Honda Civic Type R sets FWD record at 5 iconic racetracks

by Viknesh Vijayenthiran of www.motorauthority.com

Honda's Civic Type R is one of the fastest hot hatches in the world, despite it skipping an all-wheel-drive system and sticking with a good ol’ manual transmission.

The current generation, powered by a 305-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder, made its debut in 2015 and although it isn’t on sale in the United States its successor, which has been spotted testing, is due here soon.

Engineers of the next-generation Civic Type R have a great base to build from as the current car has just clocked in some impressive benchmarks for five of the most iconic racetracks in Europe, four of which feature on the Formula One calendar. The times are the current records for a production car with front-wheel drive.

Honda says it was inspired to take up the challenge after its Civic Type R set a time of 7:50.63 at the Nürburgring a year ago, a time Volkswagen surpassed this year with its new GTI Clubsport S (the new front-wheel-drive record stands at 7:49.21). No doubt Honda was also partly inspired by Dodge’s Viper ACR which last year set production car records at 13 racetracks across North America.

Below are the five racetracks where the Honda Civic Type R currently holds lap records for a production car with front-wheel drive, and the name of the driver in each instance. There’s also a video for each attempt.

Source (with a lot of pictures and other videos);
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1104502_honda-civic-type-r-sets-fwd-record-at-5-iconic-racetracks#image=100556365