Honda teases the upcoming StepWGN model change with plenty of teaser pictures, but one stood out among the rest… The waku waku gate.
One view and you will say… Meh… It’s a swing door… My grandparent’s car has one, it’s not a big deal… Yes, it’s not, but look below.
See on the rear hatch above? There’s a cutaway near the lock latch. Yes, Honda new StepWGN will have a dual swing and lift rear hatch.
The inclusion was not just for complexity and being different sake. For us Asians, genetics isn’t too kind on our height, we are great at maths, but most of the time Asians are shorter than average Caucasians or Negroids (damn you politics… Congoids) Opening a lifting hatch is easy, thanks to the gas pistons, but what about closing it down? Shorter people will have a hard time taking that hatch holder (that black area right next to the lock latch). With a swing door, you just open and push/pull the door back to close, rather than have to jump over the hatch holder above.
Sure there is an alternative for closing a lift hatch like with the help of a motorized unit like on some top grade people mover like the Alphard or Elgrand. But it adds cost and complexity actually. What happened if the motor fails? On a swing door, at worst you only need to add oil on the hinge. This is why I like Honda. They add stuff not to increase complexity, but to increase usability without the necessary complexity.
One more news worthy addition of all… The new StepWGN will debut Honda first mass produced Turbo charged engine. A new 1.5L turbo, which have performance comparable (or even exceed) to Honda old 2.0L engine.
What I think – is a new segment where Michael ponders about a product release and give a biased and uneven opinion, because hey… He can, it’s there on the declaration of human rights charter article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression.
Now where do I begin… The Civic (Euro) Type R… See why I always put “Euro” there when Honda only mentions that the car is a Civic Type R? Well, because this is a Civic Euro, ne… Honda Fit XL. Type R has always been the man’s man car, when the little kids argue about how real or classy they are depending on the amount of pedals on their car… The Type R will slap them to the moon and back, 3 times. Type R was a raw car, no AC, no stereo, no sound dampening, thin seat cushion, all manuals, all loud, all encompassing. But most of all, Type R is about how man and machine becomes one.
The only limit a Type R carries was the ability of the driver to take it. The last great Civic hatchback proud to carry the tag was the EP3, known as the Civic Si in the United States and the Civic Type R in Europe. It was a beast. Then comes the segregation era in 2006, where the Civic lineage was broken and gimped into two model version, the hatch and the sedan. The sedan maintains composure fairly well while the hatch was gimped as hell. Honda Civic sedan retains some semblance of performance due to the use of McPherson Strut front and multilink suspension rear, giving the car a proper independent suspension. The Civic hatch however now uses McPherson Strut front and torsion beam rear, a semi independent suspension since the rear wheels are connected to each other.
The use of torsion beam was warranted for an A to B car. A daily car. Your mom’s car. My wife’s car. My kid’s car. My pet’s car. My maid’s car. My grandparent’s car. My car when I just need to go somewhere. Period. Torsion beam cars have awesometacular interior space as it allows for rear suspension housing to be very small and with Honda forward mounted fuel tank, a cavernous cargo bay. But for a performance car… Meh…
Momentum transfers the weight of a car around. On a fully independent suspension, the wheels carries each four points of the car equally (ceteris paribus), a car can even lift its inner rear wheel on a turn. On a torsion beam suspension, since the rear wheels are connected, they drag each other like an overly attached significant other planting the wheels on the road. But Michael, all four wheels planted to the ground is a good thing right? Yes and no. Since the rear grips, while turning it will give the car a tendency to oversteer… But Michael, all the cool kids like to oversteer to drift… Well… Um… Ah… Urr… Drifting a front wheel drive? What kind of nonsense is that? Please differentiate between drifting and skidding. Drifting is a controlled powered maneuver, skidding is when you just go fast and turn abruptly with an extra bonus of failing English vocabulary. The thing is, on a front wheel drive cars, this propensity to oversteer is transformed to forward momentum which actually means massive understeer, which is compounded with the trait of a nose heavy front engine front wheel drive cars.
Long story short (seriously, suspension knowledge is vast and quite deep, I won’t go blabbering in this one post), a fully independent suspension will allow for a car to turn better in speed versus semi independent suspension ANY. FRIGGIN. TIME.
Just take a look at this old Top Gear video comparing the last great Civic Type R (EP3) and the abomination they called Honda Fit XL… I mean Honda Civic Euro Type R (FN2).
Mind you that there’s a confusion between Top Gear magazine which gives the car a hot hatch pick for 2007 with Clarkson personal opinion who really dislikes the car. But the video just shows, the new Type R was a botch failed disillusioned attempt at being better than the outgoing model. The Fit XL… Drats… Honda Civic Euro Type R meet its demise in 2010. As emission requirement becoming more and more tight, the high revving K series engine had to bow down and the legacy of the Type R ended in Europe.
