometer in mind -- it becomes very important when we start to talk about actually driving the Mugen.

The Mugen is powered by the same 2.0 liter inline four-cylinder engine that propels the stock Si. The 16-valve double-overhead cam unit produces 197 hp and 139 lb-ft of torque -- not all that impressive until you look further into the figures. Horsepower doesn't peak until 7800 rpm; torque until 6100 rpm. That means that in order to get the most out of the Mugen, you have to really rev it up and use that big tach to make sure that you're running in the powerband. The engine isn't shy about letting you know when it's happy. There's a spike in power as you approach the peak. It almost feels like a turbocharger kicks in, the spike is so strong. If you shift the six-speed manual gearbox later than you would on most cars, you get great rushes of acceleration from the Mugen. A freer flowing exhaust system rewards you with incredible music from the engine, and a happy feeling follows.

2008 Honda Civic MUGEN Si