Civic Type R savaged on Top Gear

pburns

I know there is a seperate thread for TG but IMO discussions about cars belong HERE!

Anyway, great episode, apart from JC going massivly off piste discussing rugby with Lawrence Dilligeewoowoo or whatever-he's-called... And I like the audience participation - they should do that more!

CAR Magazine cited the new Type R as best hot hatch and it has had good reviews but it's hard to argue with Clarkson's criticisms - extra weight, no increase in power and worse handling...

antodeco

Have to agree. The interview went on for way to long. I love the new style type R. As JC said, extra weight and size will not be lightened by +1 BHP. Still, wouldnt mind one! The Type R Saloon is fantastic looking! Like a family version of a Teg DC5!

zero19

I hate how the hatch looks, i'd rather have an old Type-R Integra...

C_Breeze

thats exactly why i am not a great fan of top gear.

they have JC talking about rugby for a good portion when they could be discussing cars, they have your hamster man making "funny" jokes and the old geezer racing some guy swimming through muck :rolleyes: ... oh sure whats the point in buying a car to drive 65 miles when you can swim through muck and get there at the same time :rolleyes:


..... and after all this "entertainment" - you are meant to take their car criticism and opinions for gold! - I take the points that Jeremy made against the new typeR - but afterall his rambling - it got around the track quicker than a golf GTI (which sells by the bucketloads and is very popular) and is the Civic main competitor. So it cant be that bad of a car as he made out (and im not even a honda fanboy) but clarkson could talk you out of a wedding.

He probably made the guy in the audience who had one on order feel like sh*t

Atomic Pineapple

TheFD2 (Civic Type R saloon) is meant to be far better than the hatch version too, it looks lovely too, I dont like the look of the hatch at all.

E92

draffodx wrote: »

TheFD2 (Civic Type R saloon) is meant to be far better than the hatch version too, it looks lovely too, I dont like the look of the hatch at all.

But we ain't getting it as its only a JDM car(perhaps JHMEG could confirm this, since he knows Hondas like the back of his hand?). And for my 2c worth the saloon is sh1te looking compared to the hatch. The saloon will also have had the "benefit":rolleyes: of being designed foor the Asian/American market, so the interior will neither be as well made nor as nice looking as the hatch version(which was designed for Europe) if the non Type R models are anything to go by(speaking from having sat in both the saloon and hatch).

In the JDM car's favour is an extra 19 bhp though and the fact it has independant double wishbone suspension(this applies to all saloons, not just the Type-R) unlike the hatch version which has a torsion beam!

JHMEG

For a car that's apparently cr@p, it was still faster than the new Golf GTI around the track...

And E92 is right, the saloon is not coming this way (The interior tho is pretty much the same as the hatch including the mad dashboard).

In Japan they also have a Type RR saloon, which has had the Mugen makeover and is 240bhp.

C_Breeze

JHMEG wrote: »

For a car that's apparently cr@p, it was still faster than the new Golf GTI around the track...

JHMEG you're such a honda fanboy OMG VTEC WOHOOO - whenever theres the slightetst negative thing said about anything honda or VTEC youre in there like somebody offended your mother !

..but yeah thats exactly what i said

JHMEG

C_Breeze wrote: »

..but yeah thats exactly what i said

Folks, please welcome Mr Jeremy Clarkson himself to boards.ie motors forum.

(For the record C_Breeze is on an anti-Honda bent at the moment as he bought a 5-dr Rover saloon Civic VTI in the UK that he can't sell on cos they're manky)

Atomic Pineapple

yeh i know were not getting the type r saloon, pity.

and i agree with the comments about top gear becoming more of an entertainment show than a factual show about cars.

C_Breeze

JHMEG wrote: »

Folks, please welcome Mr Jeremy Clarkson himself to boards.ie motors forum.

(For the record C_Breeze is on an anti-Honda bent at the moment as he bought a 5-dr Rover saloon Civic VTI in the UK that he can't sell on cos they're manky)

For the record it was a VTi-S LTD Edition and sold after being driven 6,000miles with a 1,200euro profit - First guy to actually bother their arse to come see it snapped my hand off.

Still un-inpressed by all things honda though - great cars but very overrated.

thanks for proving my point though by feeling the need to refer to personal circumstances to protect the almighty 'H' :rolleyes:



dont know why you felt the need to have a go at me JHMEG when I was actually agreeing with you ... - or rather you agreeing with me if you bothered to read my previous post before yours.

JHMEG

C_Breeze wrote: »

dont know why you felt the need to have a go at me JHMEG when I was actually agreeing with you ... - or rather you agreeing with me if you bothered to read my previous post before yours.

Oh how we have short memories. You had a go at me on your two of your adverts.ie ads for that car for no apparent reason (not apparent to me anyway). I see you sold it on the third. So.. what comes around goes around.

unkel

No need to fight, lads! The Honda has poor performance and it isn't very comfortable either.

Let's try to let this thread go asleep

unkel

Someone told me I should not have closed this thread. He was right. So here it is back open again!

JHMEG

unkel wrote: »

The Honda has poor performance

I'll kickstart things by asking: relative to what?;) (And no smart answers like an M5 or an F360 etc)

Darando

Doesn't matter if he says its not a good car - still wouldn't last too long outside your house these days!

It did look rather nice though regardless of performance

JHMEG

I think Tiff Needell rated the new one as better on Fifth Gear.

unkel

JHMEG wrote: »

I'll kickstart things by asking: relative to what?;) (And no smart answers like an M5 or an F360 etc)

No smart answers here. My comment about poor performance was out of place. By all means the performance of the current Civic Type R is a match of its peers, like the VW Golf GTI

JHMEG

Well fair enough... and here was me gearing up for a good argument..

