Honda proves track prowess

Can the Civic Type R bag five-lap records at five different European racing circuits?

The new Honda Civic Type R: it is flanked on the left here by its immediate predecessor and on the right by the 2001 incarnation

Honda, alone among the Japanese marques, is different. Unlike the parent companies of brands like, for example, Subaru, there’s no heavy industrial conglomerate overseeing Honda; and indeed, there was a ‘Mr’ Honda, a petrolhead who started the brand. Soichiro began his company in 1948, fettling motorbikes and dreaming of racing.

This history means that Honda has more of an engineering focus than its Japanese rivals, a history of making machines tailored to the ...