Growing Up with Cars: A British Perspective

As I sit here thinking about cars, it still feels normal to me that I'm an adult from England who spent most of his life learning on the road. It's not weird, and that's just how it is. One thing that does feel a bit strange, though, is the shifter position in the console rather than down by my waist. When it's down there, I can almost pretend it's mine, but when it's up here, it feels like someone else's.

The Abarth 500 is another car I've had the pleasure of driving, and I must say, it takes some getting used to. The idea behind its manual transmission design is that it allows for quick shifts, which is great, but the manual handbrake does feel a bit unusual. It's something that Honda has done with their Accord manual, as well as Volkswagen with the Golf R, where we actually complained about it in a recent video. Manual handbrakes should complement a manual shifter, not replace it.

As I get into the Honda Civic Type R, I'm immediately struck by how normal and simple it feels inside. It's not like those other cars that are all complex and electronic; this one is just cool. The torque steer is what really gets my heart racing, though – at eight and a half thousand rpm, it's absolutely insane. And yet, despite its incredible performance capabilities, the car still has a tonal quality to its four-cylinder engine that I've come to expect from these cars.

One of the things that I find particularly cool about the Type R is how it feels like an old-school naturally aspirated high-revving brother of my other favorite front-wheel-drive car. When I'm driving the Nissan 300ZX Z32, which was actually a bit over $100,000 when it was new – which is roughly equivalent to what these newer cars are going for today – I feel like I've got access to a part of history that not many people can experience. The R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R, on the other hand, feels almost within reach at around ten to fifteen thousand dollars US.

The thing about import cars is that they require so much more work and attention than just buying a new one off the lot. With an imported car, like the Honda Civic Type R or the Nissan 300ZX Z32, you're paying for all of that history and heritage upfront – which can be a significant portion of its purchase price. And yet, that's also what makes it so worth it.

James and I are actually thinking about importing a couple of old cars ourselves, and we've got some guesses as to what they might end up being in the comments section below. As for me, personally, I'm not sure if I'd buy a new car like this every day – but I would definitely consider importing one if I were going to get behind the wheel.

One of the things that really drew me into these cars is their ability to deliver an incredible driving experience without sacrificing safety or practicality. They're fast, they're fun, and they feel properly safe – which is a pretty rare combination in today's cars. And let's not forget the handling – which is where I think these cars truly excel.

In the end, it all comes down to choice. With so many features and systems available, it can be tempting to just opt for one of those convenience-driven cars that's designed to make life easy but lacks a bit of soul in the process. But when you've got the option to turn off all those aids and get back to basics, as I do with my imported cars, then it's a different story altogether.

Let's put this car on the track and see what it can really do!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's so good fantastic I love it it does make me wonder though what it would be like to drive the old naturally aspirated high revving ones Oh like the ep-3 or the UK not yeah yeah if there is a way that we could like time-travel you don't mean like go back and actually drive an EP three for real I have a friend with an EP three really you know just cool win oh okay you're watching throttle house I'm Thomas and I'm James and this is the 2020 fk8 generation type R and this is a JDM ep-3e p3 signifying that it hit the scene in the early 2000s and as I said this one is straight from Japan which means something well first it means it was made in the UK and shipped to Japan but we'll get to that later more importantly it's the best version the envy of Europe and North America the more aggressive JDM type are retained its helical LSD from the previous gen and the red Recaro race seats but most significant of all it got the made in Japan but shipped to England 212 horsepower k20a VTEC engine and among some other differences it was made available in the championship white that we have here today now some people don't like the new type r that's only because they haven't driven one yet or they have and they're wrong or maybe they have eyes that work but looks aside its impact is undeniable and for 2020 they've upgraded it we'll go over all the changes in a minute and whether or not they even make a difference but I can tell you some things have been improved it now makes a louder in-cabin sound which is good even if it's fake although it would have been nice to have a lot of exhaust just saying and some things haven't been