Honda remains confident the new Civic Type R can still become the fastest front-wheel-drive production car around the Nurburgring despite the bar being raised twice since the car maker’s CEO originally set the ambitious target. Takanobu Ito made the bold claim when confirming the return of the Honda Civic Type R in 2012. Then, the Renault Megane RS265 held the record for a front-drive road car around the famous 20.8-kilometre German circuit, having stopped the clock in 8:07.79 in 2011.
Since then, however, the goal posts have been shifted. In March this year, the Seat Leon Cupra 280 (pictured above) wiped almost 10 seconds off the RS265’s time, setting the first sub-eight-minute lap by a front-wheel-drive car. Not content with second place on the podium, Renault fired back three months later with the hardcore RS275 Trophy-R (pictured below), and took another four seconds off the Seat’s time to set a new 7:54.36 yardstick.
