Fast Car – September 2019

UP FRONT Project OveRland•Murray’s T.50• Test Drive•Appreciating Depreciation•Citroën 100•BMW M8•What’s On •Angry Man

UP FRONT

defi ning car culture 007

Honda’s Type R sub-brand has always sat at the

very core of tuner culture, with these honed and

pared-back performance machines effectively being

sold pre-modifi ed from the factory. Ever since the

early days of the EK9 Civic and NSX-R, that little red

badge has signifi ed the best possible versions of what

these Hondas can be. And naturally the aftermarket

has always embraced these cars with open arms, as

they’re just so damned tuneable.

The current-generation FK8 Civic Type R is an

absolute lunatic straight from the forecourt – we’re

talking 306bhp, 295lb.ft, 0-62 in 4.9s, and a near-

unbelievable top speed of 169mph. To view this

car as merely a starting point takes a special kind of

crazy, but looking at the photos here you can see that

craziness creates great art. What’s happened here is

that Honda themselves provided two pre-production

Civics to a couple of tuners and gave them free rein

to create their own interpretation of the breed. The

fi rst, built by Ralph Hosier Engineering, is called

‘Project OveRland’, and has reimagined the hot hatch

as some kind of sand dune-jumping Dakar racer.

It’s got a three-inch lift kit, custom trailing arms and

transverse links, and massive knobbly BF Goodrich

tyres. A real Civic rally car!

The second car was built by Team Dynamics

Motorsport. These are the guys behind the Halfords

Yuasa Racing BTCC team, so they know a thing or

two about making Civics quicker. Their road-legal

special combines off-the-shelf and bespoke tuning

parts to create the ultimate Type R: a Superchips

remap, ITG induction, PWR intercooler, Dream

Automotive sport cat and Scorpion exhaust elevate

power to 400bhp and 369lb.ft. The chassis benefi ts

from Eibach springs, adjustable ARBs and camber

arms, lightweight Team Dynamics wheels and

sticky Dunlop DZ03G track day tyres. Looks pretty

sensational too, doesn’t it?

It’s amazing how different the two teams have

made the same platform, and they’ve basically

created the perfect two-car garage: one Civic for

pootling to the shops and occasional hardcore track

use, and another for mud-plugging and surviving the

apocalypse. It’s genius, frankly.

CIVIC

UNREST

Now that’s a SUV

we would drive

A road going BTCC car

created by Team Dynamics