My white hot bitch...
Wooo nice!
Car's not bad either (predictable, but had to be done
)
Car's not bad either (predictable, but had to be done
)
are you hot air balloon spotting? lol.
Nice
Nice
I hope she didn't scratch the roof with her watch or whatever she is wearing on her wrist?
"Stop leaning on the car love!!" :lol: (lee evans is a leg_end)
"Stop leaning on the car love!!" :lol: (lee evans is a leg_end)
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- #5
She didn't scratch the roof but she's quite good at opening the door onto things though.
I'm glad you spotted the balloon, I was going to make the title include "with a big balloon" but thought it was taking it too far.
I'm glad you spotted the balloon, I was going to make the title include "with a big balloon" but thought it was taking it too far.
Very nice. I've had 3 Type Rs before my Trophy but sadly never the DC2.
So how is it to drive compared with the Trophy?
So how is it to drive compared with the Trophy?
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- #7
Very very different but similar in lots of important ways.
First of all it's much lower, the seating position is completely different, you sit in the car with your legs out flatter and your bum feels a lot closer to the road. This really affects the feel of the car.
The steering is full of feel, I didn't know what all this 'feel' stuff was about until I drove a friends Volvo and there wasn't any, because I learnt to drive in a Focus and my first car was a 205 so I took it for granted, but it's got incredible feel for a FWD car, on a par with the 205 definitely.
The gearchange is incredible, I've got the wrong gearknob on there at the moment (titanium one is in the post today) but it feels so direct and notchy, like I imagine a racing gearbox to feel. The pedals also have longer travel than the Trophy, the accelerator is bottomless!
The ride is pretty good, I'd say the car rolls a bit more than the Trophy although you get thrown about less, sounds weird I know but I think it's because your roll centre is lower. It doesn't crash over potholes/speedhumps as much so I think it must be softer (the dampers have seen 70K miles so this might contribute).
The interior is very different, apart from rear headroom it's got a lot more space inside, the cabin is from 1993 apparently so it does look dated but I quite like this old-school feel (the orange LED clock is my favourite) Mod-cons are at a bare minimum. It has no air-con. Strangely though, the speakers are much better then the Trophy's standard items and don't crackle even when quite loud. The seats are great, upholstered in real Alcantara with Nylon seat bases, they are slightly deeper and narrower than the Trendlines (a really tight fit). I think on long journeys the Trendlines are more comfortable. The view all around is nowhere near as good as the Trophy's even though the pillars are thinner because you're quite low down and the fucking great spoiler cuts the rear view in half!
Handling is incredible, I'm just discovering it's limits/abilities at the moment but it feels very balanced and stable, the LSD is one of the most prominent features of the cornering, you can really feel it working, tighten your line mid corner and it just obeys, squeaking one tyre momentarily then just cutting a tighter radius, it's a great feeling and means the back comes in to play more readily as you can balance the attitude on the throttle with all four wheels on the ground. You can even drift it around roundabouts, quite strange! You also notice the increased downforce at higher speeds, it seems to corner even better over 60mph. It doesn't have that Trophy chuckability even though the turn-in is precise and immediate, I can't explain why it's just a different sort of car.
The engine is the centerpiece of the car, I think. Honda built a cracking engine and decided it needed to come up with a chassis worthy of it. It's hard to believe that it's a silly little 1.8 sometimes. I'd say at low engine speeds you can tell that it's not got a huge amount of torque, it still feels tractable and rarely gutless, but if you're used to force induction cars you'd probably guess it had 130bhp below the VTEC point (which I think it does!) Once you learn how to drive it as intended and keep it on the boil it's an incredible, intense experience. The noise is awe-inspiring, you can't go through a tunnel without opening the window, dropping 2 cogs and mashing the throttle round to 8400rpm, it sounds like a cross between a motorbike and an F1 car. The VTEC kicks in at around 5800 revs and feels similar to the 5K kick in the 182 although it stays with you to the limiter rather than for about 500 revs! It is so fun and so addictive, you spend the first week not giving a shit about the cornering and feel of the car, you just want to punch it through the VTEC zone on any straight longer than 3 car lengths. Above 6000 rpm it feels like it's good for every one of it's 187bhp. Apparently standard cars never see less than 190 on the dyno, Honda are conservative with their output figures unlike most manufacturers.
I'd say compared to the Trophy, it has areas where it is clearly better engineered and thought about but lacking the immediate fun and Jekyll and Hyde character. The Trophy is a sleeper car compared, I can't drive anywhere now without people looking at the car whereas before I had complete anonymity, the Trophy was much easier to drive slowly (and quickly) and felt like you could tear around in it in complete safety and without people disapproving. You wring the Integra's neck over some B-Roads and you expect to see a Police helicopter appear at any moment.
