MUGEN Civic Type R confirmed for limited production
October 23, 2009 by George Skentzos
Honda’s in-house tuning arm, MUGEN, has confirmed a limited production run of the Civic Type R MUGEN, following huge interest in the concept version from the UK and overseas.
Only 20 cars will be hand-built in the UK by MUGEN with customers receiving a unique, involved experience during the build process of each car.
With over two decades experience tuning Honda engines for motor racing, MUGEN engineers have spent countless hours perfecting the 2.0-litre i-VTEC engine to increase power by 20 per cent to 179kW and boost torque by more than 10 per cent throughout the rev range.
The engine features new camshafts and pistons which help increase the compression ratio, as well as a modified intake system and custom steel exhaust system to help it breathe.
“MUGEN engineers pay incredible attention to detail, often measuring to one thousandth of a millimetre when tuning and rebuilding an engine, and this process typically takes approximately seven days of work,” says Hiroki Toyoda.
“When our engineers aren’t building customer engines, they are at circuits with top level race and rally teams helping to manage and prepare race engines. We are very proud to bring our motorsport experience to the road with this high performance Honda engine, the very first time that a MUGEN-tuned engine has ever been offered for use on the road in the UK.”
This extra grunt is transferred to the road through a limited slip differential, and grip and handling are also significantly improved through a completely revised suspension set-up, with custom-made springs and dampers employed.
Improved stopping power comes via a bespoke four-piston mono-block racing brake callipers, which sit under high-density, lightweight forged alloy wheels which weigh just 7.85kg each.
The MUGEN model is distinguishable by the large wing which adorns the back of the car along with new front and rear skirts and a new grille wearing the MUGEN emblem.
Every Civic Type R MUGEN will be painted in Honda’s famous Championship White – the traditional racing colour of the brand – with a special badge inside on the centre console listing the unique serial number of each model to authenticate the car’s exclusivity.
MUGEN will also offer an optional ‘Track Pack’ ideal for circuit use which includes front Recaro seats, removal of the rear seat bench with a composite blanking panel fitted to reduce weight, water and oil temperature/pressure gauges, data recording equipment, and track-ready road-legal tyres.
UK buyers will have to fork out £38,599 – or around $70,000 Australian – for the privilege of owning a Civic Type R MUGEN, although Honda says this is cheap considering MUGEN would typically charge £165,000 for a full racing Type R.
Print it: 
Still looks like awesomeness.
Extremely expensive but if only 20 are being built it makes them very exclusive.
Potential buyers at least have the option of the rear seat bench being included or removed(track pack).
The red coloured “concept” model in England has really been showing more powerful cars such as the Ford RS,WRX 330S,GTI and MPS3 a clean set of “heels” on track comparisions.
Apparently it’s more comfortable than the regular Type R in dealing with B roads.
Nice, but thats STI money. That would be a road comparison review worth reading
Why not just use a proper engine to begin with?
I’m going to get flamed for this, but the new Type R are awful cars, all the competition went turbo a long time ago. Honda is behind the 8 ball when it comes to performance.
Your short sightness and “follow as sheep” mentality really shows up with that statement.
Your first sentence just simply astounds me of your lack of knowledge..”a proper engine…” what utter rubbish.That Mugen engine is sensational.
Don’t you see that all these hot hatches/sedans are basically all the same with their turbo charged engines.Honda offers up something different with a bit of “soul”if you like,and people like you rubbish it!
It seems that the competitors are behind the 8th ball in regards to performance, hence their reliance on turbos.
I own a Civic Type R and it’s a fantastic drive especially along roads such as the Great Ocean Road and it’s easy to live with on a daily basis.
Your living in the past. The Civic Type R is an absolute pain in the ass to drive compared to the turbo opposition. Soul?? Haha more like no torque when you need it most. You might argue that ‘you can drive around it’ but why should you need to drive around a cars weak points?? The only place it would make sense would be on the track, buts it front drive any anyone with half a brain would buy a rear-driver…
The JDM Mugen RR is much better than this…
In what way.?.explain yourself!
Ummm..
-Looks
-Price
-They made 300
-Lightweight carbonfibreness
looks are subjective i prefer the UK model
Price doesnt matter to those who buy this
20 is more exclusive than 300
38K pound sterling? Why bother, the BMW 335i M sport highline coupe is a couple of grand cheaper, more comfortable and would eat this Mugen on a striaght and on a B road. Now if it were 30K pound sterling it would be worth it.
You didnt read the part about them making 20??? There’s a reason its 38K…
Yes I did, and I’d still buy the mass produced 335i because all these Mugen’s will end up in spanish chop shops and the BMW is a better car.
