LOH's 2016 Civic Type-R, contains spoilers**
Discussion
A quick update to the thread but one that will perhaps answer a few questions....
We set off at a pretty steady pan-european gate of 85-90. Although there was rain it had mainly blown away so there wasn't too much spray and where there was we could reduce things down to 70mph or so and keep comfortably ahead of local traffic without drawing too much attention to ourselves.
The seats, as pinched in and grippy as they are are supremely comfortable in normal driving conditions and with the dampers in normal mode the car has great pliancy at motorway speeds. The car, much like the GTR fusses at slow speeds, the diff winds itself up, the chassis is incredibly stiff (it cocks a leg turning into our drive for instance where dad's cayman S doesn't) and the dampers make the car extremely firm. Although the roads of Holland, Belgium and North West Germany are much improved these days (remember the road of bones to the 'ring?) there are still large swathes of concrete slab based motorways to test out a cars comfort levels.
Is the Type-R better on smoother tarmac? Of course but it seems to find a natural gate at motorway speeds where everything comes together and nothing seem to impede on your comfort. And it is comfortable in those seats too. While on track you might want the sets a little lower in regular driving the position is perfect, great vision of your surroundings, an adjustable (for rake and reach) steering column and everything exactly where you need it. Japanese cars do seem to do the basics of ergonomics very well.
And then there's the tech, which I'd love to tell you all about but if I'm honest I still haven't figured out just what exactly everything does. A few important parts I have however, first and foremost is the blind spot indicators that make driving abroad a doddle by simply flashing an orange warning when something is there or an audible warning if you're indicating or changing lanes. There is a lane departure warning too but i turned that off as part of the hand over along with the front alarm to tell you you're too close to the car in front. We figured this might prove an annoyance on track!
It also has a function that automatically brakes if you're about to roll into another car at a junction or roundabout and I think this works in conjunction with the adaptive cruise control. Although I only tend to use cruise through roadworks it also has a speed limit function where you can set your list to say 50mph through roadworks but still drive the car by the throttle in moving traffic-handier than it sounds if going above 50mph means a ticket.
All the while the car is connected via bluetooth to my phone with various podcasts to listen to when you get sick of radio europa's none stop 80's power rock
As many will know around the 'ring there are some awesome roads and we were in no rush (the track didn't open until 5pm) so we had a little play now the car was getting nicely run in. The roads are well sighted with plenty of hairpins and fast sweeping corners so you can really start to open things up, with caution as it happens especially in these wet conditions.
Traction control? I'm sure it's doing something but in these wet conditions around the 'ring it would let you spin up the tyres in most gears if you were viscous enough with the throttle. Weird thing was no intervention (that I could notice) from the TC, just some spin before the diff locked up away it went-no torque steer at all.
This was a total first for me in a front wheel drive car, it just did not wander at all. Come out of a corner, stamp on the throttle, feel one wheel then the other spin up before a fraction later the diff locks and it furiously pulls you out and rockets you up the road. This was of course, when driving like a hooligan and you could easily make the car more precise and clinical but it seemed to bode well that even my clumsy attempts to tie the chassis in knots didn't seem to do much.
Once actually at the 'ring and with bags dumped at the guesthouse we went for a mooch about. If you've ever been to the track in winter you'll know that there's next to bugger all to do when the weather is bad and we were sat in sleet and rain. We signed on for the following days DN trackway, hit the Blau Ecke for a mega burger and waited it out
On our way down to Adenauer we spied the new Focus RS and Mustang V8 being photo'd for a video or magazine spread and they had stopped at Pinochios in town so we stopped and had a good nosey. There was never a decision for me of the RS v's the Type-R as if I'm honest the Focus just does nothing for me, no matter how much quicker it will be than the Civic but seeing it in the metal just confirmed my thoughts. We did have a brief chat with one of the journalists however and he was mega impressed with it-said it was absolutely fantastic around the 'ring-especially in these winter conditions.
The Mustang? I think his words were "a piece of s
t, the most dangerous car I've ever driven here". Still, it made a lovely noise....
After meeting up with the rest of our group as soon as they rolled into town we headed up to the 'ring car park to purchase some laps. The weather was thankfully blowing itself dry although the snow must have put most people off as the place was pretty empty. Barriers up at 5pm and the first of my 2016 laps in our cars for the trip;
We set off at a pretty steady pan-european gate of 85-90. Although there was rain it had mainly blown away so there wasn't too much spray and where there was we could reduce things down to 70mph or so and keep comfortably ahead of local traffic without drawing too much attention to ourselves.
