Which is more fun to tune-a Civic or a Corolla? On that simple premise perhaps lies one good reason why the Civic is still ahead of the Corolla on the sales charts. For road use, one will be entertained more by tweaking a Civic. Pushing the boundaries of performance and appearance (and sometimes of good taste!) ranges from a simple wheel-and-tire upgrade to a full-blown supercharger.
Now if your average Juan de la Cruz knows a thing or two about souping up his Civic, then trust Honda to come out with its own version. Enter the Civic Type R, R for Racing of course!
This Type R designation began with the Honda Integra. Sitting on bright red Recaro sport seats and grasping a titanium gearknob, you could propel your Integra Type R from zip to 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds. It gained a reputation as being the best-handling front-wheel drive car in the world. Last year, the Accord Type R came out in Europe, with a 212-bhp version of the 2.2 liter VTEC engine. Ads for the Accord Type R featured Damon Hill roaring home in a passion-orange blur. The Civic Type R came out somewhere in between with less fanfare that its siblings.
Perhaps the character of the Type Rs can be gleaned from which bodyshell Honda chose for the model. The Integra Type R is a coupe, appropriate given its superb handling and highly-tossable chassis. The Accord is a roomy four-door sedan, highlighting its comfortable and practical nature despite the eager engine and precise suspension lurking underneath. As an Ultra-Low Emissions vehicle, it’s an eco-friendly supercar. The Civic Type R is a hatchback. With its compact dimensions and very little rear overhang, the Civic is indeed the speed freak in a family of racers.
Lacking four-wheel drive capability, the Type R cannot hope to contest the World Rally Championship. Rather, its crosshairs are on winning races such as the Southeast Asia Touring Car Championship, where this particular Type R has indeed been waging battle bearing the Soundbase flag.
If you think 160 ps from the Civic SiR’s 1.6 DOHC VTEC is impressive, what about 185 ps? That’s what the Type R’s b16b engine produces. Torque is a lowly 160 Nm, compared to a stock Accord 2.3’s 210 Nm@ That comes at a very inaccessible 7500 rpm, too. For racing though you’d probably keep the revs up, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Max power is also reached a stratospheric high of 8200 rpm. The peak is more impressive here, 185 ps. Where other engines would begin to self-destruct, the Type R’s is just beginning to wake up.
Soundbase’s Type R has a little more than that, about 195 ps. Some of that comes from a new air filter and exhaust system. The ECU has also been swapped for a Mugen unit, which remaps the engine functions to better suit race conditions.
The 195 ps engine may be the main attraction here, but playing a strong supporting role is the reinforced suspension. No need to purchase new springs here-the Type R is already lowered by 20 mm from the normal Civic. The tires themselves are just 195/55-15s, but the double wishbones on all four corners takes full advantage of their available traction.
The stiffened suspension creates additional stresses on the chassis, and the engineers at Tochigi are ready with reinforcements at strategic points on the chassis. These additional bits of metal welded at just the right junctions help the Type R corner with ease and fluidity. Brakes, taken from the mighty NSX, are up to the task of hauling down the Type R repeatedly for a whole race distance.
The Type R’s weight has been pared down by elimination of sound and some heat insulation, and it weighs in at 1070 kg, even with the added chassis reinforcements, this helps to make sure that the high-rev biased engine can pull the car around with little difficulty. That’s 1070 kg with all the creature comforts like aircon and small things like door trim and carpets! Stripped down, and with a racing fuel tank, the car weighs in at about 850 kg only.
Even with all those changes, this Civic can disappear into a queue of ordinary Civic hatchbacks. There are very few styling cues that differentiate it. It’s available in four colors: white (of course, the traditional Type R color), black, silver and bright yellow-Jordan yellow? There’s a front airdam, and rear and side skirts. A small spoiler is also attached to the top of the rear hatch. Discreet red “H” are at front and rear, and “Type R” badges are at the rear flanks, and…that’s it. Those needing more attention need not apply, then. The stock five-lug alloy wheels look good on this car!
The interior will be familiar to all of you Civic owners out there. A relief from all the gray plastic is a splash of bright red-the pair of Recaro buckets in the front. A titanium gearknob connects your hand to the close-ratio five-speed gearbox.
The results of all this painstaking work? A day at Planet Speed in Filinvest Corporate City proved the Civic’s mettle. Even battling against Formula-Toyota engined Corollas and race-prepared Civic SiRs, the Type R was able to snarl and roar its way past its opponents.
Despite its wearing treaded road tires versus the others’ slicks, the Type R was able to corner faster more consistently. Using the Type R’s superior handling, Driver Angelo Barretto was able to overcome the car’s power deficiency (!). From down in 6th on the starting grid he ultimately took 2nd place in the first race and 3rd in the second
We’re not sure if you’d want to be driving this car to work or school every single day, given that it’s quite noisy and the ride more harsh than the standard car. If you can afford to get one for weekend or track use, however, this car is well worth the money, all P785,000 of it. Don’t rush to your dealer, though-all Civic Type Rs are right-hand drive, Japan-only cars. We can only hope that they will spread the wealth around with the next Civic Type R.
No doubt, this Civic has earned its red “H” badges. They proudly proclaim that no tuner can coax out the race car like Honda itself.
Text By Redline | Photos By Redline, Tamago and Honda Japan
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