improved it still occasionally grinds second gear for no reason but the question is with all of its little improvements this year can it stack up to what is one of the all-time great hot hatches and a massive thanks to Chris Lopes who owns the EP 3 and if you want to follow his journey with it will link his channel below in the description if you're new to throttle house we do car reviews type tests and quite a lot of messages out so subscribe hit the belt we've driven the new one and we've tracked the new one except this one is naturally aspirated plane revving insanity but it still somehow all type are I'm an Englishman in a man-fast of hunch I'm not happy bunny what can I say about the Thai part other than kind of what I've said before you have to drive one of these just to understand how good it is this thing is an absolute weapon completely throw away everything you think you know about rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive and you have to understand that what makes a car good what makes a car feel exciting in a corner it's not which wheels are driven it's how the car is set up and the Thai part from factory set up so well you just turn into a corner in the front grips in a way that there's it just shouldn't be possible it's almost impossible to find a clean one of these imported from Japan in North America in fact by our count is probably less than ten in Canada and it's even harder to find its stock so this one actually has a few exhaust changes as you might be able to hear but it doesn't matter because it's all about that induction noise and when we get it up to a bell 6,000 rpm something punches in or is it kicks in oh yeah VTech you've probably already heard of it essentially it's a technology that switches cam profiles on the fly so that when you get to the high rpm it allows in more air which allows in more fuel which means more combustion but more importantly more power and it's not the same in every Honda engine with VTEC but I can tell you that in this one it kicks it there it is and again so in the high revs I have power I have noise I have excitement and in the low revs I have noise and excitement and just a bit more efficiency because this thing even at low speeds is nuts all over the place you cannot buy a car today that comes anywhere close to this level of chaos and franticness the type R and the velocity n are the closest you can get but unlike when we drove the Type R with the Mustang bullet and we said that the Type R just made life so easy and is so easy to drive this is actually quite difficult and when I say difficult I'm not just referring to the fact that there's no advanced electronic safety systems to get you out of a tight spot I mean that you have to be more accurate with your shifts more purposeful with your throttle input and well you have to do with a much louder cabin but all of that lends to the experience everything about this is driver focused the seats the steering even the shift knob is closer to the steering wheel so that I can shift with my hand only has to travel about three inches that's the number the Thomas is used to James's probably told you all about the VTEC in his car well this one has VTEC as well except it only has VTEC on the exhaust side since it's turbocharged it doesn't need the aggressive cam profile to fire air into the engine on the intake there's the turbocharger for that then it uses VTEC on the exhaust cam to quickly evacuate and fight against the turbo on the exhaust side however for 2020 the thing that really interests me is that Honda has upgraded some bushings around the car they stiffen them it has lower friction ball joints which means that what they've done is improved the only thing about the typar that I didn't think needed any improving the suspension and steering so that means that now in our plus mode the car is even more precise listen I knew that there was suspension changes before I drove this car but I didn't think I was going to notice them I may be your mom only noticing them because I've been looking for them but in our plus mode the front end is heavier and there's less slack in when I deliver an input and when the front end makes a motion so here turn in and we go that's crazy it didn't need to be any better clipping puts it already absolutely dropped on other cars on our track last year and how it's even better it's not just the suspension changes in the bushings in the ball joints it's the dampers themselves now they can read the road and adapt ten times quicker so the ride is still very compliant in comfort mode but in our plus mode or plus AR mode body lien does not exist I have to back to back it to honestly say with the 2019 but I think I think it's actually a bit more compliant in our Plus moment but it hasn't sacrificed any dynamic capabilities but this also tells make me appreciate how much they've tuned out the talks there in the new one is you can feel it in this well those existing the new one on track if you really push it you can feel a little bit liftoff oversteer baby now the steering and we talk about electric steering reaction hydraulic steering racks and even though you can film or through the