Jensen Button to break lap records in Honda Civic Type R

The Honda Civic Type R snaffled the all-important Nurburgring lap record for a front wheel-drive vehicle in April 2017, with a time of 7min 43.8sec.

But that was just the beginning it seems, with Honda looking to set new front-drive production car lap records at some of the world's most challenging race tracks.

As part of the Honda Civic Type R Time Attack 2018, following up on a similar exercise in 2016, the company has enlisted the help of some big-time race drivers to pilot the rip-snorting Civic, including former F1 champion Jenson Button.

Button has a long track record with Honda, having been one of the drivers at BAR (British-American Racing) when Honda acquired that team. The British driver remained with Honda for three more years, before Honda sold the F1 team to former team principal, Ross Brawn in 2009.

Motoring.com.au has already set a lap time at Australia's Winton motor raceway in the Honda Civic Type R, with a 1:39.22 – thanks Luke Youlden! – so we've set a benchmark for Honda to beat. The Civic beat the Ford Focus RS and VW Golf GTI in that challenge, for what it's worth.

But the Japanese brand's global marketing department is spreading the net across Europe in 2018 and reckons it can set new lap records at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, Estoril in Portugal, Silverstone in the UK and "further tracks to be announced".

Expect Monza in Italy and maybe even Winton in Australia to be added to the high-octane 'to-do' list.

For those who don't have powerful recall abilities, the Honda Civic Type R is powered by a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol VTEC engine that slams down 228kW at 6500rpm and 400Nm at 4500rpm. Power finds its way to the front wheels via a six-speed manual transmission and top speed is claimed to be 272km/h, while the 0-100km/h dash takes 5.7 seconds.

Honda has lined up a number of other drivers to help it smash FWD lap records at some of the world's most demanding race tracks. Those drivers include WTCR drivers Esteban Guerrieri  from Argentina and Tiago Monteiro  from Portugal. Belgian driver Bertrand Baguette, described by Honda as an NSX Super GT "star", will also cut some hot laps.

Honda will expose its 2018 Time Attack Civic Type R at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show from March 8.