Last summer, Honda showed up at the famous Suzuka circuit, home to some of Japan’s most iconic races, and simply took names. A 2021 Type R Limited Edition took the FWD production car lap record from a Renault Megane RS Trophy-R. The Type R LE’s time? A 2:23.993, nearly two full seconds faster than the Trophy-R’s 2:25.45 lap time. For stripped-out, track-ready production cars, that’s a huge gap to pull out.

Since then, Honda has been hard at work developing the new 2023 Honda Civic Type R based on the newly-released Civic. Honda has taken the track credentials of the new model very seriously, posting times at the Nurburgring on the regular. The result of all that on-track development? A 2:23.120 at Honda’s home track of Suzuka, almost a second quicker than the last Civic Type R – and a new FWD car record. Underwhelmed? Don’t be. A second is a lightyear on track, and this is still very impressive.