Honda Civic Type R – Your everyday racer and lap-time chaser

By Lawrence Minnie

The term JDM has become synonymous with car culture worldwide. But what is JDM, I hear you ask?

JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market, referring to cars that were made in Japan, for Japan and very often were not available elsewhere in the world. These cars became highly prized amongst enthusiasts for their rarity and performance characteristics. These include vehicles such as Mazda’s FD RX7, Nissan’s S Chassis series and Skyline models, Toyota’s Celica and Supra, and just about anything from Honda.

The Type R has been the halo model of the brand since the early 90s. Type R badging was given to the performance versions of Honda’s normal street-going offerings, and as such, these cars were road-going race missiles with uprated suspensions, braking, and engines. This made them excellent on the track and something of a nightmare to live with. Hard suspension, race seats and a highly-strung engine made life pretty difficult, but all of that has now changed with the new 2018 Honda Civic Type R.

What's new?

Honda has really made an effort to merge comfort and convenience with mind-bending performance and have done so rather well. The suspension now has an adjustable damping system giving you 3 settings; Comfort, Sport, and R+ (Race). The new power steering system ties into those settings, giving you excellent handling at all times, and to top it all off, the interior now has way more convenience as well.

On centre stage you have an 8-inch screen that is home to the audio system, reverse camera and navigation system. It has Apple Car Play, HDMI and USB inputs that are neatly tucked away under the centre console. The driver’s binnacle is where all the action is though; a 7-inch screen here will give you readouts for boost and gear shifts, there’s a G indicator and a launch control indicator and even a lap timer. The interior is finished in a mix of brushed aluminium and faux carbon fibre, and every other panel is covered in an Alcantara-esque suede.

That leads me to my only criticism: the steering wheel. It seems out of place in a car of this nature, you would almost expect this in a standard Civic or a Jazz. It’s just too plain; one would expect it to get the same kind of suede trim treatment, even if it was just a single panel with red stitching along the top.

Everything else is on point though, from the red seats emblazoned with the Type R logo to the red seatbelts, you know you’re somewhere special.

Powerplant to rival the greats

The Civic Type R was always a naturally-aspirated screamer but in the last generation, Honda relented and went the turbocharger route, and that same engine is still offered in this latest version. The K20c1 Turbo VTec engine delivers 220kW and 400Nm to the front wheels and all that power is managed by a very smart traction system that makes the Civic turn in on command and keeps it stable through the testiest of roads. while still putting all that power down into the tarmac. Snapping its purposeful 6-speed manual 'box into gear makes me very, very happy!

Boy racer or not?

The exterior is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some will say it's garish, bordering on absurd: wings, vents, splitters and canards are found everywhere, all finished in that faux carbon fibre. It runs around on 20-inch wheels, showing off those huge ventilated discs and Brembo callipers. Fifteen years ago this would have been the height of auto styling, riding on the back of the Fast and Furious craze. However, this whole styling package is actually less street racer and more world time attack, and with a price tag of 630K it is going to put it well out of the reach of said street racers and well into the league of hill climb and time attack challengers. If you look at it from that perspective, the Type R’s styling begins to make a lot more sense.

Final Thoughts

The Japanese domestic market has produced some of the best driver’s cars in the world today and that has led to a cult following that many of the JDM brands enjoy today.

It is really too difficult to try and describe how precise this car is to drive; it’s handling is so accurate and the power delivery is just phenomenal. It is truly a spectacular car to pilot. I would actually go so far as to say that the Type R is the best front-wheel-drive turbo I’ve ever driven….

Model and Pricing

Honda Civic Type R        R 635 500.00

Images courtesy of Supafly Design and Media