At a bleak Northamptonshire airfield in July 1985, a swaggering figure with a bristling moustache and mirrored aviator sunglasses looks up towards the threatening British sky. Already on provisional pole, the sun was briefly emerging and rivals were heading out to try and go faster; Mansell. Senna. Piquet. Prost. Stubbing out a cigarette, he climbed into the cockpit and blared out onto the track one last time.
Blasting through the chicane and onto the start/finish straight, the car is an unguided missile, twitching and bucking through flat out corners in a shower of sparks, bubblegum qualifying tires struggling to contain the fury of a 1.5-liter turbo engine making more than 1000 horsepower. Foot hard in, never dropping below third gear, the ungainly yellow, blue and white car with rudimentary aero pawing at the damp air stops the timing gear one lap later; the time is a scarcely believable 1 minute 5.967 seconds. An average speed of 160.924mph. The first time a Formula one car has gone over 160mph on a lap. It will remain the highest average speed for qualifying in Formula One for the next seventeen years. Keke Rosberg, Saturday qualifying, the 1985 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The car, a Williams Honda FW10B.
Keke Rosberg, Williams, Silverstone, 1985. pic.twitter.com/dUghCEbcb8
— Demetriou Neto ???? (@NetoDemetriou) July 5, 2021
This is one of the many stories the legend of Honda is built on, but take your pick: Mike Hailwood cleaning up at the Isle of Man TT on small capacity screamers in the sixties. Mick Doohan dominating the ‘unrideable’ 500cc two stroke class in Gran Prix motorcycle racing in the nineties. Mansell vs Piquet. Senna vs Prost. You meet the nicest people on a Honda.
Honda’s reputation was long forged on mechanical integrity. Vehicle engineering with purity of purpose–the double wishbone suspension on Accords for example. Overkill for a passenger car, but this is the way. A Japanese BMW without the arrogance. From the lowliest Civic to the plushest Legend, the best Hondas had a certain feeling of precision, clarity and rightness in the way they sounded and drove, which is why three years ago a moron with more money than sense paid the thick end of $50k for a 2000 Civic Si sedan.
Historically, in the UK at least, Hondas were always seen as worthy but dull. No amount of pontificating by Setright about their engineering was going to change that; it took the arrival of a computer game. My automotive tastes were well entrenched when Gran Turismo rolled around – I was 25; so the subsequent mania around high performance Japanese metal passed me by. But even I recognized the Integra Type R (a Honda as opposed to an Acura in UK) was something special. That was the car I originally asked Honda UK if I could borrow. Only there’s no longer one on the fleet, would the latest Civic Type R do instead?
No More Samurai Nonsense
Nominally Championship White with dog dick red seats and carpets, early versions of the Civic Type R were not exactly shrinking violets, but when 300bhp became the cost of doing business in the mega hatch market Honda went full shogun helmet with the exterior styling. Slapping on all manner of dubious aero addenda the FK2 and FK8 repulsed as many buyers as they attracted. This was in keeping with typical overwrought Japanese design directions of the time, but to me they were over the top, disjointed and tasteless.
The new FL5, in keeping with the standard Civic, is a much more subtle proposition this time around. The front and rear fenders are unique to the R and gently swollen to accept wider 265/30 Michelin Pilot Sport 4s, up from 245 sections on the outgoing model. Honda have even given the Type R new rear door skins, to better blend the surface transition into the wider arches, unlike say the BMW M3, whose designers presumably fucked off to the pub.
Capping the off the ends of the wider bodywork are a new front bumper with additional cooling ducts for the brakes and intercooler, and a rear that integrates a subtle diffuser and an odd three tailpipe exhaust arrangement which reminds me of Briareos from the Appleseed manga. I’m not totally sold on the eyeliner flick on the trailing edge of the C/D pillar window either. In profile Honda have wisely used the increase in wheelbase to give the Civic a nicely not-cab-forward proportion.
