HONDA CIVIC

Type R, the last manual hot hatch standing, revs up for its final road test

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While it may be only coincidental, there's due to be a quirk in the now regrettably well-defined life cycle of the sixth-generation Honda Civic Type R that could prove comforting to those of us who remember its various predecessors.

The UK market has traditionally loved hot hatchbacks, and the hot Civic has become one of our longer-serving and most consistently popular. The current one arrived in 2022, during the 25th anniversary of the first Civic Type R: the 1.6-litre 'EK9'.

That Civic Type R was never officially imported to the UK or elsewhere in Europe, however. It was only four years after the EK9 had been introduced in Japan - in 2001, when the EP3-generation three-door car kicked off local Type R production in Swindon - that Brits had their defining Type R moment. And, neatly enough, it'll be exactly 25 years since that moment, in 2026, when the current-generation car is finally withdrawn from UK showrooms, never to return.

Cue the mood music, then. Honda introduced its tribute to the car earlier this year: a 40-off, limited-run Civic Type R Ultimate Edition with black roof, red decals and extra helpings of carbonfibre. Ten will come to the UK - and all are now sold.

Now it’s time for Autocar’s tribute: a six-page road test, with the full gamut of performance figures, on a generation of this venerated fast front-driver that has somehow escaped the scrutiny of our timing gear thus far.

DESIGN & ENGINEERING

★★★★☆

PROS Still a proper, analogue, old-school fast front-driver; evolutionary approach brings likeably purposeful touches

CONS Heavier than its predecessor