Surf mat you are dead sure of yourself there but I think you're wrong.
I have had a Type R, a golf R32 and a volvo V50 T5 in the last few years.
The civic is fast even at low revs and will happpily pull from 30 in 6th. The other two are of course much happier low down in the rev range but for most day to day driving all three are perfectly fine. Where the civic scores is its handling and the fact that the K20 engine is a masterpiece, combined with a perfect gearchange for a 17k car. If you like drving hard and being involved it is the absolute nuts I did 23k in mine no worries. Get a mugen tune and 9.5k revs are possible and sound like nothing else in a production car (except an S2000)it's addictive..
My brother has one of those ST Ford Focus's I'd say that's also worth a look.