Honda Civic Type R
Its suspension may have been finessed, bringing a ride that’s less harsh, but it’s done nothing to diminish the latest Type R’s focus
‘OW! MY SPINE!’ CRIED MY WIFE, somewhat melodramatically, from the passenger seat. ‘Can’t you do something to make it more comfortable?’
I already knew the answer, but I glanced in the instrument binnacle just to double-check which mode the Honda was in. Yup: Comfort.
When it was first suggested that this latest Civic Type R would be more useable than its predecessor, and would even gain the aforementioned Comfort mode, some fans of the old model, myself included, feared that the CTR might be about to ‘turn soft’ and in the process lose a big part of its appeal.
This clearly hasn’t happened. In its default mode of Sport, the maximum amount of suspension travel feels not dissimilar to what I recall from the previous-generation Type R that I also ran – in other words, less than what the makers of most other hot hatches deem acceptable. The ride, therefore, is still firm. But it’s a different kind of firm, because despite the wheels being an inch bigger than before (they’re now 20s), every imperfection they encounter appears to be introduced to the car’s body more gently and handled more deftly, largely eradicating the harsh edge that was ever-present in the old car’s ride and inspiring even greater confidence in what the new model’s chassis can deal with.
In Comfort mode you can feel more bounce being permitted before things are pulled taut again, but this is all very much relative: it doesn’t exactly turn the Type R into an S-class. Passengers will still complain, particularly in town as the Civic fidgets and jiggles over damaged tarmac and sunken manhole covers. At speed, however, the ride settles somewhat, and so do your passengers.
At the other end of the scale there’s still a +R mode. On the previous CTR this was best saved for track use, unless you found yourself on billiard-table-smooth tarmac (literally). I rather admired how hardcore it was, because it removed any temptation to attempt to use +R on the public highway. But now it is a viable option on the road, again mainly down to how inputs to the suspension are handled, rather than a significantly wider band of overall movements being permitted. That said, I can’t honestly say that I can find any obvious advantage – in pace or enjoyment – in using
‘Passengers will still complain, particularly in town as the Civic fidgets over damaged tarmac’
this mode on the road, so it’s probably still one best kept for the track.
There are palpable benefits, then, to the FK8’S new, multi-link rear suspension, its 38 per cent stiffer bodyshell, and what they have enabled Honda’s engineers to achieve with the suspension tuning. And, thankfully, the Type R also remains a highly focused proposition.
None of which solves the problem of the amateur dramatics from the passenger seat, but I have my own fix for that: I simply let my wife drive. Once behind the wheel, all thoughts of wishing we were instead in a softer-riding Golf GTI mysteriously evaporate…