geargrinder
Senior Member
- First Name
- Daniel
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2018
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 118
- Reaction score
- 77
- Location
- Long Beach, Ca
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 JCW GP
- Thread starter
- #1
New guy here Danny, just picked up a 18 Type R. One of my previous cars was a 17 Focus RS. I’ve had a lot of other cars, but I thought I’d give a comparison of both cars.
These are my first impressions granted, but I already find I like the Type R over the RS. The power of the Type R comes on right away, and continues to pour it on all the way to redline. This is the best factory tuning I’v ever seen. It’s perfect, no holes or flaws in the power delivery. On the other side of that coin, it’s super livable in bumper to bumper traffic. I’ve only got it to the triple digits speeds a few times, but it feels amazingly planted and poised. Best of all, the handling is... otherworldly, I pushed it way past where I thought it would lose traction, and it gripped like a leopard on a gazelle. Other things of note about the R; Seats are perfect. Brake feel is perfect, and very strong, I think it could put you through the windshield if you aren’t wearing your seatbelt. The clutch is smooth, not finicky at all. They type R’s three drive settings are all much different from each other, but very usable for what they are intended. The +R setting is like someone wound the rubber band all the way. Every thing about this car seems to have been considered, makes sense, and works. At first I wasn’t sure about the styling. I’d only seen it on the internets, and I couldn’t tell if it would be a civic with a cheap body kit, but then seeing it in person changed that. It doesn’t look cheap at all, all the vents, fins, dive planes, wing, etc all seem to have a purpose. The car looks good! I haven’t loved a car in a while, but I am really crushing on this one! So far I can’t find any flaws. Well, except for the price and longevity of the tires which are estimated to get only 10k miles at $305 each. It’s worth the grip though I’m sure, but I might be looking for an alternative. The other crazy thing, I’m getting 22 mpg! I haven’t had a car that mpg’s in a long time. I was averaging 16 mpg in the RS. To be fair, I am kind of braking the car in, so my mileage is sure to go down some.
A lot of this is in contrast to my experience with the Focus RS. There’s really no top end power, it runs out of steam after 5k rpm. It’s twitchy and scary at high speeds. Seriously, I rarely took it over 100 mph because I was afraid I would lose control of it. The RS was dangerous at high speed. Not too many cars scare me, that one did. Not in a good way. It was impossible in traffic because of the throttle tuning and touchy clutch engagement. If you didn’t let off the clutch just right you’d go bouncing ahead, or stall, or both. Also, the car itself will give more gas when letting off on the clutch causing you to go much faster than the slow traffic. It’s some anti-stall feature, but it’s a nightmare in bumper to bumper traffic.It sucked as a daily driver, way too finicky. The max drive setting was so absurdly stiff, it was completely useless. Even after the first day having that car I had a whole list of complaints about the it.
I should have got the Type R in the beginning, but I had lusted over the RS for so many years, I jumped on it the second it came out. The two cars have very similar performance numbers, just very different means of achieving it. I heard the best analogy, (I don’t know where this quote came from) “The Honda is a precision tool, whereas the Ford is a hammer!”.
These are my first impressions granted, but I already find I like the Type R over the RS. The power of the Type R comes on right away, and continues to pour it on all the way to redline. This is the best factory tuning I’v ever seen. It’s perfect, no holes or flaws in the power delivery. On the other side of that coin, it’s super livable in bumper to bumper traffic. I’ve only got it to the triple digits speeds a few times, but it feels amazingly planted and poised. Best of all, the handling is... otherworldly, I pushed it way past where I thought it would lose traction, and it gripped like a leopard on a gazelle. Other things of note about the R; Seats are perfect. Brake feel is perfect, and very strong, I think it could put you through the windshield if you aren’t wearing your seatbelt. The clutch is smooth, not finicky at all. They type R’s three drive settings are all much different from each other, but very usable for what they are intended. The +R setting is like someone wound the rubber band all the way. Every thing about this car seems to have been considered, makes sense, and works. At first I wasn’t sure about the styling. I’d only seen it on the internets, and I couldn’t tell if it would be a civic with a cheap body kit, but then seeing it in person changed that. It doesn’t look cheap at all, all the vents, fins, dive planes, wing, etc all seem to have a purpose. The car looks good! I haven’t loved a car in a while, but I am really crushing on this one! So far I can’t find any flaws. Well, except for the price and longevity of the tires which are estimated to get only 10k miles at $305 each. It’s worth the grip though I’m sure, but I might be looking for an alternative. The other crazy thing, I’m getting 22 mpg! I haven’t had a car that mpg’s in a long time. I was averaging 16 mpg in the RS. To be fair, I am kind of braking the car in, so my mileage is sure to go down some.
A lot of this is in contrast to my experience with the Focus RS. There’s really no top end power, it runs out of steam after 5k rpm. It’s twitchy and scary at high speeds. Seriously, I rarely took it over 100 mph because I was afraid I would lose control of it. The RS was dangerous at high speed. Not too many cars scare me, that one did. Not in a good way. It was impossible in traffic because of the throttle tuning and touchy clutch engagement. If you didn’t let off the clutch just right you’d go bouncing ahead, or stall, or both. Also, the car itself will give more gas when letting off on the clutch causing you to go much faster than the slow traffic. It’s some anti-stall feature, but it’s a nightmare in bumper to bumper traffic.It sucked as a daily driver, way too finicky. The max drive setting was so absurdly stiff, it was completely useless. Even after the first day having that car I had a whole list of complaints about the it.
I should have got the Type R in the beginning, but I had lusted over the RS for so many years, I jumped on it the second it came out. The two cars have very similar performance numbers, just very different means of achieving it. I heard the best analogy, (I don’t know where this quote came from) “The Honda is a precision tool, whereas the Ford is a hammer!”.
