Impetus: Honda announces the next Civic Type-R(RRRRRRRRRRRR) will be released globally, meaning the United States will finally get the Civic Type-R for the first time.
Too bad it looks like Kermit the Frog was abducted by Storm Troopers, and enough scientific engineering were done to successfully mate a puppet with the general look of a suit of armor, resulting in this lime green turd.
Seriously, when I saw this picture of the new Civic Type-R, the first one that would be available in the United States, this is the first thing that popped into my head:
I honestly thought automotive aesthetics were evolving into something going in a direction different from the boy-racer times, but clearly Honda not only doesn’t want to “upscale” themselves any further, and instead wants to double down and go apeshit with the futuristic lime green pocket rocket.
It’s not even just Honda either, frankly I don’t understand the aesthetics of most of the cars that are being unveiled at the New York Auto Show currently. They all look like these weird spaceships to some capacity in my opinion, and the frightening thing is that the word “concept” isn’t appearing nearly as much as I’d be comfortable seeing, for what’s being promised to be released for general consumers in the near future.
But really, the Civic Type-R looking like this Fast and Furious wet dream was really surprising to me. After the flop of the general 7th-generation Civic design, I thought the 8th-generation was pretty nice, despite the fact that I wasn’t fan of the interior aesthetics (especially the speedometer), but for the most part, I thought they were headed in the right direction.
Maybe this is all just a sign that I’m growing up, and I just don’t see the appeal in something like this. Ultimately, as much as it pains me to admit it, I might just be aging myself out of the target demographic that would be into Civic Type-Rs in the first place. After all, back when the Civic Type-R looked like this:
I was actually a fan of it. I admired that at first glance, it was the typical general look of the 6th-generation Civic EK9 chassis, but underneath the hood and body were high-performance equipment, and a motor that was substantially higher-performing than any of the baser-models of the Civic.
However, now that it’s going to look like this:
I’m just kind of like, what the fuck? Perhaps it’s the lime green color, and that if it were perhaps like Impreza blue, or even like a typical gunmetal-like gray, or just plain black, I’d find it more appealing. This is something that I could put to the test using Photoshop, but that would require vastly more effort than I’m willing to expend, when I could instead barf words about it on my brog.
But yeah, I think this is one of those inevitable signs that I’m growing up, maybe. Long gone are the days in which I wanted supercars with turbos and custom paint jobs. The notion of getting a Nissan 240SX and turning it into a Sil-Eighty are fading too, given the fact that the Fast and Furious and Initial D fandoms have made finding such cars in a stock condition are becoming a massive rarity too.
Cars are becoming more of a means to an end as much as they used to be a genuine interest. Get me good gas mileage, low-maintenance, good throttle response and a manual transmission, and I’m pretty alright. I don’t need a turbocharged Civic Type-R to define me, much less gauge my worth.
Although on a parting thought, back when I was super into cars, admittedly I was a pretty staunch Honda supporter over Volkwagens, whenever the debate arose. Even despite VW’s general superiority in power output, the argument was often decided by Honda’s lower price point. But given what VW’s supposedly doing with the Golf, the Civic’s timeless European rival, I have to say that I’m very much in favor of the aesthetics there.
Too bad given the fact that it’s basically an Audi TT with a VW body, it’s going to cost as much as a low-end luxury vehicle, but with a kid’s aesthetic.
Growing old sucks.
