1.8 civic which model exactly?
Theres a few different types of vtec aswell, other than the type found on the type R's its not really worth mentioning....even then its nothing spectacular. The feeling of speed is largley down to the gearing in the type R's imo, i mean you go blazing though the gears knocking it off the limiter, you think your flying but then you look at the speedo and your hovering around legal motorway speed limits.
When driving the switch over is more audible than anything else,lol.