APEX PREDATOR

Honda has honed every last detail to make the new Civic Type R the hot hatch to end them all. Maybe literally, in an ICE sense. Richard Lane pits it against three key rivals

- 

It's been coming. Yet strangely, the moment that finally explodes the idea of hot hatches being in any way junior' arrives when I'm not behind the wheel but behind a grass verge. Stood here, trying not to cramp Luc Lacey's style as he photographs an i30 N blasting over an off-camber crest, the latest red-hot Civic nailed to its back box before they dive downhill together.

This is like something from the recent Top Gun spin-off, only ground-based in damp Middle England instead of high above the bone-dry desert of Kern County, CA. No vapour cones or sonic boom, instead beefcake bodywork and fat tyres generating a wall of roar as these not-at-all-junior cars draw in.

Then come blipped downshifts one automated, the other human-instigated before we hear those loud, nasal exhausts rumbling on overrun. The Honda’s cuts through with more waspish energy.

The two cars rocket by showing barely any lean at all, afterburners lit and breathily putting down up to 601bhp. Two front-driven hatchbacks, six-hundred-and-one brake horsepower. Crazy. But more than the numbers is the fact that this scene is so unbelievably far removed from that of an old 205 GTi cocking a wheel or a Mk3 Focus ST wagging its tail on the brakes. Aside from the odd head-banger, hot hatches of yore really were junior. But these creations? They’re more grown-up, especially the Honda, and boy do you appreciate this while witnessing a BTCC-style drive-by.

Today is our first chance to put the new Honda Civic Type R, code name FLS, up against some esteemed and carefully selected foes. Time to see just how good it really is.

THE CHALLENGERS