Why I Was Wrong About The Civic Type R

It isn’t in the canyons where the Civic Type R and I truly bond.

Nope, as good as the latest red-emblem Honda is when carving up a twisty road— and it really, truly is—it’s on a late-night crawl through LA where I finally get it. The Type R and I are making our way south after a long day, and I already watched the sun dip beyond the horizon hours ago. The familiar hum of the 405 gives way to a detour north, and the bright lights fade. It’s just me and the Civic in the inky blackness, where the “hatch” part of the equation matters more than the “hot.” No shenanigans, just making sure I stay awake and arrive in one piece. The Type R is right there for me: it’s not beating me up with a brittle ride and, at least in top gear, it’s not even droney.

That’s when it hits me: I misjudged the Type R’s daily driver capability. Since its sibling the Integra Type S launched, I’ve been firmly in the Acura camp, believing the Civic is too hardcore for those who are never going to visit a track. I was wrong.

The previous Type R drove how it looked: intense, all the time. Sure, it had an adaptive suspension, but the settings were all varying degrees of rock-hard. The current car has a broader range: it’s still stiff, sure, but there’s a flexibility to its default mode that makes it downright friendly around town. No doubt much of this has to do with the black magic Honda’s engineers have wrought on the chassis as a whole, but I’m looking at another part of the equation: the wheels and tires.

This generation of CTR drops down to 19s at all four corners. While each contact patch is almost an inch wider (265s are meaty for a front-driver), the aspect ratio has stayed the same, so the sidewall has grown. The result is a daily-drive ride that is more forgiving while losing none of the sharpness.

There are other, smaller details that make the latest Type R a better day-to-day companion. The shape is more subdued, big wing aside, so it’s unlikely to draw quite as much attention. Honda gave this generation of Civic a larger greenhouse with a flatter beltline, giving the Type R excellent outward visibility—and the wing barely even shows up in the rearview mirror.

Buyers don’t have to make many tech sacrifices either. Wireless Apple CarPlay works well, as does the accompanying charging pad. The audio system is pretty not bad; it won’t come close to the excellent ELS setup in the Integra, but that’s to be expected. About the only complaint I can level at it is the lack of a heated steering wheel and seat ventilation.

It’s not as if the current Type R is some ultra-analog nostalgia-bait, either. Yes, it only comes with a manual transmission when all of its competitors have begun offering auto ‘boxes (Teggie aside, obviously), but what it does so well is make the existing technology work in unison with the driver, flattering without removing the human element from the equation. The clever front suspension basically eliminates torque steer, and should it try to rear its ugly head, the traction control subtly masks it. Don’t want to heel-toe? The rev-matching does it better, more consistently than you ever will—but the choice is yours.

And when the right road does come along, the Civic is just that bit more involving than its sibling. To make sure, I hunted down some of the same roads I first drove the Type S on. The steering is cleaner, yet also has more feedback. The tail is a more willing part of the fun, too: whether through low- or high speed bends, the Type R is neutral, rotating around where the driver’s right elbow is. Honda has made a car as involving and focused as anything out of Stuttgart or Maranello, and anybody who dismisses it based on the driven wheels is silly.

For my own personal needs, the Integra Type S still satisfies the one-car-to-do-it-all role better than the Type R. Yet now, after living with the Type R for a week, the trade-offs—less friendly seats, poorer audio experience—don’t matter so much. The current Civic Type R is better than ever.

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