‘Honda grip’ needed on steering wheel

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 26

‘Honda grip’ needed on steering wheel

BEHIND the WHEEL with

Peter Greenslade

Of] all the Japanese carmakers, Honda reputedly devotes the most time, energy'and money to research and development. If such is the case, i,t is pertinent to ask why the latest Civics, like the first which appeared in 1972, still suffer from torque steer. After all, other Japanese car manufacturers seem to have overcome the problem of front-wheel-drive feedback through the steering column. Admittedly, the torque steer is not nearly so vicious as it was in some of the earlier Civics, but it is still sufficiently strong to excite comment. The pain a Civic’s torque steering characteristic could inflict was something that might have been suffered recently when I turned left out of my driveway on to a busy suburban road and started to accelerate to merge into the traffic stream before I had comSleted the turn. In less time ian .it takes to tell I found myself heading towards opposing traffic, for the lightly held steering wheel had whipped through my fingers as the front wheels straightened themselves up under acceleration. Actually, there was no drama, but such minor incidents tend to point towards the fact that Civic drivers should not allow themselves to be caught unawares and, in the interests of painless motoring, should maintain what I call a “Honda grip” on the steering wheel. The reason for maintaining this grip is stronger than ever now, because of the three-valves-per cylinder overhead camshaft cross-flow engine that features in the latest Civics. Frankly, I was not overly impressed with the 1.3-litre versions that power the

lesser Civics, nor with the 1.8-litre versions that Honda uses in its Accord range, but I must admit that the 1.5litre engine, as fitted in the two-door hatchback Civic Sport and the EX saloon, seems to pack quite a punch. This engine develops 63kW (84.5bhp) at 6000 rpm and in a car such as the 820 kg Civic S that provides quite sparkling performance. Apart from the 1.5-litre engine, the Civic S is, in essence, the same car as the 1.3-litre Civic two-door hatchback reviewed in this column quite recently. Some stripes, bold “Civic S” badging, attractive alloy wheels and a pop-up glass sun roof are the distinguishing features. As any died-in-the-wool enthusiast will tell you, cosmetic changes do not make a sports car, although judging by the numbers of striped and labelled contemporary Japanese cars on our roads, a sizeable section of the New Zealand motoring public continues to believe that some coloured sticky

tape can produce miracles of biblical proportions. For all that, the Civic S is a pleasant little car. It is the sort of car that may help to make a middle-aged woman feel 15 years younger and cause her spouse to remove his jacket, roll up his sleeves and loosen his tie. And that, I suppose is reason enough for cars such as the Civic S. Like the 1.3-litre LX hatchback, it carries four people in reasonable comfort, but if they were planning a week-end away from home, a change of underwear and a toilet bag apiece would just about overtax the luggage space. This is an extremely agile little car. The ride tends to be firm, but on tightcornered rural roads it is in its element, running as if on rails, provided one remembers to really steer it. It shrugs off hills, although to get the best out of the S, one must be prepared to use the gearbox, the shift action of which is very good indeed. The three-valves-per-cylinder engine is very tractable. In combination with a well-chosen set of five forward ratios, it displays a degree of flexibility not unlike that which was a characteristic of the big American car of yesteryear. In the city, it will putter along in fifth gear with not ■much more than lOOOrpm reading on the tachometer and still pull away smoothly, provided the accelerator is used with delicacy. At the other end of the scale, one is not conscious of lack of muscle when fifth is selected as the speedometer warns the driver, “This is going to cost you $lOO at least, if there’s a law man around the next bend in the road.”

Perhaps the day is not far off when we will exchange our meat and dairy produce for cars manufactured in Third World countries. At least, they would not go so fast as the most lowly of the Japanese cars, but, come to think of it, they may not be so economical, either. In the course of my few days with the Civic S, it averaged about 8.3 litres per 100 kilometres, which is about 34mpg. By today’s standards, that is not exceptional for a 1.5-litre car. However, apart from some city driving, most of the kilometres covered were hard ones out on mainly hilly open roads. I would expect the average Civic S driver to get at least 7 litres per 100 kilometres in the course of a year’s running. At present the Civic S sells for $16,790. Taking into account its limitations, the head of a family of four may well be advised to spend an extra $l9O to fit the gang into a 1.5 EX saloon. It feels roomier and has ample luggage accommodation and, from my brief experience with it on the racing circuit, it performs just as well. All the same, people will still keep falling over themselves in their rush to buy the Civic S. After all, there are still a lot of us who can be seduced by a bit of pizazz and perhaps there’s nothing wrong with that