Civic Type-R

OK so everyone had said their piece about this car in the general gassing section. I just wanted to add that having driven the car a couple of times, and me ordering one, needless to say I like them alot!

Having owned a Lotus Elise prior to this I feel I can make a few comments about the Civic being 'noisy' and 'unresponsive'. Quite simply the Elise was far slower and much more of a headache to drive compared to the Civic. On the test drive for the Civic I made a point of chatting to the salesman at an indicated 85mph and it was fine. In the Elise at that speed you had to yell for the person next to you have a chance of catching anything you said.

As for it being slow outside of the power band, what a load of pants! I think it accelerates so hard above 5600 rpm that it would obviously seem slow below this. It also keeps accelerating above 100mph as well, I have video footage of a CTR overtaking me at Goodwood. Considering I was going flat out in the Elise at the time on a straight, the CTR just flys by!

I think the question that has to be asked is do you think that the CTR is the best compromise between a raod and track car? Loud and lairy when you want it, but will fulfill everyday chores quite happily.

>>> Edited by adeewuff on Tuesday 7th May 13:45

I've no doubt in the quality and reliablity of the Honda engines and I'm sure giving them a good thrashing is just what they need to get going. The fact that Honda can put such an amazing engine in something so low priced is quite fantastic.

How did you feel BTW when you saw an Elise on the road when driving the Civic? I have to say that I see the Elise in a far different light now that I've owned one and know the in's and out's of them. I would certainly feel a bit sorry for the driver if it was raining, no chance of having a relaxed journey then!

As this will be my daily run about I will probably be quite cautious with it intially. So why on earth are the dealers giving out contradicting info about running it in?

Is there some huge conspiracy for them to make owners have more problems so as to get more work for their workshops? Are Honda cars too reliable for the workshops to make any money?

Probably not, but I will have a word with my dealership when I pick the car up next week. As for me choosing the Civic instead of an S2000, I needed something practical and fast and the Civic was the best compromise. I hold the S2000 in high regard though, fab cars!

Mmmmm... not sure what Autocar were trying to prove by comparing the Tamora with the 106 GTi. I think they were posing the question of which was more fun which is totally subjective and impossible to resolve.

The CTR IMHO is actually more fun to drive than the Elise overall. Push the car to the limit and you'll get control of it again easily unlike the Elise which gives you a slap round the face and scares the **** out of you! OK so the CTR looks a bit like a squashed Manga cartoon character from some angles and it's not rear wheel drive but again IMHO it's a better compromise than the Elise.

During my ownership of the Elise so many things pissed me off that in the end I actually felt relieved to sell it and please take note this was my DREAM CAR. In the wet it was a nightmare to get anywhere quickly and you had to concentrate 100% to stop the back from stepping out in a corner or locking up the wheels when you braked. I actually had the back out step out of line at an indicated 20mph on a steep bend!!

I think the thing that convinced me that the CTR was the car for me was when a guy brought the Honda to a Lotus track day organised by my dealership. The Honda not only beat my standard Elise round the track but thrashed everything including Elise 135's, 160's and even the 340R!! It didn't have quite the ability of the Lotus cars in the corners but any hint of a straight and it beat everything else soundly.

As I mentioned before I have video footage of me half way down Lavant straight with this CTR breezing by as if I'm standing still. After my session was over I came back into the pits and had a good hard look at all the Lotus cars. Their owners were boasting about how they had this, that or the other put on or how much it had cost to get a few more BHP out of their engines. I than catch a glimpse of these two guys in their 16k jap box laughing at the lot of us.

They were having a great time embarassing everyone and they had the cheapest car there! From that moment on I took a long hard look at why I was running the Elise and realised I had compromised so much practicality and spent so much running and maintaining the car that it just wasn't worth it for what little performance there was.

It also came across to me that Honda seem to be selling this car purely to make a point and push forward the boundaries of hot hatches into performance car territory. OK the CTR is still not perfect, it does have a few compromises, but compared to my Elise it's a real quality piece of kit. When taking the test drives I noticed the door closed with a nice 'thunk' and just looking at how the interior was put together you just knew nothing was going to come loose or peel away. (Lotus should take note).

The attitude of the Honda dealership was also fantastic compared to the Lotus place. Their attitude towards the car was "If anything goes wrong then we'll sort it out, if you feel unhappy with anything, we'll do everything to listen to you". With the Lotus dealership it was more like "What the hell do you want us to do about it, it's your car and you probably made the problem occur on purpose anyway!".

So that's why I changed, I don't regret ever getting the Elise. It taught me so much about car control and improved my driving ability immeasurably, but ultimately I always wanted my own car to have the performance ability and not the attitude to go with it.

As for the CTR being a giant killer then in a way I think it is. It won't beat a TVR or any muscle car round a track but it has changed my whole perception of what a sports car is and IMHO how much anyone should spend or compromise for performance.

>> Edited by adeewuff on Thursday 9th May 23:43

I called my dealer today expecting for him to give me a date sometime next week for me to pick my new CTR. He now tells me have to another two weeks!!!

I'm not struggling to get around since I have cars I can borrow, but I want my own car!!

The comparison with the Focus RS will certainly be interesting, there was talk of limiting the speed because they didn't want it to beat the Mondeo ST220. The RS will certainly have more torque than the Civic with a turbo charged engine but what about the retail price? A few magazines have quoted it to around the 20k mark which IMHO is way too expensive for a small FWD car.

It will start competing with the likes of the Impreza and I know that the Scooby would get my vote out of the two. The Subaru also has 4WD and a much more imposing road presence, would you really be intimidated with a Focus behind you?

>> Edited by adeewuff on Sunday 12th May 16:31

Has anyone bought this weeks edition of Autocar? They have a real go at the Civic Type-R about it's wet weather handling on a track. Can any of you guys confirm/deny this?

Reading the article made me feel a bit pissed off to be honest mainly because if it's such a big problem why the hell didn't they mention it earlier?!!

It still won't stop me collecting my CTR though and having some fun in it.

I can only think of two other cars that can compare to the CTR, and they aren't out yet! That is the Focus RS and the Mini Cooper S 'Works'.

The Focus, as mentioned before, loses out because of the price difference. The Mini Cooper S 'Works' has been lapping the Goodwood Circuit faster than the CTR and has a similar amount of power, but at what cost?

The back seats are practically useless, the boot is comparable to the Lotus Elise size wise and it has been hinted at that it will be more expensive than the CTR!

Have just got a call from the Honda dealership and I'll be picking up my CTR on Monday... hurrah!

Also had a bit of a discussion with my insurers about transferring the car details. Turns out that people have been clicking on buttons they shouldn't have on their website and have been getting as much as 15% off their premium!! In the event of a claim people have to pay the difference in cost but the insurance is still valid for them. Cheeky or what?

The fact is the CTR is in such demand at the moment that the dealers don't have to move on the price at all because they know they will sell every car they get. Sad but true!

Even with a European import I think you would only save hundreds of pounds rather than thousands. You would probably not have the Cat 1 alarm fitted as standard and would have to get one yourself which is more money and more hassle.

The CTR is a real bargain at the price anyway. Just get one!