The Last of the Honda Type R 

The Last of the Honda Type R

If you’re one of those who own a Honda Civic Type R, have made it stand out from the crowd with your personal choice of bumpers or maybe spoilers from Auto Parts Deal, you might want to give your ride a loving look just about now.

The last version of Honda’s hugely popular Type R of the current model Civic recently rolled off the line at Honda’s British production line, marking the end of one of the decade’s defining hot hatches.

The world said goodbye to the 197-horsepower, 2.0-liter car credited with almost single-handedly changing the image of Honda in Britain – achieving a near cult status among British fast car enthusiasts and becoming a favorite transport among fast, cool, trendy urban sophisticates.



In its final year, the Civic Type-R ended its reign with a flourish: rear ‘privacy’ glass for the rear side windows and tailgates; red carpets adorning the cabin, plus genuine Recaro seats and Momo steering wheel, replacing the standard Honda items fitted previously. The latest model also benefits from a raft of revisions introduced last year, including a lightened flywheel (shaving 0.2 sec from the 0-62 mph time), new front and rear light clusters, revised bumpers and Accord-style door-mounted indicator repeaters.

The Brits and any car-loving enthusiast will surely miss this popular hot hatch. But – word is a Type R version of the all new Civic is under development. Bets are that a concept car is likely to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March, with a production car likely to follow in fall 2006.