Honda Civic Type-R Limited Edition Unveiled

The Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition goes the lightweight and exclusive route to keep us interested. Out goes the sound-deadening and psss go your retinas.

The Honda Civic Type-R is a car that needs no introduction. If it does, read this and watch the video. It’s a belter of a car with one small problem – it’s quite ugly.

Honda is okay with that and it seems that they’re prepared to own it in the form the Civic Type-R Limited Edition. Because this just isn’t a lightweight special, not by a long shot. The Limited Edition introduces “Sunlight Yellow” to the colour mix. I know you’re blinking and yes, you can still see it with your eyes shut. I can’t help with that.

To ensure you’re across the limitedness, the roof, scoop, rear wing and mirror caps are also blacked out. Engine outputs remain unchanged at 228kW and 400Nm. Which is fine, because it doesn’t need any more.

What is it for?

Well, you know, it’s been around a couple of years, so carmakers bring out specials to remind people that it exists. Honda is smart enough to know that the changes wrought to Limited Edition…

Can we just talk about that name for a sec? It sounds like a Camry with maroon crushed velour interior and pinstripes.

Which to be fair, isn’t far off. According to the press release, the seats are a vivid shade of red and now the steering wheel has some red accents. The release says “new steering wheel” but I don’t know if the wheel is new or just the accents, because there are no interior photos.

Speaking of the interior, it’s going to be loud in there. To reduce weight, the sound deadening is gone from the roof, hatch, front bumper and dashboard. My favourite bit of the release is this snarky sentence:

However, unlike other brands’ track-focused performance hatchbacks, the Limited Edition retains its rear seats and the everyday usability for which the Civic is renowned.

Glorious. Hopefully you get a rally-style intercom system so you can talk to each other.

How much is the Civic Type R Limited Edition and what do I get?

Price? Glad you asked. We don’t have one yet.

One imagines the specification is basically the same as the standard car. It’s quite a nice spec to help justify its price, so you get a decent speaker count, touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, climate control, adaptive dampers, driving modes and lots of Alcantara in the interior.

The LE has new 20-inch forged alloys with Michelin Sport Cup 2 tyres. Honda says the dampers have been recalibrated for the new rubber.

You also get a new app built in called LogR. This talks to a smartphone app and can be displayed on the central touchscreen. The app records a bunch of parameters you can access through three different modes – Performance Monitor, Log Mode and Auto Score.

The Performance Monitor feeds you information about gear position well as various pressures and temps. You can also switch to a G-Meter that measures the g-forces in various directions.

In Log Mode, the phone records your position via GPS and builds a telemetry picture of your driving, while suggesting improvements and encouraging smoothness. Great for the track, but for the road? Hmmm.

A lot of this sounds familiar because it’s in RenaultSport Meganes and Clios.

The final mode is Auto Score. This one encourages you to drive sensibly on the road (good)  and scores you on your daily driving.

When?

Good question. You can register your interest on the Honda site and expect deliveries early 2021. We’re not going to get many of them, so you might want to get cracking on it.

It’s not a super-lightweight race car for the road or anything, just a nifty special with bragging rights. Until we know how much weight is actually saved, it’s hard to know if it will be that much faster.