The seats, as pinched in and grippy as they are are supremely comfortable in normal driving conditions and with the dampers in normal mode the car has great pliancy at motorway speeds. The car, much like the GTR fusses at slow speeds, the diff winds itself up, the chassis is incredibly stiff (it cocks a leg turning into our drive for instance where dad's cayman S doesn't) and the dampers make the car extremely firm. Although the roads of Holland, Belgium and North West Germany are much improved these days (remember the road of bones to the 'ring?) there are still large swathes of concrete slab based motorways to test out a cars comfort levels.
Is the Type-R better on smoother tarmac? Of course but it seems to find a natural gate at motorway speeds where everything comes together and nothing seem to impede on your comfort. And it is comfortable in those seats too. While on track you might want the sets a little lower in regular driving the position is perfect, great vision of your surroundings, an adjustable (for rake and reach) steering column and everything exactly where you need it. Japanese cars do seem to do the basics of ergonomics very well.
And then there's the tech, which I'd love to tell you all about but if I'm honest I still haven't figured out just what exactly everything does. A few important parts I have however, first and foremost is the blind spot indicators that make driving abroad a doddle by simply flashing an orange warning when something is there or an audible warning if you're indicating or changing lanes. There is a lane departure warning too but i turned that off as part of the hand over along with the front alarm to tell you you're too close to the car in front. We figured this might prove an annoyance on track!
It also has a function that automatically brakes if you're about to roll into another car at a junction or roundabout and I think this works in conjunction with the adaptive cruise control. Although I only tend to use cruise through roadworks it also has a speed limit function where you can set your list to say 50mph through roadworks but still drive the car by the throttle in moving traffic-handier than it sounds if going above 50mph means a ticket.
All the while the car is connected via bluetooth to my phone with various podcasts to listen to when you get sick of radio europa's none stop 80's power rock
As many will know around the 'ring there are some awesome roads and we were in no rush (the track didn't open until 5pm) so we had a little play now the car was getting nicely run in. The roads are well sighted with plenty of hairpins and fast sweeping corners so you can really start to open things up, with caution as it happens especially in these wet conditions.
Traction control? I'm sure it's doing something but in these wet conditions around the 'ring it would let you spin up the tyres in most gears if you were viscous enough with the throttle. Weird thing was no intervention (that I could notice) from the TC, just some spin before the diff locked up away it went-no torque steer at all.
This was a total first for me in a front wheel drive car, it just did not wander at all. Come out of a corner, stamp on the throttle, feel one wheel then the other spin up before a fraction later the diff locks and it furiously pulls you out and rockets you up the road. This was of course, when driving like a hooligan and you could easily make the car more precise and clinical but it seemed to bode well that even my clumsy attempts to tie the chassis in knots didn't seem to do much.
Once actually at the 'ring and with bags dumped at the guesthouse we went for a mooch about. If you've ever been to the track in winter you'll know that there's next to bugger all to do when the weather is bad and we were sat in sleet and rain. We signed on for the following days DN trackway, hit the Blau Ecke for a mega burger and waited it out
On our way down to Adenauer we spied the new Focus RS and Mustang V8 being photo'd for a video or magazine spread and they had stopped at Pinochios in town so we stopped and had a good nosey. There was never a decision for me of the RS v's the Type-R as if I'm honest the Focus just does nothing for me, no matter how much quicker it will be than the Civic but seeing it in the metal just confirmed my thoughts. We did have a brief chat with one of the journalists however and he was mega impressed with it-said it was absolutely fantastic around the 'ring-especially in these winter conditions.
The Mustang? I think his words were "a piece of s
t, the most dangerous car I've ever driven here". Still, it made a lovely noise....After meeting up with the rest of our group as soon as they rolled into town we headed up to the 'ring car park to purchase some laps. The weather was thankfully blowing itself dry although the snow must have put most people off as the place was pretty empty. Barriers up at 5pm and the first of my 2016 laps in our cars for the trip;
FrankieV12VSBee said:
Great write up and loving that rear wing. Great colour and I'm sure it went well round the ring last week.
Why aren't you driving it down to the Monaco GP again? We have a spare room in the villa...can you get a pass? lol
Who needs a pass when I can fit the boss and the baby seat in this one?! In all honesty mate, I feel my screaming baby may cramp your style on the riviera this year-next year however.....Why aren't you driving it down to the Monaco GP again? We have a spare room in the villa...can you get a pass? lol
LaurasOtherHalf said:
FrankieV12VSBee said:
Great write up and loving that rear wing. Great colour and I'm sure it went well round the ring last week.
Why aren't you driving it down to the Monaco GP again? We have a spare room in the villa...can you get a pass? lol
Who needs a pass when I can fit the boss and the baby seat in this one?! In all honesty mate, I feel my screaming baby may cramp your style on the riviera this year-next year however.....Why aren't you driving it down to the Monaco GP again? We have a spare room in the villa...can you get a pass? lol
FrankieV12VSBee said:
LaurasOtherHalf said:
FrankieV12VSBee said:
Great write up and loving that rear wing. Great colour and I'm sure it went well round the ring last week.