There’s good visual separation between the passenger compartment and the hood, and at the front the hood line descends between the light units, cleverly riffing on the second-generation Accord. But the overall feeling is everything today’s go faster car needs, and nothing it doesn’t (something that will recur later when we talk about equipment). It almost totally flies under the radar, only the rear wing slightly giving the game away that this car might actually be A Serious Piece of Kit, something confirmed by the lack of attention eyeballs pointing in my direction when I was driving it, even though my hair was immaculate and I had my sunglasses on.
It’s a Front-Wheel Drive Porsche
Despite appearances I don’t just throw this shit together. I usually read and watch a couple of reviews of vehicles I’m trying, to see if my thoughts align (or don’t) with the consensus. What came up repeatedly was that the Type R felt like a front wheel drive 911 GT3. My ambivalence towards the 911 I hope is by now well known, but I got it. The heft, precision and utter lack of slack driving the Type R for the first time took me straight back to when I test drove my 986 Boxster. The steering wheel (suede covered in UK versions, leather in the US) gently buzzes road surface messages and is touring car quick at two turns lock to lock. The seats, resplendent in red suede gently held me like a strange woman in a nightclub, although I have the proverbial ass like a parrot so YMMV. Nonetheless they are fantastic – nuzzling the small of the back and supremely comfortable even after a couple of hundred miles. The main comfort gripe is road noise; on anything other than glass smooth tarmac the Pilot Sport 4s will have you reaching for the volume knob.
No Oppo Required
Now, this isn’t going to be a I-trailed-braked-up-to-apex-and-the-tail-danced-round assessment of the car’s handling. Because that’s all bullshit anyway, and attempting to get near the limits of the Type R on public roads would be criminal lunacy. And thanks to my dyspraxia, I’m more uncoordinated than a drunken clown so I’m by no measure any sort of wheelman. But even within my limited driving skills this Civic handles. It remains stubbornly flat and keyed into the road surface whether you’re flicking through a roundabout or gunning it on a slip road. The motor, docile at lower speeds and a shade coarse through to three thousand revs, comes alive at four, and by five thousand is ripping a hole in time.
There’s a row of racing car style shift lights that activate at five and half thousand to stop you head butting the limiter, which in first and second you will do very quickly. Despite the twin axis front suspension, mechanical LSD and sticky rubber, stabbing the throttle in the dry will result in some tug through the steering. Three hundred and twenty four horsepower through the front wheels will do that. Of course, being the UK, throughout my week with the Type R it was positively pissing down with rain nearly every day. In the middle of July. The same behavior in the sodding wet resulted in a lurch to the left. This is a car that requires you actually drive it and pay attention to what it’s telling you. If it can flatter and entertain a ham-fisted klutz like me, you know it’s good.
There’s torque aplenty for being lazy, and just rolling in and out of the throttle in forth and fifth gear will result in swift progress down a winding British B road, but why would you? Despite being turbocharged this engine thrives on being wound out, and the Type R gets better the harder you go. The gearchange is a total and utter tactile delight. Rest your hand on the aluminum knob and there’s some sense of the rotational goings on below, and the action itself is short, slick and millimetric precise. There’s rev matching to smooth your downshifts (which can be disabled in some driving modes) and it works brilliantly – a good job because you’d need to be some kind of kipper foot to heel-and-toe this thing.
On the subject of driving modes, one of the main differences between the previous FK8 and this FL5 is the introduction of an individual mode, which allows you to pick and mix things like damper settings, steering weight, exhaust note, rev matching ferocity. There’s also a hardcore +R mode, which chucks out the springs and dampers in favor of steel girders but is the only mode in which the engine sounds half decent. The rest of the time it’s pretty subdued – there’s no artificial anti-social farting and popping, so professional vapers need not apply. I left the suspension in comfort and had everything else in Sport or +R mode. Comfort suspension is still stiff, but thanks to the softness of the seats it won’t have you putting your chiropractor’s kids through college.
