Honda’s next-generation Civic Type R has set a new lap record for a front-wheel drive car at the Suzuka International Racing Course in Japan. It lapped the 5.8km track in 2 minutes 23.120 seconds, 0.873 seconds faster than its predecessor, the stripped-back 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition. The new benchmark time was set during final development evaluation of the new model on 15 March 2022.
The Suzuka circuit is famous for its high-speed chicanes and challenging corners. The track, often described as one of the world’s greatest circuits, has been a test bed for performance Hondas since 1962 and has been home to the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix for all but two years since 1987.
The previous front-wheel drive lap record at Suzuka – 2 minutes 23.993 seconds – was set by a Civic Type R Limited Edition development car in February 2020. Before this, Honda’s tenth-generation Civic Type R GT broke the front-wheel drive lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 2017 with a lap time of 7 minutes 43.8 seconds. A production specification Civic Type R GT went on to break front-wheel drive production car records at five legendary European racetracks.