hydraulic rack it's important not to forget how much credit the new racks deserve in terms of accuracy and confidence and this doesn't have what the new one has in that sense but boys air blast Jesus and another thing changed for 2020 is this new weighted shifter and a new shift knob I'd like to say that I notice it being a lot different but I'd honestly no and it's not that much different to me a bit heftier but that's not really where my interest is it's in what they may have done to the car to make it faster around a track because that's where the type r really belongs I'm really excited to try it oh also new brakes two-piece rotors less unsprung mass more stopping power it didn't need that either because it's carry such a weapon if I was going to fault the Type R anywhere the only spot that I could fault it is where is where the ep-3 that James is in kind of picks up the pieces it's that no matter how well they tuned the engine or how well they design it there's still turbo lag when I can't look down 5,000 rpm there's the torque there's still lag that's the only downside to what is otherwise a perfect front-wheel-drive hot axe here's the funny thing the type are compared to other cars nowadays he's kind of the one that's a little bit of a stiffer experience it's there's more noise there's more harshness even though it's still pretty compliant I think if I had one I would actually put a taller sidewall tire on it to kind of soften the ride a little bit but compared to a Golf R it's much less livable which is funny because I am a feeling that between this car and the one that James is in this is the Rolls Royce of the day just listen to the VTEC again ready that's VTEC buongiorno VTEC car oh god I love old versus new and when we drive the old versus new sometimes we find that the character is lost when you go back or forth but these to us birds of a feather everything about his driving experience vibrations noises intake sounds driver involvement something we've lost in so many cars and it's so awesome to go back in time and see that this tie bar stayed true to its roots I need to drive the new one again but first we're gonna talk about styling Oh feel like I need a cigarette I don't even smoke okay this is a known entity yeah we shades of grey it's got new stuff sure this is not to me how is it to drive this is very very different I don't want to spoil it because you're about to drive it but it's very very different okay we talk about styling sure yeah because honestly neither of these are particularly good-looking cars no it's not the strong point it's not when we drove the r34 GTR that beautiful okay well even the r33 are think they're just all beautiful yeah this looks like a civic it looks like a Honda Fit this generation was called the bread fan generation was a bread EU p3 it's the van that delivered bread to people's doors that's the thing I think it's before our time we got a few aftermarket things we got the lip on the front the stock wheels have been switched out here the stock wheels are the white ones oh I like the white yeah somehow the white on white really works yeah it does it does work these are cool too though but yeah it's a civic it just looks like something's going on so the public eye back in the in the 2000 mm yeah it's like yeah it looks like a civic but they wait a second what's it's subtle yeah whereas oh you don't think that's subtle no with the boost blue I love the color yes the loudest type off stock I've ever seen ever well there's a yellow as well that might even be haven't seen it I just performance one yeah I'm looking forward to driving that visual it's still ridiculous they didn't go any lengths to toning it down the starting changes are just well this is this isn't even a styling change this is I had to change because they opened this up so that more air could get in because the engines overheated the track and as a result they had to redesign the front splitter and then these yeah it in the back there's a few thing like this is not a it's not a fake vent anymore and so that's still the three exhausted yeah I know us to be exhausted six feet six feet my friend sorry six feet okay and it has vents that are neither fake nor real oh yeah specific way this has one exhaust which is all you ever need it's all you need see I feel like with all that other stuff going on in the back and the stuff going on the back of you just kind of blended them together you'd have two great-looking cars yeah that's got some starting to go around it could share it could share it yeah like what's the British flag on the back of that though oh yeah so this is the JDM spec but I guess that's no mass to the fact that they sent the parts from Japan to England they put it together there and then they sent it back they had thing they had the English assemble it yeah nothing that's great yeah anyway the Japanese don't do that anymore no now that is having Germany billet interior yeah okay okay ready for a socially distanced interior reveal welcome the socially distance review you guys don't see it but off camera Thomas normally burps up the shwarma he had for lunch and just blows it against the closed window two