LOH's 2016 Civic Type-R, contains spoilers**

LOH's 2016 Civic Type-R, contains spoilers**

Author
Discussion

melvster

6,841 posts

184 months

Saturday 14th May 2016
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LaurasOtherHalf said:
I know you've taken an interest in quite a few of the cars I've owned melvster, but believe me when I say this one is up there with the best of them. From the cars I've had that have piqued your interest I'd say the Type-R is bonafide special in a way that very few cars ever are. If you have the means, I'd highly recommend getting in to one.
You've owned a few cars i'd love to try, GP2, CSL (although i know you're not a fan of the 'box), R26R and now the Civic. A new job which i start next week should help me sort out one of these at some point in the future. I'll be buying used purely because of the hit they've taken in the first 12 months.

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Saturday 14th May 2016
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Gonna be honest, the white doesn't do it for me, nor do I think it does the car any justice, each to their own though - it (the car as a whole) seems much maligned and every person buying into the idea fills me with joy, even though I have only done so myself this last day or so!

Roll on Thursday silly

LaurasOtherHalf

Original Poster:

21,429 posts

195 months

Saturday 14th May 2016
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Finance wise, I'd be looking at a nearly new car at £5k under list, they will still give you the headline 5% on a pcp at the moment i think.

I don't own a crystal ball, but I think they will become sought after at 2 years old and be retailing at low £20k's at 3 years. If you buy in now at £27-28k that's 3 years cheap motoring for the performance in my opinion.

With the tech and performance on the car, I'd want a manufacturers warranty for as long as I could get so buying new worked for me, plus they gave daft money on my part ex. Realistically, I reckon I paid about a grand more to buy new than second hand which pushed me away from the sub-1 year old nearly new examples. Plus I'm happy to admit I like being the first owner smile

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Saturday 14th May 2016
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They soon folded on the cheaper finance being "new car only", I had been in a few times so I wasn't a new prospect in that sense and tbh I was in no rush to buy so I was in no mood to be bent over a barrell, still, going from owning my Clio outright to a monthly payment will sting.

However I leased a Volvo V40 alongside
the Clio at one point so ending up with nuthin' at the end of the term isn't totally alien to me, I'm just a tight Yorkshireman!! hehe

Mine is a 16 plate with just shy of 400 on the clock, I just wonder of those few hundred miles were tough uns'. Ah well, I'll live I guess!!

LaurasOtherHalf

Original Poster:

21,429 posts

195 months

Saturday 14th May 2016
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As tough miles as mine? hehe

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Sunday 15th May 2016
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Fair point laugh

samj2014

552 posts

111 months

Sunday 15th May 2016
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Love this - I've seen a couple of these out and about, and I always have to do a double take. Looks a bit like the lamborghinis of old - like a space ship!
My girlfriend keeps telling me she doesn't like silly sports cars, particularly ones that draw attention to themselves, but fk it, I'd have one in a flash! It's exactly the right amount of crazy.

LaurasOtherHalf

Original Poster:

21,429 posts

195 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
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Busy at work so apologies for the tardy continuation of the thread, where were we again? Ah yes, a frosty April morning in Germany......

So as you may imagine, the track wasn't open first thing but it didn't take too long to get going. The first 3 laps were sighting laps, no overtaking but a decent speed in which to learn the track. Co-driver had driven the 'ring before (actually in my MX5 which I detailed in my previous thread) but we're only talking a handful of laps. To make matters worse he isn't always the best passenger and has to concentrate hard on not seeing his breakfast again so he did the first laps in the car. He did all three sighting laps and it was a really nice way to teach him some lines, if you've ever been before you'll know how tough it is to learn when you're constantly worried about cars thundering up behind.



Once sighting laps were done we swapped over and I got to take the car out to see what it could really do driving

With +R mode switched on again the car is absolutely planted, no roll through the corners whatsoever;

I know these manufacturers always go on about downforce and I (like most petrolheads) take it all with a pinch of salt. Can it really give you proper downforce? maybe negative lift but hand on heart it feels like it's being sucked down into the track. Theres a bumpy section near the start of the track just before hatzenbach where we were actually jumping out our seats a little, all through this the car just sat flat on the track. Four point harnesses are definitely on the shopping list....



+R also gives the steering quite a nice bit of weight, you rally feel like you're working for it, The Continental Sport Contact 6' that the car comes on aren't specifically track tyres but they do give a nice balance between grip and feel and are softer than regular road tyres. Dale from Bridge To Gantry remarked he thought it would be better on 18' wheels like his Seat and i reckon he'd be right. The tyres do a great job, especially at the 'ring where the tarmac is quite nice and smooth for a racetrack but if they were 18' you could get a little more sidewall on them which would really give you something to lean on. It didn't piss me off on the day, but thinking back I reckon it would be better.



My best mate Steve who was out in his gorgeous 911 GTS went out for a lap with us and Ross my co-driver for the day hooked up his GoPro to record;
https://youtu.be/DHkA_SNFOHA

As you can see we got a little traffic and seeing as it was only 2 days old I was a probably a bit more polite than I normally would be! Steve is a fantastic driver however and I was pleased we could keep up in the family bus smile We'v been doing these 'ring trips together for years now and I think we're pretty well matched though he definitely drives his cars harder than I do mine! He's not afraid in giving the car some stick, I'm all to aware I need the car to drive to work on Monday after the fun is over. Cracking bit of kit the 911GTs is however and feels like it could some up the abuse all day. Surprisingly tough to drive as well, I know people go on about how the 991 went all soft but I think that's all cobblers, it's a very physical car to drive and I really enjoyed the laps I drove in it.

