Perfect Car

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

never has it been any truer than the time when i was searching for a perfect car. the search had been futile for many years due to my next-to-impossible requirements. i struggled to find the balance between a sporty daily driver that, while burning rubber on the tarmac, wouldn't burn a hole in my pocket. i wasn't looking for creature comforts...for a long time, i had used cars without stereos, so even the most basic model would be equipped with more amenities than i would bother to care about. nor was i looking for exotic super cars. (simply coz i couldn't afford them). so, other than the features that make the most wanted list of any basic car buyer - safe, reliable, practical, economical, etc., i had a few more options to append and it was this combination that was hard, if not impossible (now that i have found it) to find.
my kinda car would have to be a great handling drivers car that i could take to the tracks, if i so chose to. obviously, this car would give me the luxury of being commonplace, would incur low insurance costs, and i wouldn't have to search high and low for spares and pay through my nose for maintenance, if ever. more points, if it were naturally aspirated and sipped on gas, rather than guzzle.

if you were thinking on the lines of Subaru Impreza WRX or STI or Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, you were pretty close, but the last couple of points elimiate those choices. Additionally, they are more on the expensive side than one would have imagined... not just the MSRP, but also the insurance costs.
Other option would have been to take a used stock car and install all the tuner mods to make it track-ready. but i'm a lazy guy. it would take too much in time and efforts to do all the mods. firstly, i wouldn't know how to install the parts even if my life depended on it. secondly, i had neither the tools nor the skills. (i call myself an enthusiast, nevertheless) getting a mechanic to do all these things would be fruitless. i would might as well get the above mentioned vehicles, coz the cost for either of the alternatives would be almost the same.
besides, i wanted a new car - there's too much information asymmetry in getting a used one than i am comfortable with.

At this juncture, if you are amongst the car enthusiasts crowd, you'd be all nodding your heads, and would
a) refuse to believe that such a car actually exists
b) want to skip to the part where i revel the car.
c) all of the above.

well, hold your horses there. (don't i even get to sound my trumpet for all my efforts?)

for those who say "oh, but that's easy. the answer is Civic Si"
well, you're very very close.
in fact, i was too. very very close. to getting a '08 Si in Feb this year when my '99 Kia Sephia was boosted. Yeah, i know. what a stupid dumbfxxx! it wasn't even fit for a joyride. guess he only wanted the stereo. The cops thought i was lying. ("'99 kias don't get stolen"). fortunately, i found it a few weeks later. but not be4 i had test-driven a 09 Si.
if you have never listened to its exhaust note, you should. it's sweet dibetic! i was hooked. not that i needed an excuse. i had been following the Si development since they displayed the coupé at the '05 SEMA show. i even had Honda send me the brochures and put up pictures on my cubicle wall. not surprizingly, the Civic was the Motor Trend's COTY for 2006. (what was surprizing, though, was that no one mentioned it featured the old-school inward directed wiper blade arms that rested one over the other, if you know what i mean)

in any case.

so.

has anyone of you heard of the 2008 Si Mugen Edition?