Honda Breaks Another Record with the Civic Type R
Honda’s ‘Type R Challenge 2018’ went to Belgium to take the front-wheel drive production car lap record at Spa.
In true Civic Type R fashion, Honda is sending the FK8 out to collect as many lap records for front-wheel drive cars as they can. Following runs at Germany’s Nurburgring and France’s Magny-Cours racetrack, the FK8 broke the production FWD record for Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium with a time of 2 minutes and 53.72 seconds. The video from the HondaVideo YouTube channel gives us a Type R masterclass from LMP2 champion and Japanese Super GT driver Bertrand Baguette on his home turf.
The previous Spa record was 2 minutes, 56.91 seconds set by the previous generation Civic Type R. Here, Baguette rolls out on the track to deliver a buttery smooth lap with the FK8 and beat the previous car’s record. There’s no sign of drama on the lap despite some high-speed corners with significant elevation changes that can challenge a car’s aerodynamics. The Civic Type R is equally at home in the low-speed technical sections where you would expect understeer to be an issue on any other FWD production car. The only sign of any real stress is the sound of the tires reaching their limit through the corners.
Next up on the tour of European racing venues, Honda expects to mark their territory at the Hungaroring, Silverstone, and Estoril over the summer. The drivers will be changed up for the next set of lap records to include British F1 driver Jenson Button and the Portuguese WTCR hero Tiago Monteiro. Also slated for a drive is triple BTCC Champion Matt Neal who currently races a Type-R in the UK with Halfords Yuasa Racing. We’re particularly looking forward to the Silverstone lap if Neal takes that one. It’s a regular fixture for the BTCC so it’ll be a home track in a very familiar car.
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