Range Rover Life Spoiled Me
Honda’s commendable commitment to reducing weight (it’s 1430 kg or 3150 lbs) means standard equipment is a bit thin. In a demonstration of how spoiled I’ve become, I was pressing the trunk release on the key fob wondering why the tailgate wasn’t opening before I realized it only unlocked it – not popped it open, a feature both my Range Rover Sport, and my new car, (which you can read about soon) had. It’s quicker to list what you do get: Passive entry, split zone HVAC, wireless charging and CarPlay/Android Auto, electric mirrors, automatic headlights, active cruise control and the usual safety systems (which are very unobtrusive but if you turn them off reset every time you start the car) and that’s about it. Nothing to distract you from the business of pretending you’re in a BTCC racer when you’re nipping out for the papers and coffee on a Sunday morning.
The brilliance of this car then is you could leave everything in comfort mode, keep it below three thousand revs and you’d happily lend it to your granny for doing granny type shit. Underneath the tweaked and sharpened mechanicals it’s still a Civic, carefully honed and developed over eleven generations. It’s no longer a small car; at 4.6 meters (181”) it’s over 350mm (about 12”) longer than a Golf R, but this gives you full seating for four adults and a trunk that could probably swallow a washing machine. There is however one big problem. Well actually, a small one and a big one.
Usually the deal with press cars (in my limited experience so far at least) is they are dropped off with a full tank of gas and no expectation that it’s returned full. Knock yourself out, this tank is on us. Have fun. Over a week I did 575 miles and had to fill it up TWICE. Not because the gas mileage is terrible; drive like granny and you should see the happy side of 30 mpg imperial (25 mpg US), but because the tank is TINY. Checking the media pack revealed a fuel capacity of 47 liters (12.4 US gallons). If a Civic Type R is your daily, and it absolutely can be, you’re going to be getting fat on gas station snacks. That’s the small problem.
The big problem is price. This FL5 Type R has gone up nearly £10k over the previous model. The UK price (on the road including all fees and taxes) is £49,090 (US retail is $43,795 but good luck with that). The only options are different colors at £650 each (Championship White is optional, when surely it should be standard as the hero color?). Honda Motor Europe product manager Andrew Winfield has stated they underpriced the FK8 (sound familiar, Ford?), and now every car in the line-up is expected to make a profit. Is it worth it? Think about it like this. You’re getting a Civic, but one with a lot of bespoke parts (seats, bodywork, suspension, engine etc.). When you consider the bandwidth of its abilities, it’s two cars in one. Going back to the Porsche analogy, you don’t have to buy a load of HRVs to get invited onto a waiting list either. For what it gives you, what it represents and what it can do, it’s absolutely worth the money.
I’ll Have a Large Slice of Humble Pie Please
Oh, and then I damaged it. My trip to the airshow was a figurative and literal washout. Torrential rain made everything miserable and stopped most of the flying. I gave up after a couple of hours and, wet through to my Batman underpants, grumpily decided to head home. I missed a turning, Apple Maps had a redirection meltdown and I ended up in a small Cotswold village, attempting to turn around. Pulling over to let another car past, I heard the sickening graunch of alloy wheel against low stone curb. FFS. Upon getting home and after emailing an apology full of humble pie to Honda, I checked the hand off sheet and saw there was already previous damage noted to both nearside alloy wheels….
I think I was subconsciously punishing them for putting black wheels on it.
- Honda Briefly Sold A Legitimately Quick Honda Accord Sedan With A V6 And Manual Transmission: Holy Grails
- The 2023 Golf R Smacks You In The Face To Wake Up And Remember That You Can Drive A Hot Hatch, Dummy
- The 2024 Acura Integra Type S Is A Pricey Way Of Getting A Civic Type R With Heated Seats But I Have A Solution
- This Incredibly Rare Honda Prelude Solaire Is The Japanese Convertible You Never Knew You Needed
God…
How
Ugly
Can
A
Good
Car
Get ?!?
How
Bland
Can
A
Dash
Be ?
From an ex-owner of a European ED9 1990 CRX.
No spoilers. No aftermarket crap. No fake plastics. Not needed.
ED7 Si hatch here, sup. New hondas suck.
Got me a couple of ED7s for parts back then…
One was a 1.3l base, but for some reason had a full leather interior from a Vtec CRX. And an AC (both adapted to the car). Put them on the CRX and trashed the rest.
