Honda Civic Type R Sets New Record at Spa-Francorchamps

The Honda Civic Type R has been breaking lap records left and right. This time, the hot hatch clocked a time of 2 minutes, 53.72 seconds at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, a new record for a production car with front-wheel drive.

The new time chips away at the record set by the previous generation Type R. Back in 2016, the old Type R completed the course in 2 minutes, 56.91 seconds.

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is a long track measuring around 4.35 miles. Along with very fast straights and high-speed corners, it also features elevation changes and difficult low-speed sections. Piloting the hatch through this tough track was Bertrand Baguette, former FIA WEC LMP2 class world champion. He now drives the Honda NSX-GT in the Super GT series with Nakajima Racing.

The new generation Type R has set two other lap records around the world. In 2017, a production development car went around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes, 43.8 seconds, the fastest time for any front-wheel-drive production car. The car also set a front-wheel-drive record time of 2 minutes, 1.51 seconds at the Magny-Cours GP circuit in France.

The Civic Type R packs a 2.0-liter inline-four with 306 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. Power is routed through a six-speed manual transmission. In our tests, we clocked the hatch hitting 60 mph from a standstill in as little as 5.0 seconds.

Through the summer, the Type R will attempt to break records at Silverstone, Estoril, and the Hungaroring. Check out the video below to watch the Honda Civic Type R set a new record at Spa-Francorchamps.

Source: Honda

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