If you're a fanboi of VTEC, SCCA Pro's World Challenge road racing series or Grand-Am's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series, then you're no doubt familiar with Compass360 Racing (C360R) and their fleet of highly competitive Honda Civic Si's.

This Toronto-based team won back-to-back CTSCC ST-class championships in 2009 and 2010 as well as helping Honda secure manufacturer championships in 2006 and 2007. They also won the 2011 SCCA Pro World Challenge Touring Car Championship with "Awesome" Lawson Aschenbach behind the wheel of one of their 2011 Civic Si and in the process helped Honda claim its sixth World Challenge Manufacturers' Championship and first since 1996.

At the recent 2012 Honda Civic Si HFP event we chatted with C360R Team Principal Karl Thomson about their newly developed 2012 Civic Si coupe, piloted by TrueCar.com-sponsored female racer Shea Holbrook. According to Thomson, "The C360R 2012 Civic Si racecar is going to be extremely competitive right out of the box. We've worked closely with HPD [Honda Performance Development, the racing division of Honda in North America] on some really trick stuff including a race-tuned Anti-Lock Braking System."

We also got a ride-along with Shea Holbrook at the Niagara Airport with a couple of GoPro video cameras recording the action after the jump. Hitting the rev limiter in 6^th gear down the main runway was pretty cool, but Holbrook's skill and precision through the pylon-defined courses before and after the runway was far more impressive, as was the C360R 2012 Civic Si's grip and acceleration.

We're not at all surprised that Shea went on to her first two World Challenge Touring Car podium finishes of the year in this very car at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport) last weekend and her first race win of the year can't be far off with this latest and greatest Civic Si underneath her. Check it out after the break.

Honda has clearly been listening to its critics when cooking up the HFP (Honda Factory Performance) version of the new Civic Si coupe. Although it doesn't increase horsepower, the HFP edition Si (limited to just 400 units for the Canadian market) does make significant improvements in two key areas: handling and style.

When we track tested the 2012 Civic Si last year, we were let down by its soft suspension tuning and excessive body roll when cornering hard. We also weren't fans of the Si's relatively bland styling and the fact that its sheet metal was far too reminiscent of the outgoing model. On the other hand, the '06 to '11 Civic was a handsomely styled machine, so I can't blame Honda for not wanting to stray too far from its design. Nor can Honda be blamed for not wanting to reinvent the Civic too radically given that its been the best-selling car in Canada for 14 years in a row.

Click here to see how the HFP stacks up on the track.