With that sort of money, I would rather get an Evo or 135i. They only build 20 so they have an excuse to have them overpriced.
Let me guess you have to rev this to 20,000rpm before it does something? Honda/Mugen need to realise this isn’t a motorbike, it’s a car!
FastHonda stop kidding yourself that this car is so awesome because it doesn’t have a turbo, and thus isn’t “comprimised” as the designers seem to describe it. How much extra fuel does it have to dump into the cylinders to get something half decent out of it? 3 MPS uses similar fuel and I know which one I’d take.
Even if I had 70,000 I wouldn’t even consider this, even the 40k for the current Aus version. Even if I was given this car for free, I’d have a for sale sticker on it the same day.
FYI I did actually look at the Civic Type R back in 07-08, and realised it was a waste of time, just a boy racer wannabe car with some bling.
Regards
Whitbomb07
Hence why I bought the Leon Cupra R in the UK instead of the Type R. The turbo shunt at 1850RPM was much more enjoyable than wnding it up to 6,500 to get the most out of my machine.
Awesome!Civic Type-R looks great, this will surely make fanatics heart skip particularly the Mugen lovers…I just love this very cool car.
It’s been very impressive on the track.Spanking the likes of the Mazda MPS 3,WRX,Ford Focus RS,GTI and others.
Check out the British CAR Magazine site and the Autocar Mag(not yet published) both carried out tests with the cars.
And on the road it would spanked by all of the above, especially on a rolling start…
Really?!ha!..ha!it’s hard for you to accept that a NA car can be so good!
So you’re bragging because the TURBOCHARGED cars have more torque and power and thus can pull ahead of the Mugen in such a race?
For a while,of course they would get the lead but apart from the Focus RS,the others would be “coughing and spluttering” at the top end while the Mugen would breeze past them.
You people dont get it.
Its appealing to a different audience for god sake.
Everyone has their own turbo-hot-hatch out there, but Honda’s staying true to its roots and building a weeny screaming i-VTEC monster engine.
Then Mugen came along…. ;)
I would buy the turbo car simply because I adore turbo’s, but I know my aunty HATES them so she bought the Type-R and she just loves revving it’s guts out.
Cant do that in a turbo car, or at least, theres no point.
And they do have a target market. One day I will buy a car like this, a rev-me-till-i-spit-my-crank-in-your-face engine.
Its not behind the eight-ball, its a different sort of strategy.
Audi RS4? Why isn’t that turbocharged.
BMW M3? Why?
Lexus LF-A? Why?
Porsche 911 GT3? Why?
Sure, different cars, but theory is the same. hard-ass revving engines without turbo.
But why do they have to spend “countless hours perfecting the 2.0-litre i-VTEC” when they can just drop the S2000 engine in?
All those engines are much bigger, and have decent torque at low RPM. Plus even the next M3 and RS4 are probably going to be turbocharged and Porches GT2 is turbocharged. Why spend all that money and research in making an engine rev so hard, when you could get a much cheaper lower spec engine and put a turbo on it. A turbo standard civic engine would be cheaper, have better performance and better fuel economy.
People don’t understand the philosophy of Honda or Mugen for that matter.
It’s quite easy isn’t,to simply attach a turbo or supercharger?Mugen lives for the challenge of extracting as much KW from a NA engine.Turbo charging is a too easy solution for them and Honda.Where is the challenge in that?
I’m not anti-turbo but at this point in time I don’t see Honda or Mugen releasing a turbo charged performance car in the near future
too bad it’s not coming here
i can see a lot of overseas students are unhappy
is exclusivity even a word?
Yep it’s the noun form.Just looked it up on Dictionary.com
Anthony.
Dude, why spend all that money making an engine rev so hard? Some people LIKE that, hence Honda’s performance sales and reputation for the last twenty years. I can tell you now, a majority of the kids at my school either own a Honda or want one. I’m looking to buy a late 80’s Prelude because they’re the most fun this side of five grand.
The S2000 is a pretty old car these days, but as far as I know, its still number one in world consumer satisfaction surveys. Thats not turbo.
Also, as far as ive seen, theres a lot more press (and positive at that) on the GT3 than there is on the GT2. On top of that, reviews of the GT3 state that you have to rev its guts out to get all the power.
The only reason a lot of cars are going turbo these days is economy. I can almost guarantee you the only reason the M3 and the -stratospherically revving- M5 are going to turbo’s is because of economy and BMW’s new direction.
M sport has always specialised in Naturally Aspirated engines before.