As with comparing the performance, I don't see the point, with the average driver on an average road there would be nothing to seperate the two. I doubt there would be much difference on track either even though they would feel very different to drive. The brakes are awesome on the Teg and it doesn't jink around under hard braking, just stops dead straight and flat. I think after the novelty wears off I will be having as much fun as I was in the Trophy, just slightly more in some areas, slightly less in others.
I will always miss the Trophy, I think as a package and for the price (The Integra was £23K in 2000) there is nothing to touch it. It does everything so well and with so little fuss, it just makes expensive 'sports' cars that have a 50/50 weight distribution, RWD, High Tech active all wheel somethingorother and 300bhp just seem a bit, well...silly. You can't ever take people by surprise in the Teg, they expect you to be faster, I will sorely miss that expression of a guy in his 'Sporty' BMW who's just had his arse kicked by a shopping trolley.
First of all it's much lower, the seating position is completely different, you sit in the car with your legs out flatter and your bum feels a lot closer to the road. This really affects the feel of the car.
The steering is full of feel, I didn't know what all this 'feel' stuff was about until I drove a friends Volvo and there wasn't any, because I learnt to drive in a Focus and my first car was a 205 so I took it for granted, but it's got incredible feel for a FWD car, on a par with the 205 definitely.
The gearchange is incredible, I've got the wrong gearknob on there at the moment (titanium one is in the post today) but it feels so direct and notchy, like I imagine a racing gearbox to feel. The pedals also have longer travel than the Trophy, the accelerator is bottomless!
The ride is pretty good, I'd say the car rolls a bit more than the Trophy although you get thrown about less, sounds weird I know but I think it's because your roll centre is lower. It doesn't crash over potholes/speedhumps as much so I think it must be softer (the dampers have seen 70K miles so this might contribute).
The interior is very different, apart from rear headroom it's got a lot more space inside, the cabin is from 1993 apparently so it does look dated but I quite like this old-school feel (the orange LED clock is my favourite) Mod-cons are at a bare minimum. It has no air-con. Strangely though, the speakers are much better then the Trophy's standard items and don't crackle even when quite loud. The seats are great, upholstered in real Alcantara with Nylon seat bases, they are slightly deeper and narrower than the Trendlines (a really tight fit). I think on long journeys the Trendlines are more comfortable. The view all around is nowhere near as good as the Trophy's even though the pillars are thinner because you're quite low down and the fucking great spoiler cuts the rear view in half!
Handling is incredible, I'm just discovering it's limits/abilities at the moment but it feels very balanced and stable, the LSD is one of the most prominent features of the cornering, you can really feel it working, tighten your line mid corner and it just obeys, squeaking one tyre momentarily then just cutting a tighter radius, it's a great feeling and means the back comes in to play more readily as you can balance the attitude on the throttle with all four wheels on the ground. You can even drift it around roundabouts, quite strange! You also notice the increased downforce at higher speeds, it seems to corner even better over 60mph. It doesn't have that Trophy chuckability even though the turn-in is precise and immediate, I can't explain why it's just a different sort of car.
The engine is the centerpiece of the car, I think. Honda built a cracking engine and decided it needed to come up with a chassis worthy of it. It's hard to believe that it's a silly little 1.8 sometimes. I'd say at low engine speeds you can tell that it's not got a huge amount of torque, it still feels tractable and rarely gutless, but if you're used to force induction cars you'd probably guess it had 130bhp below the VTEC point (which I think it does!) Once you learn how to drive it as intended and keep it on the boil it's an incredible, intense experience. The noise is awe-inspiring, you can't go through a tunnel without opening the window, dropping 2 cogs and mashing the throttle round to 8400rpm, it sounds like a cross between a motorbike and an F1 car. The VTEC kicks in at around 5800 revs and feels similar to the 5K kick in the 182 although it stays with you to the limiter rather than for about 500 revs! It is so fun and so addictive, you spend the first week not giving a shit about the cornering and feel of the car, you just want to punch it through the VTEC zone on any straight longer than 3 car lengths. Above 6000 rpm it feels like it's good for every one of it's 187bhp. Apparently standard cars never see less than 190 on the dyno, Honda are conservative with their output figures unlike most manufacturers.
I'd say compared to the Trophy, it has areas where it is clearly better engineered and thought about but lacking the immediate fun and Jekyll and Hyde character. The Trophy is a sleeper car compared, I can't drive anywhere now without people looking at the car whereas before I had complete anonymity, the Trophy was much easier to drive slowly (and quickly) and felt like you could tear around in it in complete safety and without people disapproving. You wring the Integra's neck over some B-Roads and you expect to see a Police helicopter appear at any moment.
As with comparing the performance, I don't see the point, with the average driver on an average road there would be nothing to seperate the two. I doubt there would be much difference on track either even though they would feel very different to drive. The brakes are awesome on the Teg and it doesn't jink around under hard braking, just stops dead straight and flat. I think after the novelty wears off I will be having as much fun as I was in the Trophy, just slightly more in some areas, slightly less in others.