out of courtesy I okay no I do that I'm not sure why it's just fun I can't all right let's just talk about the Type R interior really quickly because there's not much new here but it's good stuff it's good stuff so first of all Alcantara steering wheel which is I think it's nice it's not that it's something nicest Alcantara micro suede whatever a tenth of its branded Alcantara we have a new shift knob which is weighted and it's kind of like s2000 II I love the idea of it being weighted yellow that was missing in the last one you'll like it you will now as for the rest of the interior the only thing different other than these is the it's now Honda sensing a standard tada so the whole suite which is which is cool I feel like some people might not want that they maybe want some more reformed and stuff but honestly this is the perfect car to purchase to drive to the track enjoy at the track and drive home and having that like laying all the extra good it is yeah and so honestly that's probably a thing that I would be happy to have on a Honda Civic type-r and these seats these seats aren't new no but the best seats in the business they're so good they're honestly as comfortable as any seat in any luxury car I've ever been in yeah I love the prole stood there spacious the whole interior spacious it's not classy no it's not but it's it's well designed it's not offensive it's a bit offensive luggage to the sewage race and red pipe is however I don't really want to talk any more about this because it's an ona it's nice it works I don't care I want to talk about the old one can we go look at it yeah okay all right welcome to 2002 so funnily enough talking about the seats these are also red seats in the front black in the back right oh so they've kept that oh that's actually really these aren't as cushy or as comfortable but they all stock Recaros and they even have adjustable knee under thighs and advice yeah we got the Honda Momo steering wheel yeah I think it's cool it's retro you've got a gauge cluster that's easier to read than that one yes oh yeah definitely and in true Civic fashion we gots cupholders galore we've got one out here actually a similar design down here with the moving cup holder bucket interesting yeah like a kid's toy we type our logo yeah we've got the type our logo down here this is number 3317 if I'm not mistaken the other ones like 33,000 something exclusivity yeah there's some weird things going on here they're all different obviously the the was of the steering wheels on the other side of the car we can start with that that's not weird to me okay that's not weird this feels normal growing up in England yeah it still feels more normal absolutely I've spent more of my adult life I guess you said one time there oh really but because I learned on it this way one thing that is strange though is the shifter is up here on the console rather than down here and I feel like when it's down by my waist I can at least you know pretend it's my own up here it kind of has that vibe of just feeling like just like someone else's you know I mean yeah it's a bit weird you know the Abarth 500 that we drove is that yeah take some getting used to but the idea is it's very close to the steering wheel so it allows for quick shifts well it's got a manual handbrake it does have that doesn't does it yeah for that to the Honda have done that with the Accord manual as well and Volkswagen with the Golf R we complained about that in a recent video it's not okay yeah it's just not okay manual hand brakes should complement a manual shifter yes it feels normal it is more simple in here but in a cool way maybe today the simple can I can I Drive it now alright I get it I really do down in a second torque steer and eight and a half thousand rpm what a ridiculous experience the cool thing is is that there's a tonal quality to the four-cylinder that is in both of these cars I'm getting kind of the same high frantic from from this that you get even in the turbocharged new version this is just it's on crack that's insane so cool I get it I get it on to people I'm right there with you in the new type off it's so relaxed in here compared nothing's growing crazy the steering wheel vibrates when I want it to the shift knob bill steady I like the extra weight it's not massively different but it's actually the shape is a bigger difference it's more like the s2000 shape I find myself sigh gripping it just brilliant and keep in mind you know that was important about half that less than half the value of this meanwhile the GTR we drove the r34 was about the same price it's over a hundred grand like the new GTR so if you think that you're getting an old-school naturally aspirated high revving older brother of this for what is the equivalent of like ten to fifteen thousand dollars u.s. you still get that feeling of seeing inside history in the corners at night it doesn't feel this is on refreshed upgraded suspension it feels light that's the best part about it it feels light I just don't find the steering to be particularly impressive the new one is got some it's got some stuff right torque steer that's crazy this thing is so light 2,600 pounds doesn't