Masada

unkel wrote: »

No smart answers here. My comment about poor performance was out of place. By all means the performance of the current Civic Type R is a match of its peers, like the VW Golf GTI

Apparently theres an even more powerful one on the way with the possibility of a supercharger., I might be buying the jap one myself in the new year, I cant see why it was rated badly even though it was faster than the competition.,

tossy

Its pretty obvious they are scrapping the barrel at this stage,when they do a special its quite good and entertaining as it also is when the have a big car to review.

Last sunday they reviewed the civic type R and the alfa 159?? i mean come on-hardly hot of the assembly line cars! they also had an "extended" interview with larry dilagio!

It reminds of a top gear of old when faced with nothing new to review clarkson ripped the opel frontera apart again,for the crack like!

I will keep watching though

Blitzkrieger

antodeco wrote: »

Have to agree. The interview went on for way to long.

I just FF through the interview every week.

If you want a balanced car review, what are you doing watching Top Gear? You're not going to get a balanced review - you're going to get what the presenters think of it. And god bless the BBC for it. Because of the way they're funded they don't have to give a toss about advertising* revenue and can say what they like about cars. The value of this was shown with the A-class, when the entire motoring press were gushing over it and Clarkson said he thought the handling was crap. Then it rolled over during an elk test and suddenly the press were backpeddaling like nobody's business. It's very hard to find unbiased reporting these days. Magazines have to sell ad space and 'journalists' get so many freebies at press launches they're reluctant to give a car a bad review in case the gravy train stops.

The new Civic type R is getting good reviews in most motoring magazines. Some say that it's not as fun as the old car but is actually better to drive. Then again, see above.

As to the poor guy that bought one - one look at his hair would cause me to doubt his motives for buying one. Methinks jumping on the new bandwagon would have been high in his list of priorities.

Golfs and Civics are girls cars anyway.........



*Didn't the boss of Opel demand that all advertising be pulled from the BBC after Clarkson gave the Astra a bad review? "Uh, boss......."

High&Low

tossy wrote: »

Its pretty obvious they are scrapping the barrel at this stage,when they do a special its quite good and entertaining as it also is when the have a big car to review.

Last sunday they reviewed the civic type R and the alfa 159?? i mean come on-hardly hot of the assembly line cars! they also had an "extended" interview with larry dilagio!

It reminds of a top gear of old when faced with nothing new to review clarkson ripped the opel frontera apart again,for the crack like!

I will keep watching though

Top Gear was getting criticised for not reviewing "real" cars, so that's what it did this week. First time this series?

I didn't think the Laurence Dilagio interview was any longer than he had with a number of other far less interesting people, but maybe that's because I have an interest in rugby.

Its a shame the Stig didn't get to bring the estates around the track...

Stephen

I still want one

Also, camper racing is the future of motorsport

RobAMerc

Blitzkrieger wrote: »

*Didn't the boss of Opel demand that all advertising be pulled from the BBC after Clarkson gave the Astra a bad review? "Uh, boss......."

No it was the Peugeot 306 - and Clarkson later admitted it was actually quite good !

Thats the thing about TG - soon they'll be reviewing something else and they'll bring back eveyones favourite.... the Honda Civic type R

Thats just the way it is, if you watch old versions you'll see Clarkson often goes back on what they say and slag off cars they have given good reviews to or vice versa.

MarkN

I liked the idea of racing the new and old CTR - thought it was a nice way to do the comparison.

The CTR might have been less than a second quicker around the track than the Golf but anyone who knows TG or JC, knows he would take the GTI over the new CTR anyday, less than a second faster yes, better, no.

I have no doubt that he exaggerated how bad the Civic is, I'm only making the point as the comparison to the GTI was made earlier in the thread.

rabbitinlights

€45,000

cpoh1

MarkN wrote: »

The CTR might have been less than a second quicker around the track than the Golf but anyone who knows TG or JC, knows he would take the GTI over the new CTR anyday, less than a second faster yes, better, no.

How do you figure that? Surely if the civic is a smidgen heavier, has slightly less power (everyone knows the k20 comes out with less than 200bhp on the dyno) and is still faster around the track than the golf its better from a performance point of view?

Unless youre going on personal preference like Clarkson which is fair enough?

MarkN

cpoh1 wrote: »

How do you figure that? Surely if the civic is a smidgen heavier, has slightly less power (everyone knows the k20 comes out with less than 200bhp on the dyno) and is still faster around the track than the golf its better from a performance point of view?

Unless youre going on personal preference like Clarkson which is fair enough?

Better as in better car.

If it can go around a track less than a second quicker, that's cool but performance point of view is more than just a track with one driver. No point in starting a Civic Vs GTI thread here but only the most enthusiastic Honda fan would say the CTR is a better car for the real world (leaving all personal preferences out of the equation).

Saying all that, I bought an S3 because the GTIs were all over the place, I'm not saying the GTI is a perfect car either.

cpoh1

MarkN wrote: »

Better as in better car.

If it can go around a track less than a second quicker, that's cool but performance point of view is more than just a track with one driver. No point in starting a Civic Vs GTI thread here but only the most enthusiastic Honda fan would say the CTR is a better car for the real world (leaving all personal preferences out of the equation).

Im sorry I dont want to go offtopic either but youre not making any sense. How the hell is the golf a better hot hatch if its slower and doesnt handle as well despite being lighter than the civic???

Is it better looking? Have more space and better interior? All these things are completely up to the individual involved and his preferences. What you cant argue with however are the performance figures.

MarkN

I don't see how I'm not making sense TBH, that's a pretty weak line for when you have nothing else to say.

Nobody said it handles better, if anything the understeer was dreadful. The less than a second slower time could easily be shaved by a different driver.