Honda fans are left out cold… Feeling the chill of Sweden’s cold winter breeze, alone, with just a little camp fire made out of sadness and cruelty. But in 2012, Honda came out with a grand plan to resuscitate the Type R brand in Europe with a twist (turbochargers, get it?), stating that the new Type R will be the fastest front wheel drive car. You can feel the vibration of excitement when Honda announced that since the Type Rs before were never about speed, it’s always about balance (do you start to get my rant?). Theories abound about what kind of car the new Type R would be. The high revving engine by that time was already obsolete, to punch through to anything fast, the new car needs to be turbocharged.
Then Honda finally unveiled the concept, an amazing display of over the topassery with plenty of PR speaks and bits of information.To say the Civic (Euro) Type R concept was amazing was an understatement, with that huge ass wing, it’s borderline Kamen Rider car of choice… Funny enough, Honda NM4 was Kamen Rider bike… For two series!
The new Civic Euro Type R was truly the pinnacle of Honda engineering, especially the new turbocharged engine… But then here comes my rant… WHAT? 938 words and I just start my rant? Prepare your butt dear readers, because it’s just getting fun.
The new Civic Euro Type R is unquestionably the best performance car Honda can put a badge on (NSX 2.0 was Acura). The new turbocharged engine is amazing. 310 PS and 400 Nm of torque is class leading for a front wheel drive. The Renault Megane RS 275 Trophy R has only 360 Nm of torque, and that is @3000 RPM, the Honda turbocharged 2L torque is reached at just 2500 RPM, giving it more power earlier. The dual axis strut front suspension trying to emulate a double wishbone to a degree, and it’s expected to reduce torque steer by 50%, a first for any Honda/Acura.
It’s all good until you look at the back suspension. The dreaded torsion beam… Ugh… Any European media will slightly give praise the Civic Euro cargo bay but all will bash the handling aspect of the car. The semi independent suspension kills any point of sporty driving and like previously stated, you can only adjust a torsion beam suspension only for stiff back braking race hard or soft as my belly on new year’s eve. So Honda applied a trick suspension add on, giving it an adjustable damper with select modes. I’m pretty sure the mode will include comfort and sport, or to lament term, soft and hard.
But hey! Credit due is credit due. The fastest front wheel driven car in the famous Nürburgring race track Germany is the Renault Megane RS 275 Trophy R. With an official lap time of 7:54 ish second. Honda said that the Civic Euro Type R will top it… And they did, unofficially.
During its development in 2014, the Civic Euro Type R was caught testing in Nürburgring and this car looks like the one photographed with the tiger stripe camo. The Type R got a respectable 7:50 ish with no AC, no audio and roll cage, faster than the Megane. Hey, no AC, no audio and a roll cage! CHEATER! … Umm… The Megane version which got the 7:54 also has no audio and AC. So even with AC and audio system, at worst, the Type R will get around 7:52, still a solid number and here’s my biggest gripe with the Civic Euro Type R lies.
With the botch crap fail suspension, Honda managed a good time… But what if they use a proper independent suspension? The new Type R would not just DESTROY the record time, but it will hold it for considerably a lot longer. This dick waving move of lap times are akin to asking your male friends how long their dicks are. For automotive, through technology and efficiency, lap times are going to be beaten every damn year. Just look at http://fastestlaps.com/tracks/nordschleife.html and see the cars below Renault Megane RS… Ferrari F430, Porsche 911 Turbo, NSX-R, some more old exotics which you cannot even buy right now because it’s worth more than 6 of your kidneys and both your testicle. Technology advances, and newer will always better (except for abomination like Honda Fit XL).
If Honda got official with the lap time, Renault will really loose face since on their website they put a lot of emphasis on Megane being the fastest front wheel drive car Nürburgring. They will hold the title fiercely, and it’s only a matter of time that Renault will out a special edition of the car to retake the lap time back… A silly move but it’s about pride and human pride is the weirdest thing of all.
There’s glory and sadness for the new Type R. Sure it’s the most technologically advance Honda, the fastest Honda, but also a confused Honda. If the car came proper with an all independent suspension, nobody will ever criticize the car and really cement the first turbocharged Type R in the history book. But for now, the new Type R is significant but also brings wary to those who waits for 5 years or even 9 years since the Honda Fit XL Type R introduction for a proper EP3 Type R successor. Let’s see what real people got to say with the car.
With as much fanfare as Geneva would allow, Honda Europe unveils the new Civic Euro Type R for the new generation.
Motivation comes from a newly developed turbocharged engine with an official power figure of 310 PS @ 6100 RPM and the accompanying massive torque of 400 Nm @ 2500 RPM. That massive power is channeled through the front wheel with limited slip drive and Honda newly developed dual axis strut, a modified McPherson Str ut which allows axis movement, to emulate double wishbone degree of freedom. Even though the torsion beam rear suspension is unchanged, Honda engineers employs another trick suspension add on with an adaptive suspension.
The striking visual difference from the Civic Euro Type R to the vanilla Civic Euro is the addition of aerodynamic bits which has been significantly tested on wind tunnel. The aggressive front lip, wheel arches, diffuser and massive wings are all tested and added for the benefit of aerodynamics.
The sum of all is a car which Honda Europe stated goes from 0-100 Km/H in 5.7 seconds and reaches 270 Km/H, which is class leading for a base model.
