TYPE APPROVAL

Any Type R is good, but the Accord Type R is a real sweet spot, says Mark Pearson

- Mark Pearson

Keen drivers wanting a healthy bang for their buck have for years sought solace in Type R Hondas, whether through the pumped-up kicks of the Integra Type Rs or the tantalisingly agile Civic Type Rs, both of whose entertaining handling goes at least some way to making up for their occasional lack of subtlety and finesse.

If any of them can lay claim to being the sweet spot, though – the baby bear’s porridge in the history of the sporting Honda – it’s the Accord Type R, a four-door, five-seat thriller that combined terrific and immensely usable performance and real driving purity with a modicum of practicality and a hint of decorum and, dare one say it, even maturity.

Actually, it had it all, this car. Sparkling and unimpeachable VTEC engine? Check. Lowered and stiffened multi-link double-wishbone suspension? Check. Super-quick steering and 17in alloys? Check. Huge ventilated front discs? Check. Space for the family? Yup, got that covered too.

For starters, what you got under the bonnet was a gem of an engine, a hand-finished, naturally aspirated 209bhp 2.2-litre VTEC DOHC inline four known as the HA27 and derived from the engine in the contemporary Prelude. It produced its maximum power at a tingly and sonorous 7200rpm and would happily rev on to 8000rpm. Remember, this low-friction beauty was ushered out of Honda’s portals at just the time (1998) when the Japanese firm was right at the top of its deeply impressive engine-making game.