The Honda Civic Type R Mugen 200 Is (Almost) Peak FN2

With Honda revealing prototype photos of the 2022 Civic Type R this week, we felt compelled to find something suitable from the classifieds to mark the occasion. After a good trawl through all of our usual haunts, we have just the ticket - an FN2 Civic Type R Mugen 200.

This isn’t to be confused with the Civic Type R Mugen (note the lack of ‘200’ on the end). That car was a hardcore, ultra-special edition with an eyebrow-raising price tag that works out at nearly £50,000 in today’s money. Buying one now is still an expensive business, if you can find one at all - the UK got just 20 of the earlier 2.0-litre cars, and another 20 of the updated 2.2s. But the 200? The clue’s in the name.

These more widely available Mugen’d FN2s did without things like the beefier engine, reworked suspension and the mad rear wing, but these cars - built partly to celebrate Honda’s British Touring Car Championship return- still have plenty going for them.

Mugen additions for the 200 included spicier front and rear bumpers plus some new side skirts. All were finished in Championship White (of course) with black mirrors caps, with the look completed by 19-inch ‘Lightning’ wheels and Mugen badging.

The untouched 2.0-litre i-VTEC naturally-aspirated inline-four produced 197bhp as in the standard Type R, but the Mugen 200 was able to deploy all that with greater ease thanks to a standard-fit limited-slip differential.

A bigger UK population of these cars makes it easy to find one - number six of 200 is one of several currently for sale on eBay. The mileage is low for the year at 70,000, and it has a full (mostly main dealer) service history. The most recent service was a more major one, including the replacement of the spark plugs.

Unfortunately, even buying the ‘lesser’ Mugen 200 isn’t a cheap experience, with this one costing £13,470. You don’t have to spend too much more to bag an early FK2 Type R, or even an imported example of the celebrated FD2. If the limited-slip differential is the main draw, its worth noting that Honda also installed one in the Championship White edition FN2, and there’s one available right now for a far more reasonable £5999.

Where would your money go?

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