I will always miss the Trophy, I think as a package and for the price (The Integra was £23K in 2000) there is nothing to touch it. It does everything so well and with so little fuss, it just makes expensive 'sports' cars that have a 50/50 weight distribution, RWD, High Tech active all wheel somethingorother and 300bhp just seem a bit, well...silly. You can't ever take people by surprise in the Teg, they expect you to be faster, I will sorely miss that expression of a guy in his 'Sporty' BMW who's just had his arse kicked by a shopping trolley.
good comparison, I thought it was about right for what i'd expect.
From what i've read in this months Evo the new JDM Civic is an updated version, ok it's larger, 4 doors but is more in the DC2's image than the current Civic Type R.
I'd love one for a test drive, not sure if i'd give the 997 dream for one though.
From what i've read in this months Evo the new JDM Civic is an updated version, ok it's larger, 4 doors but is more in the DC2's image than the current Civic Type R.
I'd love one for a test drive, not sure if i'd give the 997 dream for one though.
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Good post Steve, glad to hear you got the gearknob sorted too - where did you end up getting it from?
Great post Steve. Looks like you're enjoying the road up to the Dyke as well! Have you swapped the exhaust's over yet or are you now too deaf to notice it?!
- Thread starter
- #12
Standard backbox is getting fitted this Saturday, I was going to do it myself but it looks to be quite a pain and I need a new gasket. I've actually got used to the noise now and don't mind it, it's going to seem very quiet after it's gone, it sounds so good at high revs, it's just the low bassy droan is not so good on the motorway at around 4000rpm.
I love that road chief! When I get bored and just want to go for a quick strop it's ideal.
Gearknob was from Andy (Integrastella on itr-dc2), £45 delivered. They are £140 from Honda so it's pretty good value. It arrives tomorrow.
Getting a TOAD Ai606 alarm fitted on Thursday as the insurance company require that an alarm is fitted and I thought I might as well get a good one. There are options like remote engine start and door and boot pop, so you can start the engine from the bedroom window to let the oil warm through and even open the door remotely. I actually loved the fact that it had no alarm, after all the hassle the Clio one gave me, but I don't want the car wandering off so it's all good.
I love that road chief! When I get bored and just want to go for a quick strop it's ideal.
Gearknob was from Andy (Integrastella on itr-dc2), £45 delivered. They are £140 from Honda so it's pretty good value. It arrives tomorrow.
Getting a TOAD Ai606 alarm fitted on Thursday as the insurance company require that an alarm is fitted and I thought I might as well get a good one. There are options like remote engine start and door and boot pop, so you can start the engine from the bedroom window to let the oil warm through and even open the door remotely. I actually loved the fact that it had no alarm, after all the hassle the Clio one gave me, but I don't want the car wandering off so it's all good.
:!: :idea:
What a great feature! I want it!
- Thread starter
- #14
Well, I didn't go for the extra options as the Frugal Fairy beat the Spend Sprite into a pulp while the alarm guy was showing me the options. Anyway the alarm is great, I had the OE exhaust fitted and had all day to clean the car within an inch of it's life so I took some pics. I also managed to remove the red paint applied to the front Integra moulding and polish out some road tar marks so it's looking pretty good for a seven year old. I also decided to clean the cam cover as they made such a good effort in crackle painting it.
I'm also learning how to drive the thing, and had a nasty oversteer moment whilst showing off in town earlier (driving like a complete penis more accurately). My girlfirend practically disowned me and as I've just got her insured on it, it looks like she'll be driving when it's both of us from now on. So next on the agenda is new rear tyres as they're a bit thin compared with the new fronts and the grip balance isn't as intended, in the car's defence I was trail braking and it was quite easy and intuitive to correct with an armful of opposite lock. The reason I'm saying all this is the Trophy would have laughed at such an entry speed and poor driving and just scurried around unabated. God knows how many times it must have saved my life.
I'm also learning how to drive the thing, and had a nasty oversteer moment whilst showing off in town earlier (driving like a complete penis more accurately). My girlfirend practically disowned me and as I've just got her insured on it, it looks like she'll be driving when it's both of us from now on. So next on the agenda is new rear tyres as they're a bit thin compared with the new fronts and the grip balance isn't as intended, in the car's defence I was trail braking and it was quite easy and intuitive to correct with an armful of opposite lock. The reason I'm saying all this is the Trophy would have laughed at such an entry speed and poor driving and just scurried around unabated. God knows how many times it must have saved my life.
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Great post Steve, I'll get you round to drive other cars and write up on them! Pleased the alloy gearknob came at a sensible price. I buy a lot off DC5 forum, what would we do without them!
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- #16