weigh anything it's like one of my auto ways and that's kind of the core of one of these old tie bars that's why you would import one see one have find one rebuild one whatever you have to do because you're paying for that that frantic Honda experience the small size the sharpness the the aggressiveness that you get with one of these cars when you're getting it in it in an ultralight package so everything is more fun which one of these two cars would I have I told you the whole honestly I'm not sure I would buy a new tie bar for a daily personally so I would probably import one of these if I was going to get a tie bar James and I are actually thinking about importing a couple old cars ourselves have a couple guesses in the comments what you think they're gonna be I've always wanted to try one of these honestly it lived up to what I thought it was gonna be this is the easiest fast car to drive I've ever experienced and it's not like something like an empty competition or a Camaro zl1 you get to experience all of it on the road and that is worth something the type R is such a great part of JDM history culture modern-day history it still exists it exists in this form which is a brilliant form and yes it has a bunch of assists and now it has under sensing but you can turn all of them off so who cares if they're there if you can turn them off if we have the choice if that's the future of just it's just having a choice I'll take it out of the tune it's this one every time it's refined it's easy to drive it's fast it's fun and it feels properly safe and they hold their value pretty well but I echo Thomas's thoughts let's get the performance version on the track and see what it can do because what it can do on the road no other front-wheel drive car does this youit's so good fantastic I love it it does make me wonder though what it would be like to drive the old naturally aspirated high revving ones Oh like the ep-3 or the UK not yeah yeah if there is a way that we could like time-travel you don't mean like go back and actually drive an EP three for real I have a friend with an EP three really you know just cool win oh okay you're watching throttle house I'm Thomas and I'm James and this is the 2020 fk8 generation type R and this is a JDM ep-3e p3 signifying that it hit the scene in the early 2000s and as I said this one is straight from Japan which means something well first it means it was made in the UK and shipped to Japan but we'll get to that later more importantly it's the best version the envy of Europe and North America the more aggressive JDM type are retained its helical LSD from the previous gen and the red Recaro race seats but most significant of all it got the made in Japan but shipped to England 212 horsepower k20a VTEC engine and among some other differences it was made available in the championship white that we have here today now some people don't like the new type r that's only because they haven't driven one yet or they have and they're wrong or maybe they have eyes that work but looks aside its impact is undeniable and for 2020 they've upgraded it we'll go over all the changes in a minute and whether or not they even make a difference but I can tell you some things have been improved it now makes a louder in-cabin sound which is good even if it's fake although it would have been nice to have a lot of exhaust just saying and some things haven't been improved it still occasionally grinds second gear for no reason but the question is with all of its little improvements this year can it stack up to what is one of the all-time great hot hatches and a massive thanks to Chris Lopes who owns the EP 3 and if you want to follow his journey with it will link his channel below in the description if you're new to throttle house we do car reviews type tests and quite a lot of messages out so subscribe hit the belt we've driven the new one and we've tracked the new one except this one is naturally aspirated plane revving insanity but it still somehow all type are I'm an Englishman in a man-fast of hunch I'm not happy bunny what can I say about the Thai part other than kind of what I've said before you have to drive one of these just to understand how good it is this thing is an absolute weapon completely throw away everything you think you know about rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive and you have to understand that what makes a car good what makes a car feel exciting in a corner it's not which wheels are driven it's how the car is set up and the Thai part from factory set up so well you just turn into a corner in the front grips in a way that there's it just shouldn't be possible it's almost impossible to find a clean one of these imported from Japan in North America in fact by our count is probably less than ten in Canada and it's even harder to find its stock so this one actually has a few exhaust changes as you might be able to hear but it doesn't matter because it's all about that induction noise and when we get it up to a bell 6,000 rpm something punches in or is it kicks in oh yeah VTech you've probably already heard of it essentially it's a technology that switches cam profiles on the