No, nothing too technical has been mentioned yet. I don't see honda straying too far from the current setup torsion beam front multilink rear etc. But there is alot of tweaks and tuning they could do to that suspension to make it work alot better for the car. They just have to invest the time and money into doing it. They can make the accord handle as well as a GTI, why not the civic? That only leaves room to make the Si and Type R even better than the competition.
From LX-EXL the suspensions have always been the same setup. The coupe usually gets stiffer springs to increase its handling slightly and give it more of a sporty feel. The sedan gets softer more comfort geared suspension.
for whats its worth i did read the 10th civic would use a similar setup to the 9th NA model, ditching how Europe does it.
That makes sense. The current Euro model rides on the Fit platform so the suspension setup is similar to that of the Fit, not the 9th civic we have.
Well the platform itself doesn't have as much to do with handling characteristics. That all goes to the shocks, dampers, etc. The new platform will be lighter and more rigid which will assist in better handling characteristics. The longer wheel base will help with comfort of ride. The wider stance will help with lower center of gravity (i.e. better cornering) But the individual tuning and setup of the suspension they attach to the platform will ultimately decide the characteristics of how the civic and accord drive. The current accord, while comfort oriented is no slouch in handling pulling numbers equal to the VW GTI in figure 8 and skidpad.
ah. yes. they will be bigger. but like i've said. growth is really going to be marginal. no more than an inch or two in any direction. And if the engines got the pep and they quicken up the steering the new lighter chassis still has the potential to feel quick and flickable. In this day and age size doesn't determine a cars character as much as it used to.
I think honda's mission is to bring back the fun to drive sporty nature of the civic. I'm pretty confident if nothing else they're going to bring class leading handling to the civic. The difference that i think we'll see, as it seems to be a trend with other car makers is making the car feel more mature and refined. Less like a jouncy tuner go kart and more refined planted predictable. They did it with the golf and GTI. Reading those reviews about how they matured the GTI and Golf while upping its handling ability. It'll be less boy racer and more refined sports tourer. Which isn't a bad thing.
I think a big reason it looks so much larger than the 9th parked next to it is:
It'll be interesting to see how they dish out features and amenities across the trim levels. I swear those headlights look like full LED units as opposed to the basic projectors we've seen so far. One thing i've also noticed that i hope gets tweaked with the sedan is the gap in the wheel wells. That's alot of gap... the 8th gen had such small gaps and the 9th gen they increased. This doesn't seem to be an issue on the coupe though from the spy pictures i've seen however. You'd think same platform and basic wheel sizes the wheel gaps wouldn't be so different from coupe to sedan.