And a 1.6i GT (same engine as my CRX), bought for 150 Euros, not starting. The seller almost cried after I paid him, pulled a spare distributor out of my trunk, started the car and drove off with my friend in the CRX.
I got the 1.6i GT to 130mph on the speedo on the way back, my friend could barely keep with me. That one became an engine donor (nothing wrong with mine, this one was just newer and with less miles).
Europe had the best Civics most of the time. They lacked the SiR’s glass roof and auto AC, but had a full rather than partial leather interior, and more bells and whistles.
Ancient times.
Fantastic read.
Hold the fuck up. The Chief Goth of The Autopian is complaining about an eyeliner flick on a car? Finally, someone makes a car that looks like our kind of people and you diss it’s makeup?! Harsh!
Professional, not personal taste darling.
This was a great review. It’s not a car I’m interested in but even so, I hung on every word. Speaking of Setright, reading your stuff has been a bit like having him back. I loved his columns in Car and Driver. Deja Vu all over again.
Great writing. You had me at Williams Honda but I did a spit-take at red dog dicks. I even YouTubed Sisters of Mercy while reading it.
My work here is done.
I think I need to take a class to learn how to have significant fun in a FWD car. We have an 6MT Hyundai Elantra GT, 173HP with Michelin PS4 AS tires. The tires spin so easily, and the whole experience is kinda meh. What’s fun about trying to accelerate out of the apex of a turn and getting understeer? My other car is an MR2 Spyder with an SMT, and the dynamics of launching or hitting the gas hard out of a corner is just so much more rewarding. Maybe it’s just too harsh of a comparison to a dedicated MR sports car, but I only paid $8k for it, it only has 129hp, and still gets close to 30mpg even when driven quite hard.
I probably need to drive something like this Civic Type R or a Kona N to have a better reference point for FWD performance. It’s just hard to imagine more power would help, but probably the other suspension and stiffness improvements and LSD improve the controllability and fun factor.
Your take is correct, although even as a lover of FWD performance cars Id never necessarily say that they’re dynamically better than RWD because…well, nothing is. But the higher end sporty stuff can still be quite engaging, one of the reasons I love my Kona N is because it has heavy steering with a lot of feedback. The FWD burnout/launch type stuff is way more fun with a good LSD as well, as is cornering, and I actually like having some torque steer.
I can’t speak for the CTR, but when you’re flogging an N through a corner you can literally feel the differential working through the steering wheel. The steering will weigh up and then lighten a bit once the power gets moved around. It’s a cool and unique feeling.
Yeah, I’ve gotta drive something FWD with an LSD. On the topic of the Kona, if you’re hoping to have kids on the way, what are you thinking about that? We are thinking of getting a Kona EV, but one of our main fears is when we hopefully have a newborn in the next year or so, will the infant seat fit and allow both of us to be comfortable up front. I think the center is an option, but I haven’t been able to find good info on the fit. Even though we don’t love the look of the Kia Niro, we are leaning towards it for those extra 4 inches in the back, which could potentially make the difference between my wife’s knees against the dashboard and not.
It depends on how tall your passenger or driver is. You can fit rear facing/infant seats in them no problem, but you’ll have to move the front seat it’s behind up a bit. If your passenger/driver is on the shorter side or even average size it’s no biggie, but if they’re taller they’ll be scrunched up against the dash.
We have two cars and my wife’s is a CRV, so she’s not to worried about my car being too small since hers will do most of the hauler duty. She just wants mine to be able to work in a pinch. But as your only car with an infant? It could get tight. The Kona is a small car.
Thanks for the insight. Yeah, it would be our only car other than the MR2 Spyder. Which, to it’s credit, has both a weight sensor for its airbag and a keyed lockout switch in the glovebox. Still won’t be putting any little ones there unless it’s an emergency or something. Right now I’m trying to plan out the strategy for our cars for the next 5 years, with the plan leading to us getting a third car, which would be something like either of the Ioniq N options that will be arriving soonish. First step is getting a used EV to take advantage of the $7k in incentives available for us.
