Honda puts Civic Type R on a diet

Honda has unveiled what is being billed as the most hardcore version of Civic Type R to date in the form of the simply titled Limited Edition.

Appearing seemingly unchanged from the recently facelifted Type R with the only exterior differences being a dark chrome rear Civic badge, a gloss black finish for the roof, mirror caps and bonnet vent, plus a bespoke colour called Sunlight Yellow, the Limited Edition follows the same route as the Renault Megane RS Trophy-R in featuring a stripped-out interior aimed at saving weight.

Relieved of not only the air-conditioning and touchscreen infotainment systems, the Limited Edition also gets less sound deadening materials as well as unique touches in the form of red bucket sport seats, an Alcantara steering wheel with red stitching and a commemorative plaque with total weight saving coming to 47 kg, this despite keeping the rear seats.

Riding on 20-inch BBS alloy wheels wrapped in Michelin Cup 2 tyres, the Limited Edition further comes with uprated dampers and recalibrated power steering, but retains Honda’s Sensing suite of safety systems, as well as the 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that produces 228kW/400Nm. As with the standard Type R, drive is send to the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox with 0-100 km/h taking 5.7 seconds.

With production restricted to 600 units worldwide, it remains to be seen whether Honda South Africa will deem it fit to bring any of the Limited Editions to market this year.

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