Like the tech industry’s lightning-fast progression, the auto industry’s titles for Best, Fastest, or Quickest car are prestigious but often fleeting. Just ask the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S; its record as the fastest front-wheel-drive production car to lap the Nürburgring has just been crushed by the 2017 Honda Civic Type R, only months after it was set last October.
The Japanese automaker claims that the all-new Type R lapped the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife in just 7:43.80. That is 3.39 seconds faster than the limited-run Golf GTI Clubsport S and 6.83 seconds faster than the previous-generation Europe-market Civic Type R, which had held the record before the Clubsport flared its nostrils (twice). There is one catch, however.
This Type R was a preproduction development vehicle that Honda claims was “technically representative of production specification.” It wore Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires at the Nürburgring, Honda said, although the production model will get Continental ContiSportContact 6 performance tires as standard (Honda won’t yet say whether the Michelins will be a factory option in the U.S.). For safety purposes, a full floating roll cage was added to the Type R, but it supposedly did not add any extra rigidity to the vehicle. The added weight of the cage was offset by the removal of the display audio system and rear seats. Sticklers might take issue with that type of asterisk; we saw with the Lamborghini Hura...