You just nailed one of the reasons I like my Sonata N Line. Reviews everywhere listed torque steer yet the few of us in the forums really don’t understand the comments, it is very light (if any) and not noticeable even up to moderately-aggressive driving. The fun with 290HP and FWD w/out an LSD is the not that it is a performance beast (although it is quick), it is that you have to play with throttle application when trying to do anything very sporty with it. New cars already make driving easy, having to have to think and try to tame the car is what makes it engaging to me. Losing traction will sometimes make you grumble but then you remember you are on a public street and maybe a slightly lower limit is not a bad thing, and when a tire breaks free your inner teenage self can’t help but smile and have fun. Would it be quicker with an LSD, yes, but since you can nearly double most twisty road speed limits without, not a true necessity. The added engagement necessary to get as much speed out of it close to legal limits is basically the “slow car, fast” philosophy and I enjoy it all the time. The Type R looks better than ever, I really like the latest design, and the performance is great, but I would never be able to get it to 9/10ths on public roads like you can with something a touch less tame.
I think it depends on how the car is set up. I hate understeer with an unreasonable and burning fury; the first time I took my Fiesta ST to the limit and the tail hung out just a bit rather than the front end plowing like a pig I let out a huge whoop and utterly fell in love. Simply putting more horsepower in a FWD car won’t do; it requires factory engineers dedicated to dialing in the right handling. As for torque steer, yeah, that’s there but I’ve never really had any trouble managing it. In some ways it’s kind of fun because I’m taming a beast that likes to get a bit unruly at times.
While it’s true FWD has a lot of inherent limitations I really do think some manufacturers and models have come a long way in dialing out the worst FWD tendencies. The advantages in packaging and fuel economy do a lot of compensating for the compromises.
The worst problem with hotted up economy cars these days is that everybody wants luxury car prices for them. That was never supposed to be the point; cars like this were supposed to hoon on a budget.
Yeah, the Elantra GT is missing some of the balance that made the Veloster so great. The torsion beam out back doesn’t help either.
Oh you can the tail out on the Ns too. I’ve completely lost the rear end going 11/10ths on an empty on ramp before and I spent the entire time giggling like a kid. It definitely takes some engineering prowess to keep them from being understeer machines, but it can be done. Actually the Kona N gets compared to the FIST a lot, so I think we like similar things in our FWD beasts.
Try a MINI. They’re a tonne of fun, very direct and responsive, and a handy size.
That’s a good reminder! I learned to drive stick in my mom’s 2003 Mini Cooper. Those are awesome little cars. I wish they would’ve gone a little higher on range for the SE, if it had closer to 200 miles we’d be buying one. Since we live 80 miles from the airport and don’t have great public transit options, we’d like to reliably get there and back without having to worry. Since you can get a used Niro or Kona for the same or cheaper, it’s hard to justify getting something with less than half the range even if it is way cooler.
No joke! I’m sitting here reading this while wearing my Batman underpants (albeit dry)!
But I get the feeling that this is probably the limit of synchronous couture. Although I do have a couple of black DKNY t-shirts with different skull patterns, so maybe not?
It’s a start.
Crikey. My grandma drove a 4-door Buick with a woefully underpowered (malaise-era, smog choked) 6-cylinder engine, and she never dropped below 45 on any road, including the driveway. If she would have had one of these, she could have competed in NASCAR.
I shudder to think that about if my grandmother having one of these when she was live. She once got a ticket going 90 through Double Springs Alabama in a 1979 Ford Granada, which was probably just about at redline. She was in her late 70s at the time.
With this? She would have probably killed herself early.
Great review. The fuel capacity does seem a weakness. The granny thing is a bit old though. VW made not one but two ads playing on our stereotype of old women drivers.
I would have used Mother Dearest but sadly for her (luckily for everyone else on UK roads) her driving days are behind her.
Fantastic article about a fantastic car. Also I feel like the farting exhaust thing gets a lot of scorn here, but I personally think it’s fun and I allow my N to go full farts when I’m on fun drives. But I digress.
