Some people see the Civic Type R as a try-hard hot hatch, because it's easy to forget that it's been around forever. You'd think that a car that's almost always had manic styling wouldn't be forgettable.
We never wondered which generation of the CTR was fastest because we naturally assumed the newer model with the turbo engine would win. However, that just means we were in for a shock when we watched the drag race.
Which generations? Let's start with the legendary EP3, which Mat Watson says is the best one of all. Built between 2001 and 2005, it had a screaming 2-liter engine and could get very sideways. Technically, it's not the first Type R, as that one came out 30 years ago, the EK9 model from Japan.
Something else we're missing in this drag race is the FD2 sedan, which was pretty good in Mugen form. However, it came to Britain only through specialist importers.
The FN2 is its hatchback equivalent and considered by many to be the worst Civic Type R of them all. It still had a 2.0-liter VTEC engine with just one extra horsepower, but gained weight and lost its independent rear suspension.
To be honest, we kind of forgot there was a Mugen version of the FN2. It was lighter at just 1.2 tons and featured a 240 horsepower re-tuned engine. Mat loves it and so do we, especially after it did surprisingly well in the drag race. I mean, it still lost, but up to a point, its lag-free engine was proving better than the turbos.
The first of those was the FK2. It arrived in 2015 and was more of a prototype, a test bed for Honda to develop its technologies. These included the K20C1 Direct Fuel Injection 2.0-liter turbo engine and the mechanical slip differential, which also found their way into the FK8, last year's hero.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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