Why We're Revisiting The FK8 Honda Civic Type R

We'll be living with an FK8 Honda Civic Type R for six months to see if it can still cut it following the arrival of new competition

Matt Robinson

18 Dec 2018

Why We're Revisiting The FK8 Honda Civic Type R

Honda’s FK8-generation Civic Type R is a car we’ve already investigated pretty thoroughly. We drove it at the launch a year and a half ago and were blown away by its ability. We were astonished by it when we drove it on track a second time and admired its ferocity when putting the Type R back-to-back with the more sedate VW Golf GTI.

But quite a lot has changed since then. For starters, Hyundai shocked the world by building a world-beater for its first hot hatch. A world beater that happens to be quite a bit cheaper and less, erm, challenging for the eyes than the bewinged FK8. Then we have the arrival of not one but two RS Renault Meganes: the standard model and the RS300 Trophy, the latter being pretty much the same price as the Honda.

Mercedes-AMG, meanwhile, has cooked up the new A35, which has a similar power output, an extra pair of driven wheels and a considerably posher cabin. It’s also not significantly more expensive than the Honda.

In conclusion, then, the Type R simply has a lot more to worry about than it did at launch, so now’s the perfect time to spend an extended period of time with an FK8. Which leads me neatly to the Brilliant Sporty Blue (yep, it’s actually called that) Civic you see here, which TeamCT will be living with for six months.

We’ll inevitably be putting it up against those rivals we mentioned further up, but also, we want to see what it’s like to live with on a daily basis. We ran the previous-gen FK2 for six months, and although we loved it, the car was often annoying in a way the more polished Golf GTI just isn’t.

Has Honda ironed out the kinks? Can we learn to love the bonkers looks? How many Alex Kerstens can we fit in the boot? We’ll be hoping to answer all this and more in the coming months.

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

Why can’t Honda do subtle…

Honest question: Does anybody here actually like the smorgasbord of fake/non-functional vents, quasi-pointless third exhaust, etc?

Like the EK chasis… perfect. EP chasis… not bad. But then the FN…. dear god what happened?? The FD is AWESOME but nooo the rest of the world gets that… mound-lookin FN and it’s all down hill from there with excessive Subaru-esque wings, aforementioned fake vents and such, and absolutely bizarre body lines….

Here’s to hoping for a refined Type R in the future!

Pretty much just follow what every other brand has done.

Because the people would be like “It looks like a boring, old, everyday looking Honda.”

I think it works well together. Then again I’m a 16 year old kid so what do I know about anything

Its not that I like it, I just dont mind

But then I generally dont care about the cars look as much as most people do and when I do care I look more at the general shape/proportions of the car, rather than details

As such I think the FK2 is one of the ugliest cars ever made - the sloping bonnet etc look ugly af

But this one I don’t think is as bas as ppl say it is. Just pls dont mix blue and red

honda has their own purpose when they make this fk8, if im not wrong, they wanted to be the fastest fwd car in nurburgring+having all the daily driveable comfortabilty, thats why when you compare ek9 to fk8 in terms of interior, they’re both very different
and no offense but, fanboy(not all) keep whining for a better car but when manufacturer gave it to them, they always whine again that the car is not that good

Blue and red do not go well together on cars

Am I the only one who thinks that blue and red go well together on cars?

Nope

Red accents on black seems to be a trend in Japanese sports cars right now (maybe?). I mean look at the Nismo GTR

The comment section is probably filled with “it was riced from the factory!” “I hate the fake vents!” “Blah blah useless aero bits blah blah” but I actually like the look of the fk8, I think it’s a great design, all around, it’s a great hot hatch and it’ll always have a spot in my heart

Ok so if there was no cost difference and you could have the fake vents or real vents with legitimate function would you still prefer the fakes?

Honda has given us a Civic Type R, and I think we could have waited for another generation… This one is lunch for a WRX with a cobb tune and some basic mods. Not to be a jerk but for the money, you can do better. They need to bring that price down about 6 grand and suddenly the design, drivetrain, and engine combo will make more sense.

Seriously… last week (as one does) I was side by side pricing the 18 Type R to the 18 Mustang GT both with options… the amount of Mustang you can get for a fully equipped Civic is almost top of the line, performance package level 2 and all… or a base Corvette… or a Civic… lol

Or the coup de grâce… a 2018 EcoBoost Mustang AND a 2018 Mazda MX-5 Miata for the price of ONE 2018 Civic Type R fully equiped. which has less power than the EcoBoost Mustang…

That Civic is GREAT but as you said, too expensive and punching above it’s weight class in price

(which is probably why as of October the Type R is averaging around 320 sold per month in the U.S, compared to around 4,000 Ecoboosts per month haha)

Dear God its ugly! I mean… just why Honda? I don’t understand how a team of professionals could have come up with that? Could never live with it personally. When the BTCC team Honda race car has less plastic and pipes you need to wonder what went wrong.

Not sure what you do for work… but I could not imagine rolling into the lot with this and not getting side eyes haha. Mind you I own a ridiculous two-tone Mustang but I don’t drive it anywhere but for my own fun. Really hard to find a car that can do both

the fake vents are made of plastic lighter than the material on the front and rear bumpers thereby saving weight. Carthrottle is supposed to be a forum for car nerds… how has it fallen in quality over last few years?