What is a sports car? Not a Honda Civic Type R. That's a hot hatchback. Nor the Toyota Camry TRD, which is a sedan with a body kit. However, owners of these Japanese models often argue they are as quick as a flash (that's from Initial D). There's only one way to settle this, with a drag race.
At first glance, this doesn't look close. The Civic Type R is the fastest FWD car on the block, but that's mainly on the track. In the drag race, the hot hatch has two Achilles' heels: getting the perfect launch and rowing gears.
Under the hood of the Boost Blue 2020 Civic Type R is the Honda 2.0-liter VTEC Turbo engine, good for 306 horsepower. Meanwhile, the Toyota Camry TRD has the familiar naturally aspirated V6 rated at 301 horsepower. Suddenly, this starts sounding like a close race.
"He might have me on the initial launch but he can't possibly take me in a quarter-mile. It's not possible," Throttle House's James says in the Type R, sounding more than a little apprehensive. And what he fears is exactly what happens. Only due to the superior torque output of the turbo engine does the Civic manage to win.
It's impossible to miss how the manual gearbox is making the Type R visibly slower here, as well as in the rolling race. In a previous Throttle House race, the boys pitting the Camry against two other sedans, and the Honda Accord proved much faster. So they whip that bad boy out to see how the "accountant's car" compares.
In case you forgot, the 2020 Accord 2.0T has a de-tuned version of the Type R engine, rated at 252 horsepower. Apparently, some folks insist that is also a sports car, even though it doesn't come with a TRD exhaust or a giant wing.
Despite 54 hp in favor of the car with the big wing, this Honda-on-Honda drag race is pretty close. They called it a victory for the Type R, but they're basically even. So the fastest FWD hot hatch out there is about equal to two sedans? How's that for a shocker!
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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