fly so that when you get to the high rpm it allows in more air which allows in more fuel which means more combustion but more importantly more power and it's not the same in every Honda engine with VTEC but I can tell you that in this one it kicks it there it is and again so in the high revs I have power I have noise I have excitement and in the low revs I have noise and excitement and just a bit more efficiency because this thing even at low speeds is nuts all over the place you cannot buy a car today that comes anywhere close to this level of chaos and franticness the type R and the velocity n are the closest you can get but unlike when we drove the Type R with the Mustang bullet and we said that the Type R just made life so easy and is so easy to drive this is actually quite difficult and when I say difficult I'm not just referring to the fact that there's no advanced electronic safety systems to get you out of a tight spot I mean that you have to be more accurate with your shifts more purposeful with your throttle input and well you have to do with a much louder cabin but all of that lends to the experience everything about this is driver focused the seats the steering even the shift knob is closer to the steering wheel so that I can shift with my hand only has to travel about three inches that's the number the Thomas is used to James's probably told you all about the VTEC in his car well this one has VTEC as well except it only has VTEC on the exhaust side since it's turbocharged it doesn't need the aggressive cam profile to fire air into the engine on the intake there's the turbocharger for that then it uses VTEC on the exhaust cam to quickly evacuate and fight against the turbo on the exhaust side however for 2020 the thing that really interests me is that Honda has upgraded some bushings around the car they stiffen them it has lower friction ball joints which means that what they've done is improved the only thing about the typar that I didn't think needed any improving the suspension and steering so that means that now in our plus mode the car is even more precise listen I knew that there was suspension changes before I drove this car but I didn't think I was going to notice them I may be your mom only noticing them because I've been looking for them but in our plus mode the front end is heavier and there's less slack in when I deliver an input and when the front end makes a motion so here turn in and we go that's crazy it didn't need to be any better clipping puts it already absolutely dropped on other cars on our track last year and how it's even better it's not just the suspension changes in the bushings in the ball joints it's the dampers themselves now they can read the road and adapt ten times quicker so the ride is still very compliant in comfort mode but in our plus mode or plus AR mode body lien does not exist I have to back to back it to honestly say with the 2019 but I think I think it's actually a bit more compliant in our Plus moment but it hasn't sacrificed any dynamic capabilities but this also tells make me appreciate how much they've tuned out the talks there in the new one is you can feel it in this well those existing the new one on track if you really push it you can feel a little bit liftoff oversteer baby now the steering and we talk about electric steering reaction hydraulic steering racks and even though you can film or through the hydraulic rack it's important not to forget how much credit the new racks deserve in terms of accuracy and confidence and this doesn't have what the new one has in that sense but boys air blast Jesus and another thing changed for 2020 is this new weighted shifter and a new shift knob I'd like to say that I notice it being a lot different but I'd honestly no and it's not that much different to me a bit heftier but that's not really where my interest is it's in what they may have done to the car to make it faster around a track because that's where the type r really belongs I'm really excited to try it oh also new brakes two-piece rotors less unsprung mass more stopping power it didn't need that either because it's carry such a weapon if I was going to fault the Type R anywhere the only spot that I could fault it is where is where the ep-3 that James is in kind of picks up the pieces it's that no matter how well they tuned the engine or how well they design it there's still turbo lag when I can't look down 5,000 rpm there's the torque there's still lag that's the only downside to what is otherwise a perfect front-wheel-drive hot axe here's the funny thing the type are compared to other cars nowadays he's kind of the one that's a little bit of a stiffer experience it's there's more noise there's more harshness even though it's still pretty compliant I think if I had one I would actually put a taller sidewall tire on it to kind of soften the ride a little bit but compared to a Golf R it's much less livable which is funny because I am a feeling that between this car and the one that James is in this is the Rolls Royce of the day just listen to the VTEC again ready that's VTEC buongiorno VTEC car oh god I love old versus new and when we drive the old versus new