Lap Time: 3:00.7
Class: LL2 | Base: $45,010 | As Tested: $45,010
Power and Weight: 306 hp • 3084 lb • 10.1 lb/hp
Tires: Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, 245/30ZR-20 (90Y) RO1
We anticipated that the Type R Limited Edition would take back the front-drive lap record from last year's Mini GP by shedding a few pounds and swapping to Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 track rubber. But it delivered a 3.1-second spanking on the Mini, going 3.2 seconds quicker than the previous Type R.
That this hottest Civic is approaching a sub-three-minute lap demonstrates the outrageous gains we've witnessed at Lightning Lap. This Type R not only destroys every other hot hatch but plenty of past Corvettes, M cars, and Porsches too. It ties the quickest car at our first-ever event, a 2006 Ford GT.
Most impressively, the Type R does it without the benefit of mega straight-line speed. To put its chassis superiority into context, no production car has turned a quicker lap time without the benefit of a better power-to-weight ratio and a higher peak speed down the front straight.
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The Type R acts like a real track car, resolutely stiff and solid, with brakes that never faltered as we kept pushing the braking points later and later. Grip in Turn 1 is 9 percent better than the previous Type R and stickier than both Blackwings and the M3 and M5 CS. In the tightest and twistiest sections, the LE one-upped the previous Type R by 0.9 second. But it went no quicker through the Climbing Esses, held back by the available power as we kept our right foot against the floorboard through the left-right-left-right climb up that hairy hill.
Turbo lag requires getting back on the throttle ahead of apexes. Yet the Type R LE is amazingly well balanced for a front-driver, with a generous lift causing it to tuck in to the apex and rotate obediently.
But there are no front-drive or hot-hatch caveats necessary. The now-out-of-production Type R Limited Edition is just plain great, period.
Dave VanderWerp has spent more than 20 years in the automotive industry, in varied roles from engineering to product consulting, and now leading Car and Driver's vehicle-testing efforts. Dave got his very lucky start at C/D by happening to submit an unsolicited resume at just the right time to land a part-time road warrior job when he was a student at the University of Michigan, where he immediately became enthralled with the world of automotive journalism.
