Stumbling upon a gold mine : The Honda City Type Z VTEC

Twin exhausts. Rear wing. Independent suspension. Low stance. Flowing lines.
I cannot recall many cars that have been performance cars disguised under a family car image in the Indian market. Maybe because such a segment never had many takers. Honda probably supplied the TypeZ Honda City with the aim of creating its own audience. Little did they know they’d create a cult instead. The car in picture is a childhood hero of mine. It is not a new car that could be written trash about to make sales plummet. Barring the occasional sighting in rally tracks and tuners’ garages, most people don’t have a clue as to why this is a gem of a performance machine. Hence this isn’t a review or even a first drive experience. This is a token of appreciation to the enthusiasts who take the pain to own and maintain the car. A love letter to the engineering honesty of a bygone era.

The 5 year old in me beams with pride to have bought this car as a scale model 15 years ago. It’s funny to think that I walked out of a toy store with that scale model, holding my dad’s hand the same year that someone took delivery of this particular car. The Type Z (along with the Mitsubishi Lancer) probably fired up my interest in JDM cars as a whole. And like the DevilZ in Wangan Midnight, I believed this one possessed a soul, that the car searched for a driver, upon whose hands it would unleash it’s true potential. I believed the connection between these two would extend more than names ending with Z. The Type Z Honda City had a mystic presence in my mind. I was searching for one with the sort of thirst that could only be quenched by hammering the throttle down with my left hand on the gear knob waiting for the next shift, popping the clutch, nailing that shift and getting back hard on the throttle. It is really dangerous walking up to the driver’s seat of a car with these expectations. If it doesn’t perform as well as it does inside your head, your day is most likely ruined.

Though I was open to any possible means I’d have to own one, I probably reckoned in the back of my mind that it was a dream I should chase for a little longer. At this point, when someone so close to me as Dr.Afsal made the decision to buy one, and not just any Type Z, but the best one I’d seen in my time, my dreams had newfound hope. The car we were looking at was fully restored for personal use by Mr. Kurian Kuriankal of Auto Track and tastefully so. He had painstakingly restored everything back to period correct factory specifications. He dismantled the whole car piece by piece and repainted every single body panel in a light shade of Nardo Grey, added side skirts, a gear lever boot from Bride, a knob from Momo. That was all that was different from how the car rolled out of the factory 15 years ago. The mechanical components were left bone stock, which meant a lot to me because this specific car wasn’t supposed to be messed with. This was holy. All the things that were already done in the car was a respectable build though.

But why buy a car like this?

As far as I knew, this wasn’t about putting some money down and driving out with a car. This was a long lost dream coming to life. Things like practicality, reliability, economy or comfort and all other things you can put on a balance sheet were shot out of the exhaust pipe and drowned in the sound of an engine happily revving up to 7k rpm. The things that make you smile cannot be measured on paper. You just know that these feelings exist. Open roads, fast cars and just a dose of good ol’ bravery can dial the fun factor up to eleven.

There is something about seeing interior design of a bygone era - the simplicity, the raw functionality, the absence of marketing gimmicks like huge touchscreen infotainment systems, fancy 4 zone climate control, massaging seats, blah blah blah. Just few functional components in the right places. Things you use every day, and things that keep your life as a driver uncluttered and simple. I assure you that a well restored interior in an older car will stir up emotions in you that no new interior can. It is like the perfect sandwich - simple, nutritious, and economical, while a new car interior is an extravagant 3 course meal - it’s expensive and you won’t touch half the stuff on it. What would you rather have for lunch every day?

So what makes the TypeZ so fearfully attractive?

The first thing you notice about the TypeZ is just how low it sits. Made at a time when ergonomics hadn’t poked its nose into everything, it was possible to build a family car sitting this low. This reflects in the interiors too as you see the whole dashboard sitting pretty low. Combined with a huge windshield, thin A pillars and huge windows, this gives you a field of view that lets you appreciate every bit of the road. But the biggest advantage of having a car that sits low isn’t this view, it is the reduced load transfer between wheels during cornering. This gives you more grip, and in a front wheel drive, more traction. If the suspension setup is optimized, this condition gives the car a lot of potential. And it isn’t something that can be modified much unlike spring stiffness, damping, anti-roll bars, brakes or tires – things that can always be swapped for better performance parts. This low center of gravity, combined with a sub 1 ton weight makes the TypeZ a gem to hold on to. But the things that make TypeZ special do not end there. A gem of an engine sits under the hood powering the front wheels via a 5 speed gearbox with rather tall ratios. Producing 115bhp and 135Nm of torque and happily revving up to 7200 rpm, it is quite powerful for the sub 1 ton weight. The effect of VTEC is quite pronounced in the engine response as well as the sound. The response of a naturally aspirated engine along with the good handling and a rigid chassis based on the Gen 6 Civic make the TypeZ punch well above its weight. It is interesting to note how the car feels more at home when it is driven hard and the feedback is something that has been missing in the automotive industry for a long while now.

It reminds you of a simpler time when cars and drivers talked to each other in the same language. A language of vibrations, sounds and smells. Nowadays you have sensors and other electronic nannies standing between you and the car as translators and you don’t get to talk like before. What is missing is the sort of feeling you get when you click with a person and they take you to another world. I’ve driven the TypeZ in narrow backroads, highways and city roads. She feels at home in the highways and the twisty backroads, where she lets her hair loose, for the wind to caress it. She runs like the wind and growls like an animal, builds your confidence to step up pace and reminds you to come back as a better driver the next time you drive her. The TypeZ doesn’t leave your thoughts the whole day, making you think of the next time you get to drive it. As far as I know this is a car I would happily lose my sleep for, in an effort to build it and improve on it. It shows enormous potential in the fact that it is a naturally aspirated engine, so the addition of a turbo is a huge upgrade in power. The low weight and the good handling leaves room for an improvement in that area too. If built properly this car is enough to rule the roads. But properly building a car is a financially and emotionally draining experience, but seeing this I would rather spend my money on this. Numerous cups of coffee to stay awake at night building this also feels worth it.

Also happened to clock a 0-100kmph run in 9.51 seconds as opposed to the factory claimed 9.7 seconds. Rather than believing I did the run better than the factory test driver I like to believe that this car has a spirit that makes it faster than the rest of the same model. A presence that invokes fear on the highway at night. An undisputed king of the road. A Type Z. Akuma no Zetto!

All text and photos by Afraz Ashik.