William Au-Yeung and his 2012 Honda Civic Si qualifies an impressive 16th at the 2019 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
If there’s one entrant at the 97th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, you’re going to want to pay attention to it’s William Au-Yeung, driver of the Vibrant Performance 2012 Honda Civic Si, as he’s qualified 16th out of 58 entries this year.
If that name and car sounds familiar it’s because this Civic is fresh off taking the FWD Tsukuba Time Attack record in Japan earlier this year. With a time of 53.071, this boosted Civic got the attention of a lot of hardcore Time Attack fans unfamiliar with this Canadian-run operation. Will was so fast that the only car close enough to him was an AWD Mitsubishi Evolution 9 with their 51.119-second run.
Suffice to say, this Civic Si is wicked fast.
Here are a couple of shots of this Civic Si from earlier this weekend.
Fans familiar with this AWD and RWD slayer can spot the Vibrant Performance’s blue and white livery but for this special time attack into the clouds, Will commissioned a special all-white livery featuring Vibrant’s logo.
From what I can see, the aero package remains relatively unchanged since its time attack effort in Japan. I can only guest Will’s dialed the boost to compensate for performance in thin Colorado air.
Here’s a post from @OnPointDyno with what they’ve done to make sure Will has all the boost he needs at crucial moments of his climb without overpowering his tires with the massive horsepower his K-series makes.
As mentioned, Will qualified 16th. If you’re wondering how competitive this FWD Civic is, consider that 15th is Rhys Millen running less than a second faster in a Bently Continental GT fully prepped and backed by Bently just for this hill climb.
Will’s running in the Unlimited Class.
A quick peek at the qualifying results shows that he’s 1st for FWD efforts with the next fastest FWD car being a 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 in 50th.
I fully expect this Civic Si to surprise everyone this weekend and put a lot of more expensive programs to shame!
With qualis over, race time starts Sunday at 7:30 A.M. Colorado time.
What do you think about this one fast Civic Si? Let me know in the comments below!