The red badge of speed
Civic Type R chief engineer Hideki Kakinuma give an insight into his latest baby.
THERE is a always a first for everything and Japanese marque Honda is now, for the first time, offering the all-new Honda Civic Type R to customers all over the world.
This news may not be particularly surprising as Honda is already a well-established global brand, so offering a car worldwide shouldn’t be anything of a challenge for Honda.
Yet, if Honda did not take into consideration of the fact that the new Civic Type R was made for a global audience, we would be looking at a completely different car altogether.
The end result is a front-wheel drive, front engine featuring a 2.0litre VTEC turbocharged mill mated to a 6-speed manual transmission and has a maximum output of 310PS and 400Nm of torque. And if you doubt the performance capabilities of the new Civic Type R, then you will be glad to know that it lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes 43.80 seconds, making it the fastest front engine, front wheel drive car to do so.
“The Type R philosophy consists of three attributes: lightweight, simple and fast. In order to meet these attributes, we always take the best options into consideration,” said Honda R&D Co chief engineer and assistant large project leader of Civic Type R, Hideki Kakinuma, in an interview recently.
As such, if you were wondering why is there no automatic transmission option, rear-wheel or allwheel drive or even more horsepower then the simple answer is that it all went against the aforementioned attributes of the Type R.
The new Civic Type R was also made to be an everyday driving car as well as be able to eat up the asphalt on a track.
In order to accommodate the vastly different functions of the car which was originally ‘bred’ for racing, Honda introduced the 3-Way Driving Mode: Comfort, Sport and +R to suit the different usages.
And if you are in two minds about driving a manual car, the Civic Type R automatically rev matches whenever you downshift.
Conversely, if you think this will impede your idea of fun by eliminating the heel-and-toe technique, don’t worry.
“You are still able to heel-and-toe with this system in place. It is a very smart system that it will recognise your actions and override the automated system if you are faster at it,” said Kakinuma who spent two and a half years developing the new Civic Type R and has 26 years of experience as a Honda engineer.
As a car enthusiast himself, Kakinuma related how he had driven German cars previously and now, the new Civic Type R is the car he “wants to drive.” Even so, he waited six months before the car was delivered to him in Japan. No special treatment even for key personnel of the Civic Type R.
By the way, all the new Civic Type R comes out of a single factory in Swindon, England – be it lefthand and right-hand drive – while the engines are made in the United States. – RIZAL JOHAN