4WD, What 4WD? Honda Civic Type-R 2.0

After years in the performance-car wilderness, Honda is back. Spinning on a Swiss turntable at the Geneva show alongside the new NSX was this, the production version of the all-new Civic Type-R. It looks rambunctious, no doubt about it, but there’s been some dilution from last year’s concept. The rear lights no longer wrap around the monster wing, while the wheelarches have been weakened.

Solace comes under the skin, though. The Civic Type-R’s 2.0-litre direct-injection turbo sends 306bhp to the front wheels via a torque-steer-quelling dif, with performance pegged at 5.7secs to 62mph and a 167mph top speed.


The juiciest stat has emerged from that track, though: a 7m50.63s lap of the Nürburgring makes this the Nordschleife’s FWD record holder. Honda actually set the time in May 2014: keeping schtum while Renault paraded its tardier Megane Trophy-R must have killed them.

As is always the way with such records, though, the actual specification of the car involved in the record run is a mild mystery. The Civic was shorn of rear seats and aircon, project leader Hisayuki Yagi told TopGear, but only to counteract the weight gain of a roll cage, itself apparently non-structural and only fitted for safety.

“The rest is identical to the mass production car, from suspension and tyres to engine specification. In theory you should be able to exactly reproduce that lap time,” Yagi-san told us. Hmm.

Cynicism aside, though, we’re very excited for this. Old Type-R hallmarks machined gearknob, huggy suede seats are present and correct, and S2000-owning Yagi insists that despite a 7,000rpm red line, the free-revving character is intact too. “This is not a turbo engine with VTEC; it is a VTEC engine with a turbo attached,” he asserts.

Priced at £29,995, the Civic Type-R is bang on VW Golf R money, for a car with more power and of far harder core. With Ford’s new 4WD Focus RS imminent,  quite the group test is brewing.