honda civic sr MB2, MB1 and Rover 216 Coupe!

[Fenny]

Hello guys! Been a while since I last posted on here and my car park has changed... but not really! My MB2 is sadly not with us anymore, I was involved in an accident last year around march and sadly sustained chassis damage. They had just redone the asphalt on a road I used to enjoy driving on at night, it suddenly switched from old harsh but grippy road to freshly new asphaltwith no signs. New humid roads = slippery like ice so I understeered into a cement block, saved it a bit but not enough so I hit the corner of the block with the back of my front right wheel arch, bending the roof rail and the firewall corner. I was fine but I didn't recover mentally for another 2 months at least, I was really attached to my car.

 

 

Time came when I started looking for a new car, and in just 2 years the marked had imploded, I couldn't find anything I liked for a decent price. My dad then reminded me about Rovers! I started learning more about the history of this joint venture and really liked the R8 platform in particular (Honda Concerto, Rover 200 [Coupe, Hatchback, 3 doors and Cabrio] and 400 [Sedan and Tourer wagon!]. Many of you will know about it in detail already but for a quick debrief, the R8 platform had Honda D series engine options as well as rover K

 and T series options, front Rover Macpherson suspension for Rover T series engine size concerns ( Double wishbone domes are way too bulky for the T16 2 liter, especially turbo on the 220 Coupe ), Honda Civic EF derived rear suspension, mostly upmarket Rover designed interior with real wood trims and honda sourced switches + little details.

 

With that in mind, I set out to scour the menacing dephts of facebook marketplace and found 2 candidates under 2k euros, a black prefacelift Rover Coupe with 280k KM and a British Racing Green facelift fascia Coupe with 317k KM. We went to check out the first one, lo and behold it ran on 3 cylinders at best, had a rust hole in the sill big enough for 2 fists and was resprayed black from Nightfire Red, which is a gorgeous color and a sin to respray.

 

Only thing left to do was check out the other one! Turns out it was on its 5th owner, a farmer with an extremely thick regional accent I could barely understand, and apparently hoarder of cars (even had an MB6 once). The car had a lot of chipped spots on the doors and generally anything around wheels, like it was driven HARD on gravel. Despite that, it run well and had 0 rust! The interior was dirty, driver seat scratched but still solid once cleaned, and the extremely bolstered Rover seats were RIGID still. 

 

 

We ended up getting this one for 1200 euros! Even drove it home 400km on worn front bushings, still a pleasant ride nonetheless.

Fast forward a year and it's still my daily, improved upon every month I owned it, from maintenance to sorting gremlins. I really love the D16A8 DOHC lump, it sounds heavenly with a filter and pulls quite high in the rpm! The gearbox has super short ratios, even more than the CRX equivalent (in fifth gear my tacho sits at 3800rpm at 100kmh...) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pardon my formatting skills, just tried to cramp as many photos as I could of the things I really like about the car! The frameless doors are definetely up there, but the T top roof with removable glass pieces is amazing!

 

By now you would probably be asking yourself "Wait, why make a post about it NOW of all times, and why here?!" 
My dad recently got wind of a pretty sick and well preserved example of a CIvic MB1 1.6i SR VTEC in Orleans Blue Pearl near our city! The car has 52k KM on the odometer and has been garage kept its entire life, 1 owner, only used for big trips around europe apparently. The catch? it hasn't actually ran outside the garage in 22 years at most. We thoroughly checked it out and haggled it down to 2k euros. It is an almost fully optioned example, with the only options missing being the Honda head unit + CD changer and leather interior (Which I wouldnt have liked as much). It has 4 rotors and ABS, Sunroof, 15 inch alloy rims, spoiler and bumper lips, fog lights, all four electric windows, AC and alarm + keyfob!

 

 

I don't have many great pics of the car as a whole, since the calipers are seized and basically every single wear item needs to be replaced because of the age, but I'll surely post one in the gallery in a week or 2! For now, I only have these messy photos under my dad's garage's neon lights, which alter colors way too much...

 

Under the passenger seat, in the secret cubby I discovered the original folder with every single document about the car and even a Honda Gold Card! 

 

So there's that, I'll definetely update this thread whenever I feel like it, thanks for reading :D

 

[Chsi]

Sorry for your loss, but nice to see you found a solution you're happy with! Although for some 'more reasonable' people than us old car people that 2 car solution you picked might seem a little risky or unreliable even, i think its a good choice for a lineup of daily and project nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing it unfold, and to see what you'll be doing to both of them!  

[Dave]

Sorry to hear about your other MB, it hurts when your attached to a car and something bad happens to it. At least youre OK wilhich is the main thing.

Love that Rover, always been a fan of Rovers (I used to help my brother in the garage he worked in/Co owned that repaired/broke/restored Rover SD1s). Always had a real soft spot for the R8, came close to buying a 216SLi in nightfire red metallic. Deffo is one of my most favourite colours on a car! 

That MB1 you've bought is a real rare gem! Finding any pre-facelift Civic M in good condition is like finding the proverbial hens teeth! Loving that one, same colour as my wee 1.4 MA8. I bought a drivers seat from an SR to us the base for my pass seat so it had height adjustment, same as drivers side. Had that same black/red pattern which I think looks funky as hell!

Keep us updated mate with loads of pics of the Civic, and get a wee thread going for the Rover too. Both genuine modern classics now.

[Fenny]

3 hours ago, Chsi said:

Sorry for your loss, but nice to see you found a solution you're happy with! Although for some 'more reasonable' people than us old car people that 2 car solution you picked might seem a little risky or unreliable even, i think its a good choice for a lineup of daily and project nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing it unfold, and to see what you'll be doing to both of them!  

