In May of 2024, I wanted to buy a new Honda Civic Type R, and the Local dealers here in WA wanted 5-10K over list price. I preferred therefore to shop out-of-state for a car at list price, and eventually found a dealer that had the color I wanted, located in Columbia OH that were willing to sell the car at $500 over. Many thanks to Blake Wagoner at Columbia Honda on making things super easy to acquire the new Type R and working with my shipper to get the car delivered.

Since I had to pay to have the car shipped anyway, I thought to myself "why not ship the car to southern California and document the drive for this site?". Why not indeed. This thread captures all the adventures. Shout out to Shiply.com which got me a quote with TempusLogix for an enclosed transporter to bring the car to Santa Barbara. The cost of shipping was $1650, and they did a perfect job.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous all three days, and the coastline was breath-taking. Pictures really don't do the scenery justice.

A few pics of delivery:

First, let's review the car.

It's been a long time since I've owned anything FWD, and 2016 since I last owned a manual (a Porsche Cayman GT4).

The gearbox and clutch combination work absolutely flawlessly together. The clutch is light enough to not be too fatiguing on long journeys, but has enough weight to be able to modulate it easily.

The shifter and action are sheer perfection. Absolutely zero missed shifts, and it just feels so pleasurable to use. The rev-matching feature is unobtrusive and perfectly programmed. Care should be taken in summer because the metal shifter can get hot enough to brand the shift pattern into bare flesh. You have been warned.

The steering and feedback is extremely good and enjoyable to use. On the twisties, you can dive down into a corner in 2nd gear, squeeze in a lot of right-pedal just prior to corner exit, and let the front end bring you around and out. It's easy to time it right so that the engine and its turbo are delivering gobs of torque exactly when you need it, an absolute hoot. At WOT, over 5,000 RPM the steering gets a bit “lively” and the fact that 300+HP is being delivered to the front wheels becomes very clear. It’s a bit unsettling, as someone used to RWD, but it’s just a case of getting acclimated to the handling characteristics.

The suspension is stiff, and there's not a lot of sound deadening so pebbles hitting the wheel well are pronounced and an unwelcomed intrusion into the cabin. Approaching a speed-bump will cause involuntary grimacing and potentially dislodge any questionable fillings in your teeth if taken at anything faster than walking speed. These are acceptable compromises in a car that brings so much joy when being driven just for the sake of driving.

I put 1,500 miles over the three days of driving, and the seats were supremely comfortable, and every hour behind the wheel was a reminder of why this little car has won so many awards and hearts of drivers everywhere. A nice little bonus was that the car routinely returned 27+ mpg, even 29 mpg on the final stint home on the freeway.

I arrived late afternoon in Santa Barbara, the day before the truck was expected to arrive with my car. The airport baggage claim was interesting – some shutters separated the baggage handlers just a few feet from the claim area:

That evening, I enjoyed a lovely meal at Opal, with a nice salad, some duck breast, a superb old fashioned, and some great convo with the bar-keep and a regular. A lovely evening full of anticipation for what awaited me the following day.

On the morning of delivery day, I went for a lovely walk around Santa Barbara. Even the 7-11 is pretty here.

Gorgeous sunshine in early May, the perfect climate for a nice walk and taking some pictures. Happy pelicans, lovely beaches, it was like walking around in a living advertisement for California-living.

Day 1 travels

I left Santa Barbara and headed up 154, with Paso Robles as a destination. A friend recommended I stop at Booker Winery, which was absolutely delightful. The wine was terrific, and for the next 3 days I’d hear an occasional “clink” from the trunk as a audible reminder that I had wine on-board. I also saw the largest hare I’ve ever seen in my life and he was kind enough to stay still whilst I took his picture.

Unfortunately, due to the landslide at Big Sur, the coastal route was closed, so I ended up taking 101 up to Monterey. I passed Laguna Seca and cursed the fact that my bladder was so full I couldn’t countenance the thought of stopping for a quick pic outside the legendary circuit.

I reached the Hyatt Regency hotel which overlooks a lovely golf course, and took a quick pic. With no time or inclination for a round of golf by myself, I headed into town and stopped by the London Bridge Pub to get a pint and some grub and pay respects to my British heritage. Unfortunately this place did nothing to restore the awful reputation that British food has in America, so I left ultimately quite disappointed.