Why aren't you driving it down to the Monaco GP again? We have a spare room in the villa...can you get a pass? lol
Who needs a pass when I can fit the boss and the baby seat in this one?! In all honesty mate, I feel my screaming baby may cramp your style on the riviera this year-next year however.....Why aren't you driving it down to the Monaco GP again? We have a spare room in the villa...can you get a pass? lol
I had Honda's blue press car recently, had an absolute blast with it. One of the most fun cars I've had the pleasure of driving, really loved it.
Two issues arose for me:
1 - the driver's seat needs to be 1-2" lower. At 6'3 i was just sitting too high.
2 - it needs a better amount of noise from the exhaust. It needs to be raspy and loud to match the looks. Were it me buying one I'd head straight to Milltek for this: https://youtu.be/iS3PQvMOtQI
Two issues arose for me:
1 - the driver's seat needs to be 1-2" lower. At 6'3 i was just sitting too high.
2 - it needs a better amount of noise from the exhaust. It needs to be raspy and loud to match the looks. Were it me buying one I'd head straight to Milltek for this: https://youtu.be/iS3PQvMOtQI
Best car purchase thread for a while - running in is a lost art of conditioning and acclimatisation but you have achieved in style with added memorability for good measure
Looking forward to how this shapes up - I'm very tempted by a Megane for DD duties but despite the marmite looks, the Type-R appeals on many levels (not least being more readily available than the FRS).
Looking forward to how this shapes up - I'm very tempted by a Megane for DD duties but despite the marmite looks, the Type-R appeals on many levels (not least being more readily available than the FRS).
Really love this machine, but seemingly rare as rocking horse dung. We have a good main dealer not far from here and I think I have seen just 1, fleetingly, since launch. It was red, grey looks much better,
To give you an idea how rare.... I've seen two, yes two, Bugatti Veyrons in the same time! One of which was that special edition with the polished metal exterior! So there you go! An exclusive club!
To give you an idea how rare.... I've seen two, yes two, Bugatti Veyrons in the same time! One of which was that special edition with the polished metal exterior! So there you go! An exclusive club!
Little chance of an update so the story continues......
As mentioned in the previous post the weather was pretty shocking (it's the 'ring in April, it happens) but the locals were thinking the weather was going to clear up and the weather apps suggested the same-I know the eiffel weather as well as everybody else but with sleet and rain at 4pm still I didn't hold out much hope.
We purchased a 4 lap pass to add to our lap left over from last year (they last 2 years now) which we figured would be enough with the track being open form 5:30pm until 7:30pm and dodgy conditions but as we hung around the (almost empty) car park it really started to dry out as the wind swept in. With most people doing the signing on for DN14 we figured even if the track was damp/wet it was so quiet it was silly not to do some quick laps.
We ventured out and although the asphalt was damp in places I'd say at least 3/4 of it was pretty much dry, or dry enough to go for it
400 or so miles on the clock, +R mode selected and away we went. What can I say? the car was utterly epic on the track. The power is incredibly surprising even after driving on the road, when then car can seem a little "laggy" on track and working things completely through the rev range it all pulls together.
The steering weighs up beautifully and even in spite of the cars electrically assisted rack there is so much info coming through to your palms and finger tips on what those tacky sport contact 6's are doing. In +R mode the steering assistance simply lessens, it doesn't change anything else so although you have to put in considerably more effort it doesn't feel like you're steering a different car (as the MINI GP did for instance).
The dampers also considerably stiffen up, and when i say stiff I mean stiff! The engineers have set +R mode up for the ring specifically but on first acquaintance I honestly thought it was too stiff. The car corners flat-proper, proper flat! But over the ring's lumps and bumps would it be too much? At first it felt it might as it's the hardest car I've driven around here, certainly as far as I can remember.
We used up our laps mainly to get our eye back n for the morning but as 7pm approached the rain swept back in, not enough to cause a wash out but enough to cause a shaky moment when attempting the sweeping left hander on the way out of Bergwerk up the Kesse lchen. Always a favourite of mine you exit Bergwerk and work your way up the gears until you're flat out and into fifth. In the new car I was easing off the gas at this point (it's normally taken flat out) but held the throttle steady so as not to unsettle the rear.
Approaching the hill the track did look a little moist but not enough to worry about, right up until I felt the car start to drift at around 130mph
We finished the lap and back in the car park my passenger (first laps out there in a car) burst into nervous laughter and explained he thought we were a gonna! I advised that perhaps wasn't the ideal way to tackle the corner in the wet
To be honest, then car felt controllable even when adhesion had been breached but perhaps I was pushing a little too hard for my first 5 laps since last summer. Still, there's no point gong there to fanny about I say.....
