How fast is the Honda Civic Type R 2023?

Honda today pulled off the sheets covering its 2023 Civic Type R, revealing the most powerful Type R to date. 

How powerful, you ask? Good question, but we have no idea because, interestingly for a global reveal, Honda is withholding many details about the new hot hatch, including horsepower and torque figures; how much lower, longer, and wider it is; and just about any other detail that’s usually accompanied by a specific measurement. 

What we do know is that for this, the 30th year of the Type R and 50th year of the Civic, Honda has engineered the car “from the ground up to deliver thrilling performance with an addictive driving experience — both on road and on the racetrack.” The result is the fastest, most powerful Type R yet. 

We also know what it’ll look like from a number of angles, including from inside the cockpit.  

All 9 Photos for Gallery

Outside, the 2023 Civic Type R bears a strong resemblance to its downmarket base-Civic brethren with a honeycomb grille, large front fender grilles, new side-sill spoilers behind the front wheels, wider rear doors, a redesigned spoiler, and a reconfigured bumper encompassing the car’s triple round exhaust and new diffuser.

For the 2023 model year, the Civic Type R comes in three colour finishes: Historic Championship White, Sonic Gray, and Rallye Red. 

The vibe in the interior is similarly sporty, with a driver-focused cockpit and plenty of flashy red elements including the seats (which Honda says are finished with a “suede-like upholstery with a high friction coefficient [that] reduces body slippage in high-G driving situations”), carpet, and trim contrasting nicely against the new-this-year aluminum shift knob and serialized Type R plate displayed on the dash. 

Honda has also added a new +R driving mode meter that displays performance data like engine RPM and gear position. Drivers can glean even more insight into the car’s behaviour, or time laps, or even share driving videos with others via the onboard LogR data-capture device.  

Under the hood lies a “more powerful and responsive” version of the 2.0-litre engine found in the 11th-generation Civic upon which it’s based, paired to the same but “improved” six-speed manual transmission with rev-matching system. (It’s probably worth noting that the outgoing 2021 Civic Type R also uses a 2.0-litre engine with a six-speed manual.)

Adjustments to the car’s body to make it lighter and more rigid help improve speed and maneuverability, as does its touted but unquantified stretch in all directions to become longer, lower, and wider than its predecessor. Honda also says steering and suspension have been improved, and drag has been reduced, leading the 2023 Type R to a new production-car front-wheel-drive track record at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan, host circuit for the Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022. 

Honda promises to reveal pricing details (supposedly along with all the rest of the missing information) before the 2023 Civic Type R’s launch this fall. Stay tuned for more info. 

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