Saturday, 6 February 2016

LAUNCH NEWS: Honda Civic Type-R is fun, but R-eally costly


THE Honda Civic Type R has spent years in development. In fact, it has taken so long to come to market that the new Civic will be in SA later this year. So has it been worth the wait?

The battle in the hot hatch market shows no sign of abating. In terms of sales the Volkswagen Golf GTi reigns supreme, although whether it is the best remains a matter of personal preference. The iconic GTi goes up against major rivals such as the Audi S3, Ford Focus ST, Renault Megane RS and even outsiders such as the Peugeot 308 GT and Subaru WRX STi.

Take things up a notch and you have the Audi RS3, Mercedes A45 AMG and the VW Golf R as well as the forthcoming Ford Focus RS. Things are hot in this segment of the market.

Traditionally the Type-R has been right in the thick of the GTi battle. It has been pitched against its rivals in comparison shootouts the world over, but the new one has tried to drop a gear and move beyond the melee.

At R586,400 it is not cheap and chances are the price tag is going to prevent anyone trading in their GTi for one. They might not even trade in their Golf R and at this price many will want to wait and see what price the Focus RS lands at. But the Type-R comes with plenty of power, plenty of heritage and plenty of aerodynamic appendages — if you like that sort of thing.

The first R-badge appeared in 1965 on a Honda race car and since then it has adorned such petrolhead favourites as the Civic Type-R, the Integra Type-R and the very rare NSX-R. The new one aims to continue to be a sought after race car for the road with its 2l direct injection turbocharged engine that pumps out 228kW and 400Nm of torque. Honda is claiming a 0-100km/h time of 5.7 seconds and a top end of 270km/h.

The power figures place it higher than the Golf R and other upper rivals, falling short only when compared to the more expensive Merc and RS3.

However, all that development time has resulted in a hot hatch that is almost perfect. Every one of those appendages works hard to reduce drag and improve downforce; nothing is cosmetic. Where the styling of the GTi and ST is subtle, the Type-R shouts "get out of my way!" It has race car DNA and race car looks, something which helped it take the British Touring Car Championship title in 2015.

It boasts a VTEC engine with variable valve timing and lift as well as electronic control. It has a torque plateau of 400Nm between 2,000 and 5,000r/min which ensured rapid response from the turbo on the Killarney racetrack. Of course, it lacks the high revving nature of models like the S2000 and former Type-R but that happens when you go the turbo route.

It has a helical limited slip differential combined with plenty of other electronic wizardry to keep things in check in the corners. You also get dual axis strut front suspension that is claimed to reduce torque steer by 55%. There is all-wheel adaptive damping which keeps the car flat in the corners and apparently also prevents the nose from crashing when you go over a speed bump in spite of the car being 25mm lower than the standard Civic.

You also get Brembo brakes to scrub off speed and an 18% more rigid body.

All of this translates into something very, very special. Blasting out of the pits at Killarney, the turbo provided excellent response and the exhaust responded with a decent soundtrack. Put the car into R+ mode and everything sharpens up, including the electrical power steering which is one of the best I have experienced.

The six-speed manual gearbox is also superb, reminding me of the one in the S2000 with short shifts and a feeling that the stick is an extension of your arm. Turn-in was incredible with just a hint of typical front-wheel drive understeer and a clear feeling that the adaptive damping was keeping the car nice and level with the black stuff.

The brakes performed faultlessly and, while I only put in three laps, each one became faster as the set-up of the car inspired more confidence. This is one car that deserves to be taken out of the city and put on the track whenever you can.

How it behaves on the road is a little trickier to assess. There were no mountain passes to see how the Type-R behaved in the real world. Instead, it was long, sweeping roads around the Cape. Things got a little bumpy on occasion, but I put that down to the car being designed primarily for performance and not for comfort like the GTi is. On a short journey on Cape roads it was fine, but I imagine it could get uncomfortable at times.

The interior is beautiful, not in a luxurious kind of way, but in a general packaging way. Everything the driver really needs is easy to access and the bucket seats are supportive. The readouts showing items like G-forces, acceleration times and lap times will have their uses and it all provides that feeling that you are in something a bit special.

It might have taken years to get here, but it has been worth the wait. The Type-R is brilliant. The only problem is no-one at Honda warned us to start counting our pennies when development started, because that price tag is going to be hard for all but the true Type-R fans to accept.


Source : http://www.bdlive.co.za

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