Some four months after the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport was crowned the ‘Ring King, Honda have stolen the show with their all-new Civic Type R.
The automaker posted a time of 7 minutes and 43.8 seconds, which makes it nearly 5.5 seconds quicker around the iconic track than its German rival, and almost 7 seconds faster than its predecessor.
For the run, Honda used a pre-production model, which is said to have been “technically representative of production specification“.
The car had a full floating roll cage for safety reasons, which did not provide any additional rigidity to the body frame according to Honda, and to compensate for the added weight, the rear seats and Display Audio system were removed. Moreover, the Nurburgring record for front-wheel drive production cars was achieved using street legal, track-focused tires.
“The cornering speed achieved in the new Type R is higher because the car features a wider track and tires, a longer wheelbase, a new multi-link suspension in the rear and optimized aerodynamics that improve stability“, commented the lead chassis engineer for the Honda Civic Type R development, Ryuichi Kijima.
Honda’s official gave a good example of proper engineering: “Drivers typically enter the corner after Metzgesfeld at around 150 km/h (93 mph). Even at this medium-speed corner, the speed is around 10 km/h (6mph) higher due to the new Type R’s excellent stability. So, with improved cornering performance, we can increase the speed throughout the lap, helping the new Type R to achieve a much quicker lap time.“
Officially presented during the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, the all-new Honda Civic Type R is the first one of its kind to be offered in North America.
It uses a 2.0-liter VTEC turbo engine that churns out 320PS (316hp) and 400Nm (295 lb-ft) of torque, married to a six-speed manual gearbox. The official naught to 100km/h (62mph) time has yet to be released, but it definitely slashes something off its predecessor’s 5.7sec.
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