What was slightly disappointing was the chassis, which lacked a little feedback and interaction. On the road, you still had to keep the revs up to make properly quick progress, but that’s always been the Type-R way. We recorded 0-60mph in a respectable 6.8sec (identical to the previous version). The new car used the same, brilliant six-speed manual gearbox and a slightly shorter final drive, but the kerb weight had gone up by around 60kg, which slightly blunted any performance gains. Power was up only a fraction, from 197 to 198bhp, but Honda had smoothed the VTEC’s marked step-up in power delivery by re-configuring the variable timing settings and introducing a different profile for the high-speed cam. Honda was on safer ground under the skin, because the new Type-R got the same naturally aspirated 2-litre, 16-valve variable valve-timing ‘VTEC’ engine from the previous model.

The new car’s shape polarised opinion, as did the space-shuttle dashboard. The previous incarnation of the Civic Type-R, built from 2001-2005, was a cracking hot hatch with a strong enthusiast following, so when its replacement, code-named FN2, was launched in the UK in early 2007, great things were expected. One of the earliest cars to wear the badge was the brilliant NSX-R but perhaps the best-known is the Civic. Honda has frequently been at the forefront, using its ‘Type-R’ badge to denote a lightweight, semi-homologation special. Not only were they excellent packages straight from the factory, there was a wealth of tuning options available. Even before The Fast and the Furious brought so-called ‘rice rockets’ to a wider audience, Japanese performance cars already enjoyed a fanatical following.

Rs3 auto typer