Is it just me or does it feel like the '06 Civic Si has been around for a few years and not just a few months? Seriously, we're barely into February, and it's already been reviewed to death. We've seen widebody versions and racecar versions. It's even appeared in the Black Eyed Peas video for "Pump It", which is up for a Grammy for Best Sell-Out Video of the Year. (Yeah, I know—B. E. P. selling out? No way.) And the only question left is: What can I add to the discussion?

How about this … I drove it two weeks ago and the experience reminded me of watching U2's "Beautiful Day" video for the first time.

Remember when "Beautiful Day" came out? It was U2's first good song since that song in "Reality Bites." Yeah, we knew they were still around. They were still putting on their pants one leg at a time, but they weren't making gold records. Bono was meeting Popes, Adam Clayton was getting busted for coke (apparently while the rest of the band shopped for tight T-shirts and skull caps). They were over-producing their new albums and living off of their classics. Meanwhile, the rest of the world had gone through two waves of fake punk, boy bands, girl bands, Oasis vs. Blur covers on Rolling Stone and at least a dozen posthumous Tupac CDs. Not even a Bono duet with Pavarotti could spark a full-scale comeback. Go figure.

Then came "Beautiful Day."

All That You Can't Leave Behind was an awakening in every sense of the word. And it reminded us that U2 were still capable of unparalleled level of pretension and great music. (It's a shame that they effed it all up in a handshake with Steve Jobs, but anyway …) What made All That You Can't Leave Behind so good was that it combined the innovation that had started with Achtung Baby with the classic U2 sound. It was still the old U2 ethos remixed in a modern way. And that's what the Civic Si felt like to me. It was raw and loud and geared tightly—and yet my back rested on a bit of red embroidered stitching on the seat. There was a digital speedo. It came with XM and Navi and 100 lbs heavier than the last one.

The Si's of yore was for specialists. People in the know. They were never kitted out or played up like the Cobalt SS or the Neon SRT-4. You had to know what DOHC stood for and why it made a difference. You had to understand gear ratios and have a slight grasp of power bands. Not that they were super geeked out machines, but at the same time, you had to be a little geeky to understand why they were so special. They weren't for tourists. Meanwhile, when I visited my sister-in-law in New Jersey two weeks ago, the first thing her daughter said when she saw the Si was, "Is this a race car?" She's 12.

That's the difference. The new Si stands out. You've got the sporty profile, the curvy wing and 17-inch wheels and tires. Inside, you've got the most radical dashboard since the Mitsubishi Starion with a fancy pants steering wheel. I'm still not a big fan of drive-by-wire throttle, and it was strange to hear the cutting S2Kish grind of the K20 engine accompanied by a digital tach that revealed artificially floated revs between every gear change. That was strange. And nothing captures what I'm talking about more than this bizarre juxtaposition.

Could this be the most hardcore Si ever while being the most mainstream? That's what it feels like. Maybe it's the Civic Si for the future.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

Richard Chang also writes for AutoWeek and Racer. Fumes appears the first and third Tuesday of every month, when he's not bargain shopping for Fuji persimmons. He can be reached at rich@urbanracer.com.