Its the best hot hatch money can buy(winkey smiley thing), not that Im biased, much.

As for the engine being the biggest disappointment. I have read the report before and I believe he said he didnt like having to rev it to get it to go(And it does go once above 6000rpm). Some people will hate having to rev a car, but if you like revving a car then its fun, fun, fun. You just have to adjust your driving to driving around above 6000rpm, which I didnt actually find all that difficult!

I have just re-read the article and it goes back to torque vs bhp arguement(of which I have a very limited understanding). When looking at torque figures they dont take into account gearing.

[Edited by CTR - 7/3/2002 2:39:05 PM]

...found this review on the PistonHeads site

http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests...p?storyId=4233

Some quotes
Always interesting to hear an alternative viewpoint ;) I'm sitting firmly on the fence with this, but I would be interested to hear what others think?

Is the Civic Type R as good as many people make it out to be? Or is it a case of Emperors New Clothes?

Its a good car period. What it isnt is the "best thing in the world" that some are labelling it! I'd swap mine for a 911 turbo in an instant.

"It's a well engineered shopping car with bolt on bits to excite spotty teenagers"

A bit harsh IMO. The "bits" actually do have function too!

"The Civic can be a surprisingly harsh environment though"

Yep, it is a type-r after all. Whilst nowhere near as extreme as an Integra type-R it does have a hard suspension that complains on rough roads, low profile tyres, and when your driving at the redline its flipping noisy! But give that a lot of sound deadening is missing to improve weight what does Ted expect?!

"My biggest disappointment was with the engine however"

Horses for courses. Because of the need to drive round over 5900rpm to be in the powerband you do have to cane it. It does however have a useful amount of torque from 2500 up so for road driving this is enough to make it "nippy" rather than fast. On the track (never dipping below 5500rpm) it could maybe do with a little more power, but it eats standard elises.
If you are used to a turbo torque monster it can take soem getting used to, but when driving on the road,i'm either a) wanting to get somewhere fast [so vtec zone it is] or b) wanting to get there whenever - so i dont need it to be the fastest thing on the road.

/slight aside I've not driven a Cooper S yet, but gut feeling is that for drivablility the Coop may be slightly the better road car, but the CTR the better track car /aside