Video: 2023 Honda Civic Type R breaks front-wheel-drive Nurburgring record
Honda’s new Civic Type R has become the fastest front-wheel-drive production car to lap the Nurburgring, four years after the Japanese hot hatch lost its crown.
The 2023 Honda Civic Type R has broken the lap record for front-wheel-drive production cars at the iconic Nurburgring Nordschleife racing circuit in Germany – lowering the bar by just half a second.
Honda’s new-generation ‘FL5’ Civic Type R completed the Nurburgring’s 20.832km layout in seven minutes and 44.881 seconds – 0.508 seconds quicker than the Renault Megane RS Trophy R, which set the previous record of seven minutes and 45.389 seconds in April 2019.
While the previous-generation ‘FK8’ Honda Civic Type R recorded a time in 2017 which was one second quicker than the new record, the lap was set on the Nurburgring’s shorter 20.6km layout – not the 20.832km circuit which has been used since 2019.
In a media statement, Honda said the Civic Type R was fitted with Michelin’s Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect track-focused tyres – which are available to order through dealers in certain countries – rather than the standard-fit, street legal Pilot Sport 4 S rubber.
While the Honda Civic Type R’s rapid lap puts it to the top of the front-wheel-drive timesheets at the Nurburgring, it is more than a minute slower than the fastest street-legal production car, the Mercedes-AMG One.
In November 2022, the Mercedes-AMG One – powered by a championship-winning F1 hybrid engine – completed a lap of the circuit in six minutes and 35.183 seconds, beating the previous record, held by a Porsche 911 GT2 RS with a factory-approved Manthey Performance Kit, by more than eight seconds.
The Nurburgring is now the second circuit where the Honda Civic Type R holds the title of the fastest front-wheel-drive production car, having set the lap record at Japan’s Suzuka Circuit in April 2022.
The new Civic Type R’s Suzuka lap time beat the previous-generation stripped-out, track-focused Civic Type R Limited Edition by eight-tenths of a second and the Renault Megane RS Trophy R by more than two seconds.
In Australia, the 2023 Honda Civic Type R costs $72,600 drive-away, with limited supply of the hot hatch resulting in wait times of more than two years for customers.