Payne: Honda Civic Type R is new FWD King of Nürburgring

Posted by Talbot Payne on April 26, 2023

Manufactured in Indiana for the U.S. market, the affordable, ubiquitous Honda Civic has been the best-selling retail passenger car here for the last six years.

It is also the new lap record holder at the world’s most formidable race track.

The Civic’s ferocious, winged, Type R performance variant just torched Nürburgring, Germany’s Nordschliefe race track with a 7:44.9-minute lap time, setting the lap record around the 13-mile, 154-turn circuit for front-wheel drive cars. The Nürburgring’s “Green Hell” is revered as the globe’s most difficult track and has become the standard for automakers to show off their vehicles’ capabilities.

The feat by the $44,390 Type R (made in Japan unlike other U.S.-market Civic models) is also a reflection of the enormous versatility of the compact car class, with multiple manufacturers offering variants ranging from $22,000 entry-level gas-sippers to $44,000 tire-smoking hellions. In the United States, the class has been abandoned by domestic manufacturers, but is still heavily populated by foreign carmakers offering familiar badges like the Civic, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda3, Kia Forte, Nissan Sentra and Volkswagen Jetta.

Kia and Nissan aside, the aforementioned makers also offer segment-topping performance cars that not only can give a rear-wheel-drive Ford Mustang GT a run for its money but also compete in race series around the world.

The Civic now holds bragging rights at Nürburgring.

The second generation of the most-powerful Civic ever made for the U.S. market, Type R spits out 315 horsepower from its turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine — nearly doubling the output of the standard Civic’s 158-horse turbo-4. Key to mastering the multiple, 100-mph turns around the ’Ring, the Civic Type R was fitted with flypaper-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect tires.

“The all-new Civic Type R strived for the ultimate front-wheel-drive sports car,” said Civic Type R Development Leader Hideki Kakinuma. “We had one more mission to fulfill, which was to claim the title as the world’s fastest FWD car with a record Nürburgring lap time.”

Nürburgring has long been the standard for performance, and — six years ago — the last-gen Type R set the track’s FWD mark. All times were recorded by manufacturers and considered unofficial. Beginning in 2019, the Nürburgring facility instituted official rules for time attacks, establishing an official track configuration of 12.9 miles (the old configuration was about 0.12 miles shorter).

Nurburgring FWD record: 2023 Honda Civic Type R on the 13-mile Nordschliefe circuit.

The Civic Type R’s record eclipsed the time of 7:45.4 seconds set by a Renault Megane R.S. Trophy-R (a car not sold in the United States) that had stood for four years.

The lap times are instructive in showing the relative capabilities of different classes of cars. The Type R’s lap is not far shy of the fastest battery-powered vehicle lap, set by the $189,000, 750-horsepower Porsche Taycan Turbo S (7:33.4 minutes). Though featuring less than half the horsepower of the Porsche, the nimble Type R carries about 35% less weight.

The Honda is well off the fastest time for a rear-wheel-drive car — the BMW M4 CSL — at 7:20.2 minutes. The fastest production car, the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, got around the Nürburgring in under seven minutes at 6:48 flat.

The absolute lap record around the Green Hell? A ridiculous 5:19.5 minutes by the 1,160-horsepower, 1,870-pound, rear-wheel-drive Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo race car.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.

Comments are closed.