,
 |
| Compact, lightweight, low cost and good looking, the EK/EJ Civic was the pinnacle of Honda small car greatness. It has been downhill since then. |
Something on my mind lately has been the decline of the car modding scene. There are a whole bunch of factors but perhaps the biggest one is something right under our noses and it isn’t echo boomers being video game addicted slackers or Facebook, it is the fact that we are running out of desirable cars to build. Our old favorite cars are becoming hard to find. Parts are becoming scarce and the new compact segment lacks enthusiast appeal. No one is making cool small cars anymore.
 |
| With an easily swapped B18C engine, the Civic could give giant killing performance with a reasonable budget. |
A disturbing trend I have noticed is that the size, weight and price of some of our favorite compact cars have been creeping upward since our movement began. Yes we understand that emissions and safety standards are responsible for some of this but the overall upward creep of everything is taking the fun out of the game.
 |
| Remember Honda, Remember! |
Look at the Honda Civic. The classic EG or EK Civic probably weighed around 2300-2400 lbs and cost $10,000 to $14,000 brand new. It had multilink suspension all around and a light stiff body with handsome styling. These older Civics were perhaps the best engineered performance FWD compact cars ever built, they were fun to drive. The current Civic Si can weigh nearly 3000 lbs, is the size of an older Accord, has lame strut front suspension and can cost nearly $30k for a pimped out version. It has bland generic styling and I have no desire to own one. The EG was small, light, nimble, good looking and affordable. It was the ultimate blank canvas for the young enthusiast to create with. It was also smaller and lighter than the current super mini B Segment Fit.
