The Honda Civic Type-R took to the Nurburgring to prove that it is more than just wheel arches, hood scoops and giant wings. While most of its competitors have gone to all wheel drive to put down the enormous power of this generation of scorching-hot hatches, Honda seems to be stuck in the past of relying on trick suspension and differentials to make front wheel drive work.
They may be working with last year's tech, but at least they absolutely nailed it. Completing a lap of the 'Ring in 7:43.8, The Civic Type-R now claims to be the world's fastest front wheel drive production car on the track. Honda did put in a roll cage for safety but claimed that it did not help the car's rigidity and the weight was offset by removing the seats and infotainment system to keep the car the same weight as the production model.
The previous record holder, the Vokswagen GTI Clubsport, did the lap in 7:47.19. And That particular GTI was designed specifically for this track and lost most of the usability that makes a typical GTI such a great all-around car.
In case you are thinking of dismissing a front wheel drive lap record because of which wheels did the driving, here are some notable cars the Civic Type-R beat around the Ring from NurburgringLapTimes.com:
Pagani Zonda C12 S - 2002
Audi R8 V10 5.2 FSI - 2009
Mercedes C 63 AMG Coupe Black Series - 2011
BMW M4 - 2015
Now, all of the typical caveats apply because there is no official organization that confirms the times of these cars, no asterisks were added for weather or traffic, and there is no way to tell if there was any trickery involved, but those are some seriously fast cars that, under whatever circumstances, went around a world famous race track slower than a Civic.
Related: This could be the first production Civic Type R on US roads