The 2015 Honda Civic Type R
Here you are looking at the unshakeable Japanese hatch which sports a 306bhp engine. It is a front-wheel drive with an excellent Limited Slip Differential (LSD). It has a six-speed gearbox that smoothly glides through the gears making it a wonderful car to drive. They say that the revs tend to reach for the sky, but this is where the car falls a bit short; it has a maximum of 7,000rpm. However, you are looking at a lot of power and resolve, as you slither through the gears, when reaching for this limit; with the dashboard lights blazing, this an exhilarating experience.
Now, how has the Standard Civic been turned into the Type R?
Honda is a company with a reputation of engineering ingenuity, and the list of changes is quite impressive:
The bodyshell
Honda has made significant changes to the bodyshell, by making it stronger by 18%; they did not do this by adding more steel, but by changing the design of the brackets and using the adhesive more inventively. They started from the ground up, and rebuilt the vehicle, thereby changing a regular hatch into a hardcore hatch.
The suspension
A short while ago, one of the terms that was in vogue in the hatch kingdom was “reduced kingpin offset”. This was achieved by creating a “trick front suspension”, which reduced the torque during steering, allowing the driver to experience the oomph from the true power of the car, when cornering. The 2015 Honda Civic Type R has a Dual Axis Strut Front Suspension (DASFS), which they claim reduces the torque steer by 55%. This was due to the re-engineering of the bushes, lower arms and damper forks at the front, while no changes were made to the torsion beam design at the back. This has increased the rigidity of the suspension by 177%, therefore, there really is no need for adding a rear anti-roll bar.
The engine
The car has a new 2.0-litre 4-cylinder direct injection CTEC Turbo engine. This is quite the standard for Honda and it is very powerful, producing 306bhp and 6,500rpm; in today’s cars, this kind of power is not as outrageous as it was in the past. Oddly, people normally chose to have a variable vane turbo geometry giving them control over the power-rise across the range of revs, but the Type R has a monoscroll unit, which is controlled automatically by the VTEC valve control unit; this also reduces wastage of fuel.
Now, let’s look at the normal stuff
This car is quiet when you compare it to other cars in the same category, and the only noise you hear is the roar of the tires on coarse asphalt roads; it is very silent on smooth roads. It has a lot of space at the boot, and talking of space, there is plenty of it at the back seats too. It also has a lot of headroom, and one can surprisingly see out of the back quite well. It covers about 27.8 miles per gallon. The car has wonderful seats, with plenty of side support making it very comfortable to sit in; a lovely aluminum gear-lever and a well-shaped leather-covered steering wheel add to the aesthetics of the interior.
The verdict
The 2015 Honda Civic Type R is excellent hatch, and at £29,995, this is quite the buy; you can opt to add an extra £2,300 for the GT pack, if you love a little extra power. This is not just a playful hatch, but one that has a lot of speed; and it maintains stability at these high speeds, not only on straight roads, but also around corners. A fantastic driving experience.
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