Just lovely isn’t it? Winter sun caressing Snowdonia hillsides, a soft relief of highlights easing into shadow. Veils of mist in the valleys. Higher up, a crunchy dusting of snow, the foliage wearing a cutting iridescence of hoar frost. In short a perfect day to set off up a footpath, clear the mind and lift the spirits. Not so great for trying to tease out the dynamic differences between five brilliant cars whose abundant power meets slippy roads through the inadequate mediation of wide summer tyres. So for this morning we’ll enjoy the scenery and let the photography happen. The proper driving is for this afternoon and tomorrow, at lower altitudes. I can barely wait to squeeze open the throttles.
Reports of the hot hatch’s death have been exaggerated. The departure of Ford and Renault could easily have struck the species a mortal blow, but the new Civic Type R absolutely sticks to the genre’s rules: front-drive, manual, four-cylinder turbo. You always know that Honda’s Type R badge means a lot more than just a hatch given the once-over with little more than extra power and harder suspension. (Oh and red seatbelts, which we all know are worth a second a mile.) To list completely the depth and detail of engineering changes in an R versus a standard Civic would take until we’d all grown old. Let’s just call it honourably obsessive.
So any now, if you please.
