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REVIEW: Honda Civic Type R has potential to be future collectible

Honda took 20 years to bring the Type R to North America, while Asian and European consumers got to indulge and enjoy this amazing vehicle for many years prior to 2017.

Honda took 20 years to bring the Type R to North America, while Asian and European consumers got to indulge and enjoy this amazing vehicle for many years prior to 2017.

The Honda Civic Type R utilizes the 10th generation global platform for Honda and this may be one of the most significant debuts for Japan’s automotive engineering pioneer.

While the Type R might not seem like your typical daily commuter car – no doubt due to the extreme design – the Type R is very useable for day-to-day driving. It of course packs a mean punch when needed. With in-your-face styling, an outrageous front-wheel-driven turbo engine, and a price tag that won’t break the bank, the Honda Civic Type R could well become a future collectible.

Design

The 2018 Honda Civic Type R has a garish appearance that is not for everyone. It resembles the type of car you might see in the newest Fast and Furious film, including a very large and obvious rear spoiler. While the body is fundamentally that of a four-door standard Civic hatchback, it comes equipped with many bold accents and trims. The Type R’s many winged and indented accents are actually functional and aerodynamically designed for reducing lift and increasing cooling or venting. A front, side and rear skirt package comes with a carbon fibre finish and red styling lines to round out the exterior look.

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Because of the Honda Civic Type R’s dual-axis front suspension the vehicle has shockingly great steering and offers a surprisingly smooth ride - photo Paul McGrath, North Shore News

The interior design is also identical to a standard civic hatchback, but comes equipped with red suede-like fabric bucket seats with the Type R logo, a leather-wrapped black and red steering wheel, textured aluminum pedals, an aluminum shift knob and a unique Type R serial number plate. These features truly do set this vehicle apart from the standard hatchback and this is before we even approach everything found underneath the hood.

The styling is too much Fast and Furious but this is a Type R after all, and you will quickly forget about the styling once you are behind the wheel because the car is just so so good.

Even though there is only one Touring trim option, standard features are bountiful and you will definitely get noticed wherever you go.

Performance

The Type R holds the record lap time for a front-wheel drive car on the Nürburgring track, and it is indicative of the power under the hood. Packed inside is a direct-injected 2.0-litre VTEC turbocharged four-cylinder engine that cranks out 306-horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque.

This manual transmission vehicle has a fuel economy of 10.6L/100 km in the city, 8.3L/100 km on the highway, and 9.6L/100 km combined. Not bad for a sports sedan.

With impeccable cornering grip and braking power, accelerating to high speeds is a breeze. As well, due to Honda’s dual-axis front suspension, the Type R has shockingly great steering feel and surprisingly smooth ride.

A triple centre exhaust with chrome finisher controls the exhaust tone and functions to release the extra power from the 2.0-litre turbo engine.

The manual transmission on this car, once again, is world-class. It just begs you to shift up or down constantly – in fact you end up unnecessarily shifting out of gears just to feel the exhilaration of the gear changes.

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The Type R’s many winged and indented accents are aerodynamically designed for reducing lift and increasing cooling or venting. It also holds the record lap time for a front-wheel vehicle on the Nürburgring track - photo Paul McGrath, North Shore News

This car can outperform other sports cars costing twice or even three times its price.

Some advanced safety features such as a collision mitigation have been omitted in favour of focusing on performance. Even still, the Honda Civic Type R was given five stars in NHTSA testing and also was awarded Top Safety Pick by the IIHS.

Summary

The top three competitors for the Honda Civic Type R are the Volkswagen Golf R, the Ford Focus RS and the Subaru WRX STI. The Honda Civic has all three beat in terms of starting price and value since additional specs are already included in the one trim option.

It is clearly the most powerful and dynamic Honda Civic hatchback that has ever been produced and yet it can slip into the daily grind without missing a beat. Starting from only C$41,090, you can have it all without spending it all.

editor@automotivepress.com