Winter car fatigue is a condition I’m sure many other petrolheads suffer from. The nights draw in, the weather turns and all your favourite roads put Glensanda Quarry to shame. Before you know it, you’re fed up with your car and just want an isolation box with an automatic gearbox and a heated steering wheel. I was suffering from a full-on bout of winter car-man flu, and then the Civic did an un-Honda thing and broke.

The symptoms were a misfire under boost and more warning lights than a BMW owners club meet. Five minutes with a code reader and some forum browsing revealed the culprit: water ingress into the number four coil. It’s a known problem: British weather combined with an ill-thought-out bonnet scoop design results in water running directly into the coil and spark plug. A simple enough fix, and one that naturally led to the conclusion of replacing all plugs and coils. After all, I was already in there. The FK8 was immediately back to full health, and to stave off the winter blues I'd booked onto an MSV track day at Donington with a friend.

Track conditions on the day were cold and slippery, but after a few laps of getting temperature into everything, the FK8 became a monster. The front-end grip is so strong that any concerns about putting the power down simply evaporate: on turn-in, I’ve never experienced a front-wheel-drive car so mobile on its rear axle. Extracting every bit of performance out of the Type R is incredibly fun and when it starts four-wheel drifting, you’ll feel every bit the BTCC driver. And then the brake pedal goes to the floor…

FK8 Hojnda Civic Type R: Owners Report Vol II - front three-quarter static

Nursing the car back to the pits and breaking out the toolkit revealed the inside rear pads had failed. The pad material was MIA, not a major issue as I'd brought a spare set, but fitting them was a battle. After an hour or so the car was back together and on the ground. However, when I tried to get the car out of handbrake maintenance mode, I was greeted by more error codes and lots of failure messages.

The track day was abandoned, and I cursed the car all the way home. Further owners club post-reading highlighted the issue: the handbrake sensor plug is a little flaky, and the pins within it can come loose when working on the brakes. A bit of finagling later, the pins were reseated, and the Civic was once again back to its old self.

After all this nonsense, I decided I was done with the car and wanted a fresh start.

A shortlist was drawn up, test drives occurred, and a replacement found. The car was listed on an auction platform and bidding reached a price I was happy with, only for the winning dealer to fob me off repeatedly and act rude enough to kill any confidence the car would actually be collected. I cancelled the sale and kept it.

Deep down I still love the car – nothing else comes close to the way it drives and how practical it is. It might have had a few mechanical wobbles uncharacteristic for the brand, but name a performance car that doesn’t have its quirks. I’m over a year into ownership and I still feel like I have more to uncover with the FK8. Maybe it’s time for that tried and tested cure for car-man flu: prescribe modifications and get more exercise on some good roads.

FK8 Hojnda Civic Type R: Owners Report Vol II - parked outside Great Northern Classics