First Impressions? fk me it's quick. Proper car quick and the seats are just perfect for track. For the first time in a road car I was happy with seats that were't full buckets.
We went for an evening meal with the rest of the gang and headed to bed early. We suspected it would be cold in the morning with the sleet coming back for the night and more than likely the track wouldn't open on time but should it do so we didn't want to be late.
I'm not much of a one for sleeping but the 'ring exasperates this somewhat! 6am and i'm usually awake, I could see light shining through the shutters but as I had my mate rooming with me I resisted up until half six before excitement got the better of me. Curtin drawn and shutters opened revealed this;
Get the three S's out the way and get down to the Guesthouse for some breakfast. Cold admittedly but the weather looked promising for the morning at least of open pit lane action
As mentioned in the previous post the weather was pretty shocking (it's the 'ring in April, it happens) but the locals were thinking the weather was going to clear up and the weather apps suggested the same-I know the eiffel weather as well as everybody else but with sleet and rain at 4pm still I didn't hold out much hope.
We purchased a 4 lap pass to add to our lap left over from last year (they last 2 years now) which we figured would be enough with the track being open form 5:30pm until 7:30pm and dodgy conditions but as we hung around the (almost empty) car park it really started to dry out as the wind swept in. With most people doing the signing on for DN14 we figured even if the track was damp/wet it was so quiet it was silly not to do some quick laps.
We ventured out and although the asphalt was damp in places I'd say at least 3/4 of it was pretty much dry, or dry enough to go for it
400 or so miles on the clock, +R mode selected and away we went. What can I say? the car was utterly epic on the track. The power is incredibly surprising even after driving on the road, when then car can seem a little "laggy" on track and working things completely through the rev range it all pulls together.
The steering weighs up beautifully and even in spite of the cars electrically assisted rack there is so much info coming through to your palms and finger tips on what those tacky sport contact 6's are doing. In +R mode the steering assistance simply lessens, it doesn't change anything else so although you have to put in considerably more effort it doesn't feel like you're steering a different car (as the MINI GP did for instance).
The dampers also considerably stiffen up, and when i say stiff I mean stiff! The engineers have set +R mode up for the ring specifically but on first acquaintance I honestly thought it was too stiff. The car corners flat-proper, proper flat! But over the ring's lumps and bumps would it be too much? At first it felt it might as it's the hardest car I've driven around here, certainly as far as I can remember.
We used up our laps mainly to get our eye back n for the morning but as 7pm approached the rain swept back in, not enough to cause a wash out but enough to cause a shaky moment when attempting the sweeping left hander on the way out of Bergwerk up the Kesse lchen. Always a favourite of mine you exit Bergwerk and work your way up the gears until you're flat out and into fifth. In the new car I was easing off the gas at this point (it's normally taken flat out) but held the throttle steady so as not to unsettle the rear.
Approaching the hill the track did look a little moist but not enough to worry about, right up until I felt the car start to drift at around 130mph
We finished the lap and back in the car park my passenger (first laps out there in a car) burst into nervous laughter and explained he thought we were a gonna! I advised that perhaps wasn't the ideal way to tackle the corner in the wet
To be honest, then car felt controllable even when adhesion had been breached but perhaps I was pushing a little too hard for my first 5 laps since last summer. Still, there's no point gong there to fanny about I say.....First Impressions? f
k me it's quick. Proper car quick and the seats are just perfect for track. For the first time in a road car I was happy with seats that were't full buckets.We went for an evening meal with the rest of the gang and headed to bed early. We suspected it would be cold in the morning with the sleet coming back for the night and more than likely the track wouldn't open on time but should it do so we didn't want to be late.
I'm not much of a one for sleeping but the 'ring exasperates this somewhat! 6am and i'm usually awake, I could see light shining through the shutters but as I had my mate rooming with me I resisted up until half six before excitement got the better of me. Curtin drawn and shutters opened revealed this;
Get the three S's out the way and get down to the Guesthouse for some breakfast. Cold admittedly but the weather looked promising for the morning at least of open pit lane action
LaurasOtherHalf said:
Axionknight said:
Just ordered mine, a demo model, grey with the GT pack like yours, 370 miles or so on the clock, 
Well done! I've noticed your posts on all things Type-R and you certainly seemed to be desperate to get one 
melvster said:
The more I read, the more I want. Blagged a brochure from the local dealer today, just need to get saving now for the deposit. They had a championship white example basking in the showroom and it looked bloody epic, their demo car outside is Polished metal. Evil looking thing.
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.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff