Honda JAS Mugen Civic Type R 2008 Review

As the red and white all-wheel-drive car of reigning champs Simon and Sue Evans rolled to a halt on Special Stage 10, it seemed like the impossible was going to happen last weekend -- the first front-wheel-drive outright win in local rallying's pinnacle series, the Australian Rally Championship (ARC), in decades. 

In just their second official ARC outing, Honda Australia and its British driver/co-driver pairing of Guy Wilks (more here) and Phil Pugh were charging in second place. Comfortably clear of third-placed Eli Evans and Chris Murphy, the Wilks/Pugh and JAS/Mugen Civic Type R combination were very fast and very committed, flying in the face of conventional logic that says you need an all-wheel drive to be at the pointy end of the national championship.

Then Evans senior (Simon's) S2000 Corolla rolled to a stop just a few kilometres into the first half of SS10. With just four and a half stages to go, Wilks and Pugh were the leaders elect -- all of a sudden a fairytale victory looked to be in the offing.

But rallying's a tough game, and the very same stage showed just how tough. Not more than a scant couple of kilometres further on from the Evans' departure, Wilks and Pugh ran wide on a tightening bend, hit a tree stump and somersaulted their Honda out of the 2008 Daikin/Allied Airconditioning Coffs Coast Rally and potential victory.

They were fortunately unhurt, though the same couldn't be said for the Italian-built Type R racer. From rooster to feather duster in one fell swoop --it was trashed.

A kind offer of a ride from the troops at series champ Toyota would even give us the opportunity to contrast the differences between front-wheel drive Civic and all-wheel-drive Corolla. Opportunities as such don't come every day.

The Toyota and Honda share little in terms of engineering execution, but ultimately have to satisfy many of the same technical regulations under the FIA's Super 2000 rules. Unlike the Group N rally cars that dominate the field in the local series and Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, both sport high revving non-turbo engines. In the manner of the classic twin-cam BDA and BDG Escorts and the 1970s, the new four-cylinder powerplants (2.0 litres is the maximum displacement) rely on carefully developed intake and exhaust systems, perfectly shaped cylinder-heads and painstaking fuel-injection tuning to deliver their best.

They also mean a return of high-pitched high-performance engine sounds to the forest. If you have even a hint of petrol in your veins, there's simply no comparison between the farm-implement-like low drones, pops and farts of the turbos and the ripping silk of the 8000rpm Honda. Magic stuff...

So with the hairs still standing up on the back of this writer's neck from the soundtrack of Wilks' shakedown 'laps' of the special stage the Coff Harbour organisers had manned for our all too brief ride, it was time to clamber into the Civic's right seat, plug in the Stilo and experience it first hand (Ed: that's our own 'man in black', pictured climbing into the right seat over the roll cage).

The Yorkshireman is the heir apparent of the British Rally Championship and normally drives a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. After many seasons in front-wheel-drive cars, including four season in the World Super 1600 Championship (now called Junior WRC), Wilks says it takes little time to tune back in. The Civic makes the transition even easier, he says, particularly complimentary of the Type R's characteristics and the professionalism of both the car builders (and team coordinators) JAS Motorsport and the Japanese-based Mugen engine builders and developers.

Like most rally cars, it's a bit of a scramble to get aboard the Type R thanks to the substantial FIA-spec rollcage's side bars. JAS strip their Type Rs to the shell before modifying the body-in-white and fitting the fully-welded two-loop roll cage. Careful attention to detail yields both safety and set-up benefits -- witness Wilks and Pugh's escape on SS10! (Why anything less than a fully-welded cage is acceptable to authorities has this writer perplexed.)

Once inside, there's plenty of room and with the seats mounted low in the car, the feeling of space is magnified thanks to plenty of headroom... Even for six-foot-plus Wilks.

Anything surplus to requirements has no place in this car. There's bare metal on the floor and the headlining, rear seat, et al are in the bin out behind JAS's workshop in Arluno, northwest of Milan.

Even with this in mind Wilks' side of the car is Spartan -- a gearlever for the six-speed Sadev sequential gearbox sits at 3 o'clock, there's a large numerical gear indicator directly ahead of the thick-rimmed removable rally wheel, a shift light, indicator and headlight stalks and little else.

Pugh gets more to play with on his side of the lightweight replacement dash. In addition to the normal rally instruments (compact electronic units), there's a small semi-circular digital dashboard that interrogates the EFI Technologies ECU and a low centrally placed console with all the ancillary switches -- everything from the choice of ECU maps (two are provided for the VTEC-equipped Type R) to toggles for the electric windows.

Attention to detail is apparent everywhere you look. This writer's a big fan of the pure functionality of competition cars, and the Type R's a great example of the breed.

Truly, there are road cars in my street that have more off-idle histrionic than this supposedly high-strung thoroughbred. Thanks to Mugen's latest engine spec and the JAS team's fuel-injection guru Ole Buhl, this Type R is civilised yet produces more power over a wider rev range than any naturally aspirated 2.0-litre has a right too.

Mugen admits to 194kW (the standard Civic Type r pumps out around 147kW) but the real figure is likely to be over 200. Wilks and Pugh both praised the midrange manners of the engine, though we're betting on the stages, there weren't many times the engine revs were far south of 6000rpm.

