With the Civic Type R, Honda officially reclaims its mojo

In the 1990s, when a dude wanted to impress both girls and other guys, he’d get a Honda Civic. The Toyota Corolla was the best-selling compact sedan then, but the Civic had the cool factor. It was the one to have if you wanted to turn heads. And it wasn’t all hype: The Civic engines, particularly the VTEC ones, easily trumped those found under the hood of the competition.

The Civic would eventually be outsold by its smaller sibling, the City, but before surrendering its status in Honda’s product hierarchy, it gave us one of the most exciting models to ever grace our market. In 1998, Honda Cars Philippines released the 161hp Civic SiR, turning casual fanboys into racing wannabes. To this day, you can still see several units running around, lovingly maintained by either their original owners or subsequent custodians. Perhaps these people are holding on to their cars because — let’s face it — the SiR, based on the sixth- generation platform, was the last great Civic to emerge from the Honda stable. The hideously bland seventh iteration completely ruined the Civic’s image in the eyes of even the most ardent loyalists, and the succeeding ones, while admittedly better-looking, didn’t exactly spark a revival.

But here at last is the Civic’s much-awaited comeback, courtesy of the world- conquering Type R based on the 10th generation, five- door hatchback. Previously available only in Japan and some parts of Europe, the Civic Type R is now making its way into global showrooms, thanks largely to Honda’s shift to a common platform for the Civic’s latest version. Because of this move to a unified mechanical template, even the United States is receiving the Type R for the first time in the model’s history.