sometimes we find that the character is lost when you go back or forth but these to us birds of a feather everything about his driving experience vibrations noises intake sounds driver involvement something we've lost in so many cars and it's so awesome to go back in time and see that this tie bar stayed true to its roots I need to drive the new one again but first we're gonna talk about styling Oh feel like I need a cigarette I don't even smoke okay this is a known entity yeah we shades of grey it's got new stuff sure this is not to me how is it to drive this is very very different I don't want to spoil it because you're about to drive it but it's very very different okay we talk about styling sure yeah because honestly neither of these are particularly good-looking cars no it's not the strong point it's not when we drove the r34 GTR that beautiful okay well even the r33 are think they're just all beautiful yeah this looks like a civic it looks like a Honda Fit this generation was called the bread fan generation was a bread EU p3 it's the van that delivered bread to people's doors that's the thing I think it's before our time we got a few aftermarket things we got the lip on the front the stock wheels have been switched out here the stock wheels are the white ones oh I like the white yeah somehow the white on white really works yeah it does it does work these are cool too though but yeah it's a civic it just looks like something's going on so the public eye back in the in the 2000 mm yeah it's like yeah it looks like a civic but they wait a second what's it's subtle yeah whereas oh you don't think that's subtle no with the boost blue I love the color yes the loudest type off stock I've ever seen ever well there's a yellow as well that might even be haven't seen it I just performance one yeah I'm looking forward to driving that visual it's still ridiculous they didn't go any lengths to toning it down the starting changes are just well this is this isn't even a styling change this is I had to change because they opened this up so that more air could get in because the engines overheated the track and as a result they had to redesign the front splitter and then these yeah it in the back there's a few thing like this is not a it's not a fake vent anymore and so that's still the three exhausted yeah I know us to be exhausted six feet six feet my friend sorry six feet okay and it has vents that are neither fake nor real oh yeah specific way this has one exhaust which is all you ever need it's all you need see I feel like with all that other stuff going on in the back and the stuff going on the back of you just kind of blended them together you'd have two great-looking cars yeah that's got some starting to go around it could share it could share it yeah like what's the British flag on the back of that though oh yeah so this is the JDM spec but I guess that's no mass to the fact that they sent the parts from Japan to England they put it together there and then they sent it back they had thing they had the English assemble it yeah nothing that's great yeah anyway the Japanese don't do that anymore no now that is having Germany billet interior yeah okay okay ready for a socially distanced interior reveal welcome the socially distance review you guys don't see it but off camera Thomas normally burps up the shwarma he had for lunch and just blows it against the closed window two out of courtesy I okay no I do that I'm not sure why it's just fun I can't all right let's just talk about the Type R interior really quickly because there's not much new here but it's good stuff it's good stuff so first of all Alcantara steering wheel which is I think it's nice it's not that it's something nicest Alcantara micro suede whatever a tenth of its branded Alcantara we have a new shift knob which is weighted and it's kind of like s2000 II I love the idea of it being weighted yellow that was missing in the last one you'll like it you will now as for the rest of the interior the only thing different other than these is the it's now Honda sensing a standard tada so the whole suite which is which is cool I feel like some people might not want that they maybe want some more reformed and stuff but honestly this is the perfect car to purchase to drive to the track enjoy at the track and drive home and having that like laying all the extra good it is yeah and so honestly that's probably a thing that I would be happy to have on a Honda Civic type-r and these seats these seats aren't new no but the best seats in the business they're so good they're honestly as comfortable as any seat in any luxury car I've ever been in yeah I love the prole stood there spacious the whole interior spacious it's not classy no it's not but it's it's well designed it's not offensive it's a bit offensive luggage to the sewage race and red pipe is however I don't really want to talk any more about this because it's an ona it's nice it works I don't care I want to talk about the old one can we go look at it yeah okay all right welcome to 2002 so funnily enough talking about the seats these are also red seats in the front black in the back right oh so they've kept that oh that's