The ECU allows an almost infinite level of fine tuning of fuel and ignition maps but also functions such as VTEC actuation and cam timing (the latter via manipulation of the oil pump that feeds the part of the valve train adjustments). On top of that it can sample and store data at microsecond intervals. The very same hardware is used in LeMans racers.

Back in the hills behind Coffs Harbour, there's plenty of clutch required to get the Type R off the line, but the engine revs are kept quite low -- there's only so many Mugen horses a front-wheel drive can deliver via gravel from a sanding start. First gear is tall, but after that the ratios are stacked close.

What starts as a sharpish bark changes to a full-on scream as the second cam profile kicks in via the VTEC variable cam timing and lift system -- at around 4700rpm on the map Guy is using on the dry hard-packed clay track. Where there's space for the car to stretch its legs between corners, the acceleration is strong as Wilks grabs gear after gear.

While the Type R doesn't have the sheer 'kick in the pants' initial acceleration of a turbo rally car, it simply continues to build speed. That said there's no doubt this car's quick -- in tarmac trim we'd guess its 0-100km/h time would easily shave 1.5sec or more off the standard Type R's 6.6sec stat.

It's out of slow corners where you can feel the difference between the all-wheel-drive rally cars and the Type R. This is not a function of the pulling power of the Mugen engine, rather the physics of getting power to the ground via the front wheels.

Any pace generated is shed with reluctance -- a fact we witnessed first hand in SS3 off the Coffs Rally. Here Wilks braked from a higher top-speed fully 10-15m later than the fastest of the all-wheel drive cars. So late, in fact that several of us thought he'd seriously overcooked the section. Simply awe-inspring.

In our demo stage, Wilks needs hard braking only twice. And even on the loose surface, the retardation from the road-car sourced Brembos (they look like standard issue Evo Brembos to us) is impressive.

Most of the time, he keeps the car light on its feet -- always moving like an old-style rear-wheel-drive rally car. Maximum attack meantime requires the car to be flung sideways early for the best angle of entry and drive and exit out of slow corners. Just like the old school rally cars (and stars -- think Escort and Vatanen), these lurid tail-out oversteer entries transform to mild understeer on the exit if everything is perfect.

During my ride, Wilks' report card is impeccable.

The JAS outfit has worked on the car's set-up with the Brit since its ARC debut at the Rally of Canberra in May. For Coffs, the Ohlins suspension was tweaked again and obviously paying benefits. The car rode the obvious bumps and yumps of the test stage with aplomb and landed like a cat over an off-camber corner-exit jump that upset the Corolla we also rode in on the day. It seemed Wilks could place the car with inch-perfect precision from the right-hand co-drivers seat.

Anyone who witnessed Wilks and Pugh's hard-charging drive at Coffs Harbour would be pressed to argue that such cars can be more than the equal of AWDs in terms of spectator appeal. However, to suggest (as some) that front-wheel-drive cars like the JAS Civic Type R are cheaper to build or campaign than a Group N or Super2000 all-wheel drive would be incorrect. This is not a cheap entry-level rally car.

The JAS Type R might not have a centre differential, but it's no less a serious and bespoke rally weapon.

Built to compete in various European titles and the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) under the FIA's R3 rally regs, the basic JAS Type R will set you back Euros 95,000 plus the donor car -- say another E25,000 in Italy. On top of that you'll want the latest Mugen engine upgrade (add E10,500) and you'll need the gravel rally kit -- around E14,000 including the machined-from-billet front suspension control arms. A spare engine is E16,000 and a replacement Sadev gearbox is E9000...

Add in some spares and GST and let's call it an even $400,000! Still think all-wheel drive should be banned to help control costs!

DECISION TIME
At this point any talk of a full-time entry into the ARC, is still just that -- talk. The efforts of Wilks and Pugh certainly heartened the Honda execs on hand at Coff Harbour, but the small matter of a global financial crisis is probably of more concern at the moment than motorsport marketing decisions.

Not surprisingly, Honda officially says it is yet to decide on its plans for 2009.

Local boss, Managing Director, Yasuhide Mizuno (pictured shaking hands with Wilks), is a firm believer that the Japanese marque should be involved in motorsport in the local markets in which it sells. In his last posting in Malaysia he set up an inhouse racing department that went on to dominate Malaysia's popular endurance racing series.

Not only does competition have the potential to renew the brand's appeal with younger buyers, but says Mizuno, "Motorsport is simply in Honda's DNA."

He says Honda's entry into local rallying would be a key part of the brand's plans to lower the average age of buyers -- and to attract more males to current and future performance models. According to Mizuno, a Honda Australia rally team would also potentially have a positive effect on the arm of motorsport that would spread beyond our shores.

Whether Mizuno-san decides on a full ARC campaign (unlikely), a mixture of activities including tarmac rallying or chooses to keep the brand's racing powder dry, there's little doubt JAS, Mugen, Wilks and Pugh's outing at this year's final round of the championship has shown Australian rallying can be more than a one-brand or four-wheel-drive-only affair.

If you are a gravel racing fan, that should be VTEC music to your ears.