2023 Honda Civic Type R at Lightning Lap 2023

Here’s one for the impatient. The Honda Civic Type R is the perfect track car for line jumpers, nail biters, and folks who just don’t want to spend life waiting. First corner: the long right-hander that calls for a slow roll into the throttle on exit. Most powerful front- drivers like the Type R easily overwhelm their front tires and dart wide if you’re on the gas too early. The Civic requires no patience. Hit the gas, and the helical-type limited-slip differential and crafty front strut designed to minimize torque steer from the 315-hp engine shoot you smoothly out of the corner without diverting from the steering’s path. Some in-corner traction credit should go to the widest factory rubber on any front-driver ever, 265/30ZR-19. On top of that, Honda offers Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires that give this car, with 61.7 percent of its weight on the nose, the second-highest level of grip of any front-driver we’ve tested in Turn 1 (1.06 g’s), trailing the previous-gen Type R Limited Edition by 0.02 g.

This is also the best-shifting front-driver we can recall. Silky, smooth—all the adjectives from a bottle of Pantene apply to the six-speed’s linkage, even after 26 shifts per lap. The gearing gets caught out in a couple of places on the track, requiring the driver to shift at inopportune times. A great automatic makes setting a lap time easier. At least one of us in a moment of frustration said, “Save the manuals . . . for the street.”

Under braking in Sport or +R modes, the car skipped over pavement ripples until we switched the adaptive dampers to Comfort mode. A higher level of wheel compliance and an elevated sense of being less top-heavy than the Toyota GR Corolla makes the Type R a bit easier to hustle to a sub-3:00 time. Its 2:58.8 lap is a new front-drive record and 1.9 seconds quicker than the old Type R Limited Edition. A reward for your impatience.

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