I went to my local Honda dealer last year before I got my Vrs to test drive the rather sharp & futuristic

Type-R. First thought when I saw the car on the forecourt was, this car is going to be something very special. When I got to sit in the car I got even more excited! The whole dash and lights & gizmos made me feel I was siting in the seat of an X-Wing Fighter from Star Wars! It was very exciting and felt very good to sit in the drivers seat. Ok, let's start the engine The Honda comes to life and so does the cockpit with all it's coloured lights and digital readouts! I drove very carefully out of the forecourt and had a bit of a test drive. The first thing I noticed was the suspension is very hard and you will feel every bump you go over. Saying that though it holds the car on the road like it's on rails! The second thing I noticed was the big spoiler that goes directly across the rear window! This is unfortunate as you can't see anyone or anything coming from a distance! However I found the lack of rear visibility a treat for blocking idiots who don't switch their beams off! The test drive was very good and realy enjoyed it with a big smile on my face :yes: The car has a bit of a split personality and I mean that in a good way. In town driving is very easy and it's not too noisy but take the car on a motorway or any B road and give it some revs and watch the speedo fly up to 60 mph in about 6.6 secs! It just roars to life and that engine! I call it V-Tec heaven! The car handles extremely well and it's very quick indeed!

The seats are fairly firm but not to the point that my bones will break like Jeremy Clarkson said in Top Gear! The rear seats are also comfortable enough for small to medium journeys.

I also found the boot has lots of room and you should have no problem in puting 2 large suitcases in there, if you need to. Everything in this car is electric also this is quite a useful little touch if you drive abroad, you can change MPH to KPH by pressing a button. Also I realy like the Formula 1 engine start button that flashes in red when you turn the ignition key!

Overal when you look at the car from the outside and inside this car makes you feel very special and proud to be sitting in. It does have 1 or 2 designer flaws but I personaly couldn't care about those. You might be wondering, why did I not buy one if I liked it so much? Well I did try but Honda dindn't want to do me an offer I wanted so I had to walk away :( , for now!

The paint is shocking too (Too thin and soft)...The salesman saved you

Rear visibility is dreadful...you do get used to it eventually

The lack of torque makes it a very tiring car to drive...You have to thrash it to make it perform...which it certainly does...but not on a daily commute!!

Look here:

http://www.civinfo.com/forum

Nice review bud.

I bought the older one and love it.

I took one of these for an extended test drive and loved it. Had the 2.0 Type S at the time, and the difference was massive!

Try the FD2 if you get the chance, or one of the Championship White models with the LSD. Phenomenal.

I used to own an FN2 with the 19" rage wheels and it was a fantastic car to drive on a weekend but not a car for day to day use. The suspension was teeth rattling and it had too many niggles. I had to get new rear suspension bushes fitted, subframe had a fault which needed working on and clutch pedal assembly completely fell to peices and ruined the whole drive. In the end it was the master cylinder that had failed. The fact it was built in the UK showed unfortunately...

But all the above was just about acceptable when you buried your foot and heard the VTEC engine roar!!!!

How did the performance compare to your vrs? I had a 2.4 petrol accord that was everything between 6.5k and 7.5k but tepid below and was hard to drive fast. I can vouch that a stage 1 remap will fairly easily outpace the civic anyway