All eyes are on Honda these past few weeks, as more tests demonstrate why the Civic Type R is shaping up to be one of the best compact hot hatches of the year.
So far, we have learned that its ride quality might actually be better than the Ford Focus RS and Subaru WRX STI, and that its clever engineering makes up for the missing all-wheel drive system.
Now, we can also cut the 0 to 200km/h (124mph) sprint from our bucket lists, after MotorsportMagazine has put it to the test, though they didn’t stop at 200km/h (124mph), as the needle eventually went up to 233km/h (145mph).
Honda currently holds the Nurburgring lap record for front-wheel drive cars with the new Civic Type R, which managed to go around the German circuit in just 7 minutes and 43.80 seconds, thus becoming around 5.5 seconds quicker than the previous record holder, the VW Golf GTI Clubsport.
The compact hot hatch has a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine that pushes 320PS (316hp) and 400Nm (295lb-ft) of torque to the front wheels, through a 6-speed manual gearbox. We still don’t know how much it needs to reach 100km/h (62mph) from a standstill, as the Japanese automaker has yet to release this number, but it’s most certainly faster than the previous model, which took 5.7sec.