The new 2022 Honda Civic Si is only available as a four-door sedan. But for a long time, the U.S.-spec Civic Si was two-door only. First, we got to know the Si here as a hatchback in the mid ’80s and into the ’90s. Then after a brief hiatus, it came back as the bitchin’ B16-powered EM1 coupe for 1999. The EP3 that followed was a hatchback, and even the glorious eighth-gen Si was very briefly just a coupe before being joined by sedan model in 2007. In Japan, however, you could have an Si sedan all the way back in 1984
- Car: 1985 Honda Civic Si Sedan
- Location: Japan
- Photog: Unknown (Honda media archive image)
- Camera: Unknown
Even as a confessed Honda fanboy, I have to admit I had no idea that the JDM Civic Si existed until today. There I was, casually pawing around for old Honda pictures, when I stumbled on the old Honda press photo I shared here in this post. So I thought, hey, maybe some of you hadn’t seen this car either!
A little cursory research dug up a period brochure for the car which might give us some details about it… if we could read Japanese. Generally speaking, it seems that information about this third-gen four-door Si is not all that readily available. I can tell from that old paper document that it had a 1.6-liter engine and the “DOHC” decal on the door lets us know it had a dual-overhead cam. There are some privately shot photos on a site called jdmauctionwatch.com which are worth checking out if you’ve never seen one of these cars — you get quite a few angles, there.
I’m bizarrely captivated by the design of this thing. But the fact that I’ve been researching Hondas for years and am only hearing about the third-gen Si sedan now strongly suggests these are very rare. I’ll consider myself lucky if I ever get to see one, let alone drive one! If anybody in our comment section has more info or images on these, please drop them below.
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