Please, I am a long time Integra owner, GS-R with VTECH, let me put this in perspective.The TC runs on regular gas and I get about 30 MPG, I?™d say a stock well driven TC will do a 15.6@89 MPH in the ¼ mile. There is 163 ft-lbs of torque and the engine will work from 1500 in 5th gear to red line. Car weigh is at least 2930 lbs with BIG rims.Stock GS-R which has a MUCH better VTEC implementation then the Civic SI?™s 160 HP B16c (upto 2003?) got about 30 MPG too but on premium. Could not pull 1500 RPM in 5th, you needed to down shift at anything below 2200 or so and really if you needed to go anywhere you needed to drop down several gears. The B-18C had a unique dual intake runner system that kind of helped torque and MPG while the Civic did not. A stock Integra well driven could cut a 15.2 @ 91 MPH in the ¼ mile. But that is with 15 inch rims a perfect power shift through the gears, lots of clutch slip at launch some sticky tires, most guys would be lucky to do a 15.5 @ 91 MPH. The Civic was far worst VTEC implimintation: MPG was about 31 or 32 MPG but it had NO torque at all, completely inadequate tires, tin can sound deadening. 15.8 @88 MPH was a typical Civic SI B16C time. On either setup Civic or Integra you would lose a ½ second and a WHOLE bunch of drivability with a swap out to 17 inch rims, a WHOLE bunch of drivability would be gone with: headers, CAI, exhaust. Don?™t get me wrong they did much better ¼ mile with just: header, CAI, exhaust BUT drivability was WAY down blah, blah, blah down. If you get caught in the wrong gear with a VTEC you are in for a major whooping. We are talking about cars that are lucky to put 115 ft-lbs of torque to the wheels and weigh in at 2500 to 2650 lbs (Integra).So yea the VTEC Civic 1.6 (the real VTEC for both cams and for performance) has the same HP as the Scion weights in almost 400 lbs less and would be hard press to win in a race, gets about the same real world MPG in gas cost i.e. 10% better MPG but its fuel cost 10% more. Yet the VTEC has no torque, has to be properly driven for full potential, miss shifts are common and are known to bend or drop valves and lastly the performance in the real world falls sharply with the common bolt ons: rims, CAI, header, exhaust.The K20 2004 up Civic and RSX are more worthy comparisons, here the VTEC is for economy only and they seem to be economical. They both lack torque and performance falls way off when coupled to an automatic. I have not seen a Civic SI or plain RSX at the tracks but I feel they are mid to high 15 second machines when properly driven. Probably with the same or slightly slower then a stock TC. The TC has far far more torque and has a very steep final gear cluster. As an example of torque a stock K20 Civic
http://www.jacksonracing....0SI%20Street%20SC.gifThat is only 116 ft-lbs to the wheels and even supercharged! It puts out maybe 5 to 10 ft-lbs more then a STOCK Scion. People BUY HP, but we drive torque.So the Civic 26 / 31 and RSX 27/34 use the VTEC for strictly economy and while these figures look very good (and are), the Camay with the same engine as the scion 7% less gear and way smaller tires and rims it is rated at: 24/34, that is right there with the RSX and the Camry is a heavier car. So what do you get from the VTEC-e? Dunno as the Camry has far more torque. IMO, VTEC and its ilk are technologies that evolve in countries like Japan, where there is a MAJOR tax and insurance penalty based on engine size. The USofA has no such penalties hence it is better to build larger engines, with more torque and less complication.On a side note, one thing I never liked about the VTEC B-18c type engines is that they don?™t have roller cam followers, so there is MAJOR wear on the cam lobs. Most non-VTEC engines have rollers or cam on bucket design. So new VTEC engines have rollers too but not the GS-R or the Civic B16 VTEC.
As to which is better, vvt-i or vvtl-i = toyota and any derivation of vtec = honda. Honda is the undisputed king of performance four bangers. (naturally aspirated at least) Now if you-re comparing the tC to the rsx-s, those are two totally different types of variable valve timing. tC would only have variable intake and the rsx-s has variable intake and exhaust valve timing. 
I agree that I like driving the tC more than other cars 
