Decisions, Decisions

Okay, since I’m now living in another country and without a set of wheels, of course I’m going to need something soon - well, I don’t really need a car, more of the fact that I need to sate my inner thirst for a Japanese vehicle and I hate using my legs for transport unless I absolutely have to.

For the last few days my thoughts have been wandering as to what I should buy over here in Malaysia and I’ve really been tossing up just about every option I have.

One thing I’ve seriously been considering is a Type-R Civic. Now for most, that may not sound like such a wierd choice, but for me it’s a little bit of a dilemma.

I’ve never owned a Honda before and although I know how reliable the little bastards can be, it’s a bit of a case of ’stick to what you know’ with me, especially considering I’ve not owned a front-driven car in my life.

At heart I guess you could say I’m a motoring purist; although I’m not the biggest fan of drifting my own cars - however I love watching it - to me there’s almost nothing better than pushing a good-ol’ FR car around a track, or stringing together a particularly good set of corners in one on an empty country road.

I have driven Civics before and I found them to be great to drive, though they always suffer from the latent understeer issues prevalent with most FF cars when you push them a bit. I dearly love the slight tail flick and bite-your-nails goodness you get when pushing a rear-driven car to its limit, and I can say that I never got the same feeling with anything like a Civic.

So, maybe as a daily driver, but I doubt it’s going to be something I’ll pour my heart, soul and a few thousand dollars - or ringgit - into. So I guess that’s the Civic out of the way.

So daydreamng aside, my serious mental battle is between two cars - or series of cars - that I’ve always had a whole lot of respect for. The first being the Mitsubishi Evo series, and the next being Nissan’s famous Silvia range, including of course the 180SX.

I’ve owned an SR20 powered car before - my last set of wheels being a 180 - and I can honestly say that it was probably the most memorable car I’ve owned. There is almost no limit to what can be done to an SR20, and the chassis the Silvia series is built on has got to be one of the greatest all-time sporting frames around. You could say when it comes to this choice, I’m already a bit biased towards a Silvia.

As for the Evo, the entire range has always been somewhat of a mental fantasy for quite some time now, especially since the inception of the Evolution VII. I know many Evo purists will say that the Evo VI was the best ever made, though to me there’s just something ruthlessly gorgeous about the bodyshape that started with the VII.

I have driven an eariler version - an Evo III - and I was impressed with the whole package, so I’d expect once I decide to take a VII for a spin I’ll be equally thrilled. The other great thing about owning an Evo is the fact that you can actually seat four or five people in the thing, unlike a 180 or Silva which require you to have legs the thickness of spaghetti if you want to sit in the back; not to mention the utterly insufferable amount of headroom you get in the back of a 180SX.

These are just a few of the pros and cons I’ve thrown around so far so far and I think I’m no closer to deciding what I should buy. I mean, I’ve even considered splashing out the cash for an NSX, and even though I could afford one at a pinch, I think with just a little cash spent under the hood I could have just as much fun in a 200SX or an Evo.

If you’ve got anything that might help my decision, please by all means help me out. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

- Leon.