Why we ran it: To determine whether the most ferocious front-wheel-drive hot hatch on sale today is usable on a daily basis
Month 6 - Month 5 - Month 4 - Month 3 - Month 2 - Month 1 - Prices & Specs
Life with a Honda Civic Type R: Month 6
Saying goodbye to the Civic Type R - 25th July 2018
That’s it, then, the Honda Civic Type R has gone. And with it, after nearly 10,000 miles, we know that this 2.0-litre turbocharged hatchback, unlike its predecessor, is a well-rounded all-year-round car and not just a one-dimensional Nürburgring scream machine. Yup.
The main thing I’ll take away from this test is how usable the Civic Type R is on a daily basis, given it’s the most ferocious front-drive hot hatch on sale today. Far more so than the previous Civic Type R.
Last time around, the Type R was shoehorned into the Civic’s model cycle near the end of the car’s life, just on the basis that Honda realised that the hot car market wasn’t dead, and it wanted to make a splash. So they made it incredibly fast around the Nordschleife, and to heck with everything else.
This time, it still is fast in that patch of Germany – it’s the current holder of the ’Ring’s front-drive production car record, after all – and it’s still great to drive in the right conditions. It steers really keenly, has great body control, is very fast and seriously rewarding. But it’s also habitable and usable in the wrong conditions.
That the Type R was in the product plan from the start of development has made the Civic a better racing car. Before the start of the BTCC season, I took our Civic up to Team Dynamics, which runs Honda’s touring car campaign, where they were putting together a racing car using the road car’s body-in-white as a basis.
The floor is flat along most of the underside – in the old car, the fuel tank was under the front seats – which allows the driver’s seat to be mounted lower and also means the under-body aero effect is better. And the wings and scoops that find their way onto the road car, giving it an ‘interesting’ appearance, are also used on the race car, which gives impressive aero performance.
From a road car perspective, and on the M4 or a back road rather than a race track, I suspect the only notable benefit of the flat floor is that low driving position. It’s dead easy to get comfortable in the Civic and stay that way, with its body-hugging seats and widely adjustable wheel matching the car’s intent nicely.
As does the metal-topped gearlever, which is the coolest outside of an Ariel Atom or Caterham 7. Not cool frequently enough, mind you: freezing cold or red hot are its preferred states. I love it, but having climbed into the car in both -5deg C and 30deg C temperatures, it makes you suffer for your art. No wonder most car makers moved to wood or plastic as soon as they could.
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Fk8
I promised my self this car for my 50th and here today I am a proud owner of a type r 2years early
there are a lot of mixed opinions on the type r I thought I would give you all a good analysis
looks : Honda don't do things supple ,the car was made like this for one reason and that is performance,every spoiler ,scoop ,fins are there for a reason and everyone of them forms a apart of a well designed genius .
i was sitting right next to an Audi s3 in traffic the day and the Genral public were only looking at one car and that was the Honda ,it's striking appearance turned heads and no doubt I bet they never even realised it was a production car ,the poor little Audi was a just another car in traffic ,and that's the point it's looks are for sheer performance and at the same time to stand out in a crowd .
when you park it up in a car park it's like it's not supposed to be there ,it should be on a track and that's why people stop ,and I'm talking about people that don't even have much interest in cars ,that's what Honda wanted ,it pulls people into there showrooms ,I mean a car of this Calibre in other manufacturers are double the money if not more .
You got to hand it to Honda ,they have given us type r,s through the years that everyone can drive and own and with great pcp deals these days it's not a dream car it's a reality car ,a car you drive every day with epic performance comfy and stylish looks and you can take pride on a sunny Sunday morning when your not working polishing it like a proud owner should .
to sum it up Honda does things very well indeed and when I get up on the morning for my daily commute I'm glad I'm in my type r
Looks
The interior looks great... sporty, funky, very Honda-like.
Everything will (should!) work perfectly.
But from the outside... wow. Hideous.
Looks like the boy-racer car it is... it belongs in a supermarket car park late at night with the rest of the numbskulls that like to hang out in car parks and rub each other's modified hatchbacks.
Nasty.
The styling of both bumpers
The styling of both bumpers is abysmal, and the car would probably look no worse from nudging into a wall or two to take them off. Smoothed out aftermarket replacements could make a few quid.
Message to Autocar:
For fuck's sake get somebody onto cleaning up the malware links off these comments sections. If you don't sort it out there'll be more fucking spammers than genuine posters down here. You'll drive your readers away if you can't be bothered to do proper maintenance of the site. It's either laziness or cheapskatery, but either way it's a fucking insult to your readers. Pull your fingers out and put it right.