I find the FL5 to be quite appealing because like many others I think the FK8’s styling is offensive. Clarkson calling it “the car they wouldn’t stop designing” has always resonated with me. I’m a dude in his early 30s who’s now in semi upper level management in the mental health field who also has a wife, furry friend, and hopefully eventual kids to please when it comes to car choices. As much as I’d love to have a GT350, Camaro SS, etc., there are obvious reasons as to why they’re not on the table.
As a result these sorts of cars appeal to me greatly, and I was thrilled when I saw the FL5’s styling because it’s mature. However, I was taken aback by the price tag, and even more taken aback when I saw what JDM fanboys were paying for these damn things. In my area secondhand ones are going for $55,000 or more, and I’ve seen new ones as high as $70,000.
At that point they’re simply not worth it anymore and can’t outrun their Civic roots. I hope that things calm down, but I’m not optimistic. Obviously, as I’ve said a few times…I also love the Integra Type S and have been lusting after one, but again the price is prohibitive. Not to brag or anything…but it’s not a CAN’T afford one thing so much as an “I don’t think this would be a wise use of our money” one.
50 on the nose is pretty much the cutoff for what I can justify spending on myself car wise. Right now, both the Integra and CTR cost well over that…and once you’re nearing 60 it’s a different ballgame because stuff like the IS500, CT4V BW, M2, RS3, etc. start to come into play, and unfortunately this platform isn’t really competitive at that point regardless of how good it may be.
Anyway, I hope to experience one of these or the Integra sooner or later, and while I wish the insanity around both of them would calm down, I’m not holding out hope. JDM fans are on another level as far as their dedication is concerned, and they don’t always think rationally. I think all of this stuff is going to remain ridiculously expensive for good at this point, and it’s a damn shame. While we’re on the topic I also don’t think OG Integra Type Rs are worth what folks are paying for them these days either.
I’ll hang onto my N for a while. It offers like 90% of the fun that these do for 20% or more less…and it’s almost half paid off at this point anyway. But I sure would be tempted by one of these at MSRP, or even a little below…because even at MSRP it’s overpriced.
Agree totally. I need a super reliable daily driver that’s also fun and fuel efficient. My Si does that in spades. 40 mpg (if I behave), seating for 4, sunroof, stick, Car Play. All my requirements met. It’s a normal every day Civic most of the time, but when I press the sport button it comes alive.
I’d have to concur. I have a 2022 Hyundai Elantra N Line (Intense Blue/6-speed manual transmission) and a 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth (Rosso/5-speed manual) that I both enjoy driving. Can get 33-39 mpg in both of them (40 in the Fiat if I don’t leadfoot it,lol) and they’re both easy on the budget (the Fiat has been paid for since purchased brand new). Nowadays cheap speed doesn’t come cheap anymore from the way dealers have been marking up prices. Where I live don’t expect to pay less than $40 K for a Civic Type R brand new. The used ones are marked up even higher-into low end BMW/Audi territory!
I got my Kona N for $500 under MSRP before interest rates went to hell, so it’s financed at 2.75% APR. Cheap speed is exactly what it offers. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, but I’m not going to find anything more fun and engaging unless I’m willing to switch to a dedicated sports car (which the wife is not down with) or pay $50,000+.
I might be down with that in a few years, but not right now with the absurd interest rates and all the goddam markups on enthusiast stuff. Also, here is your friendly reminder that you can get an Elantra or Kona N at UNDER MSRP right now. They’re not selling well and they offer 90% or more of the experience that a CTR of GRC can give you.
I think a lot of the problem is the hot hatch market as we knew it in the eighties and nineties has moved on. It used to be a case of ‘dropping in the motor from the next model up the range’ but these days it’s 300hp and a lot more bespoke engineering.
Great read!
Rad read.
Now I am interested in the CTR, and maybe even the new Integra. I’m certainly tiring of my GTI’s breakdowns but loving the lack of a payment.
Just imagine if Honda had some balls and built a modern CRX with that powerplant. A two seat fastback with a curb weight somewhere around 2000 lbs. The torque steer would be brutal if they didn’t compensate with the half shafts, but it would go like a scalded cat.
