We have been spoilt for choice when it comes to great cars over the past decade. Beautifully styled machines, fast ones with great backstories, and many that represent the last of their kind. It won’t take long for people to start flicking through the classifieds and begin making speculative purchases as to what will become a future classic. The FK2 Honda Civic Type R is not an obvious choice for such a shortlist, but hear me out.
Offensive to look at, don’t you think? The FK2 generation Type R really didn’t care for the refined look. If something like a Golf R is a well-mannered chap in a button shirt, this hot hatch is the equivalent of a teenager with a fresh antisocial behaviour order. Its BTCC inspired bodykit is far from pretty, with that huge wing and swollen wheel arches making for a less than subtle means of getting to a funeral. However, it does produce real downforce and was a contributing factor to this car’s Nurburgring lap record when new.
The four-seat interior is dominated by a pair of huge bolstered sports seats, each finished in red Alcantara. Magnificently supportive for track use, if not elegant to get out of in the Tesco car park, they brought a real sense of occasion to what is otherwise the regular Civic’s cabin. While this Type R seats one less than its more supermarket focused base model, the boot was the largest in its class. That might not sound like much of a selling point in the world of fast cars, but a hot hatch also has to be capable of serving as a daily driver.
Under the bonnet of the FK2 was an all-new 2.0-litre turbocharged VTEC engine. This was a big departure from the high-revving screamers of old, but it was quickly accepted as being a fantastic motor, packing 306bhp and 400Nm of torque. It’s that torque that really punched this hatch to the horizon and grants a 0-62mph time of just 5.7 seconds. Charging through its deliciously mechanical six-speed manual transmission is something to be relished. After a road trip that took in some German autobahns, I can assure you that this Type R is capable of surpassing its official 167mph top speed.
It’s not just about how the Type R goes in a straight line that makes it special, quite the opposite. Its huge Brembo brakes are powerful and easy to modulate, allowing the driver to really manipulate weight transfer when driving hard. Fast steering, excellent body control and sticky continental tyres made for one of the best handling performance hatchbacks of its generation. However, there was another layer of performance to be unlocked via the +R button.
Push the ominous glowing button and the Type R literally turns itself up to 11. The suspension tightens up, the throttle is even more alert, steering becomes heavier and a more aggressive torque map is applied to the engine. Too brittle for the road, this setting allows you to really get the most out of this car on track. It’s such a wonderfully communicative time behind the wheel as you tackle a seriously challenging circuit. Performance is frantic, the drive engaging and its overall capabilities nothing short of pulse raising. How its clever dual-axis suspension tamed a front-wheel drive machine with this much power is still impressive today.
Ok, so it’s a fast thing that’s worthy of the Type R badge, but being very good doesn’t automatically qualify it as a future classic. A set of specific circumstances helps the FK2’s case, even if they hindered it when new. Only a few thousand FK2s were produced with some buyers put off by those incredibly divisive looks. Other people decided to wait for the headline grabbing Ford Focus RS that launched shortly after. A final nail in this Type R’s coffin was the fact that it was rather rough and ready. It wanted to play all of the time, and the raw attitude to suspension damping made it a bit too much for those looking to use it everyday. The net result is that this car is not in abundance, and certainly far rarer than its FK8 successor that was also sold in America.
The passage of time will inevitably see greater depreciation, and sadly a period of fewer of them being on the road. However, looking at how the world of the hot hatch has evolved over the past few years, a more hardcore old-school flavour will likely be mighty appealing in a sanitised future.
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Keyword: Why the FK2 Honda Civic Type R is a future classic