One to Buy: Starlight Black Pearl 1999 Honda Civic EK9 Type R
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As some of Europe’s iconic Hot Hatches morphed into second and even third generation variants during the 1990s, they invariably put on weight and lost some of the magic that had made their forefathers so revered.
Ultimately, what best filled the void for a hardcore, lightweight and relatively inexpensive machine came from Japan when Honda launched the third car to wear its Type R moniker, the Civic EK9, which arrived in August 1997.
Twelve months after Type R production began, Honda gave the entire Civic range a facelift which meant their range topper also came in for some attention. Production of these updated models began in August 1998 for the 1999 model year.
New equipment included a front bumper assembly with a more aggressive chin spoiler plus discrete brake cooling ducts and a wider primary intake. Among the other changes were clear instead of amber tail lights, subtly reshaped headlights (which required new fenders), a redesigned central control panel for the interior and a gear gaiter with red instead of black stitching.
Now, although we’re generally OEM all the way here at Supercar Nostalgia, some reversible modifications of the type that would have been offered in period are undeniably pretty cool.
One car that perfectly illustrates such an approach is this Starlight Black Pearl EK9 from 1999 which is currently on offer at the Top Rank Specialties showroom in Chiba, Japan. Equipped with adjustable coilovers and a gorgeous set of 15-inch Enkei wheels, this otherwise standard example of the first generation Civic Type R has covered 148,000km and looks to be in superb order throughout.
