Yes, Someone Really Paid $102k For An Unused Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition

The Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition is the ultimate road-going version of one of the best driving hot hatches in recent times. But when we drove both it and the most recent update of the FK8 Type R last year, we deemed the LE not quite different enough to warrant having hard feelings about missing out its small production run which sold out almost immediately.

With that in mind, we definitely don’t advocate spending over one hundred thousand dollars on a pretty much unused example, and yet someone did exactly that in the USA. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this happened via Bring a Trailer, a place where some users have a habit of getting carried away, as evidenced by the recent sale of a 400-mile Chevrolet Metro for $18,200.

As for the Type R, it has a little more going for it than the Metro. You’re looking at chassis number 001 of the 600 units sold in the USA, and it’s showing a mere six miles on the clock. US LEs weren’t lightened quite as drastically as the 100 European market cars, which had no air conditioning or infotainment systems, but the weight still went down by a decent 22.5kg.

A lot of that came from ditching the sound deadening, and further chunk was ditched via a switch to forged 20-inch BBS wheels. Remember - unsprung mass savings are much more valuable per kilo.

Those new BBS rims are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. Fun fact - that R01 marking on the sidewalls of this car and other LEs we’ve seen denotes the boots as Audi OE tyres. Finishing off the exterior is Phoenix Yellow paint (also known as Sunlight Yellow), a hue Honda famously used on the Integra Type R and the EK9 Civic Type R.

What you should take from this is that the Limited Edition was tweaked, not fundamentally altered. Its original purchase price of $44,950 (£40,000) was bang on the money considering this. But more than twice that figure? Someone’s common sense has taken a leave of absence.

The auction ended a few days ago on $102,000, which works out as £76,000 going by current exchange rates. It’s worth pointing out that the US used car market is in a strange place right now, and on both sides of the pond, the discontinuation of the FK8 Type R thanks to Honda’s Swindon factory closure has led to higher demand. But that said, we can’t help but think this is more of a blip than a sign of things to come. At least, we hope that’s the case.

Source: Bring a Trailer via The Drive