Honda’s all-new Civic Type R, the one that claimed the title of fastest production front-wheel drive car to lap the Nurburgring, has arrived in Australia after the model’s absence of 6 years having made landfall at the Port of Melbourne’s Webb Dock.
In this first batch of Type Rs, which total 61 units, include the Rallye Red example seen here - incidentally will serve the Honda Australia’s media test fleet - along with what looks to be Crystal Pearl Black, Championship White, Brilliant Sporty Blue Metallic, and Sonic Grey Pearl which will be heading to dealerships across the country.
More shipments of the five-door hot hatch are expected to arrive in the coming weeks, and by the end of 2017 Honda Australia expects there to have been some 400 Civic Type Rs on our shores, which might still not be enough to satisfy the significant demand for this car. Pricing was earlier announced at $50,990 (including on-road costs), leading to over 200 orders and some 5000 pre-registrations.
Just like the European spec FK8 Civic Type R, the Australia car will be powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder VTEC petrol that’ll output 228kW and 400Nm that will run through a close-ratio six-speed manual transmission before being handed to the front wheels.
To help those front pair not get too overwhelmed with both all that power and the duties of steering and majority of braking without succumbing to chronic understeer, a mechanical limited-slip differential is slotted on the axle and aided by a dual axis front suspension that works very much like double-knuckle setup used by Ford.
Upon its local arrival, Honda Australia Director, Stephen Collins, said: “The ultimate in Civic performance and a direct manifestation of Honda’s racing spirit, experience and heritage, the Type R stands as a banner of Honda’s commitment to creating products that put customers – and enthusiasts – at the centre of everything it does,”
“Since the Civic Type R prototype was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show last year, the anticipation surrounding Honda’s next-generation high-performance hot hatch has continued to build, so it’s incredibly exciting to have the first cars here now and it won’t be long until we’ll start to see them out on the road.
“The arrival of the all-new Civic Type R is the culmination of 18 months of intense new product activity for Honda Australia that has seen our entire line-up of vehicles either refreshed, updated or all-new models introduced to market.”
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