NEWS
In the middle of last month, Honda teased its upcoming Phoenix Yellow-painted 2021 Civic Type R Limited Edition doing … something … at the famed Suzuka International Racing Course, a racetrack in Japan built and owned by Honda. We thought it might be there to try to set a lap record. Now we know for sure what it was doing: setting a lap record for front-wheel-drive cars. (Sometimes these things are a bit predictable.)
Related: 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition Getting Closer to Launch
Home-track advantage aside, the Limited Edition — with its additional weight savings and recalibrated suspension and steering compared to a “regular” Type R — blazed around the circuit in 2 minutes, 23.993 seconds. That beats the previous record set by a Renault Megane R.S. Trophy-R by almost 1.5 seconds, and, according to data at FastestLap.com, is also faster than some extremely famous cars like the Ferrari F40 and F50.
The Limited Edition was a test car “built to final European production specifications, with no modifications or performance enhancements” and driven by Super GT driver Takuya Izawa. You can watch the entire record lap here:
Assuming the world opens up at some point, it seems like Honda might want to take the Type R Limited Edition to Germany and the Nurburgring— the usual place for lap records and manufacturer bragging rights, and where the former Suzuka record-holding Renault is also the current FWD record holder.
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Pricing and ordering information isn’t yet available for the 2021 Civic Type R Limited Edition, and just 600 units will make their way to the U.S. later this year.
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