Gran will hate the Type R
NO COMPROMISE: THE NEW CIVIC ROAD RACER IS A TRACK JUNKIE’S DREAM
The new Civic Type R is not subtle – it wants to play in the twisties all the time.
By Honda’s own admission, the new Civic Type R is billed as a race car for the road. Spend some time in one and you will understand why they made that statement. This is a no compromise hot hatch that wants to go and play in the twisties all the time.
This car is not subtle: it has wings and fins in all the right places for a Japanese car.
The handling is firm in normal mode, thanks to a finely tuned sports suspension and massive low profi le 235/35 19 rubber, and then it gets even firmer when the R button is pushed. Your granny won’t enjoy a Sunday morning out in your Civic, that’s for sure.
Although the Type R has all the space and convenience of the normal Civic, this car for me is not really an everyday option. But you can tackle any track or mountain pass knowing you are driving the fastest front wheel drive performance hatch to have lapped the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife to date. The car’s time was a remarkable 7 min 50,63 sec, and if you Google that, you will also see a few embarrassed M3s and Porsches further down the list.
Staying with the numbers, the Civic runs a six-speed manual gearbox through a limited slip diff to the front wheels and, as good as it is, and as much as the purists might complain, double clutch automatic cars just do everything so much easier. And after my frustrating morning at Gerotek I understand why more and more buyers are opting for two pedal cars.
The car produces 228kW and 400Nm, and that is plenty on paper and also encourages Honda to claim a 0-100km/h of only 5.7 seconds. But without a launch control system, this was always going to be a tall order and my test data of 6.46 seconds to 100km/h backed this up.
And here is the reason. When the car is stationary, you can dial in no more than 3900rpm before you release the clutch. Which should be enough for a turbo car by the way. But the moment you release the clutch, the car cuts the throttle and bogs down and the rpm begins its climb from almost idle. .
Ironically, which I found out by luck, let the car just start to move and you can then slip the clutch and run the rpm to limiter if you want and smoke the front tyres silly. Perhaps a more slippery surface would allow for the wheels to slip and the car not to bog.
But be all that as it may, it is still quicker than the likes of Renault’s Megane, Opel’s OPC and Golf’s GTI. Only VW’s 206kW DSG cars are quicker off the line, thanks to launch control, but from 100km/h the Civic gets away from them and goes on to a best I have seen 267km/h true top speed. So make no mistake, this car is fast in straight line too.
If I was a track day junkie and a bit of a purist to boot, I could see myself shelling out the R586 400 asking price for the Civic Type R, which includes a five-year/200 000km warranty and a fiveyear/ 000km service plan. But if I was a bit more of an everyday budget conscious kind of guy, I would probably save some money and get me something less manic.