2018 Honda Civic Type-R

[G.Irish]

About fucking time.  

I sold my M3 about a month ago, and to be perfectly honest I really didn't know what I'd end up with.  I wanted a CTR but every dealership I called wanted $5000 over MSRP, and I called as far away as Chicago.  I had kinda written off the Focus RS because of the rear diff overheating (on track) issue, and the fact that there is a growing number of owners with head gasket failures. 

I was beginning to think I would just punt and buy a Fit for the time being, but then Jeff (owner of vtec.net) told me he had a hookup through Honda corporate that could potentially get a car routed my way.  Long story short, several phone calls, emails, and a lot of waiting later, I got a call from Hendrick Honda (Woodbridge) that my car had arrived.

Went to the dealership on Friday morning to pick the car up, halfway expecting to have to sit through a bunch of dealer bullshit.  But the folks at Hendrick Honda were pretty straightforward, didn't try to force upsells on me, and were all-around easy to deal with.  I was a bit annoyed that they put pinstripes and their dealer badge on my car but I asked them to take them off and they did, no questions asked.

First Impression

So far I'm just breaking the car in, but the power feels surprisingly linear.  You don't get that big wallop of power when the turbo spools up like I did on my WRX.  Handling wise it's about as comfortable as my M3 was but a bit more lively when I put it in R+ mode (there's Comfort, Sport, and R+).  This thing corners very flat at street speeds, surprisingly so.  Steering weight is nice and not overboosted, and the brakes feel great.  Maybe not as much feel as my Cayman, but more than the M3.

Thrust-wise, it feels pretty quick.  It may even feel a bit quicker from low RPM's than the M3 because of the powerband, even though the M had a lot more top end power. 

Winter

First order of business is gonna be winter wheels and tires.  These ContiSports are wayyy too aggressive for the winter and easily spin up through 1st and 2nd, even though I'm not even going WOT yet.  Don't know whether I'm going to buy some 20-inch winter tires, or a set of smaller wheels and winter tires yet.


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