The Civic Type R is built in Swindon; I realise you'll never know the joys of this very functional english city, but it's very hard to get romantic about it. I don't think it was "built for racing", unlike the older CTRs, but it's quite sharp anyway. I have a NSX for going really fast in

The Cooper S (note, *not* the normal cooper; the cooper S is the 163bhp supercharged version, 6 speed, etc) is much nicer looking than the civic if you ask me, but is rather more cramped for rear seat passengers:

http://www.bmwworld.com/media/wallpaper/mini_cooper_s.htm

I suspect the Cooper will be damn fun too. It's going to be interesting... the most efficient thing is to sell the queue place for the mini, but...

Hugo