To most of us, the RS badge on Hondas is a relatively new thing. We first saw it on the tenth-generation Civic in 2016, serving as the top of the line model. But for those familiar with the brand, they would know that it goes far beyond that.
In 1974, the first ever Honda Civic RS made its debut as a Japan-only model. This year, it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
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The first generation Honda Civic premiered in 1972, but following public clamor of a sporty model, the company responded with the RS variant two years later. The first RS effectively kicked off the sporty Civic genre that’s still alive today in the form of the North American Si and the global Type R.
It could be said that it was the Honda first hot hatch, although the figures won’t exactly excite anyone in today’s context. It used a 1.2-liter, 12-valve four-cylinder engine with dual carburettors.
It was then given a more aggressive camshaft, a free-flowing exhaust manifold and headers, and high compression pistons. The result was 75hp and 101Nm of torque. Okay, so it makes a lot less power than a modern day Brio, but you have to remember that a bog standard Civic only made just 53hp and 94Nm of torque.
Are you wondering why Honda chose RS for the sporty Civic? Now, RS doesn’t mean ‘Rally Sport’ or ‘Race Spec’ in this case. Instead, it stands for Road Sailing. Honda’s explanation for the term Road Sailing is to ‘sail smoothly over long distances on the road’.
50 years later, the Honda Civic RS has over 100hp (101hp, to be exact) and about two and a half times more torque than the original model. Today, the Civic RS makes 176hp and 240Nm of torque. It’s also grown quite a lot in the succeeding decades with the modern Civic being closer in size to an Accord from the late’90s.
It’s a significant milestone for the first sporty Civic. It’s only fitting then that it will be returning to Japan for its 50th birthday. In hatchback form, of course.
