UM4R3X

http://www.change.org/petitions/hond...-north-america

Sign this petition for a chance at bringing this car to America!

mikey1

id rather buy a real sports car

kinakoes2

+10 x 10^100^100

That proposal is waaaay too radical for us milquetoast and sue-y USDM buyers. Not to mention the insurance racket will pound the living besheezus out of us good drivers for the iniquities of the bro-ricers out there. No thanks... Euro only is what it's designed to satisfy... and there, there'll be money to be had and owners who'll appreciate them.

If it were going to be that radical and that expensive, why not have an S2000 successor? Even if it were turbocharged it'd still be more capable FR than FF like the Type-R. I'd love to have a used F22 S2K someday, or a Miata, for that matter.

When it comes down to it, though.. the answer is often Miata when it comes to smiles:mile.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

well, the Type R is... a monster! and pretty close to a race car.

some autoX classes, the older civic dominates the class.

GolNat

iTrader: (7)

A Type-R would be awesome in the states.

If they priced it right and kept it true to the euro model I could see a market for it. It would be an alternative to a Subaru or VW.

kinakoes2

I've read some industry blogs on this proposal, and mainly it's to showcase a complete package based on a WTC competitor, so it'll be hardcore... at least in the EU. In the States it'd have to be priced close to the coming Golf R and Scooby WRX STI... and still make money based the dollar buying almost 25% less content against the Euro. Europe has the advantage of buyers who can buy more content with their currency AND a guaranteed demographic who will actually buy the cars. Europe's enthusiasm for motorsports and sports cars is far beyond what passes for enthusiasm here, tbh...

I'd hate for the Type-R to get greenlit, then come here with a wheezy K24 to meet emissions standards in CA, VA, and NY. Even worse, to base it on our Civic Si... which would then not be their Type-R at all. That's a far more plausible scenario than trying to get the Euro model federalized, pass crash-testing (including the new IIHS small overlap test), then get sold to us at a price less than an A45 AMG... or STI... or Golf R... or CLA... or...

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

well, there was the Integra Type R

drhawkinz

the only "racing" Honda's that interest me are the ones with 2 wheels.

kinakoes2

Yeah I know. But that was from an Acura that Soichiro-san built... which is long dead.

Acuras back then were bigger, more powerful Hondas with better features... but also retaining the then-Honda spirit of performance technology (from F1) to make going fast and flying around corners with as little inconvenience to the customer as possible, just like the NSX was compared to the Ferraris and Porsches of its time. Enthusiasts here made a case for, and Honda responded to, a Type-R Integra for us... back then it still made business sense to indulge selling such a car, when gas was $0.80/gallon and nothing anyone else made even came close to what Honda was making for the money -- even the SW20 turbo MR2s, Miatas and twin-turbo Supras were conventional compared to pyramid-lattice plain bearings straight from the McLaren MP4/4, FF chassis with double-wishbones, and B16s that made 106 - 115 (!!!) hp/liter, more hp/liter than many motorcycles.

Now of course, Acura is a washed-up joke with no punchline.

Nothing Acura makes is anywhere near best in segment, through wishy-washy management and a clear lack of the laser-focus that the Chairman Emeritus had. Honda-san would be back to throwing cylinder heads at engineers and firing suits on sight like in his '60-'70s heyday, seeing his car and powersports businesses fall behind due to the black-hole money pit that is the Hondajet, plus spreading money far too thin at the cost of the product elsewhere. I hated life being a Honda moto tech in the early and mid Y2Ks, as all the legacy of the Old Man was disappearing, and fancy but trouble-prone and sloppily-engineered discount-bin crap was taking its place (original CBR600RR, CR-F450R, VTEC VFR800FI... embarrassing).

So no, not holding my breath for this new Type-R to suddenly turn all of that around... it's a much harder time to introduce a super-hi-po hatch, what with the Focus ST/RS, Golf R/R400, WRX/STI, A45 AMG, and the various Vauxhalls, Renaults and Citroens stuffing the segment like sardines in Europe... then there's the fed problem here, not to mention a Honda that's basically turned all of its investment to Asia and Europe. It's clearly evident in the hardware they sell us, that we're not the driving market anymore*, and we won't reward the investment that a true new Type-R would require.


* heck, today's idea of an Si, was to soup up a CR-V engine that now makes a whopping 83-85 hp/liter... uh, is this still a Honda? Or did a Toyota engineer infiltrate their engineering pool -- wasn't the EM1 Si's B16A2 making a nice round 100 hp/liter back in Y2K? Weaksauce.