So, the great debate continues as to the supremacy of Subaru all-wheel-drive torque transfer over any and all comers in the world-rally car, and hot-hatch street scene. Regardless, for the Honda hardcore, Civic high performance is, and shall always be, manually shifted and delivered to the road via a front differential, powered by a high revolution, Honda iVTEC derived fuel injected fire breather.
Good enough, we all have or quirky preferences. For me, while I do appreciate a very controlled real-time 4-wheel-drive drift, there’s nothing quite like the near out of control slide of a front wheel drive Honda. Hey, I can drift an NSX supercar, if the tires are hot enough.
Here’s the thing: The fewer moving drive-line parts the better. For 2017, Honda promises an out of the box pocket racer that will blow the doors off of every factory manufactured performance hatchback brand available to North America. Note, Subaru Loyal, the legendary WRX Si hatchback will not be coming stateside in 2017, right?
But truthfully: To the Honda loyal, competing brands are inconsequential when it comes to their undying love for a car that few of them have driven, and even fewer will ever own. When 2017 Honda Civic Type R comes to the U.S., sometime in late Spring or early Summer 2017, it will be the most powerful, and the rarest, Honda to ever roll out of a Honda dealership showroom. Well, perhaps the original NSX is rarer, perhaps.
306 Horsepower, tricked out to the max, and expensive by Honda standards
Here’s the thing guys and gals. When the last rendition of Honda Type-R came to market in Europe and Japan, early in 2016, it sold out in a matter of minutes. 700 units were manufactured, 200 of them went to Japan. While Honda has not released production numbers for the reinvented 10th generation world-compact-platformed 2017 Civic Type-R, we do know, that the initial production run will be a limited one. What do you get for your money? Check it out.
Honda tells us to expect an MSRP to land in the mid $30,000 range; I’m thinking just south of $40,000, if you can find one. Good enough, Civic Type-R, the first Honda to wear the designation in the U.S., will sell out on its release. When we look to the specifications of this ‘out of the box’ factory street racer, the estimated MSRP is a relative bargain, Subaru WRX fan or not. So, for the time being. we’ll leave our Subaru WRX fans in an uproar. My son is one of them.