Waaa waaaa waaa he he (Honda Accord Type-R)

Member Name: andy_waterworth

Product:	Honda Accord Type-R
Date:	19/08/03 (10752 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: engine in vtech, handling, sports interior

Disadvantages: ventilation, fuel useage, oil useage

Ah the type R. I was lucky enough to be given this car as a company car a year ago, when I took over the car it had 50,000 miles on the clock and was just 14months old.

Exterior
From the outside the car is visually impressive front rear and side skirts, 18" wheels and low profile tyres, oh yeah and a huge spoiler on the back more about that later. Plus discreet type r badging and the red Honda badge, which only comes on, type R's. The real give away are the two shiny exhaust pipes sticking out the back, which does confuse people ?is this a v6 v8?? no it's just a very powerful 4 cylinder. The headlights too hint at something more with the main lights being HID which give of a very clear blue white light (you'll get used to people flashing)

Interior
The first thing that hits you is the Recaro seats they seem to fill the front because they are so high, but sit down and they hug you like they were made for you personally. Both seats have adjustable squabs which are great for tall drivers like me and give the additional leg support needed a real boon on long journeys. The driver?s seat also has adjustable lumbar support, which is the blow up type, a couple of squeezes on the bulb down the side of the seat, and your lower back is perfectly aligned. Luckily you don't have to do this too much as it's a little tight down the side of the seat.


The dash is simple and everything falls to hand, the heater controls are simple mine has the additional air-conditioning which helps, switchgear is a little flimsy feeling compared to the chunkiness of more modern cars but works just fine. The joy of the interior is the sports feel the steering wheel is MOMO and your hands fall naturally to the racing driver quarter past three position (don't listen to your driving instructor) and it is perfectly sized, the doors are finished in good plastics with carbon fibre detail which continues throughout the car, and the gear kn
ob is fitted with a very pleasing aluminium gear knob.

The drive
Flick the key and the engine starts but surprisingly for a 212bhp car it is very quiet almost disappointingly so having driven a Subaru Impreza which gives a satisfying burble you get nothing, but the Japanese know that performance isn't about standing still it's about going.

From the off the car feels really tight but well behaved none of the jerkiness at low speed you usually associate with performance cars, in fact around town it could be the family runabout. The steering is easy, the clutch not too heavy and the engine not really pushing to do too much. This is the joy of VTech Honda's whiz bang engine technology at low revs it uses less cam and fuel therefore making it very well behaved rev the car and all hell breaks loose. So, onto the open road push hard on the accelerator and the revs build really quickly towards 6000 rpm this is when most people start to change gear but oh no look closely at the rev counter and you will find the red line nuzzled up near 8000 revs. So hold it in gear and waaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaa he he he at 5500 revs the second stage of VTECH kicks in all cams lift the induction note changes and this thing flies. A friend of mine drove one of these for a week before realising this and came to me and said that he didn?t think it was that quick, one trip down a dual carriageway later holding the gears longer and he was hooked.
This car is a little addictive, when I first took my girlfriend out in it and showed her VTECH she then proceeded to try to drive everywhere at 6000+ revs everybody does even me. The handling is razor sharp and you have to be pushing really hard to get under steer in fact lift off in a bend and the back pleasantly steps out, but as I say you have to be pushing really hard (well by my standards anyway). The driving position is excellent and you feel part of the car with the recaro?s hugging you and the steering wheel firm i
n your hand, it really is one of the best driving saloon cars I?ve ever driven.

The practicalities of living with a type r
Fuel is the biggest issue as the car runs on 98+-octane fuel so you have to buy super unleaded or better still Shell Optimax (99 Octane). You can run on normal unleaded if stuck but be careful they have been known to hole pistons if you stick with the cheap stuff for too long. If you get too addicted to the VTECH you can expect to be visiting Mr Shell every 200 miles if you are steadier you will get around 340. Secondly oil with an engine running at this sort of power and revs these things use oil, they are meant to. Honda?s advice is that you should check the oil every time you fill up the reality is that it takes about a litre of oil (synthetic) every 1000 miles between services. Probably unsurprisingly tyres the fronts last about 12000 miles depending on how kind you are to them, and the rears about 24000. A set of four Bridgestone tyres will cost around £240, which isn?t bad.

That spoiler
For the first 6 weeks I had an uneasy feeling that something was following me it is big. It makes it impossible to see what?s following at a distance, which the police like to do. On the plus side on the motorway at night it blocks out a lot of the glare from the headlights of the car behind.

The biggest bugbear is the ventilation system, even with fans on four and ac on it takes at least 10 minutes to clear the windscreen on a winter?s day. Turn the ac off and it will instantly fog up again. In the summer you have to have everything turned to maximum to get any sort of real cooling.

Servicing and repairs
Servicing is cheap £90 for an interim and £200 for a major service and the boys at Honda do a really good job. In it?s 96000 miles the only major bits we had done were a clutch £600 at 92000 and a set of rear brakes discs £400 apart from that just servicing.

And now the end is near the accord has now
done 96000 miles and is nearing the end of its life with us and still with that level of mileage there are no squeaks or rattles and the engine is still superb. Unfortunately Honda have brought out the new accord which although very polished just doesn?t have the grin inspiring fun of the type r. rumours are abound that they will bring one out but it seems unlikely. So, the next worthy successor to the crown is likely to be a seat Cupra R. let?s hope it?s good, as it has some really big shoes to fill.

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