Earlier in January, a source told CARmag.co.za that the latest version of the Honda Civic Type R would be priced at R625 000.
But now Honda Motor Southern African has announced that its new hot hatch will actually come in at R627 900, some R2 900 more than initially expected. For the record, the outgoing model was priced at R615 900.
A five-year or 200 000 km warranty is included, along with a five-year or 90 000 km service plan (with intervals of 10 000 km).
Revealed at the 2017 Geneva International Motor Show back in March (and briefly sampled overseas by this publication), the FK8-generation Civic Type R still draws its urge from a 2,0-litre, turbocharged VTEC engine, but peak power has been hiked seven units to 235 kW (maximum torque is unchanged at 400 N.m). Interestingly, however, we have learnt that the model offered in South Africa has seemingly been detuned to 228 kW, the same as the outgoing FK2 Civic Type R.
The sprint to three figures takes a claimed 5,7 seconds while top speed is rated at 272 km/h (two units higher than before). The Japanese automaker furthermore says throttle response and driveability have been improved thanks to “optimised engine control settings”.
And, as before, this four-cylinder is mated to the front wheels via a six-speed manual transmission (here’s why Honda decided against an automatic gearbox), which the brand claims has been “further improved by a rev-match control system”.
Back in April 2017, the Civic Type R grabbed back the Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record (from the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S) for front-wheel-drive production vehicles.