actually really these aren't as cushy or as comfortable but they all stock Recaros and they even have adjustable knee under thighs and advice yeah we got the Honda Momo steering wheel yeah I think it's cool it's retro you've got a gauge cluster that's easier to read than that one yes oh yeah definitely and in true Civic fashion we gots cupholders galore we've got one out here actually a similar design down here with the moving cup holder bucket interesting yeah like a kid's toy we type our logo yeah we've got the type our logo down here this is number 3317 if I'm not mistaken the other ones like 33,000 something exclusivity yeah there's some weird things going on here they're all different obviously the the was of the steering wheels on the other side of the car we can start with that that's not weird to me okay that's not weird this feels normal growing up in England yeah it still feels more normal absolutely I've spent more of my adult life I guess you said one time there oh really but because I learned on it this way one thing that is strange though is the shifter is up here on the console rather than down here and I feel like when it's down by my waist I can at least you know pretend it's my own up here it kind of has that vibe of just feeling like just like someone else's you know I mean yeah it's a bit weird you know the Abarth 500 that we drove is that yeah take some getting used to but the idea is it's very close to the steering wheel so it allows for quick shifts well it's got a manual handbrake it does have that doesn't does it yeah for that to the Honda have done that with the Accord manual as well and Volkswagen with the Golf R we complained about that in a recent video it's not okay yeah it's just not okay manual hand brakes should complement a manual shifter yes it feels normal it is more simple in here but in a cool way maybe today the simple can I can I Drive it now alright I get it I really do down in a second torque steer and eight and a half thousand rpm what a ridiculous experience the cool thing is is that there's a tonal quality to the four-cylinder that is in both of these cars I'm getting kind of the same high frantic from from this that you get even in the turbocharged new version this is just it's on crack that's insane so cool I get it I get it on to people I'm right there with you in the new type off it's so relaxed in here compared nothing's growing crazy the steering wheel vibrates when I want it to the shift knob bill steady I like the extra weight it's not massively different but it's actually the shape is a bigger difference it's more like the s2000 shape I find myself sigh gripping it just brilliant and keep in mind you know that was important about half that less than half the value of this meanwhile the GTR we drove the r34 was about the same price it's over a hundred grand like the new GTR so if you think that you're getting an old-school naturally aspirated high revving older brother of this for what is the equivalent of like ten to fifteen thousand dollars u.s. you still get that feeling of seeing inside history in the corners at night it doesn't feel this is on refreshed upgraded suspension it feels light that's the best part about it it feels light I just don't find the steering to be particularly impressive the new one is got some it's got some stuff right torque steer that's crazy this thing is so light 2,600 pounds doesn't weigh anything it's like one of my auto ways and that's kind of the core of one of these old tie bars that's why you would import one see one have find one rebuild one whatever you have to do because you're paying for that that frantic Honda experience the small size the sharpness the the aggressiveness that you get with one of these cars when you're getting it in it in an ultralight package so everything is more fun which one of these two cars would I have I told you the whole honestly I'm not sure I would buy a new tie bar for a daily personally so I would probably import one of these if I was going to get a tie bar James and I are actually thinking about importing a couple old cars ourselves have a couple guesses in the comments what you think they're gonna be I've always wanted to try one of these honestly it lived up to what I thought it was gonna be this is the easiest fast car to drive I've ever experienced and it's not like something like an empty competition or a Camaro zl1 you get to experience all of it on the road and that is worth something the type R is such a great part of JDM history culture modern-day history it still exists it exists in this form which is a brilliant form and yes it has a bunch of assists and now it has under sensing but you can turn all of them off so who cares if they're there if you can turn them off if we have the choice if that's the future of just it's just having a choice I'll take it out of the tune it's this one every time it's refined it's easy to drive it's fast it's fun and it feels properly safe and they hold their value pretty well but I echo Thomas's thoughts let's get the performance version on the track and see what it can do because what it can do on the road no other front-wheel drive car does this you\n"