Honda Civic Type R CAR review

Feels like we’ve been waiting an eternity but the Type R is finally here

Yes it's been tough for us too. We’ve had a terrible couple of years where we’ve had to suffer endless parades of 500bhp Mercs and BMWs while waiting for Honda to get its act together and give us the new Type R. Truth be told we were a little worried. The last Type R was a huge commercial success and incredibly exciting to drive when you were in the mood for a full-on thrash. But wasn’t without its faults. The ride was poor, the power steering numb (and prone to shed assistance mid-opposite lock on the track) and the cabin was noisier than a six-year-old’s birthday party. On the plus side, it was priced so competitively that rival car makers were left reeling. But Honda reckons the new car will wipe the floor with the opposition. Want to find out if they're right? Then check out the latest issue of CAR where the Civic faces all its rivals in our definitive 18-page mega-test. In the meantime, read on to find out if the hot Honda is worthy of the Type R name....

So what’s changed since last time?

If you’re looking under the bonnet, not much. What you see is effectively the same 2.0-litre 16-valve four-pot and six-speed manual gearbox upgraded with a lighter flywheel and drive-by-wire throttle. Even given Honda’s assertion that it didn’t want to get bogged down in the horsepower war that seems to be raging between Europe’s top firms, the meagre 1bhp improvement over last year’s 197bhp tally is a bit disappointing. In a sector where 225bhp-plus is the norm, 198bhp doesn’t sound much, and the torque story is even sorrier: the naturally aspirated Civic offers just 142lb ft, a good 70lb ft less than its key rivals, all of which are turbocharged. It is lighter than those rivals, however, and although weight is up over the last Type R, the on-paper performance – 6.6sec to 62mph and 146mph all out – is on a par with both its predecessor and Volkswagen’s Golf GTI. Part of that weight saving must be down to Honda’s unusual decision to dump its multi-link rear axle for a low-tech twist-beam.