It looks heavy and oversized. The thing that made the Civic great, from a performance perspective, was how lightweight it was and how compact the design was. It made the car a beast, a real pocket rocket. I mean consider this: a completely stock unmodified 1997 (!) Civic Type-R is a whole second faster round the Tsukuba circuit than a 2017 Mustang GT 5.0.
So it had a good enough power-to-weight ratio to keep up with the much more powerful Mustang on the straights, and absolutely torched it in the corners thanks to the lightness and compactness. And remember, this is a Civic that's 20 years older than the Mustang which it competed against.
All of this is thanks to the design philosophy of keeping it light and small. That's the whole essence of a Civic. Why have Honda built one that's big and fat? It's not a Civic anymore
