Alright, confession time. I have to admit that when we received the keys to our shiny black Type R long termer a couple of months back, I had a bit of an ‘oh dear’ moment.
Here was a car that, for all the hullabaloo that surrounded it upon its release, now seemed almost irrelevant. Not only is the all-new-all-improved version right around the corner, but with a mere 306bhp and no four-wheel drive the FK2 looks, at first glance at least, completely outgunned by the likes of the Ford Focus RS and the Volkswagen Golf R, let alone by its own next of kin.
And now it’s ours for six months. What on earth was I going to write about it?
As it turns out, my concern was unfounded. As anyone who’s ever driven the FK2 Type R will know, there’s not exactly a dearth of things to say about it. The hype train may have long left the station, it’s Nürburgring lap time may have been beaten – twice – and it’s now outmatched on all sides by newer, hairier hot hatches, but there’s still a lot to love about this car.
In fact, I might even go so far as to say that in spite of its newer brother being bigger, nimbler, faster, shinier and even more bewinged by quite a margin, that the FK2 is still the better Type R. Here’s why.
For a start, the FK2 had the unenviable task of taking the Type R family into the world of turbocharging for the first time properly, but while that might have been met with some resistance from VTEC diehards, what Honda managed to do with this car is just incredible.
It won’t scream the roof down like an older Type R, perhaps, but you can still rev the absolute nuts off it. Peak power won’t kick in until 6,500rpm, and it’s remarkable how Honda pushed the boundaries of front-wheel drive performance – there have been plenty of fast front-drivers before, but none that felt quite as evil as this one.
Yeah yeah, I know it's old news as of this week, but this thing is still seriously good. Absolutely mowed the 300-mile Heathrow run too. pic.twitter.com/VQYqlKeEYO
— Ryan McElroy (@TheNotoriousRMC) June 15, 2017
In theory, this just shouldn’t work but by god it does. The FK2 is visceral, raw, unforgiving and at times a little frightening. It’s a car that demands much of its driver; with cars like the new Focus RS it’s very easy to go quickly and very easy to be silly safely within the car’s limits, but the FK2 has no time for such frippery.
There’s no trick four-wheel drive – all the better for it, we say – and no OTT blatty exhaust, just pure, balls-out performance all of the time. ‘Aggressive’ is an understatement; from the moment you parcel yourself into those bolstered bucket seats every Tesco trip becomes a tarmac rally stage.
Maybe something so extreme might be off-putting to some, but contrast it with the likes of the VW Golf R, a car which is undeniably quick and undeniably good, but which is one of those that can often feel just too well sorted to truly be enjoyable; it’s like a computer, you love your laptop for what it can do for you, not because you love the experience of using it.
The FK2 is a much purer, much harder-cored car to drive than virtually all of its competition, indeed even more so than its follow-up, and that’s what makes it special. It does little to flatter its driver and even less to accommodate silly mistakes. If you can drive this car fast that’s because you’re driving it, not the other way around.
Drive it well and it’ll reward you; act carelessly and you’ll be punished accordingly. A bit much? Maybe, but as a result I’ve rarely driven a car that’s as consistently exciting as the FK2. While some cars need a track to show off the best of their abilities, this always feels switched on.
Here’s another thing worth considering: that magic badge on the rear hatch, ‘Type R’, was originally coined by Honda to denote cars that were essentially racing cars built for the road. That phrase has since become a bit of a marketing buzzword among manufacturers, but it’s telling that the first car to wear the red H badge wasn’t a Civic, but an NSX.
Later, the Integra got the Type R treatment before the Civic finally received it a few years later. All very different cars, but the thread that bound them all was that they were all hardcore as f*ck and bloody magnificent as a result.
Now look at the modern day. BMW’s M cars have become bloated statements of wealth rather than true drivers’ cars. The Focus RS no longer has anything to do with rallying. The new FK8 Type R? Well, it’s being actively marketed as more comfortable rather than more hardcore.
Also nicked the Type R keys again. Honestly, the more I drive this thing the more I love it. Think I want one... pic.twitter.com/Ozy8bslATg
— Ryan McElroy (@TheNotoriousRMC) July 14, 2017
All things considered, the FK2 is possibly the ultimate embodiment of that original Type R philosophy and arguably the most balls-out, pants-on-head nuts hot hatch of recent years. Possibly ever. If you’re in need of a second opinion, just ask BTCC triple-champ Matt Neal who was the previous owner of our long-termer.
Speaking to us last year, he described the car as pretty much the closest you can get to his works car without actually buying a racing car. It is, for all intents and purposes, just like a touring car with air conditioning and a reg plate slapped on it; the sheer intensity of its character, the heft of its control weights, the heat extractor vents and all those aerofoils combine to make a car which screams ‘purpose’.
Of course, some will argue that it just screams ‘RICE’, but in my opinion it looks much more authentic than its follow-up, and in a post-homologation era this is as close to the ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ philosophy as you’ll get these days.
There’s also the fact that the FK2 is the shortest-lived Type R in history, and as a result it’s still quite a rare car. Reportedly, only 2,000 or so have been sold in the UK and I can more or less count on one hand the number of them that I’ve seen out in the wild.
I’ve heard some say that means that the FK2 has been wildly unpopular; overhyped and a victim of its own aggressive exterior, but the truth is that it’s more a quirk with Honda’s sales strategy. The car arrived late in the Civic’s life cycle, unlike the new version which was developed and has been released side-by-side with the regular Civic hatch.
That, combined with the fact that America now gets the Type R proper in the form of the FK8, means that the FK2 will in my opinion be highly sought after in years to come. Not only the rarest Type R in history, but also possibly the most uncompromising, hardcore expression of the hot hatch ever made? That in itself will make it more than worth a sniff around the listings or your local Honda dealer.
