Text: Yousef Alvi Photography: Geoff Dennis and Jonathan Walker

Ah the Honda Civic Type R.  The car my generation has lusted over for decades is finally here. So does the hype live up to reality? Absolutely. But not in a way you are expecting. It’s not the face melting grip the Type R can achieve, or the beauty that resides under the hood, or the glory that is the gearbox. To me…the absolute best part of the Type R is how civil it is to live with. To call it a poor man’s 911 seems insulting to me. So I’m going to say it’s an everyman’s 911. A daily driver that is comfortable, quiet, easy to drive, roomy… and then with one stab of the go pedal and crank of the wheel it’s a monster that will decimate asphalt for miles. But without taking a 9th mortgage out on your house to afford.

The Civic Type R may look like it’s going to eat you up and spit you out.  But it’s quiet, peaceful and easy to live with.  It’s the perfect daily driver. It will happily do your daily commute and when the roads open up…flip the drive mode to Sport or R mode.  The Type R will decimate every inch of road in front of you. Nothing I have driven has had this much mechanical grip. Every corner you take can be taken 15 mph faster but trust me…you don’t have the courage. The Type R is better than you in every scenario you throw at it. The brakes are ferocious and has no dead space to it. You just squeeze and stop. Then when you’re done being an imbecile flip the drive mode back to Comfort and cruise home in honest to goodness comfort.  

The constant in my life has been the following “What is the best car you have ever reviewed?” My answer is without a doubt the Audi S8 Plus. That was up until now. Up until I stepped inside this 2018 Honda Civic Type R. Welcome to my new benchmark. Welcome to the Type R