1996 Hasport Honda Civic - Road Test

The street ride is, shall we say, comfort challenged. The rear of the car is damped and sprung so stiffly, its rump actually gets airborne over bumps. Progress is deft at supplying us with cars that generate ridiculous handling numbers, but these don't necessarily translate to real-world happiness. Little can be said, however, other than "wow" about the 1.02-lateral g we saw on the skidpad and 71.5 mph through the slalom. Both performances spank a stock STi, by the way.

Fastbrakes supplied its brake upgrade with bright red calipers to appeal to the wandering eyes of SEMA attendees. The system uses 11-inch rotors with four-piston Wilwood calipers in front and Fastbrake's "drum-to-disc" conversion in the rear with 10.9-inch solid rotors in the rear. We had issues with both pedal feel and braking performance, but both are likely a result of the fact that a fitting on one caliper loosened after much abuse, and could've contaminated the brake pads with brake fluid. Also, the car is fitted with the standard 7/8-inch master cylinder, and pedal feel would benefit from the larger 15/16 bolt-in Honda upgrade.

From a stop, or rolling start, for that matter, 205-diameter Toyo RA1s mounted on Axis Mag-Lite 17x7-inch wheels put up nary a fight against all that pressurized fury, squealing like little stuck pigs, but once hooked, they stick like crusty buggers and are responsible for the supercar footwork.

Looking at numbers alone, the Hasport Civic could run with a Z06 Corvette, losing a little off the line, beating it on the top end, and generating better handling numbers. The ingredients are all there for total and global hot hatch supremacy, and have provided us just the kind of Special K inspiration we need for Project Civic. Is this a car we could drive every day? Absolutely not. Would we rather embarrass a Viper on a long straight in anything else? Absolutely not.