It’s not every day that we get an all-new Honda Civic Type R let alone one that’s as fast as this. Honda just dropped a couple of short videos showing the upcoming compact sports hatch as it set a new front-wheel-drive lap record at its home track of Suzuka. It’s knocked itself off of the top spot with a 2:23:120-second lap time.
We’ve known for some time that the new Type R was coming and we’ve even seen it working hard at Suzuka in the past but now it’s cut nearly a full second off of the 2021 Type R’s time. That car got around the hallowed ground in 2:23:993-seconds. So now, both the first and second place spots at Suzuka are held by Civic Type Rs.
For all of the gamers who might have spent countless hours on the virtual circuit that might not sound fast but consider this… that’s as fast if not faster than many older famous supercars according to the quickest laps recorded at fastlaps.com. Though we don’t know pricing on the new Type R, it’s bound to be far less expensive, and far more practical than something like an old Lamborghini Diablo.
Related: Take A First Look Inside The 2023 Honda Civic Type R
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Watching the lap itself gives us a bit of insight as to where the Civic Type R shines. Torque steer seems to be a thing of the past as we never see it creep up in the hands of the driver. Most turns are silky smooth and provide the driver with exactly the response they seem to be expecting.
On the other side of the coin, the Degner curve really seems to unsettle the Type R and the driver has to back way out of the power to keep it in the racing line. Then, as the Honda rounds turn 10 you can see his head bobbing and hear the tires screaming for purchase as the chassis bobs over the tarmac.
Perhaps some more suspension tuning could make it just that much quicker. We should note that this is a final development model so the production-spec Type R could be just a tad different. From what we’re hearing from Honda, it also seems that this record was only recorded internally. Regardless, we can expect that the new Type R will still be blazing fast for a front-wheel-drive hatchback.
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