Lap Time: 3:03.9



Class: LL2 | Base Price: $35,595 | As-Tested Price: $35,595

Power and Weight: 306 hp • 3116 lb • 10.2 lb/hp

Tires: Continental SportContact 6, 245/30ZR-20 90Y

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It didn’t stand a chance. Fantastic though it is, Honda’s Civic Type R competes in LL2, the most cutthroat group in this contest. Its 3:03.9 is identical to the time set by the $6650 pricier Ford Focus RS in 2016, but the Honda simply wasn’t going to touch the class record, a 2:51.8 laid down by the 526-hp Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R that same year. If it were just $595 and a penny cheaper, it would own the LL1 record by 0.1 second over the V-6–powered Chevy Camaro 1LE. But the Type R’s $35,595 base price tips it into a higher echelon.

Though it doesn’t earn class honors, that 3:03.9 still secures Honda a prestigious record: quickest front-wheel-drive car ever to run in this event. And it doesn’t just beat that nine-year-old record set by the—yes, really—turbocharged 2008 Chevy Cobalt SS, it annihilates it. By 9.1 seconds. To fully appreciate just how serious the Type R actually is, you need look no further than one rung down the Civic ladder, at the capable but pedestrian Civic Si, which last year ran only a 3:14.6.

That the Civic Type R is a groundbreaking front-driver is clear from its lap time. That it’s also a brilliantly rewarding car on a racetrack is only obvious after multiple sessions. Perhaps its strong suit is its ability to endure a flogging. Like today’s best perform­ance cars, it flourishes under intensifying stress. Its brakes and Continental SportContact 6 tires, which are its greatest assets, welcome ever-deeper braking points and more entry speed. And with a helical-gear limited-slip differential giving it an almost magical ability to put torque down while cornering, it endears itself to throttle-hungry drivers. The Type R enters Spiral and the infield esses faster than Porsche’s 718 Cayman GTS, and it exits the Climbing Esses faster than the Audi RS5.

In the end, the Type R isn’t just a torch burning brightly for front-drive glory. It’s a first-order driver’s car that has rightly earned its place in the Lightning Lap record books. Honda is back.



Car and Driver

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