Watch A Pre-Production Honda Civic Type-R Lap The Nurburgring In A Stonking 7m 50s

Forget the supercars and hypercars revealed at the 2015 Geneva motor show, the car that has excited us the most so far is the 2015 Honda Civic Type-R. It’s got mad styling and is plenty fast, as demonstrated by its frankly bonkers Nurburgring lap time of 7m 50.63secs. That’s about four seconds faster than the previous record holder, the Renaulsport Megane.

There are a few caveats to this, though. First off, this was a pre-production car that Honda claims had ‘technical specifications representative of the final production car’.

The development car was in a standard state of engine tune, with suspension, drivetrain, exhaust, brakes and the aerodynamic package identical to those of the production Civic Type R.

The removal of equipment such as air conditioning, the front passenger seat and audio equipment offset the additional weight of a full roll cage (installed specifically for safety reasons and not to add rigidity).

That rapid time was set during tyre testing, and Honda has vowed to send a production-spec Type-R ‘round the ‘Ring to officially claim the production front-wheel drive lap record.