Video: 2017 Honda Civic Type R Review

And we had a chance to take it on the street, and on the track. (car engine roaring) Honda's made a lot of changes to the Civic hatchback to turn it into the Type R. And it starts with what's underneath the hood. There's a 306 horsepower, turbocharged, two literm four cylinder engine that makes 295 pound-feet of torque. And it works with a unique six speed manual transmission that sends power to the front wheels through a limited slip differential. The Civic's regular engines offer decent power, but it's nothing like what you find in this car. It pulls very strongly when you keep the engine RPMs up, but it's also smooth and progressive. It doesn't have a peaky turbo feel to it. And it works with the short throw shifter that has a nice mechanical feel to it. The shifter also features rev matching. So when you downshift it automatically blips the throttle to make nice smooth gear changes. In addition to that, this car comes with an adaptive suspension. There are comfort, sport and R modes that adjust suspension feel, and they also change steering feel and throttle aggressiveness. So there's that going on too, to kind of change the character of the car. I thought the comfort mode was actually pretty tolerable on highways, it doesn't beat you up. There is some give to the suspension, some damping more than you might expect in such a performance oriented car, moving to spark firm's things up. And when you get into R, it really clamps down and it turns into sometimes a bumpy ride on certain surfaces. Honda's also made a number of changes to the cabin and chief among them are the Type R sport seats. They're highly bolstered, and they do a good job keeping you in place, whether you're carving corners on the street or the track, but they're also not too narrow. So they're comfortable for everyday driving. I do wish though, that they had adjustable lumbar support for those who like to have more lumbar. Other changes include red accents on the steering wheel and the dash, a serial number plate on the center console and a unique gauge cluster. The Type-R costs about $35,000, including the destination charge. And it's a mono spec car so there are no options to add on from the factory. Now we've been impressed with the Civic since its debut, because it marked a return to the car's fun to drive roots. With the Type R, Honda has amplified all that considerably.