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It's totally normal to wake up at 4am and drive 70 miles out to the mountains to go fetch apple donuts when you have a Honda Civic Type-R.Jonathan Gitlin
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The following day I needed to get a couple of things from the grocery store, so I left the house at 4am and drove to one out in the mountains.Jonathan Gitlin
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The interior is not subtle, but the seats are so comfortable and so supportive that you won't care how bright they look if you are sitting in one.Jonathan Gitlin
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I know from past experience that metal gear knobs can get extremely, painfully hot in the summer Sun. The solution appears to be to wake up and drive the car before the sun comes up.
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I'm not being melodramatic when I say the massive bolsters on the seats make getting into the Type-R a little harder than getting in to other Civics.
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Spoilers and scoops and vents adorn the Type-R and direct air where it needs to go—some feed the engine and intercooler, the rest are channeled over and through the body to stick it to the ground.
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Honda took better photos than I did, but most of them are of a Boost Blue car. It was a new color for model year 2020.
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For 2021, there's also a Type-R Limited Edition that comes in this fetching yellow.
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I can't extoll the virtues of Championship White without including an example.
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The only way you get a white and blue one is if you're driving the pace car for the recent Indycar race at Mid-Ohio. The race took place near the factory in Anna, Ohio, where the Type-R's engine is built.
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Unlike Type-Rs of old, this one has to use a turbocharger.Jonathan Gitlin
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No matter how many times I have it explained to me, I still get weirded out by the fact that it has an even number of cylinders but an odd number of exhausts.Jonathan Gitlin
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That air scoop on the top of the hood helps balance front and rear downforce.Jonathan Gitlin
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The rear wing is not subtle.
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These little doodads generate vortices which increase rear downforce.
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The main instrument display is identical to other Civics and the least special thing about the Type-R interior.Jonathan Gitlin
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Alcantara covers the steering wheel, and it feels great.
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The Type-R is still a completely usable five-door hatchback.Jonathan Gitlin
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Which means it does all the same things a normal Civic can do.
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For 2020, Honda added a data-logging smartphone app called LogR, but I did not play with it. You access it through Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
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This kind of data is much more useful after your lapping session, when you can actually look at it as opposed to the track ahead.
After reviewing the entry-level and middle-ranked Honda Civics, it's only fair to extend the same courtesy to the apogee of all things Civic—the $37,495 Type-R. It takes the starfighter styling and turns the dial all the way, adding spoilers and wings and vents and scoops. Underneath all those aerodynamic appendages, the mechanical bits have been similarly stimulated, taking friction out here and quickening response times there. It's Honda's idea of the world's best hot hatch, and after a week in the brightly colored, heavily bolstered driver's seat, I'm inclined to agree.
I didn't need long behind the wheel before I started kicking myself for waiting until 2020 to make friends with the Type-R. It's had a few tweaks here and there since Jim Resnick drove it in 2018. The front grille admits more air, and an uprated radiator core makes use of that to reduce coolant temperatures by up to 10˚C. The bigger grille opening led Honda to reprofile one of the two front spoilers to balance out the efficiency, a change you're unlikely to notice unless you take it off the car and look carefully.There are some stiffer suspension bushings here and there, and the adaptive dampers react 10 times faster than they used to. The front brakes are now two-piece items, so they weigh less and are more resistant to fade. At its core, the Type-R is still a Civic, so it benefited from the same midlife refresh as its cheaper, more numerous siblings—new front and rear bumpers, better infotainment, and a full suite of advanced driver-assistance systems.
New colors, but you should still pick Championship White
And there are some new colors—the bright Boost Blue you see in some of the photos was introduced for model year 2020, and for MY2021 there's a great-looking Phoenix Yellow available on the $43,995 Type-R Limited Edition. (Our test car was Rallye Red, and I still think the correct shade for a Type-R is and always has been Championship White.)
Otherwise, the new Type-R is much the same as a couple of years ago: a 306hp (228kW), 295lb-ft (400Nm) four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox, a helical limited-slip differential, and a suspension design and setup that's unique to the line. In days of old, the power plant of a Type-R Honda would be a highly tuned, naturally aspirated engine with a redline at 8,000 or even 9,000rpm. Today's turbocharged engine is more emissions-friendly but much less mellifluous. The car does have the distinction of having three exhaust pipes for a total of four cylinders, which confuses me the way the three-pipe, eight-cylinder Ferrari F40 confuses me.
The Type-R is a little bit more of a pain to climb into and out of, thanks to the big wings on the seats, and it's a lot more garish. But once you're seated in that deep bucket, there's no denying it's a wonderfully supportive and comfortable place to be. The main touchpoints for the driver stand out from lesser Civics, though—the wheel is wrapped in fuzzy Alcantara, the shifter in solid aluminum, and the three pedals in drilled metal.
The clutch is light and easy to modulate, the throw of the gear lever is short, and there's an auto-blipping function that matches the engine revs when you downshift. Should you need to, you can soft-shoe the Type-R around town like a normal Civic—just shift up at 3,000rpm all the time.
You’ll see many more sunrises if you drive one
But if you wanted a normal Civic, you should have bought one. You should buy a Type-R because you are enthusiastic about driving, and that's because there are few cars on sale today that reward you the way a Civic Type-R can. Even fewer when you consider how accessible it is, both in terms of price and performance.
The Type-R likes to corner, you see. Perhaps that's underselling it. Saying "the Type-R exists to corner" might be more accurate, and it revels in the process. It starts with the initial turn-in, which happens as immediately as you turn the wheel, without even a hint of slack. There's no hint of understeer either—just prodigious grip no matter the corner's radius. You turn, the car goes. Corner exits are pretty good, too, thanks to that limited-slip differential that allows you to really drive out as you apply the power. All the while, you're snug in that brightly colored bucket seat, feeling one with the car.
That sensation is addictive and is best illustrated by the following: the Civic Type-R is one of those rare cars that got me to leave the house at 4am to drive out to the hills of Shenandoah—the nearest set of truly twisty roads—at a time when traffic would be at a minimum. And then again the next day. The second time, I didn't even need to set an alarm clock to wake me.
It's not a car for everyone. Some of you will look at the 25mpg combined (9/4l/100km) and recoil. Others will shrink like violets from the wing-festooned exterior, which is as unsubtle as a supercar, yet somehow more uncouth because it doesn't cost as much as a house. But you can't buy a Ford Focus RS anymore, and honestly the Type-R is more fun to drive than one of those or a Volkswagen Golf R. So if you consider driving fun of the utmost importance, you should try a Type-R. I'm pretty sure you'll thank me.
Listing image by Jonathan Gitlin
The Link LonkOctober 06, 2020 at 04:28AM
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The Honda Civic Type-R is more fun to drive than a supercar - Ars Technica
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