![]() ![]() an affordable price tag when compared to similarly specced European cars.There are a few reasons why Japanese auto manufacturers took over American and European markets: But there’s more to this than just reliability. To this day, Japanese cars are regarded as some of the most reliable out there. Japan, quite literally, introduced the west to reliable mobility. Their age-old philosophy of honor, duty, and loyalty trickle down into every aspect of Japanese culture - even their cars.īefore Japan started to deliver cars to Europe and the USA, cars, in general, were seen as ultra-complicated machines that would inevitably break down and require maintenance all the time. While you can pick up an FN2 Type R hatch for under £3000 ($4225), a good FD2 Type R sedan will cost you five times as much.There’s a lot to love about the land of the rising sun. While they’re still too new to be legally imported and driven on the road in the US, many grey import cars have found their way to the UK, Europe and Australia over the past 14 years, where they hold cult status – and are priced accordingly. Today, that purity is one of the reasons FD2s are so highly prized. It doesn’t make any pretense at being the perfect all-rounder in the manner of a Volkswagen Golf GTi. There are no gimmicks, no ‘sport’ buttons, no multi-setting dampers, and no fake sound effects. There’s a sincerity to the FD2 Type R not all fast cars can claim. That purity of connection sums this Civic up. While the FN2 followed the precedent set by the EP3, going for an electrically assisted steering rack, the FD2 got old-fashioned hydraulic steering that communicates messages from the front wheels far more transparently. In a mid 2000s episode of the British TV show Fifth Gear, Vicki Butler Henderson pitted the FN2 against the FD2 around a wet Castle Combe race circuit and found the sedan 3 seconds quicker.įor me though, the bigger improvement, and one you can appreciate at all speeds, not just running flat out, is one you feel through your hands, not the seat of your pants. Whether you’re on the gas, on the brakes working those Brembo calipers, or leaning on the sticky tires and feeling the standard limited slip diff – a piece of kit the FN2 hatch didn’t get until 2009 – help you claw your way round every corner, the Type R feels absolutely in its element. Maybe more so, because you can actually thrash it more of the time. ![]() It might be a small Japanese sedan but it clearly thinks it’s a 911 GT3 in a compact saloon body, and on country roads, it’s almost as much fun to thrash. The four-door CTR wasn’t built for grinding along freeways at 70 mph, though. But now, in an era of homogenised turbo power, it’s almost hard to believe we ever had cars so raw, so… exciting. Suddenly your sweet little four-door sedan is making a noise like a full-on touring car, and you’re frantically throwing gears at it to keep the rev needle from trying to introduce itself to the number 9 on the dial.Ī decade ago an engine with this kind of character already seemed special. A polite little VTEC light illuminates on the dash, while a very rude engine assaults every one of your senses and the air in its path. Plant your foot down at 4500 rpm in fourth gear, exactly the point at which an Impreza or Evo would erupt down the road in a forced induction frenzy, and you get a bit more noise and not much of anything else.Īnd then suddenly, at around 5800 rpm, you’re transported right into the middle of one of those ‘VTEC Yo!’ memes. That sounds strong on paper, but there’s no getting away from… well, no getting away from anything at all unless you use all of the 8600 available revs (compared with 8200rpm for the FN2). But when is it going to come? While the UK-spec FN2’s K20Z4 2.0-litre twin cam made 198 hp and 142 lb ft, the JDM FD2 put out a stomping 221 hp and 159 lb ft courtesy of its K20A four-cylinder thanks to goodies like high compression pistons. ![]()
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