Honda Civic Type R Review

Civic Type R

Honda has been top or around the top spot of the JD power survey for years! The build quality and reliability are second to none.

How many other car manufactures can boast about producing over 20 million engines over the last 23 years and not have a single warranty claim inside of 3 years? The answer is none!

This is partly because the Civic and CRV are built in Britain, but mostly because they have been driven by people who do 2 miles a year and own bus a pass but don't wish to travel on public transport through fear of being mugged, and who can blame them!
Honda does have a reputation for being a bit of an old person's car which, over the years Honda have tried to tackle by introducing new performance/special edition models such as:

Civic Vti Jordan: which was bright Yellow and errr......that's it!

Integra Type R: which still is an awesome car but if a dealer had one in stock it would be so over priced that only retired company directors could afford to buy them!

Accord Type R: which indicated you were having mid-life crisis and missed 'the good old days' but still need space for either your grown up kids or to take your wives friend to the bingo of a Sunday evening:

Honda NSX: which the great Ayrton Senna himself developed the handling but it was so expensive that it was competing for sales against Porsche and Ferrari so only older people brought them and lets be honest, what would you buy if you were between 25-45 years old and had £70,000?

This all changed when Honda released the Civic Type R in 2001. Based on what I can only assume is a go kart chassis, Honda created a little pocket rocket that shouted at old people so much that they much preferred to dig out there bus passes because getting mugged was the nicer option!

The 2.0iVtec kicks out around 197hp for the front tyres to deal with which It handles very well even though the steering does lack a little feel in the bends when really pushed. But I love this car for 2 reasons:

1st is the position of the gearlever which is near perfect as far as I am concerned, but the 2nd and the main reason I love it so much is the rawness of the thing!! No leather seats, no Sat Nav, no Traction Control and even A/C was an option in the early models!
Driving it is like driving the ground breaking MK1 Golf but with the bonus of modern technology which makes for a brilliant car.

But Honda has done away with the rawness when introducing the new Type R which looks like a bullet! It really does look like it wants to hurt you should you get in it's way (Which should keep the bingo brigade on the buses). It gets better inside too with a great neon red dash board, sports seats and, as with the previous Type R, loads of room in the back so that you can scare your stubborn parents into taking the bus.

But it isn't all good! It doesn't feel as quick as the old one, the rawness that I loved has made way for dual zone climate control and on board computers etc.... and this adds weight....which is a stupid thing to do especially when you are putting the same engine in it!
It's like having liposuction whilst eating the cream cakes!!!
They should have increased the BHP to 210 or maybe 215bhp to compensate for this but sadly because they haven't it just doesn't feel quick like the last one.

Thankfully, this all changes when you get to the twisty stuff! The handling is improved or should I say the feel through to the steering wheel is better in the corners. You now get a feeling that the car is telling you 95% of everything that is going on with the tyres which is about 10% better than the last one. But to do this they have replaced the hard suspension with what I can only assume is bricks that Honda have stolen from the Great wall of China! I swear torture chambers are more comfortable than when you drive the new Type R on bad, bumpy roads!

On a smooth road it's great and if you can live with the ride over the bad roads then this car is staggeringly good fun to drive and I wouldn't have any hesitation in recommending this car but if you want a good all-rounder I would recommend that you take a look at the Seat Leon Cupra.

Thanks for reading.

Stuart McKay