Day 2

The Hyatt had a crackin’ good breakfast buffet to compensate for the disappointing meal the evening prior. Fully refreshed, fully gassed, I hit the road. There were some lovely beaches, quaint little towns, stunning views, and some incredible roads to drive. Getting through San Francisco on Hwy 1 was every bit as painful, soul-sucking, and time-consuming as I had been led to believe. But I was blessed with a glorious day and managed to take a few pics from the park, to capture the Golden Gate bridge, downtown San Francisco, and fabled Alcatraz.

Once back on the road, there’d be some fabulous driving roads where I’d have the road to myself for a few miles, then get stuck behind someone driving at a sedate pace. Thankfully, there were often passing lanes, or safe passing opportunities that usually made dispatching the slow drivers uneventful. I stopped at Parkside in Stinson Beach and enjoyed some wonderful fish tacos. The drive up the gorgeous coastline continued to Fort Bragg where I needed more sustenance and had some rather lackluster Thai food. Afterwards, the highlight of the whole trip opened up – some of the best roads I’ve ever driven on as I winded my way through the forest from Rockport, through Leggett and then on to the Eureka area.

Oh, those roads! They were simply marvelous, and I basically had them all to myself, from one hairpin to the next. The car handled itself with aplomb, and I was in pure driving ecstasy -- shifting down to 2nd, feed in the gas, exit the corner and upshift to 3rd, and then in a blink of an eye I’d be approaching the next turn. It’s the closest thing to heaven I’ve ever felt.

Alas, all good things come to an end, and before too long I was at Blue Lake Casino hotel. I used Hotwire for my reservations, which was an inexpensive way to stay at some pretty decent hotels – the casino hotel wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the Hyatt Regency either, so it can be a bit hit and miss. I was still on an endorphin high from the drive, so did not succumb to the gambling temptation, and headed straight to bed.

Day 3

This was a tough day of driving. I think about 12 hours behind the wheel. It really is a testament to the comfort of the seats that I really had no complaints about fatigue whatsoever. I decided I’d head up to Crater Lake as this was something that had been on my bucket list to do eventually, and I thought “if not now, when?”. It was a bit of a diversion, but not horribly so. 101 up the coast and 199 to Grants Pass were quite nice roads to start the morning off, but if I recall correctly, it was one of these roads where there were lots of construction areas and a 20-minute wait where the road had only one lane operational. Then 62 up to Crater Lake which was rather dull if I’m being honest. Once I got to the lake, the rim road was closed, there was a lot of snow on the ground and it was quite difficult to get up to the ridge to see the lake. Of course it’s quite pretty, but in the end, I felt that it wasn’t worth the effort considering how uninteresting the roads are in order to get there. My nav system then insisted on trying to take me on the closed rim road, which meant that I had to take the same road that I came in on, which was headed in the wrong direction. I saw a road, 230 that looked like it would correct my course to be more efficient, but as I driving along this road I was panicking a little because on entry to this road there was a warning about something being closed (I should’ve taken a moment to read the sign carefully!)  As it became clear about 20-30 minutes later that I was headed up a mountain pass, I was dreading getting to a point where the road would be closed and I’d have to double-back. Thankfully the road connected me to the road I wanted, 138 heading west to I-5. I was also treated to a lovely view of Mt. Thielsen. 138 was a pleasant but uneventful drive to I-5, then onward up to Beaverton to drop in on a friend for the night.

Day 4

Well, the adventure is really over now. Just a long slog up I-5 to get home. The usual traffic slow-downs around Portland, Longview/Kelso, Olympia, Tacoma, all of 405, and the inevitable dreaded road-works in places, made this journey as dreary (something to be endured rather than enjoyed) as one might expect. Still, crank some tunes, set the adaptive cruise control (which worked surprisingly well), and relax.

Home. With 1,444 miles on the odometer. What an enjoyable little car. It didn’t ever put a foot wrong or give me pause to regret the decision to purchase it, or put nearly 1500 miles on it in 3 days. For the money, it might be one of the best value cars on the market today.