It was only moderately terrifying, and it otherwise looks like a blast! Watch the whole thing.
The engine revs spike when the drive wheels get off the ground. The undercarriage scrapes rudely over many, many curbs, and the driver whipsaws the wheel back in line as the Nürburgring keeps trying to spit him out into the rolling green forest of the Rheineland-Palatinate. But at the end, seven minutes and 44 seconds after he started, the unnamed and anonymous Honda Civic Type R driver had set a new front-wheel-drive record for the storied German race track.
A couple of caveats for all you guys who insist that grapefruit must be eaten in halves: the car was fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect tires, which are “available” at dealers but do not come stock on the Type R. The tire was “jointly developed with Michelin using know-how amassed through the development of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S, which is the standard tire on the turbocharged hot hatch.”
It doesn’t look like it has a roll cage, and we can’t tell if they removed any of the seats or the a/c, and the information released by Honda doesn’t say. Let’s assume it’s all stock but the tires. Regardless, a pretty cool achievement.
White car, Green Hell.
Honda
The record they broke was their own, too, set by an earlier Civic Type R in 2017. At that time, the measured distance was actually 761 feet shorter, which accounts for the 2017 car’s quicker time of 7:43.8.
“The lap time was measured based on the official rules instituted in 2019, with a full lap of the Nordschleife, which is 20.832 km long,” Honda explained in a release. “Before 2019, lap times were measured with the lap length of 20.600 km and were not officially certified by the Nürburgring.”
Again, still a cool achievement.
As you know, the Civic Type R is the most powerful Honda has ever sold in the US, with 315 hp from its 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four.
“The high-revving VTEC Turbo engine features direct injection, an electrical waste-gate and a low-inertia high-flow mono scroll turbocharger creating 23.3 psi of maximum boost,” Honda said when the car came out last year. “Horsepower, torque, and response are improved by a redesigned turbocharger, a 10% increase in intake airflow rate, and new, more efficient exhaust system.”
That power goes to the front wheels via a helical limited-slip differential, helping hustle the Type R’s 3188 pounds around the Green Hell with authority. It was a remarkably stable platform to drive at the limit, as we found when it made its US introduction at Sonoma race track last year.
So raise a torque wrench to Honda. And, “Omedetou!” (Congratulations!)
Mark Vaughn Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there.
Keyword: Watch Honda Civic Type R Bang and Bash Its Way to Nürburgring Record