Honda Civic Type R acceleration times revealed

Honda’s much-vaunted Civic Type R performance car will hit the magic 100km/h marker from rest in 5.7 seconds, the Japanese manufacturer has revealed.

Set for Australian release in October, the front-drive hot hatch will also be capable of a top speed of 272km/h, according to Honda, in what the car maker claims makes it “the fastest accelerating and quickest car in its class”.

What Honda’s claim doesn’t consider is Ford’s Focus RS, which is an entire second quicker to 100km/h but claims a slightly slower top speed of 266km/h. While the RS is all-wheel drive, it will surely be a cross-shopped against the Civic Type R in Australia.

Complementing Honda’s claims is the fact the Type R recently set a new front-drive benchmark at the infamous Nurburgring in Germany, setting a strong time of 7:43.8 minutes.

While early prototypes have already been spotted in Australia, and are currently touring the country’s dealerships, this is the first time we’ve seen evidence of the Honda’s straight-line pace.

What hasn’t been announced as yet is Australian pricing for the Honda hatch. New European figures again suggest the Type R will kick off at around $50,000 in Australia – again, in line with the Focus RS (from $50,990), but also the Peugeot 308 GTi 270 ($49,990), Volkswagen Golf R ($52,990) and upcoming Hyundai i30N Performance and Renault Megane RS.

The Type R’s new 2.0-litre turbo-four makes 235kW and 400Nm, mated to a six-speed manual transmission with a rev-matching feature. Interestingly, the claimed 0-100km/h time is line-ball with the Type R predecessor that wasn’t brought to Australia.

Three driving modes are also included — Comfort, Sport (default) and +R – as is a track-tested aero kit with front and side splitters, a rear diffuser, vortex generators at the trailing edge of the roof line and a rear wing spoiler.

Other features that distinguish it from the 10th-generation Civic hatch on which it’s based include a new Dual-Axis front suspension set-up with aluminum lower arms and steering knuckles, a new multi-link rear suspension and exclusive spring, (adaptive three-chamber) damper and bushing settings.

Other changes include adaptive dual-pinion electric power steering with variable gear ratio, a helical limited-slip front differential, 20-inch alloy wheels and high-performance tyres, centre-exit triple exhaust and red-painted Brembo four-piston callipers with 350mm cross-drilled rotors at the front.

Inside, there are heavily bolstered sports seats, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearshift boot, aluminium shift knob, aluminium sports pedals, red Type R driver’s gauges and a Type R serial plate number.