Drive The 2007 Honda Civic Type R

At Suzuka Circuit with the ultimate Civic Type R

The brilliant white paint and strong red accents of the 2007 Honda Civic Type R are far more than just an eye-catching graphic. These are the national racing colors of Japan taken from the Hinomaru, the "sun disc" of the national flag, and they signify the intense pride Honda takes in its motorsport history.

If Honda can be said to have a car that currently expresses its racing heritage, the 2007 Honda Civic Type R is it.

Although a Civic Type R coupe has been recently introduced in Britain, this 222-horsepower Type R is entirely different, conceived and built by the Honda engineers who do their ride-and-handling work at Suzuka Circuit, the former site of the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Japan.

The Honda Way of Motorsport
The first Civic Type R appeared in 1995, and succeeding iterations arrived in 1997 and 2001. In Japan, a Type R badge is the cultural equivalent of a Shelby logo on a Mustang, a visual cue that you drive a specially tuned car that's keenly desirable.

Honda's subsidiary in Britain recently developed a Civic Type R for the European market, largely to counter the Civic's stodgy reputation there. The 198-hp coupe with its GranTurismo-style video-game styling has attracted a lot of attention. In comparison, the Japanese-built Civic Type R is based on a family-friendly sedan, and the car looks a little clumsy, as if its speed parts had been applied as an afterthought.

Yet the Japan-spec Type R is simply in a different league than its European counterpart. It weighs exactly 2,800 pounds just like the Brit-spec R, yet just about every major piece of hardware has been tweaked, including the engine, the body structure, the suspension and the brakes.

This is the quickest front-wheel-drive Type R ever built.

Suzuka Circuit, the Type R's Spiritual Home
To ensure that we fully understood the Type R's elevated position in a domestic lineup riddled with ho-hum family-oriented minivans, Honda invited us to drive the car at Suzuka Circuit. This Honda-owned facility is near many of the company's largest assembly plants and has hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Japan until this year.

Suzuka is Honda's spiritual home, 3.6 miles of asphalt where the engineers come to gauge the goodness of their most ambitious cars and motorcycles. For Honda, this is hallowed ground, where back in 1990 company founder Sochiro Hondo himself invited Formula 1 champion Ayrton Senna to drive the NSX, the first midengine supercar from Japan.

Suzuka's magical figure-8 layout features long straightaways, high-speed bends, tricky double-apex corners and a notorious series of high-speed esses. Once Honda disconnects the Civic Type R's government-mandated governor, which limits the top speed of every car in this country to 115 mph, we're free to push the car to its limit.

Inheriting 222 Horses
Soon enough we're screaming along the long, slightly uphill back straightaway toward the famous flat-out bend known as 130R and we're too nervous to look down to see exactly how fast we're going.

While the Euro-spec Civic Type R employs basically the same DOHC 2.0-liter inline-4 as the 197-hp power plant of the U.S.-spec Civic Si, this Japan-spec engine is different. It starts as the 2.0-liter four-cylinder of the Accord Euro R that's sold in the Japanese market. With a larger throttle body, an intake manifold that features 5mm larger ports that have been polished just like an NSX manifold, and a taller compression ratio of 11.7:1, the K20A spins out 222 hp at 8,000 rpm, some 111 hp per liter.

This engine effortlessly revs to its 8,400-rpm redline, roaring in that high-pitched way that announces Honda's step-type i-VTEC variable valve timing. Up against the turbocharged 2.5-liter engine of the Ford Focus ST with its 236 lb-ft of torque, the Type R's 159 lb-ft of torque at 6,100 rpm seems a little inadequate. But as long as you're willing to stand on the gas and keep the engine hovering around 5,800 rpm where i-VTEC can do you some good, you'll have plenty of pulling power on tap.

In addition, the closely spaced ratios of the six-speed transmission help make sure you're always in the right gear. Third gear is effectively 4 percent shorter, and a 4th and 5th gear stack up shorter as well. The helical-type limited-slip differential (absent from the European Type R) effectively sends more torque to the outside front wheel in a corner, so the car carves the asphalt as it leaves an apex behind.

Mitsuru Kariya, chief engineer for the Civic Type, says, "Drivers will feel the difference working through the gears. They're accurate, pinpoint and the car tells you exactly what's happening. This car shines on a track."

We agree with him. Very few cars give you such a thrill for so little money as the Type R. When this car's unique tachometer starts to light up as you pass through various "REV" stages from 5,800 rpm to 8,000 rpm, you know you're in something quite special.

Handling the Power
Improved chassis rigidity also sets apart the Japanese-spec Type R from its British counterpart. The sedan features 50 percent greater rigidity than the coupe thanks to reinforced front and rear bulkheads, thicker crossmembers and a stouter front subframe.

The sedan's double-wishbone rear suspension also complements the front MacPherson struts. The Type R has stiffer springs (especially in the rear), yet the dampers seem to be a match for them, and there's stiffer bushings for the front antiroll bar.

As you'd expect, the Type R turns in exquisitely at the limit and there are bundles of grip through the 225/40R18 Potenza RE070s. The tires send loads of information to you through the steering wheel and the car is superbly balanced, with almost no understeer. The combination of a rigid chassis, aggressive suspension, responsive steering and sticky Potenzas enable the Type R to carry huge speed through the corners.

As you approach Suzuka's first big corner at the end of the pit straight, you wash off the excess speed instantly as the four-piston Brembo calipers clamp down on big 12.6-inch rotors. Even after six testing laps of Suzuka, these outstanding brakes won't fade. Stick your foot into this sedan through Suzuka's famous Esses and the rear end comes around just enough to follow the line set by the front tires. Get the weight forward and turn in quickly and the tail will slide, but correction is progressive and the whole process is low on stress.

Looking the Part
When you're behind the wheel of this Type R, it doesn't look quite like the game console you find in the Euro-spec car, but it's still enough to overload the senses. The three-tone interior treatment of red, black and silver really sets the mood. Of course there's a big red start-stop button, which is appearing in every performance car these days.

Since this is a sedan and not a coupe, there's enough headroom for a 6-foot-2 driver, even while wearing a helmet. A unique driver seat with a reinforced frame helps to hold you firmly in place even as you carve through 130R corner.

The exterior looks mundane from a distance, yet the bodywork features some worthwhile changes, including different front and rear bumper covers and a rear aero diffuser.

Too Cheap
At a price of about $25,000 in Japan, the Civic Type R seems pretty affordable thanks to the weak currency-exchange value of the Yen, especially compared to the $34,000 price of the Brit-made Type R. Honda has limited production of the Type R to 400 per month, and predictably it's selling every one.

Just when you think the world of high performance might be passing Honda by, the 2007 Civic Type R shows us that this company has a real motorsport tradition and knows what to do with it. Now, if they'd just find a place for this car in the States.