FD2 Civic Type R

HISTORY

In March 29 2007, Honda launched the FD2 Civic TYPE R for the japanese domestic market (only). Honda’s Type R models are already a legendary household name amongst car enthusiasts, whether Honda or otherwise. They are specially tuned to take full advantage of the potential of the base model, to push the performance boundaries to their limits using generous doses of technology gleemed from Honda’s passionate involvement in motorsports. Consequently, the greatest seduction a Honda TYPE-R offers is its racing car-like character and driving feel. First offered on the NSX-R in 1992, the Type R range was extended to the DC2 Integra in 1995, and the EK9 Civic in 1997. The EK9 Civic TYPE R was renewed in 2001 by the EP3 Civic TYPE-R. This new FD2 Civic TYPE-R is the third generation of an already mighty name. It is a result of the distillation of 15 years of technological progress and represents the latest expression of Honda’s “Challenging Sprit”.

All is not a bed of roses for Honda’s most fervent fans, unfortunately. While Honda fans, especially the TYPE-R fanatics, have been extremely vocal and strong in our admiration and support of Honda TYPE-R effort, in direct contrast, Honda have never reciprocated this favour. This of course has been the major cause of frustration amongst the most fervent of us who are from outside of Japan – that despite our support and fanatism, Honda was never willing to give us the JDM-spec TYPE-R machines as an official model. We always had to resort to the parallel importers, for those fortunate ones who have such a resource. For those who don’t, well we can only drool in frustration. In the absolute term this stubborn stance of Honda is of course totally illogical, to borrow a phrase from my favourite science fiction character. Indeed if I am to be more bluntly honest, I would personally say it is a rather silly and stupid stance to take, especially against one’s most fervent supporters. It is something that I admit I have never understood the rationale for. Fortunately however, from a chance meeting with Honda’s CEO Mr Takeo Fukui, coupled with the good fortune of interacting with a group of very pro-active Honda Malaysia staff, all these is about to change very, very soon.

In August 2007, Honda Malaysia will go down in history as the first overseas Honda country office to succeed in getting approval to launch an original-spec JDM Type R model into its local domestic line-up – the new 2007 FD2 Civic TYPE R !! Finally, 15 years after the first Type-R model was launched by Honda, and after 15 years of begging, Honda fans in Malaysia at least, will be able to truly enjoy an original-spec JDM Type-R, the FD2 Civic TYPE-R.

In conjunction with this monumental occasion, TOVA will be publishing a series of short technical overviews on this incredible machine, from now and leading to the official launch later this week and continuing after that. We will look at all aspects of this incredible new machine. We start off the series with this TOVA exclusive look at the technologies that Honda put into the K20A Spec R engine. The materials for this article are derived from two main sources. The introduction is based on the ‘Type R Spirit’ article (engine section) published on the special Civic TYPE R page of Honda’s corporate website, automobile section. This article was supposedly written by the Civic TYPE R’s engine development engineer. The main technical section is a best-effort translation from the engine section of the ‘Civic TYPE-R Factbook’ that is made available only to Honda’s media members. Both resources are available only in japanese and of course I am not able to read japanese. However, good fortunes are smiling on us full-blooded Type-R fanatics. Because japanese is an ‘oriental language’, like chinese, by using the web-page translation from Google, I was able to more or less understand the unusual ‘colourful’ article from the translation and derive a more intelligible article. Help also came from another source. Honda’s english-language media site for the FD2 Civic TYPE R includes a package of photos, some of which are the same photos in the factbook engine article but properly translated into english. By using these photos and my best-effort attempt to translate the text of the factbook engine article, I have completed the short technical overview of the new K20A 2007 Spec R engine below. That photo package actually contains a few additional photos which are not even in the factbook. As they contain useful extra information, I have included them into the factbook translation, using them to augment the actual factbook information.

The translation of the Factbook engine article is put into a JPEG file for publishing here on this page. While this will mean long-ish loading times -and I apologize to long-time readers for this- nevertheless, it is the best means I can think of to watermark and thus copyright this article. It is a TOVA exclusive after all. I hope owners, potential owners and just plain fans of this mouth watering new FD2 Civic TYPE-R will enjoy and appreciate this article.

(Temple of VTEC Asia)

SPECIFICATIONS

The new Japanese model’s engine output is higher than the European version’s, with 222bhp (225 PS) being developed at 8,400rpm and 159lb ft (215 NM) of torque peaking at 6,100rpm (versus 198bhp at 7,800rpm and 142lb ft at 5,600rpm for the European model).

Model Type ……..ABA-FD2…………………………………… ..

Exterior Exclusive front bumper & black painted front grille
Exclusive rear bumper & black painted rear diffuser
Exclusive front spoiler & streak
Dark chrome grille bar & headlights sub reflector
Exclusive HONDA emblems & TYPE R emblem
Exclusive hood & front fenders
Exclusive red engine headcover
Aluminum bumper beam
Aluminum clear turn lamps
Exclusive side sill garnishes
Black painted large size rear spoiler
Dark smoked rear combination lamps
Dark chrome Civic emblem
Exclusive exhaust pipe finisher
Colored electric door mirrors
Half shade windshield
Rear window deffogger
Mechanical Exclusive hard setting suspension
Exclusive POTENZA RE070 (225/40R18) tires.
Exclusive 18inches alloy wheels (18×7.5)
Exclusive black wheel nuts
Front BREMBO aluminum 4 pot calipers
Torque sensitive Helical LSD
Large size disc brakes (F : 320mm R : 282mm)
Front brake air intake ducts & air intake plates
Exclusive setting ABS
Exclusive setting EBD
Exclusive DBW (drive by wire)
Power steering
Interior Honda R spec seats
Exclusive 3spoke leather wrapped steering wheel
Exclusive steering wheel emblem
Exclusive multi flex meter
i-VTEC/REV indicator
Aluminum shift knob
Short stroke sport shift
Metal sports pedals & foot rest
Engine starter button
Exclusive black metallic panel & power window switch panel
Exclusive aluminum emblem with serial number
Exclusive aluminum emblem on side step garnish
Exclusive black metallic door handle
Exclusive design key
Safety Driver & passenger i-SRS air bags
HID headlights with auto leveling
LHD high mounted stop lamp
Clutch start system
Comfortable Full auto air conditioner
Speed sensitive auto door lock
Keyless entry unlock
Security aram
Immobilizer
Power window
Power window switch lamp
Powered door lock