Honda’s New Civic Type R Takes Aim At The Nurburgring
One of the most anticipated numbers to come out from the Civic Type R is its Nurburgring lap time.
Time to place your bets now on how fact the new Civic Type R will make its way around the Nurburgring. Synonymous with all things fast, the Nurburgring is the litmus test and the bar by which all sports cars are measured. 0-60 times? Not too many care any more. Bridge to gantry? Now we’re talking.
As we know from CarScoops, Honda hasn’t released an official time just yet. But Honda is blasting around the ring making sure they prove a point to all the naysayers. And they have to find in total… 3.7 seconds.
That may not sound like a lot, but remember the FK8 was lightyears faster than its predecessor due to a significant horsepower bump. The new Civic Type R may only have a moderate increase in power. So those 3.7 seconds are going to come down to brakes and suspension. And maybe special tires.
The reason why we mention the 3.7 second mark is that the Civic Type R is no longer the fastest hot hatch in town. That title currently sits with the Renault Megan R.S. Trophy-R. It beat the FK8’s time of 7:43.8 by 3.7 seconds at 7:40.10. So there’s not that much room between the two. It works out to be less than 0.3 seconds per mile. It’s that close. A gust of wind could change the outcome.
But Honda knows this. And thats why they are out to prove the new Type R is the new king of FWD. Now, to be realistic, we don’t really expect that this car will pull some kind of magic out of its hat and do a 7:20 lap time. But it’s within the realm of possibility to have something in the 7:35 range. For historical context, cars similar to that (and their lap times) are: the 997 911 GT3 as driven by Walter Rohrl (7:42.0), or even a Gallardo Superlaggera (7:38) driven by Horst Von Suarma. The fact that the FK8 is close to this caliber of performance to begin with means the new Type R may be ready to blow some minds.
Time to prepare a new note in the record books.
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