2000lbs is not really realistic these days.
Why not? A new Mitsubishi Mirage weighs around 2100 pounds, so it should at least be within the realm of possibility.
The powertrain of this over the powertrain of a Mirage is probably 100lbs on its own.
The Mirage is thirty inches shorter than the civic.
Haha, saved the black wheels barb for the end – thought you may finally be warming up to the trend!
“Dog dick red” and link to $50K BaT Civic make the article worthwhile right there. Nicely done! Overall, this car looks great compared to the previous Type R, but that damn wing would have to go. Also, are the seats available in something a little less eyeball-burning?
No, but they are very, very good seats.
Yo, Adrian! Another great bit of work here. Sure is better than reading DT’s sad Jeep/Baby kitten shit stories. S/
Just can’t get excited about these though. Still too much boy racer crap, especially on the exterior. The rear wing and exhaust scream Pep Boys and dog dick red, well that’s an unpleasant mental picture.
Guess gonna keep waiting and saving for a new Stout pick up.
Again thanks for all the efforts on our behalf.
And don’t forget to fart or have someone pull your finger on occasion.
Sisters of Mercy – nice. Always amazing to me how current they sound, still. This Corrosion for the win.
That was deliberate, well spotted!
Well done. I moved to England and studied in Leeds for four years because of Mr. Eldritch’s influence. I also named my present Accord “Marian” as an homage.
Lovely comparison shot at the top. It looks like a someone just scaled a CAD model 120%.
I couldn’t believe my luck. I was queuing to leave RIAT and saw it in the car park. Too good a photo opportunity to miss. Those EP9s are JDM only as well.
“And she drives real fast and she drives real hard
She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard…”
Adrian, what’s your take on “oh, shit! We need an infotainment screen!” design of just tacking it on the dash instead of actually integrating them?
Drives me nuts.
I get why it’s done for a number of reasons: keeping it close to the driver’s sight line, less tooling for LHD/RHD, and you can change the screen mid-cycle refresh without retooling the whole dash. I don’t think in this instance it’s particularly egregious. Like everything they can be done done badly or well.
I like the new civic face alot, but only in the lighter colors where you can see the lines around the headlights and what not, really looks sharp.
This R-type is nice and the back is a huge improvement. Besides the seat colors and little pop up screen the interior is nice and sleek as well. I think this overall is a big improvement on the others in styling.
Now that said, the middle and rear third of the cars bloating really confuses me. Sorta mustang-E vibes. If they put this puppy on a diet I would give it a 9/10. Deff more grown up vibe and not embarrassing to drive around, which is a great improvement. Not a cop magnet either.
“…dog dick red seats…” Well, that was an interesting choice of words…”
That’s English used properly there. Brief and descriptive on multiple levels.
And they “gently held me like a strange woman in a nightclub, although I have the proverbial ass like a parrot”
What the taillight fetishist demographic isn’t enough? Are we rounding up the upholstery rubbers too?
These are the type of reviews NO other car site can match. Great job Sir.
I’m a simple man. When our cool goth uncle has something to say about cars, I listen.
There’s more coming, along with the usual dross.
I don’t give a rat’s patootie about Civics, but damn, you roped me in with that lede. Well done, sir.
Seriously. Me too. That’s some “best of times/worst of times”-level shit right there, and it’s a style rarely seen in car mags today. I’ve missed it. Well done.
Also:
https://youtu.be/7tOkpntQtBM?t=50
Thank you. I’d been writing that opening paragraph in my head for about a month, ever since I knew I was getting the car.
And this right here illustrates the difference between an artist practicing their craft and woeful sites mailing it in with Chat GPT. It also explains why I’ve been a member since the first couple of days it was offered – this kind of craft deserves our support.
Thanks, one of the reasons I love working here is we can express ourselves like this. If I just had to churn out a-n-other review like everywhere else, i wouldn’t enjoy it and wouldn’t want to do it. I try to express is a more subjective view, put a car in context in an engaging way (that I would want to read).