Bummer: 2023 Civic Type R Drag Race Exposes Stick Shift Woes
Despite being the lightest car in this test of similarly powered vehicles, the 2023 Civic Type R trades some performance for driving pleasure.
For many years, automotive enthusiasts of all types faced a pretty easy decision when it can time to choose between a manual and automatic transmission – if you wanted to go fast, you opted to row your own. Heck, in many cases, performance-focused vehicles weren’t even offered with anything but a manual, but the times, they certainly have changed. These days, while we still love our manual transmissions, those types of gearboxes are slowly going the way of the dinosaur thanks to the rise of quicker-shifting automatics. If one needs proof as to why this is the case, look no further than this recent video from CarWow.
In its latest drag racing extravaganza, the popular YouTube channel rounded up a pretty wide range of rivals – the 2023 Civic Type R, Golf R 20 Year, Mercedes-AMG A35, BMW M135i, and Audi S3. It’s a relatively even field, for the most part, but the Honda is the only vehicle out of this lineup that’s equipped with a manual transmission – a fact that gives it a distinct disadvantage in a straight line, it seems.
The latest CTR is equipped with a turbocharged, 2.0-liter four cylinder that cranks out 329 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque, which it sends to the front wheels, of course. Here’s it’s going head to head with the Golf R, which has its own 2.0-liter four making 333 hp and the same 310 pound-feet, the S3, which also has a 2.0 four making 310 horsepower and 295 pound-feet, the AMG’s 2.0 churning out 306 hp and 205 pound-feet, and the Bimmer, which rounds out this turbo 2.0-liter-powered group with 306 horsepower and 332 pound-feet.
The Civic does have one big thing going for it – it’s the lightest vehicle in this particular test, followed by the VW, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, but is that enough to overcome its speedier-shifting foes? Well, the short and long answer is no – it’s slower off the line and hangs behind its rivals the entire way down the track. The AMG barely edges out the Golf R with nearly identical 12.5-second passes, followed by the BMW at 12.9 seconds, the Audi with a 13.0-second pass, while the Type R records a solid 14.1-second run.
The Civic fares better in a roll race, finishing third behind the A35 and S3, but from a dig, it’s clearly the gearbox that’s slowing down what otherwise might be a ringer in this particular showdown. Regardless, while this serves as a bit of a wakeup call for those looking to purchase a new Type R to drag race, we’re betting that most enthusiasts will still prefer taking the old fashioned, do it yourself route when making a transmission choice.
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