2020 Honda Civic Type R

MSRP: $36,995

Specs:

2.0 Liter Turbo 4

305 HP : 295 ft/lbs

0-60: 5 Seconds

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Guy who did stuff: Yousef Alvi

Pictures/Video: Yousef Alvi and Manufacturer

I have been fortunate and blessed enough to drive a smorgasbord of vehicles throughout my career.  From supercars to super compacts.  From the literal insane to the literal sane.  There is an avalanche of vehicle feel and nuances scurrying about my brain at any given point…but the truly special vehicles will always stand out.  They always dig their way to the front of my subconscious and they will always be dearly missed when they are gone.  Chief among them is the Honda Civic Type R.  

I can go into various different avenues with a Type R review…so I am.  

Let’s first talk about how growing up in the Import tuning renaissance that it was our halo car.  It was our generation’s Ford vs Ferrari.  An everyday vehicle that has been tuned, honed and perfected to be a weapon.  The underdog serving up heaps of ass kicking from street to track.  

Now let’s talk about how this Type R lives up to that legacy and takes into the 21st century on a wave turbo torque and a serenade of VTEC music.  This Type R is the ultimate daily driver for anyone who has octane flowing through their system. Regardless of badge and supposed prestige.  This Type R is the poor man’s BMW M3 but it’s better that that.  The 5 door packaging gives the Type R just immense interior space and practicality that the M3 cannot match. On the performance front it will probably wallop the M3 in a tight mountain road as well. 

Yes I just said that…the Type R will either keep up or pass a M3 on a tight mountain road.  The grip levels that this Type R delivers can only be described this way:

The Type R feels like it is possessed in the twisties.  There is a gravitational pull to the apex of each and every corner.  The faster you go…that effect is magnified.  The Type R is just gobbling up pavement, apexes and expectations by the nanometer.  You find yourself braking not out of necessity but out of fear.  Not fear of the car…fear of what the car can do.  Let me put this another way:

Now one would expect a vehicle like that looks like this, performs like this and is priced like this, to ride well…like you are being physically assaulted.  That is the furthest from the truth.  Honda did not just do a remarkable job with the civility of the Type R…what they accomplished should go down in automotive history as an inflection point of just pure engineering brilliance. 

A vehicle that performs like this does but has the ride quality, comfort and efficiency of well a Civic.  Slide the Type R into 6th gear, put the the Drive Mode into Comfort, set the standard Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keep Assist to 80 mph on the highway…and she will just glide mile after mile.  

So is it perfect?  No and some of the below maybe nitpicking but deserves to be said regardless:

• Heated Seats.  Give it to me.  

  • Here is the reason.  The Type R is a bargain but it is still cresting $40k.  There isn’t another $40k vehicle out there that does NOT have heated seats.  

• Digital Gauge Cluster is hard to read

  • Above 5k RPM is a guessing game on where the needles resides.  

• Infotainment System is horrendous

  • Doesn’t look good, doesn’t work good…just not good

• Red seats up front but black seats in the back

  • Come on!

Now what I didn’t mention was the looks.  It’s weird…my social media postings this week brought up the looks along with the exclamation points on the driving experience.  It maybe a case of Stockholm Syndrome but walking up to the Type R the very last day…I stopped and just admired it.  

It works.  The design is purposefully aggressive.  The Type R is unapologetic for what it is and in an industry that seems to be ruled by focus groups…the Type R is refreshing.  

So overall?  I think you get my overall but I will leave you with this:

Jeremy Clarkson famously said the Bugatti Veyron was a ‘Concord Moment’ in the history of the automobile.  A singular grand achievement that will not be recreated.  

I beg to differ.  The 2020 Honda Civic Type R is that singular moment to me.  Name another vehicle that offers this amount of performance, grip, civility, efficiency, practicality, and price?  There is none.  So that is that singular moment…. at least it is to me.