Yeah they definitely wouldn't be viable for someone who doesn't enjoy doing a bit of trouble shooting, but I feel like I can say I'm really knowledgeable about D series engines and just Honda chassises as a whole so troubleshooting comes out as fun, aside from some issues I'm still trying to tackle!

[Chsi]

5 minutes ago, Fenny said:

Yeah they definitely wouldn't be viable for someone who doesn't enjoy doing a bit of trouble shooting, but I feel like I can say I'm really knowledgeable about D series engines and just Honda chassises as a whole so troubleshooting comes out as fun, aside from some issues I'm still trying to tackle!

Thats the part that makes a car a hobby i'd say!

I'm still a long ways away from being able to upkeep my car all by myself, but i'd like to reach a point like that where i can confidently do my best to keep it alive. Stoked to see theres still enough reachable people out there doing the same!

[Fenny]

22 minutes ago, Dave said:

Sorry to hear about your other MB, it hurts when your attached to a car and something bad happens to it. At least youre OK wilhich is the main thing.

Love that Rover, always been a fan of Rovers (I used to help my brother in the garage he worked in/Co owned that repaired/broke/restored Rover SD1s). Always had a real soft spot for the R8, came close to buying a 216SLi in nightfire red metallic. Deffo is one of my most favourite colours on a car! 

That MB1 you've bought is a real rare gem! Finding any pre-facelift Civic M in good condition is like finding the proverbial hens teeth! Loving that one, same colour as my wee 1.4 MA8. I bought a drivers seat from an SR to us the base for my pass seat so it had height adjustment, same as drivers side. Had that same black/red pattern which I think looks funky as hell!

Keep us updated mate with loads of pics of the Civic, and get a wee thread going for the Rover too. Both genuine modern classics now.

Awesome to hear youre a bit of a Rover head yourself too ahah! I always kinda ignored the MAs and MB1 but I'm starting to prefer this front end for some reason now ahah.  I'm sure the MB1 still has some surprises for me, but I gotta say I didn't expect the material on the seats to be different from regular cloth seats, like on the MB2. It's some sort of soft carpet-y like material, extremely comfortable and I love the pattern.

The dash and console trim is also pretty cool but doesn't come out nicely in photos under that light (in photos it looks like a weird greenish camo and the blue sunstrip on the windshield doesn't help), irl it's more of a... clear coated dark marble like looking texture? I really like it.

 

Sadly the clock's LCD decided to implode years ago probably so I'd have to source one of those someday

I still have all 4 original mats with Civic stitched on the driver side one, in pretty good condition, though they were out of the car when I took this photo.

As far as I'm aware the heated seats option was Rover exclusive even though they are mentioned on the user manual as I was skimming through it yesterday, quite fun I gotta say.

 

I'd also love to know if, given these have an ir keyfob, they also have an interior ultrasound sensor for detecting movements like on my Rover coupe! I tried checking for sensors on the pillars but couldn't find anything, the only thing I found was weird tiny dots next to the door lock assemblies, which I'm pretty sure I didn't have on the MB2.

 

 

[Fenny]

Just found out I can insert videos so here's one from the coupe mainly for the sound(slower than usual as I had the roof off and uphill) and one from my old MB2 at an event!

[Chsi]

5 minutes ago, Fenny said:

Just found out I can insert videos so here's one from the coupe mainly for the sound(slower than usual as I had the roof off and uphill) and one from my old MB2 at an event!

 

Highway acceleration.mov 42.45 MB · 0 downloads

 

The coupe one seems not to work (for me at least)

The old Mb2 sure is moving, though! I really like the facelift-look of the plastic parts being colour-matched, i plan on doing that to my Mb3.

[Dave]

9 hours ago, Fenny said:

Awesome to hear youre a bit of a Rover head yourself too ahah! I always kinda ignored the MAs and MB1 but I'm starting to prefer this front end for some reason now ahah.  I'm sure the MB1 still has some surprises for me, but I gotta say I didn't expect the material on the seats to be different from regular cloth seats, like on the MB2. It's some sort of soft carpet-y like material, extremely comfortable and I love the pattern.

The dash and console trim is also pretty cool but doesn't come out nicely in photos under that light (in photos it looks like a weird greenish camo and the blue sunstrip on the windshield doesn't help), irl it's more of a... clear coated dark marble like looking texture? I really like it.

 

Sadly the clock's LCD decided to implode years ago probably so I'd have to source one of those someday

I still have all 4 original mats with Civic stitched on the driver side one, in pretty good condition, though they were out of the car when I took this photo.

As far as I'm aware the heated seats option was Rover exclusive even though they are mentioned on the user manual as I was skimming through it yesterday, quite fun I gotta say.

 

I'd also love to know if, given these have an ir keyfob, they also have an interior ultrasound sensor for detecting movements like on my Rover coupe! I tried checking for sensors on the pillars but couldn't find anything, the only thing I found was weird tiny dots next to the door lock assemblies, which I'm pretty sure I didn't have on the MB2.

 

 

If I remember rightly, the dome where the front interior light is is the sensor/receiver for the IR remote.

[Fenny]

23 minutes ago, Dave said:

If I remember rightly, the dome where the front interior light is is the sensor/receiver for the IR remote.

Yes that I do know, I meant the ultrasound sensor which detects movement in the cabin and blasts the horn if it does! The rover has it on the pillar so I expected this one to have one too ahah, it's really handy whenever I leave my roof open