i have a 4th gen si, my friend has a 5th gen 98 sh , he has all the normal mods like cat back, intake, msd, wires, vacf all tunned i believe, i have the same mods, but i dont have a safc. usually when we race, i rather him be in front so i can chase him and see how much i can keep up til he pulls away. his is semi auto {( sport shift, and mine is stick. thats what enables me to keep until his vtec kicks in. at take off, i m right on his tail, but he usually pulls away a lil when i shift from 2nd to 3rd, at around 58 to 60 mph. so basically we have almost the same mods and i can keep up to a certain point. and i think 4th gens are even heavier than 5gens. i m sure if i were to race a stick shift 5 gen he would pull away a lil more. unless my 4th gen had some kinda of boost like nos or turbo, i think its would be very hard for an 4th gen si to beat a vtec 5gen. but again, its all about the driving skillz