Traveled Across the Country to Pick Up my Type R

[wowwitsgau]

Hey everyone! I'd been looking for a more useful vehicle to add to my stable since last October, and finally settled on the Type R after failing to find an Evo X that fit my requirements. After months of searching for a stock MR Touring with low miles, I started seriously looking at the Type R. As a Honda fan (I previously owned a 2009 FG2 and currently own a 2009 S2000), I was initially disappointed in the Type R when it was first announced. This was due to a multitude of reasons, including: lack of a high-revving NA motor, not being truly 'JDM', and having a FWD drivetrain. Because of this, I hadn't even considered the car when I settled on getting an Evo, but after months of searching I grew tired and started looking for other options. Another car I debated getting was the MKVII GTI, which sacrificed the AWD from the Evo for usability (hatchback, a definite plus). This is when I started considering the Type R, because it seemed to be a good compromise between the two cars - if I was willing to live with a turbo i4 and FWD, then why not the Type R? Plus, it was a Honda, a platform I'm familiar with. The downsides of the car slowly started becoming less important to me as I continued my research, and I quickly became obsessed with the car.

Over the course of a few weeks, I decided that this was the car for me. I then started the time-and-soul-consuming process of contacting dealers around Southern California, to disappointing results - every single dealer was asking at least a $5k markup, which I was absolutely not down for. Thus, I began widening my search, working eastwards with the goal of finding a dealership willing to let their Championship White car go for MSRP. This took a few weeks (including a heartbreaking exchange where a dealer promised me one but rescinded their offer afterwards), but I finally found Bob Rohrman Honda in Indiana and immediately placed a deposit and booked my flight.

The people I worked with were Kyle Denny (sales) and Bailey (finance manager), and they made the whole process smooth and painless, even arranging for someone to pick me up from IND airport! I honestly hate dealerships, and try to purchase used/private party whenever I can, but working with them was really a positive experience. Both of them (along with everyone else at that dealership) were great guys and I would recommend them to anyone in the area looking for a new Honda!

Since I had planned on driving the car from Indiana back to California, I decided to make a road trip out of it and brought my snowboard along with me. The first few days (Indiana -> Illinois -> Missouri -> Kansas) were pretty dull, but once I reached Colorado the real fun began. The windy mountainous drive on I-70 was absolutely heavenly, and the drivers there were awesome compared to those in California (people move out of the left lane unless they're passing, a midwest trend that I hope catches on here). I stopped by Arapahoe Basin but the snow wasn't that great this year, so I decided to hit up some national parks in Utah instead of more ski resorts. Arches/Bryce Canyon were amazing and I highly recommend visiting them if you haven't already! And without further ado, here are some pics from the trip:

Bonus: my track-only S2000 and soon-to-be-for-sale 675R

Oh, and PSA to everyone out there, the dealership forgot to remove the shipping blocks from the springs during the PDI... I've heard of this happening before so it's not a super rare occurrence but make sure that you have yours removed

 

[sublimecat]

Very cool, enjoy your car. Congrats

 

[360glitch]

Congrats! Cool pictures too.

 

[shihabp79]

Why does leaving the spring blocks in there keep happening? It's like there's a laziness pandemic going around Honda service departments with their PDI people.

Congrats on the new ride! Coming from a former ITR owner, you'll have just as much fun with the CTR. I don't know why people get so hyped up about the normally-aspirated engines. They were slow, had to be revved to the sky, had no torque. The magic was in the amazing chassis. the CTR is just a more complete package though I do miss the tossability of the Integra.

 

[wowwitsgau]

Why does leaving the spring blocks in there keep happening? It's like there's a laziness pandemic going around Honda service departments with their PDI people.

Congrats on the new ride! Coming from a former ITR owner, you'll have just as much fun with the CTR. I don't know why people get so hyped up about the normally-aspirated engines. They were slow, had to be revved to the sky, had no torque. The magic was in the amazing chassis. the CTR is just a more complete package though I do miss the tossability of the Integra.

Can't speak for others, but for me, a high revving NA engine represents the pinnacle of engineering vs taking the "easy way out" via FI. An engine like the F20c/F22c is harder to develop, is more responsive, and has more character than the K20c. The fact that you have to rev it is part of it's charm, and it's not like the K20c has power below 3k rpm's either

 

[typemismatch]

Congrats on the R!

I would never have thought to take mine anywhere near a place like A-Basin in the snow, mine sits in the garage for the winter, you're braver than me.

Thanks for sharing the pics, makes me think I should run out to western ND and get some pics in the painted hills.

 

[secretaznman]

Congrats! Awesome photos and S2K. I wish I still had mine.

 

[17CivicTypeR_Brian]

Awesome way to come about your car! Good times ahead!
Plan another road trip!

 

[ez12a]

Nice road trip and grats on the car! It already has some sentimental value to it now I'm sure.

 

[SBD47]

I'm surprised you didn't tell the dealer to kindly remove the huge dealership advertisement they installed on the back of your car. What makes these guys think we want their branding all over our new cars? Its getting ridiculous. Its funny that they had time to do that, but not PDI your car correctly. Nice pics! Thanks for sharing.

 

[wowwitsgau]

I'm surprised you didn't tell the dealer to kindly remove the huge dealership advertisement they installed on the back of your car. What makes these guys think we want their branding all over our new cars? Its getting ridiculous. Its funny that they had time to do that, but not PDI your car correctly. Nice pics! Thanks for sharing.

I figured I would do a better job of removing it; wouldn't trust them to not scratch up the car. Honestly it didn't bother me too much - was happy to do a little advertisement since I got the car for under MSRP

 

[SBD47]

I figured I would do a better job of removing it; wouldn't trust them to not scratch up the car. Honestly it didn't bother me too much - was happy to do a little advertisement since I got the car for under MSRP

True. I usually tell them I don’t want anything stuck to the car, but if they want to put a license plate frame on it, its ok. I figure that’s easy enough to remove later.

 

[DevilDoc8542]

Congratulations on the purchase of your new CTR. Beautiful pictures from the journey. Enjoy the new car, but both the CTR and S2K looks happy together.

 

[Meat Hammer]

Awesome odyssey back to Gougeafornia, do you recall any of your MPG's? I drove to back to CA after my R was broken in (2,000 miles) and Interstate-40 blessed me with a best average tank of 34 MPG cruising at 75 MPH between Albuquerque, NM and Winslow, AZ (mostly descending into the Great Basin). I also may have allegedly bid farewell to the Texas Panhandle with a pre-dawn blast up to 88% of Honda's reported terminal velocity.

 

[shihabp79]

Can't speak for others, but for me, a high revving NA engine represents the pinnacle of engineering vs taking the "easy way out" via FI. An engine like the F20c/F22c is harder to develop, is more responsive, and has more character than the K20c. The fact that you have to rev it is part of it's charm, and it's not like the K20c has power below 3k rpm's either

The FK2 and FK8 CTR's engine is way more complicated than the old n/a engines. Cam phasing for variable valve timing and lift is dead nuts simple for manufacturers after nearly 30 years. My least favorite part of my old Integra Type R is revving the piss out of it and still being relatively slow. And on the daily commute, I might as well have been driving a D-series engine out of a base Civic. The magic was in the chassis, suspension tuning and lightweight tossability. I miss that magic immensely with the CTR but I'm under no illusion that the B18C5 engine (or the F2x series in your example) in any way compares to the muscle, flexibility and engineering of the K20C1.

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