Jeffblue

From a purely asthetic perspective, if you want someting nice, the Z hands down. people don't look at civic si's any differently than a civic ex etc. I've gotten waves and nods from people in porsche 911's etc. The civic SI is the sporty version of a 2 door version of a 4 door subcompact economy car. The Z is a sports car that has a history, and has evolved and every generation is unique, while improving upon the last. the evolution of the civic is that it has managed to get progressively less shitty each new model year.

RWD>FWD
2 seater sports car vs4 seater coupe
power and great handling vs fuel economy

Not to be overly critical of your friend, but he sounds like a bit of a honda fanboy. you make it seem like he says 'honda w/ mods=better than anything' not true. I'm no Z fanboy. if you were talking about Z vs getting a cheap supra and modding the **** out of it, i'd say, whatever you want, both will be awesome cars, but civics not really anything to get excited about. i can wholeheartedly say that i would rather have a Z over some 500-800whp civic with full mods, even if it was tasteful.

Theres a ton of other cars you can get for cheap and turn into a really great project car that will get great performance AND looks to boot. nissan 240sx, 03/04 mustang cobra, toyota supra, 300zx, subaru wrx STI, Lancer EVO, even a 350z can be had for pretty cheap. if you want a new car, get the Z. If you want a project car, i can go on naming a bunch of other cars that have way more potential than a civic SI.

so do you want a project car or a new car?