It goes without saying, the king doesn’t stay the king for long on the Nurburgring. There will always be faster and more powerful cars ready to snatch the lap-time crown.
But Honda’s chef engineer – Hisayuki Yagi – stated in an interview with Top Gear magazine that if the FWD lap-time record set by the Civic Type R is beaten, the Japanese car manufacturer will build a faster version of the hot-hatch, to reclaim its rightful place on the gruesome high-demanding circuit.
When the Type R project started, the purpose was to create the fastest front-wheel-drive hatch to lap the Nurburgring. Apparently, the deed was accomplished successfully, but the car that registered the 7:50:63 time was a prototype.
Nevertheless, Hisayuki Yagi insists that the vehicle was exactly as any normal Civic Type R – if you could call a Type R “normal” – even if it didn’t have air-conditioning and sported a roll cage (for safety reasons, not to increase rigidity).
Anyway, when asked what would Honda do if a super-racer – unrelated to normal hot-hatch – would take the record, Hisayuki Yagi stated: “Well, if it’s a strictly limited edition, then we would have to think carefully whether we would do a car to beat that. But on the other hand, if a rival makes a car of comparable spec and features as the Type R, we would have to go back and beat it.”
He continued to affirm that the most important aspect in setting super-fast times is power-to weight ratio and that the Civic Type R has room for improvement. A lighter and slightly powerful version would be the way to go, but nothing over the top.
So, shall we expect a more powerful and lighter Civic Type R in the near future? Well, you heard the man. The rest is up to Peugeot, Renault, Ford and other wizards in hot-hatchery.
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