Speaking of Porsches, this little video is quite good fun, the family bus in with a gaggle of 911 GT3s and GT2s;
https://youtu.be/CO2rtz2Qu_k
smile


As you can see, much fun was being had and I must say I take my hat off to Destination Nurburg for their exemplary running of the day. We only had one closure all day when a fellow PH'r (I think) put his gorgeous red GT3 into the barrier at Tiergarten, but from what I heard there were no injuries apart from to the car frown

The car was doing quite well on fuel as well which surprised me a lot, I presumed it would be thirstier


Early afternoon however we were starting to put some really good sub 8:30 laps together when coming around the last looooooonnnngg right hander at Döttinger Höhethe car spluttered, the engine warning light came home and the car went into limp home mode grumpy

Back in the car park we took a look over it. Now our first thought was fuelling, the car was getting empty (though the warning light wasn't on) and the corner is a really long one, could the pump have momentarily run dry throwing up a fault code? Strangely the oil temperature gauge wasn't reading either but the oil level was fine. I rang Honda but understandably they didn't ant to try and diagnose over the phone with no way to do a reset. Their advice was to simply fill it up and see what happened and if it didn't solve things to ring up Honda European Breakdown which I thought was all fair enough.

The car did seem to go back to normal as soon as we started it again although the warning light did stay on, we put it down to the low fuel and a bit of surge and it didn't happen again. I guess they weren't running on fumes to get that 7:50 ring lap tim eh?!

We even got to spend some track time with some PH'r and his old golf hehe


Apparently some journalists were most surprised by the speed of the little green beastie!

So much fun was had by all biggrin The family bus was given it's badge of honour and had performed amazingly well, little hiccup not withstanding. I have since had the car booked in with Honda just to check for fault codes but as it wasn't the right type apparently the car erased it (or the wrong the I guess). Honda presumed it was fuel surge as well so I'm just going to run it until quarter full on track now and see if it ever happens again.

This isn't the end of the trip however, after picking up our bags from the guesthouse we were on our way to Belgium and Spa Francorchamps.......

TBC

Diesel Meister

2,044 posts

200 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
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Epic.

Martin_Hx

3,951 posts

197 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
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thumbup

melvster

6,841 posts

184 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
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Another great update, look forward to the next instalment.

Craikeybaby

10,369 posts

224 months

Tuesday 24th May 2016
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Looking forward to the updates - I always enjoy your readers rides threads.

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Wednesday 25th May 2016
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Great update again - I'll get a few photos of mine up at some point, but it looks exactly the same! laugh

It's bloody filthy at the moment too - only had it six days, argh irked

FYI your posts were one of the big factors in me getting my arse in gear and signing on the dotted line as it were, cheers beer

Kevin-1o8c0

2,739 posts

94 months

Wednesday 25th May 2016
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After Nige posted on facebook about his DN14 trip I found myself reading your threads. I have to say fantastic & I loved the mini adventure. Lucerne is beautiful and I cant wait to go back once my car is finished being built

LaurasOtherHalf

Original Poster:

21,429 posts

195 months

Saturday 28th May 2016
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5ohmustang said:
If you baby it on the motorway, cruise at 70mph, what mpg do you get?
Good question, not sure is my answer. I suspect like most modern cars if you baby it at 65-70mph it'll be quite high

clarki

1,312 posts

218 months

Saturday 28th May 2016
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Nice car. Couple of the guys down my gym have them now.

We have a similar(ish) car history but now that after my mx5 I'm hooked on the whole sportscar experience so have moved away from the hothatchs and started trying to move up that ladder.

Great 'ring write-up. Enjoyed that.

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
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LaurasOtherHalf said:
5ohmustang said:
If you baby it on the motorway, cruise at 70mph, what mpg do you get?
Good question, not sure is my answer. I suspect like most modern cars if you baby it at 65-70mph it'll be quite high
I drove it down the A90 dual carraigeway at the weekend, 70mph, cruise control on - 42.9mpg average between Aberdeen and Dundee. The road was pretty quiet so not much in the way of speeding up or slowing down apart from a section where there is a 50mph speed camera.

mattyc69

330 posts

151 months

Sunday 5th June 2016
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Just put my deposit down, got a cracking deal on a GT.

Going to be the longest two weeks of my life! First ever new car!

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Sunday 5th June 2016
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mattyc69 said:
Just put my deposit down, got a cracking deal on a GT.

Going to be the longest two weeks of my life! First ever new car!
What colour? Details man, details man.

Make sure you head over to the general gassing thread versus the Focus RS to take sides, handbags ahoy!!

750turbo

6,164 posts

223 months

Sunday 5th June 2016
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Axionknight said:
mattyc69 said:
Just put my deposit down, got a cracking deal on a GT.

Going to be the longest two weeks of my life! First ever new car!
What colour? Details man, details man.

Make sure you head over to the general gassing thread versus the Focus RS to take sides, handbags ahoy!!
Just beware of VAG Fanboy Polojoe smile