Honda Accord Type R - A Type R For The Whole Family

When a Honda receives a Type R badge that means it reached it’s ultimate state.At that point a Honda is the lightest, the most powerful, the stiffest, the fastest, quite simply the BEST!So Honda decided in 1998 it’s time for the Accord to reach it’s ultimate state.This is a time when Honda were building the NSX, the Civic and Integra Type R, the Prelude, and the S2000, so of course they made a Type R Accord.

The Type R was almost 60 kgs lighter than other basic Accords, it received beautiful Recaro bucket seats, the iconic Momo steering wheel found in other Type Rs and a titanium gear knob.More importantly the double wishbone suspension was stiffer than ever, and the brakes where bigger.But the real party piece is under the bonnet.You may know the H22 dohc vtec engine from the Prelude, but here it produces 217hp at 7200RPM, thanks to new intake an exhaust manifolds, sequential fuel injection, low friction pistons, and a higher compression ratio (11:1).

But all that power would be useless if it wasn’t for that brilliant Torsen LSD sitting between those beautiful 5 spoke alloys.That diff keeps those front wheels kissing the ground at all times, turning the car in sharper than you could ever imagine.The gearbox is a typical Honda box, but the gears should have been shorter.Every time you shift up, it drops you out of the vtec zone, which leaves you in sweet anticipation of the vtec kick, but it isn’t quite good for acceleration.

As you can see from the picture above this Accord was a touring car as well, a good one.Honda had many successful races with it, so it has motorsport pedigree as well.I love everything about this car!I love it’s Type R bodykit, rims, that 8000RPM redline engine, the amazing Torsen LSD, the Recaros and the Momo steering wheel, the waay out of place rear wing and the fact that it is a HONDA ACCORD!The sad thing is though, it never really sold well…At the time a Honda showroom was filled with all these best of it’s class cars, the Accord had to fight for the attention it never really got.Today it is becoming a classic, there are very few low mileage good condition examples for sale.But still, the H22 engine can go on for ever so mileage isn’t a concern, but condition is.In Europe the cheapest one is about 5000 euros, and it isn’t in good condition.Prices will just keep rising for this Accord.

After that amazing Accord came the second gen ‘’Type R’’, I put that in quotations because the car you see above is called the Euro R.This Accord is stiffer, lighter, faster and better than all the other boring Accords.Inside you still got those wonderful Recaros and that Momo steering wheel.There was still an LSD up front, and a big wing in the back.And again the real party piece was under the bonnet.There was the legendary K20 vtec engine with 220hp, and a very high +8000 RPM redline.It sounds like this Accord is a true Type R, so why is it called a Euro R.Well, no one knows, it was never sold in europe or anywhere outside of the JDM.If it was just a regular Accord with a bodykit and some bigger rims that would be fine, but it isn’t.Europeans got a Type S, it had a 2.4 vtec engine with 190hp, but besides that it wasn’t a whole lot different than other Accords.

The next generation Accord just got the Type s, with the same engine as the previous one but with 202hp.Just like the previous Type S it wasn’t much different from other Accords.That was the end of the Accord Type R.I can sort of understand why the whole thing came to an end, there weren’t other budget performance saloons the ATR could compete with, and at that point Honda got rid of all Type R models except the Civic Type R.But today Honda is bringing back older models, like the NSX and S660, so maybe it’s time to bring back the Accord Type R.The current gen Accord is already available with the detuned engine from the Civic Type R, so why not just tweak it a bit and get the same 316hp you have in the Civic.It even has a couple of rivals like the upcoming Volvo S60 and the Opel Insignia GSI.I think a new Accord Type R would be awesome, what do you think about it?

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