The Honda Civic that’s a bit too civic spirited
Great looks. Tick. Sporty exhausts. Tick. But Honda’s new Civic lacks a bit of the va-va-voom it promises
So what I didn’t mention last week was the bonus 24 hours I got to spend in Monaco courtesy of a very generous mate. Not that I saw any Formula 1 action – we flew in on Friday afternoon and I was back in a taxi on the way to Nice airport before qualifying began on Saturday.
Still worth it though. I love Monaco. It’s mad but at least it knows it’s mad. And actually, compared to the rest of the world at the moment, it’s looking increasingly sane.
Friday in Monaco is like no other Friday ahead of a grand prix.
Practice takes place on a Thursday, one day earlier than anywhere else – therefore Friday is declared mufti day for grown-ups.
The track is open to walk around, jog around, snog around – whatever takes your fancy.
Temporary bars are set up all around La Rascasse until the early hours.
If you didn’t know, one could easily be forgiven for refusing to believe all this mayhem was taking place on the very Tarmac where the most glamorous grand prix was about to be run.
If only the rest of F1 was a bit more like Monaco in attitude and accessibility, it would be so much better.
Often perceived as the most exclusive date on the F1 calendar, ironically it’s by far the most fan-friendly.
Before I move on, just one more snippet from my 2017 race-free Monte Carlo experience.
How about breakfast with a legend? All right, when I say breakfast ‘with’, what I actually mean is breakfast ‘next to’ a legend. Although as much as I may be exaggerating the geography of the situation, I am by no means exaggerating the guy’s status.
There are few people capable of reducing the otherwise highfalutin breakfast buffet crowd of The Fairmont Hotel to a collective hush but George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, is definitely one of them.
An attendee every year, Mr L always dresses exactly the same: faded jeans, belt, farmer-style checked shirt and white trainers. He always sits at the same table, always orders fried eggs, sunny side up, no toast. Always in and out in under 10 minutes. Always on his own. No one ever bothers him. One very, very cool dude.
And so to McLaren’s engine manufacturer, Honda, and this week’s review. The new Civic
‘HANDLES SO WELL YET IS PROFOUNDLY DISAPPOINTING’
is a very handsome car indeed. With its futuristic, audacious body styling and huge front grille, it makes you grin the instant you clap eyes on it. A Type R look-a-like that is in fact a five-door family car in disguise.
Inside it’s sporty but not sparse or stripped-down. Big, comfy seats and the now de rigueur flashes of carbon fibre to jazz up proceedings around the doors and dash. Oh and look, what’s this? A manual gearstick, along with that other of most-endangered species: a clutch pedal.
Upon main engine start, one is greeted with an elaborate graphic display on the main instrument cluster. Exciting. Engage clutch, select first gear then and let’s go. Immediately you can sense the car is extremely well-balanced, even at 10mph.
I picked it up from a parking bay and couldn’t wait to get cracking out on the motorway. To begin with, the 1.5-litre turbocharged motor seemed surprisingly mild, almost like it had signed up for a sponsored silence. Hmm.
Even on the dual carriageway things continued to be somewhat muted.
The sporty twin exhausts are obviously more about show than anything to do with go. And so continued this almost fraudulent aesthetic theme, during which I had to abort several attempted overtaking moves – the drivers of the vehicles I was intending to pass clearly not taking at all kindly to being overtaken by a shiny new wannabe from the Orient.
They simply tickled their acceler ators before shooting off into the distance. At which point, cue mirror, signal, manoeuvre, very red face and back into the middle lane.
There is undoubtedly 180hp of turbocharged Honda power in there somewhere but, for the life of me, I couldn’t find out where. It was only when I wound the revs up to 4,000rpm that this stunner began to feel anything like I first hoped it might.
But honestly, if one subtracts the woeful lack of power, this is a motor car that feels fantastic to drive. Point those wheels anywhere you like and they will obey instantly, effortlessly, joyously. You can literally feel how taut and rigid the chassis is.
It’s really quite bizarre for a car to handle so well yet be profoundly disappointing.
And it’s not as if you can point an accusatory finger at a lack of budget – €28,550 on the road, even with all the options included at no extra cost, is not at all cheap. That said, I still really liked the Civic. I just felt sorry for it. Similar to how I feel about F1 at the moment.