Honda Accord Type S

Brookland Motorsport Workhorse

Text and photos: Reinis Babrovskis

I could make up a nice story of how this car has got 500 horsepower with endless mods and bits done to it, but sadly it hasn’t. It certainly doesn’t have a launch control like M5 would, it doesn’t have the amazing seats like RS4 would have, and hell it doesn’t even have a superb audio system, so there is no point lying - it is a standard 2003 2.4l Honda Accord Type S workhorse for Brookland Motorsport. 

Pete, the owner, is a massive petrol head and has owed more than 100 Hondas, it kind of shows that there must be something behind this badge that attracts him back. His family has been surrounded by classic cars forever, yet Pete somehow still kept his love for the modern Jap cars with the letter H stuck in front of them. 

When asked why this car – there was a simple answer – I have a dog, a wee one on the way and I lost my van in the snow (yeah, strange that – snow in Northern Ireland), so this will do. There might be many other touring cars out there – Audi, BMW, Mercedes, but they focus on being posh and cost a lot of dosh, while Accord Type S focuses on one thing – back roads and fun. With its 188bhp 2.4-litre i-VTEC engine it begs to be revved since the Vtec on this engine is very short and only engages at 6,000 and goes up to the limiter at 7,200. You certainly wouldn’t call this car slow, it can get the titanic sized car from 0-60 in impressive 7,9 seconds, but as stated before it’s all about the driving experience on the small, twisty roads.

The car comes equipped with a double-wishbone suspension at the front and rear, ABS, electronic brake distribution, brake assist and the vehicle stability assist; the 6 gear manual box delivers the power to the front wheels and the throttle is operated by a floor mounted accelerator pedal that controls an electronic drive-by-wire – this car is a joy to drive. 

If I need to talk about the design I can say that the front end of the car certainly is very mean and angry looking with the sharp lines leading to a bit more bulky rear end. The car is sitting on the 5 spoke Honda alloys, the interior is very simple yet effective – a lovely carbon fibre look centre dash accompanied by aluminium gear knob and leather steering wheel. The dark red dials just remind the driver that this is a sports estate, and you can feel free to rev it.

Pete certainly puts the car to good use and I know that if I ever join this family car club thing, I reckon this would be the car I'd happily drive my juniors around.