[84LX89GT]

Calling a civic a hot rod just doesn't make sense. When i think hot rod i think something rediculously light with insane amounts of torque and sounds GOOD....not like crap....GOOD!!!!
Oh....and to all those people thinking that this whole souping econo car thing up is a new thing, what do you think the whole domestic turbo thing was in the 80's (Dodge Daytona, Thunderbird T-coupe, Mustang SVO, etc. etc.). Although there were a few turbo imports in the 80's and some technology/powertrains got absorbed onto domestic cars, there are more 80's domestic turbo cars on the road than there were ever import turbo cars. These were LONG before anyone was feebly throwing money at slow japanese imports. Also People were tinkering with VW's in the 60's, putting on multiple carbs, putting in Porsche engines, etc. etc.
As for being on the cutting edge of technology....weren't japanese cars some of the last cars to have carburetion with miles and miles of vacuum lines.
Also just about every car now is overhead cam, low friction designed, CNC machined, and very tight toleranced and domestic V8's are getting faster and faster for the displacement.....what does this mean for import "enthusiasts", you can only pump so much air through a 1.6L without serious work.....It's much easier to pump more air through a 4.6L V8 for example.
The whole Sport Compact thing has been around for quite awhile and the only thing the new honda civics replace is old honda civics.
This of course, is just one man's biased opinion