Hondas are not about horsepower, a sporty honda is about making absolutely epic use of every pony it makes. It's not for going down the strip you silly people, Hondas will go down the quartermile like 3 seconds behind your DSM and still whoop your ass when going around a track that has any right turns at all.
That's what Honda is about. Drag racing a civic is like taking the smallest engine out there trying to make it fast, of course it's expensive to make it go fast in the straight, but with whatever horsepower it packs it can take on turns and twists like no other in its class. That's why it's so fun to drive. Sure you floor the crap out of it you'll still be beaten by that prius taxi in the next lane but that DSM that you left in the dust in the cloverleaf onramp is just oh so satisfying.
Just pick up a lowly EG Civic CX DX or whatever and take a long sweeping bend using 175 width tires that came with it, you will be surprised how far that thing holds on before the front lets go. It's balanced it's poised it does not roll and push like a DSM from factory asking for trouble.
for something stock or relatively stock I think Honda has game, for potential you can't beat DSM. For consumers, though, a Honda always come back with a solid resale value whereas DSM.....not so much, just because it bears the wrong badge. So with most people out there being (uneducated) consumers, more likely than not you'll hear people laughing at DSMs than at Hondas.
So build your 400HP game and shut them up, but until then, don't mock on 100HP hondas, they are just so fun to drive.
Same could be said about Miatas who is going to expect that 88WHP dingy open top girly thing is going to take you up on a road course? I've seen it embarrass cars 3x as much horsepower and then some. It's not the figures when it comes to nimble little cars like Miatas and Civics.
Now take a Colt out there with 100HP and beat some Civics, then you can poke fun at them. Stop comparing your 2L turbo class vehicle to those 1.6L boy racers, there isn't much to compare about. You should be beating up SRT4s if you want to compare apples to apples.
It's like EVO owners proudly announcing that they have beaten a Civic
, I'm embarrassed just to hear that discussion.
