Honda has announced that its Civic Type R hatchback had once again set a world record on the Nürburgring in the FWD production car category. The hot hatch lapped up the track in 7 minutes 44.881 seconds, coming behind the Renault Megane RS Trophy-R and the old-gen Civic Type R. Wait, what?
The issue lies in the length of the track. When the previous-gen Civic Type R set a North Loop best time of 7:43.8 six years ago, it did so on a track 20.6 kilometers (12.8 miles) long. Renault smashed through that record with its Megane hot hatch in 2019, improving the time by 3.7 seconds. However, the Nürburgring track was later extended with a 200-meter (0.124-mile) stretch added to the finish section. Therefore, the new Civic Type R can technically be considered the fastest FWD mass-market car on the Nürburgring solely by the virtue of being the first such car to show the lap time quoted above on the new track.
The hatchback that attempted the race was nearly stock except for wearing superior Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect tires. The standard rubber for the Type R is Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S. That said, dealerships are offering both options straight from the factory, so it doesn’t count as tuning.